October 11th 1297 was the date of the letter from William Wallace to the mayor of Lübeck.
I love this letter, it is the only thing from Wallace that we know 100% that he had a hand in writing and actually touched, as his seal is on it. I saw the Lübeck and "safe conduct" letter when they went on display at the Holyrood Parliament in 2012, thanks to the hard work of the late Duncan Fenton and The Society of William Wallace. While the "safe conduct" letter was almost certainly in his possession when he was betrayed and captured, for me because of the message the Lübeck letter sent out - Scotland is open for business, it is more important.
After Scottish forces led by William Wallace and his northern ally Andrew de Moray won the Battle of Stirling Bridge on September 11, 1297, Wallace wasted no time trying to get the Scottish economy back on track. The English had captured Scottish ports the year before and severely curtailed trade. Exactly a month after Stirling Bridge, Wallace felt secure enough to write to the Hanseatic League towns of Hamburg and Lübeck alerting them that Scotland’s ports were open for business again. (Mornay was mortally wounded at Stirling Bridge, although it appears he lived for a short time afterwards and Wallace continued to include his name in correspondence until his death.)
The letter was written in Latin and reads as follows...
"Andrew de Murray and William Wallace, leaders of the army of the kingdom of Scotland, and the community of the same kingdom, to their worthy, discreet and beloved friends the mayors and communes of Lübeck and Hamburg, greeting, and increase always of sincere friendship.
It has been intimated to us by trustworthy merchants of the said Kingdom of Scotland that you by your own goodwill are giving counsel, help and favour in all causes and business concerning us and our merchants, although our merits had not deserved this, and therefore all the more are we bound to you to give you thanks and a worthy recompense, to do which we are willing to be obliged to you; and we ask you that you will make it be proclaimed amongst your merchants that they can have secure access to all ports of the kingdom of Scotland with their merchandise since the kingdom of Scotland, thanks be to God, has by arms been recovered from the power of the English. Farewell. Given at Haddington in Scotland on the 11th day of October in the year of grace one thousand two hundred and ninety seven.
We request moreover that you will see fit to forward the business of John Burnet and John Frere, our merchants, just as you wish us to forward the business of your merchants. Farewell. Given as before."
The Hamburg letter was destroyed in World War II. The Lübeck letter was first discovered preserved in the Lübeck archives in the 1820s. It was often mentioned in books thereafter. In 1942, Lübeck, on the Baltic coast of Germany, was attacked by Allied aircraft. As a result, the town's archives, including the letter, were moved to a salt mine for safety. At the end of the war, the Soviet army took the papers east.
The archives were later handed over to the archive administration of East Germany, but the medieval documents were not among the records. It was assumed that they had been lost. In the 1970s Lübeck documents were found in the archives of the USSR. In 1990, after some negotiation, the town's medieval records, including Wallace and Murray's letter, were returned to Lübeck.
It is now kept in the National Archives of Lübeck but has been on loan to Scotland several times. The Society Of William Wallace were given an exact copy of the letter a a couple of years ago from Lübeck. Unfortunately the original is only allowed to be displayed for short times due to the age of the document and fragile state it is in, being over 720 years old.
The Scottish government has long yearned for both letters and have requested that the National Archives in Kew and Lübeck donate the letters to Scotland. That hasn’t happened, although Kew has agreed to a long-term loan of the Safe Conduct letter.
