William Wallace

William Wallace (1272?-1305), Scottish patriot and national hero who led several uprisings against English rule in Scotland. Wallace’s exploits were celebrated in the motion picture Braveheart (1995), which starred the film’s director, Mel Gibson, as Wallace.

Wallace was the younger son of a Scottish knight. In 1296 King Edward I of England crushed a Scottish army at Dunbar and annexed Scotland to England. In 1297, while Edward I was busy keeping order among English barons and preparing for a war with France, Wallace seized the opportunity to burn an English garrison at Lanark and kill the sheriff. He was soon joined by other Scots who resented English rule. Wallace and his followers captured many English fortresses north of the Forth River and achieved enough success for the English governor, John de Warenne, to send a force against them.

On September 11, 1297, in the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Wallace severely defeated English forces attempting to cross the Forth. The result was almost a national uprising; the English were driven from Scotland, and Wallace was then knighted and made guardian of the kingdom in the absence of Scotland’s exiled king, John de Baliol.

In 1298 a large English force led by Edward I invaded Scotland. On July 22, 1298, Edward defeated Wallace’s army in the Battle of Falkirk, and Wallace was forced into hiding. His defeat resulted in part from the failure of jealous Scottish nobles, such as Robert Bruce, to support him. Wallace lived in France for a time but returned to Scotland by 1303 and continued his guerrilla warfare without much success. He was captured near Glasgow in 1305 by Scottish knight Sir John de Menteith, brought to London, tried for treason, and executed on August 23, 1305. Information about Wallace’s early life comes from a 15th-century biographical poem by Scottish poet Henry the Minstrel, also known as Blind Harry.