William Wallace (c1270 - 1305)
Wallace was born in around 1270, probably near Ellerslie (now Elderslie), in Ayrshire, Scotland. His father was Sir Malcolm Wallace, Laird of Elderslie and Auchinbothie. Wallace is thought to have had an elder brother, also called Malcolm. At the time of Wallace's birth, Alexander III (The Scottish king) had already been on Scotland's throne for over twenty years.
Fully-grown Wallace reportedly stood more than six and a half feet tall, - a veritable giant at a time when the average height of an infantryman was only slightly more than five feet. In 1286, by the time he was about sixteen, Wallace may have been preparing to pursue a life in the church.
When the king Alexander III died there was no heir to the throne. The three main candidates were all descendants of David, Earl of Huntingdon. John de Balliol, Robert de Bruce (not Robert the Bruce) and John de Hastings were the 3 candidates. In 1292, Balliol was chosen as king.
Edward (King of England) marched north with his armies. After a five-month campaign, he conquered Scotland in 1297. Following his victory, he appointed his own agents to enforce peace in Scotland. He deposed and imprisoned John de Balliol and declared himself ruler of Scotland. He also had the Stone of Destiny, the coronation stone of Scone, taken south to Westminster.
Wallace was involved in a fight with local English soldiers in the village of Ayr. After killing several of them, he was overpowered and thrown into a dungeon where he was slowly starved. Wallace was left for dead, but sympathetic villagers nursed him back to health. When he had regained his strength, Wallace recruited several local rebels and began his systematic and merciless assault on the hated English and their Scottish sympathisers.
In October of 1296, Wallace invaded northern England and ravaged the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland. Upon returning to Scotland early in December 1297, he was knighted and proclaimed guardian of the kingdom, ruling in Balliol's name. In less than six years, he had risen from obscurity to become Sir William Wallace, holder of one of the most powerful posts in the kingdom. Nevertheless, many Scottish nobles lent him only grudging support, and he had yet to meet Edward I in a head-on confrontation.
On July 22, Edward's 90,000-strong army attacked a much smaller Scottish force led by Wallace near Falkirk. The English army was at a technological advantage. Its longbow-men decimated Wallace's spearmen and cavalry by firing scores of arrows over great distances. As many as 10,000 Scots may have been killed. Although Edward failed to subdue Scotland completely before returning to England, Wallace's military reputation was ruined. He retreated to the thick woods nearby and resigned his guardianship in December. He was succeeded as guardian of the kingdom by Robert de Bruce (later King Robert I) and Sir John Comyn "the Red".
On Aug 5 1305, Wallace was betrayed by a Scottish knight in service to the English king, and arrested near Glasgow. He was taken to London and denied the status of a captured soldier. He was tried for treason and the NOT TRUE murders of monks and nuns He was condemned as a traitor to the king even though, as he correctly maintained, he had never sworn allegiance to Edward.
On 23rd August 1305, he was executed. The punishment for the crime of treason was that the convicted traitor was dragged to the place of execution, hanged by the neck (but not until he was dead), and disembowelled (or drawn) while still alive. His entrails were burned before his eyes, he was decapitated and his body was divided into four parts (or quartered). Accordingly, this was Wallace's fate. His head was impaled on a spike and displayed at London Bridge, his right arm on the bridge at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, his left arm at Berwick, his right leg at Perth, and the left leg at Aberdeen. |
