William Wallace
by In depth discussion of the battles of stirling bridge and falkirk, where William Wallace defied the english and faught for freedom.
[1] William Wallace by James Mackay p.62[1]. Overcome with anger, Wallace drew his dirk and stabbed Selby in the heart. From this point onwards William Wallace was declared an outlaw. For the safety of his family, Wallace fled to Riccarton in February 1292 to live with his uncle. However his stay there was short, in April he left after brutally killing another three Englishmen. From then on until the early months of 1297, Wallace took the life of a brigand and guerrilla war fighter, an earlier type of “Robin Hood”. During this period of time Wallace consolidated his war tactics that made him ready and capable of leading a large army into battle and possibly to victory. In 1297 revolts took place in Scotland, because Hugh Cressingham the treasurer of Scotland, appointed by Edward 1st, ordered that all of the wool in Scotland be requisitioned and sold to Flanders to finance Edward’s war against France. In response to this Wallace and his band slaughtered the sheriff of Lanark and all of the English guards stationed there. Wallace then moved on to sack other villages and relieve them of their English rulers. Outraged by this and afraid of Edward’s reaction to the news, Cressingham sent reinforcements to the main English army stationed in Scotland commanded by John de Warenne. The English and Scottish armies assembled and met at Stirling Bridge where they fought a short but bloody battle which ended in a Scottish victory. In December of the same year, Wallace was elected Guardian of the Kingdom. When Edward 1st heard of this in France, he returned immediately and assembled an army to march into Scotland and retake the lost territory and kill Wallace to regain control over the peasants. Again the armies of England and Scotland fought, but this time they fought at Falkirk, a very different terrain from Stirling Bridge. Unfortunately Wallace lost the battle and ended fleeing the battlefield to save his life and those of the remaining men. In 1305 Wallace was captured and brought to London to be judged for his “sins”. In London he was then hanged, drawn and then quartered. His head was then impaled and placed on London Bridge for every body to see as a warning. The remaining parts of his body were then scattered around all of Britain as warning to all who dared defy England.
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