william+wallace

**William Wallace** ( Scottish Gaelic : //Uilleam Uallas//; c. 1270 – 23 August 1305) was a Scottish knight  and landowner  who is known for leading a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence  and regarded as a patriot and national hero. [1 ] Along with Andrew Moray, he defeated an English  army at Stirling  , and became Guardian of Scotland  , serving until his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk. After several years in hiding, Wallace was eventually found and captured in Robroyston near Glasgow  and handed over to Edward I of England  ("Longshanks"), who had him executed for treason. Wallace was the inspiration for the poem, //The Acts and Deeds of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Elderslie//, by the 15th-century minstrel, Blind Harry  and this poem subsequently became the basis of Randall Wallace's screenplay for the 1995 film // <span class="wiki_link_ext">Braveheart  //. Little is known for certain of William Wallace's immediate family. The Wallace family may have originally come from Shropshire as followers of Walter Fitzalan (died June 1177), High Steward of Scotland and ancestor of the Stewart family. The early members of the family are recorded as holding lands including Riccarton, Tarbolton, and Auchincruive in Kyle, and Stenton in Haddingtonshire. Blind Harry invented a tale that Wallace's father was killed along with his brother John in a skirmish at Loudoun Hill in 1291 by the notorious Lambies, who came from the Clan Lamont. Wallace evaded capture by the English until 5 August 1305 when John de Menteith, a Scottish knight loyal to Edward, turned Wallace over to English soldiers at Robroyston near Glasgow. Wallace was transported to London and taken to Westminster Hall, where he was tried for treason, and the execution of civilians and prisoners, and was crowned with a garland of oak to suggest he was the king of outlaws. He responded to the treason charge, "I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject." With this, Wallace asserted that the absent John Balliol was officially his king. Wallace was declared guilty. Following the trial, on 23 August 1305, Wallace was taken from the hall, stripped naked and dragged through the city at the heels of a horse to the Elms at Smithfield. He was hanged, drawn and quartered — strangled by hanging but released whilst he was still alive, emasculated, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him, beheaded, then cut into four parts. His preserved head was placed on a pike atop London Bridge.