Scottish Blog

1270 -1305

William Wallace has forever been eternalized in the minds of people around the world because of the movie Braveheart.

William Wallace was a Scot who led the Scottish resistance to England during the Scottish Wars of Independence.

The time of William Wallace was an unsteady one for Scotland. Beginning with, the end of the peace and prosperity of the reign of Alexander III after his death. Margret, the Maid of Norway, was put upon the throne. At the time she was only 4, so an interim leader and government had to be elected. This apparent instability in the leadership of Scotland seemed like a perfect opportunity for King Edward I, of England, to try and claim Scotland. This is the premises for the Scottish Wars of Independence.

William Wallace was not born into nobility, at best records show that he might have been born into minor gentry. Because of this no definite records were kept of his birth, leaving no definite source of information on the early life of William Wallace. Much information comes from a single source, a novel, The Acts and Deeds of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Elderslie, written by a man named Blind Harry in the 15th century. This source claims that William Wallace was born in Elderslie and his fathers name was Malcolm Wallace. Various other texts and discoveries put doubt upon this claim, for instance the 16th century book “The History of William Wallace and Scottish Affairs” says William Wallace was born in 1276 and a recent discovery of the seal of William Wallace claims that his father was Alan Wallace.

There a many difference between the William Wallace portrayed by the movie Braveheart and the William Wallace of history. For an generally agreed upon account of the work of William Wallace you can read my previous article. In some aspects this is rather different to the account William Wallace many are familiar with from his movie. As the movie was based on the writings Blind Harry, which in parts are misinterpreted representations of his contemporary sources of information. One example of such a difference is the scene in the movie where sixty Scottish nobles were hung whilst walking through, was not true. In reality this came from a mistake on the part of Blind Harry, hung was a figure of speech used to convey that the nobles were “hung” in a courtroom meaning they were jailed.

William Wallace was a iconic figure in Scottish history. His fame reaches beyond that of the circles of history admirers due to his movie. This brings about a strong awareness of Scottish history and Scottish Clan heritage for those Scots who can identify with him.