“This man? This cannot be Sir William Wallace, for I am prettier than this man!”

http://i.images.cdn.fotopedia.com/chmehl-KYmZhLaxWLo-hd/Countries_of_the_World/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Statue_of_William_Wallace.jpg
We all, undoubtedly, have seen Mel Gibson’s portrayal of William Wallace in the blockbuster movie Braveheart. This, however, is a movie, and we all know how historically inaccurate Hollywood can make something and still say that it is “based on true events.” So, who was William Wallace of Scotland?
Blind Harry reportedly wrote about the life and times of Wallace, though this book has never been seen in its original form in modern times, though there are re-edited forms in circulation. The original was written over 200 years after Wallace died, and is suspect to have been an oral story only for many years before someone actually wrote it down from hearing Blind Harry. It is also suspect to many historical exaggerations and flat out lies to make the story all the better for a story teller to draw in his crowd. There are instances in the movie “Braveheart” that came straight out of Blind Harry’s accounts.

William’s family and upbringing

Not much is known about the year that William was born, or much of his early life. There are even disputes of his father’s name and what noble line William Wallace came from. From the research I have conducted over numerous years (over 9 years), the most probable conclusion is that William was the son of Alan Wallace. His brothers were Malcolm and John. Alan Wallace appears in the Ragman Rolls as a crown tenant in Ayrshire, which is where the iconic red lion on the yellow background that was Wallace’s coat of arms, and Robert the Bruce’s later battle standards, comes from.
King Alexander III ruled Scotland when William was a child, but died suddenly after falling off of a horse. King Alexander III did not have a clear heir, so the throne went to Margaret, Maid of Norway; a 4 year old. Being a child as she was, there was no way that she could handle the throne, so the nobles needed a temporary solution for a ruler until Margaret was old enough to be a Queen. The Scottish nobles fought each other over who had more claim to the throne, including John Balliol and Robert Bruce. Balliol asked King Edward of England to step in and declare him the new King. Edward did, and declared Balliol king, but not without forcing Balliol to pay homage to him. In essence, Balliol was a ruler of a land that Edward and England owned. Balliol rescinded his relationship with Edward after Edward continued to suppress Scotland. Scotland had gone from peace and stability to near civil war.
In steps the snake, King Edward “The Longshanks”. It is debatable, but it is rumored that Longshanks had his son, a mere teen at the time, married to Margaret. Then, because they were both so young, Longshanks declared himself an interim. To add insult to injury, Margaret’s chariot mysteriously fell off the side of a cliff on her voyage back to Scotland. This left Longshanks to declare himself the one and only king of Scotland, as his son was not old enough yet to rule.
The Scottish nobles, some anyways, rebelled with what little force they had. William’s father and brothers died while William was still young during one of these failed attempts to rebel. It is reported that William lived with his mother, but may have left to go with his uncle. There is no evidence of this, and some stories have his uncle as a priest while others say a traveling merchant. Wallace did know Latin, French, and Gaelic, whether that be from his fabled uncle or from being a descendant of Richard Wallace who had been a Norman Breton Knight.

