Talk:William Crawford (knight)

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There are multiple issues with this article;-

1. I see no mention of this person in Peter Traquair's "Freedom's Sword", an important recent work on the Wars of Independence.

2. This seems to be based on Blind Harry's Wallace, or material from a while back which uncritically regurgitated it.

3. It is well-established that Wallace did not attack York during his invasion of England in late 1297, he only invaded Northumberland.

4. I don't think the Scots had heavy cavalry, according to Traquair they just had light cavalry at Bannockburn, I don't think they had cavalry at Stirling Bridge at all.

So I doubt if this person is a historical character, he could be a relatively minor fictional character, and therefore not notable. PatGallacher (talk) 01:16, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

If somebody is a "notable figure in an extremely famous book" then it ought to be possible to find significant mention of them in third-party reliable sources (see WP:RS). The Clan Crawford website is not a reliable source since it repeats fictional material as fact. It is not enough to refer people to the work itself. PatGallacher (talk) 19:15, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

I have Traquair's book beside me. There is no mention of cavalry of any description on either side at Stirling Bridge. At Bannockburn, where the Scots did have more of a professional army, they did have a small force of light cavalry under Robert Keith, but they had no heavy cavalry since the heavy horse, the destrier, was not bred in Scotland! PatGallacher (talk) 19:37, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

There are a whole series of problems with the 2 sources which have just been added. I find these online books very difficult to read. They both look like uncritical regurgitations of Blind Harry. The first describes Wallace as governor-general, which he was not. The second repeats as fact the fictional Barns of Ayr incident. Sources from the early 19th century are virtually worthless. If Crawford was even a significant fictional character it ought to be possible to find better mention of him than this. PatGallacher (talk) 22:15, 23 October 2009 (UTC)