Legend at times is a title associated with people who have done very little to actually achieve such a name. William Wallace however is one of the exceptions, during his short life he achieved so much against great odds and is rightly remembered as a national hero and patriot.

Very little is known of his early life, the year and place of his birth is a grey area and the nearest this can be verified to is that he was born around 1270, in either Elderslie in Renfrewshire, or at Ellerslie in Ayrshire.

When Alexander III, King of Scots died in 1286 he did so without leaving an heir to his throne. Unfortunately for Scotland there were many that claimed the throne for their own and when they couldn’t agree amongst themselves who should succeed Alexander they asked Edward I of England for his help in choosing. Edward seized the opportunity to expand his kingdom and appointed John Balliol to the Scots throne in 1292. Balliol was no more than a puppet of the English crown and Edward had the last word on Scottish affairs. This infuriated the Scots who sought out an alliance with France and Edward decided to invade Scotland. The conquering English army met very little resistance from a demoralised and disjointed people. Balliol abdicated and Edward pronounced himself King of Scots, so began years of brutal dictatorship. The outrages and atrocities committed by the English however had an opposite affect from that envisaged by Edward. Instead of bowing down, the Scots built up such a hatred and resentment for the English that resistance would become inevitable. This resistance would culminate many years later in the Scots winning their independence after throwing off the yoke of English rule and once again being ruled by one of their ain.

If you have seen the film Braveheart then you may believe that Wallace fought the English for the love of a woman. It is said that after being declared an outlaw, English forces tried to capture him and failed. Angry at being thwarted, they seized his wife Marion Braidfute in Lanark and murdered her. Whether this is true or not cannot be determined but, what is true however is the fact that Wallace entered Lanark in 1297 with others and decapitated the sheriff. The town’s population rallied to Wallace and the English garrison was attacked and routed. In the north, Andrew de Moray and his band of followers had been resisting for years and the two men, Wallace and de Moray met up at Perth and joined forces.

So began a campaign that would see the English thrown out of many parts of Scotland and the Scots themselves do the unthinkable and invade England. As the Scots army under Wallace grew in numbers and confidence after victories all over the country, Edward became increasingly worried and sent a large army of 40 000 men northward under the command of his representative in Scotland, Sir John de Warrene, Earl of Surrey. His remit, too crush the Scots. Wallace had only 15 000 men at his disposal and they were poorly armed in comparison with their English foes, neither did they have cavalry or personal armour as none of the noble lords of Scotland stood with Wallace that day. The Scots army was made up almost entirely of common people whose weapons were mostly made by themselves. They did have other advantages though, not only did they command the high ground of the battlefield but they had a determination amongst them too succeed which had been bred by resentment and hatred for their foes. The opposing armies confronted each other at Cambuskenneth on the 11^th September 1297 in what was to become known as the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

The English offered the Scots the chance to walk away from the battlefield in return for their oath of allegiance to England. Wallace declared that freedom for Scotland was not negotiable and both sides prepared for the upcoming battle. The Scots formation was drawn up on the steep slopes of Abbey Craig, at its base was the River Forth which could be crossed by a narrow bridge. When they arrived the English made a fateful mistake, instead of heeding intelligence about a ford further upstream where they could cross the river in numbers, they sent their cavalry across the bridge. The bridge was only wide enough to take two horsemen abreast and when they got to the other side, they found the ground to be soft and marshy. The English had great difficulty in forming up because of the softness of the ground and with a great part of the enemy still on the other side of the bridge, Wallace and Moray mounted a ferocious charge. Unable to form up and with a bottleneck formed on the bridge the English were trapped. The Scots spears slammed into the horses and their riders throats were slit when they fell to the ground. The Earl of Surrey, still on the other side of the river had to watch impotently as the cream of his forces were cut to ribbons by a Scots army baying for blood in little over an hour. It was a stunning victory for the Scots who had defeated a vastly superior foe. The Scots had won the day but it was not without many losses of their own. Andrew de Moray was seriously wounded in the battle and died of his wounds a few weeks later.

Wallace was appointed Guardian of Scotland and set about clearing Scotland of the English. He chased them out of Scotland and then followed them by invading England. Edward  swore revenge and amassed a large army of over 100 000 men. Wallace retreated north back into Scotland pursued by Edward who had taken personal command of his army. Traitors betrayed the whereabouts of the small Scots army to Edward and so it was on 22^nd July 1298 that the vast English army fell upon the tired Scots at Falkirk. The ill prepared Scots repulsed the first English cavalry charge but, after seeing a great number of their comrades cut down by thousands of English arrows, their ranks were broken and they couldn’t repulse the next charge. The Scots were slaughtered and Wallace was forced to flee and go into hiding.

The last years of his life were spent waging guerrilla warfare and evading capture. His luck run out however when he was betrayed to the English by a Scots baron. He was taken to London were he was tried for treason on the 23^rd August 1303. Wallace denied the charge put before him by famously stating that because he had never accepted Edward I as his king, he couldn’t be a traitor as he Edward was not his sovereign and he had never swore allegiance to him. Wallace was found guilty and sentenced to death by being hung, drawn and quartered. After being dragged through the streets of London, he was sadistically tortured before finally being beheaded. His head was stuck on a pole and displayed at London Bridge, his body was cut into four quarters and sent to Newcastle, Berwick, Aberdeen and Perth as a deterrent against any rebellious Scots.

The deterrent did not work.

© Alan Connor 2001