William Wallace steps into history

There is no evidence anywhere that William Wallace ever had a wife, but Blind Harry strikes again with his explanation of how Wallace started his killing of the English. In Blind Harry’s story, Wallace had been married to a Scottish woman Marion. He had to marry her in secret due to Longshanks instating primae noctics. This law is a fictional law that stated that the first night that any peasant bride was married, the noble in that area had sexual rights to her on the night of her wedding. The idea has been around in many fictional stores, but never with any evidence to support.
In Blind Harry’s story, the local sheriff kills Marion, so Wallace kills him with a short dagger. Another story has Wallace beginning his devastation of English soldiers when he was stopped after fishing by two of them. They demanded his catch. Wallace, stubborn as ever, refused, and fought the two soldiers off and killed them with his fishing rod. This would have been a great story to tell, but there is no real, hard evidence that it happened.
William’s first battle was at Loudon Hill, the same place that his father had died. Being victorious there, he moved into Ayr and won there. In August of 1297, Wallace took his men to join with Andrew Moray, a man who had already started a Scottish uprising of his own. Moray was just as, if not more, of an important influence on the Scottish fights against the English tyranny, but gets lost in the fantasy realm of William Wallace’s exploits. Moray had already successfully taken Aberdeen, Glasgow, Perth, Scone, Dundee, and essentially all of northern Scotland. Moray was a Highlander, and was war trained and experienced. Wallace himself was a lowlander, and it is not known what sort of, if any, military training he had ever received.
On September 11 1297, Wallace and Moray joined for their first combined forces battle against the English. The Brits had come with a combined force of their own, consisting of a professionally trained army of 3,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry. In the Hollywood story, the scenery is that of an open grassland. This was the farthest from the truth. Stirling was a bridge, a narrow but very important wooden bridge across a deep river. The bridge only allowed for three or four of the 3,000 cavalry to cross at once. If it were an open field, Wallace and Moray’s forces would have been run down like an ant pile under the cavalry. But, using the landscape to their advantage, Wallace and Moray waited on one side of the bridge, out of bow shot from the English longbowmen. Once the cavalry was sent, Wallace and Moray moved as many men as they could to rush onto the bridge. This created a backup of sorts, as the bridge was way too narrow to allow the cavalry to flank, or move at all once pressured. The bridge collapsed, and many of the English drowned in the river. Wallace and Moray had won a major battle by using their heads to outsmart their opponent. Moray, however, had become mortally wounded and died either on the field of battle or soon thereafter.
Blind Harry’s story states that Wallace had men waiting in the river below and caused the bridge to collapse. There is no evidence of this, but this one is feasible. Wallace and Moray knew that by using the bridge to their advantage they could not only clog up and make the English numbers mean little; but they had to know also that the little wooden bridge could not hold up under that much weight. What better plan than to have some of your men sabotage the bridge at the exact moment you wish?

Scottish Knight and Guardian of Scotland

Upon word of his glorious win at Stirling, Wallace, along with his now 2nd in command John de Graham, were knighted. Wallace was also given an all-important title of “Guardian of Scotland”. This gave Wallace command over all of the Scottish forces, and Wallace looked to storm into England itself, a rash idea that was almost unthinkable. The English were trained men, most of the Scottish armies were men that had not until recently trained with a sword. The Scots had no cavalry. The English had their infamous longbowmen. The odds were most definitely not in Wallace’s favor.
News of Wallace’s victory at Stirling had not only reached Scottish noble ears. Longshanks oversaw an attack into Roxburgh. Lothian in Scotland was razed, but Wallace avoided capture and would not come before the English force on their terms. Longshanks would not relent in his search; he wanted “Wallace’s heart on a plate” to quote the movie.
On July 22 of 1298, Wallace led his men into The Battle of Falkirk against an army personally led by Longshanks. At this battle, the English crushed the Scottish resistance. It is rumored that a Scottish noble who was secretly paying homage to Edward betrayed Wallace and this is what led to his defeat. This, however, was not as played out in the movie. Robert the Bruce did not betray Wallace. There is no evidence that any Scottish noble betrayed Wallace at this particular time.
Many Scots died in this battle. William escaped alive, while many in his army tasted English steel in their chest. This gave Wallace a bit of a bad name, as it was thought cowardly for him to flee rather than go down with his men. His army disbanded.

Fall from Guardian

William decided, whether on his own accord or not, to step down as Guardian of Scotland in September of 1298, just a year after Stirling. He handed Robert the Bruce the role of the new leader of Scotland. Bruce, however, began talking peace with Longshanks. This is the one time that Wallace felt betrayed by the Bruce. Wallace hated any idea of peace with England, and warned Robert that Longshanks would never truly desire peace so long as Scotland desired to be free of English rule.
In 1302, Robert the Bruce signed a peace deal with England. Wallace, however, had not waited for this domino to fall and had already set out nearly 4 years before with William Crawford to France to plead assistance from King Philip IV. France and England had been at odds for some time, and were for some time in the future as well. King Philip IV would not risk his men for another country when his own lands were threatened by England. So, in 1303, 5 years after they had set out, Wallace returned home to Scotland. Wallace knew he was hunted by the English, and that with the new peace deal with Longshanks, there were those Scots that would turn him in as an outlaw.
Several times this happened, but Wallace was a sly fox and avoided capture many times, killing one of his own men himself for being a turn coat. In 1304, Wallace came out of hiding to fight in the Action of Earnside. It was called an action rather than a battle because of the peace treaty, but, as Shakespeare wrote “A rose by any other name”…

Capture and a horrifying end

It was on August 5th 1305 that the traitor John de Menteith turned Wallace over to Longshanks. Menteith had been a Scottish knight who now bowed his head to Edward I in fealty and loyalty. Wallace was tried for treason. He denied this charges time and time again, asking “How can I be treasonous when I am not his subject?”
Nevertheless, the court at Westminster Hall found Wallace guilty. On August 23rd of 1305, one of the most brutal executions ever recorded took place. This part the movie got fairly close.
First Wallace’s hands were tied together, as well his feet. The other end of each rope was tied to a plow horse. The horses began pulling in opposite directions, popping bones out of place and tearing ligaments. The horses were stopped just shy of ripping his limbs off.
Then, Wallace was strung up by the neck to suffocate for a time, and then released to gasp for air before he passed out.
After that, he was set upon a table where he was castrated. His genitals were shown to him after they were cut from his groin.
His stomach was cut open and his entrails pulled out. A person can live for an hour of more with their entrails outside of their body. Wallace’s entrails were burned before him.
After his entrails were burnt, he was finally given the release of death by beheading (which has religious footnotes on it). His head was dipped in tar and preserved to sit upon a pike atop London Bridge. His arms and legs were taken separately to display at Newcastle, Berwick-Tweed- Stirling, and Aberdeen.
This was meant to send a message to the Scots, but the message was not received the way that Longshanks had hoped for.

The Bruce is back

Edward I died not long after Wallace’s death. His son, Edward II was an imbecile compared to his father. Edward I had never truly stopped his attacks on Scotland, and after Robert the Bruce witnessed what Longshanks had done to Wallace, he began a new rebellion against England. Robert took up Wallace’s family coat of arms to use as his battle standards.
This time, however, with the twerp Edward II on the throne, Robert was finally able to defeat the English and win his country’s independence.
There is a poem written by Bernard Barton (1784-1849) that tells a story of Robert The Bruce watching a spider try 6 times to shoot a strand of web across to start a web, and 6 times the spider failed. On the 7th, the spider succeeded. Robert took this as a sign that, even though he had been defeated 6 times, the 7th would succeed.


Bruce and the Spider

By: Bernard Barton

For Scotland's and for freedom's right
The Bruce his part has played;--
In five successive fields of fight
Been conquered and dismayed:
Once more against the English host
His band he led, and once more lost
The meed for which he fought;
And now from battle, faint and worn,
The homeless fugitive, forlorn,
A hut's lone shelter sought.
And cheerless was that resting-place
For him who claimed a throne;--
His canopy, devoid of grace,
The rude, rough beams alone;
The heather couch his only bed--
Yet well I ween had slumber fled
From couch of eider down!
Through darksome night till dawn of day,
Absorbed in wakeful thought he lay
Of Scotland and her crown.
The sun rose brightly, and its gleam
Fell on that hapless bed,
And tinged with light each shapeless beam
Which roofed the lowly shed;
When, looking up with wistful eye,
The Bruce beheld a spider try
His filmy thread to fling
From beam to beam of that rude cot--
And well the insect's toilsome lot
Taught Scotland's future king.
Six times the gossamery thread
The wary spider threw;--
In vain the filmy line was sped,
For powerless or untrue
Each aim appeared, and back recoiled
The patient insect, six times foiled,
And yet unconquered still;
And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,
Saw him prepare once more to try
His courage, strength, and skill.
One effort more, his seventh and last!--
The hero hailed the sign!--
And on the wished-for beam hung fast
That slender silken line!
Slight as it was, his spirit caught
The more than omen; for his thought
The lesson well could trace,
Which even "he who runs may read,"
That Perseverance gains its meed,
And Patience wins the race.

​
Sources:
Bernard Barton's Bruce and the Spider poem
Blind Harry's The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campion Schir William Wallace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wallace
http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/william-wallace-203.php
http://www.scottishweb.net/articles/101/1/The-Real-William-Wallace/Page1.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1139/did-medieval-lords-have-right-of-the-first-night-with-the-local-brides
http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/william-wallace.html
http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/bruce_and_the_spider.html
http://www.scottishradiance.com/bookreviews/bharry.htm
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nation/William%20Wallace.pdf