William Wallace

Scottish military leader

• Born: c. 1270
• Birthplace: Ellerslie (now Elderslie), near Paisley, Ayrshire, Scotland
• Died: August 23, 1305
• Place of death: London, England

With a combination of valor, ferocity, and tenacity, William Wallace galvanized the Scottish will to rise against English invaders and thus sparked the Scots’ determination to be an independent nation once again.

Early Life

William Wallace was born the second son of a little-known knight, Sir Malcolm Wallace. Although the Wallaces of Ayrshire were an old, landed family, they were not prominent; moreover, as the second son, William would not have inherited his father’s title or lands. This untitled second son of an obscure knight, with no apparent hopes for prominence or fame, would become Scotland’s greatest national hero.

Despite his fame, Wallace remains to a large extent shrouded in mystery. Many details of his life are little more than conjecture and supposition derived from the works of chroniclers who wrote a century or more after Wallace’s death. Also complicating Wallace’s story are the fear and animosity he provoked in the English historians of the period, who demonized Wallace, his motives, and his deeds. Thus, records of his life, and especially of his early years, are sketchy and often inaccurate. The best modern biographers freely admit the likely inaccuracy of the early sources.

What is clear, however, is that the young Wallace’s boyhood benefited from the social, political, and financial security characterizing the reign of Scotland’s King Alexander III, who ruled from 1249 to 1286. During these early years, Wallace probably led a comfortable, peaceful life as the son of a knight, perhaps receiving a rudimentary formal education at the hands of local monks and an uncle who was a priest. More important to history, the young Wallace doubtless practiced and trained during this period with his older brother, Malcolm, in the martial arts of the day, including horsemanship and weaponry.

Wallace’s destiny to lead Scottish patriots against English invaders had its roots in his early military training. From contemporary descriptions, including those of armorers, it is known that Wallace was a large, powerful man. In an age when foot soldiers averaged only slightly more than 5 feet (152 centimeters) in height, William Wallace reportedly stood nearly 6 feet, 6 inches (183 centimeters) tall. Neither was he lanky: Numerous witnesses describe him as being brawny, well-proportioned, muscular, and handsome. He was, in short, a giant of a man in his time; an armor-clad Wallace, mounted on a huge warhorse and wielding a six-foot-long claymore battle sword, would have presented a terrifying prospect to opponents.

Wallace may have prepared to pursue a life in the church, but that possibility faded as Scotland drifted closer to a civil war within its borders and a defensive war against King Edward I of England. By the time Wallace was twenty, Scotland was essentially under English occupation. Two incidents made the conflict personal for him. In the first incident, his father, Sir Malcolm Wallace, was killed in a skirmish with English troops in 1291. In the second incident, Wallace was provoked into a fight with the brash son of the constable of Dundee Castle. Insulted and enraged by the abusive behavior, Wallace drew his dirk and killed his tormentor.

From this period on, Wallace would be an outlaw, hunted and feared by the English but admired by many of his fellow Scots. Even after gaining fame in the next several years, he would never again know peace in his short life.

Life’s Work

From 1291, the young William Wallace, twenty or twenty-one years old, found himself thrust into conflict that revealed the worst of nobles. The aristocratic Scottish Guardians intrigued against one another, variously aligning themselves with Edward of England when it suited their personal ambitions, and then defying their loyalty to the English king when doing so served their purposes. At the same time, English troops, including mercenaries and frequently disgruntled Welsh and Irish conscripts, ranged freely over Scotland from their garrisons and stockaded camps. Abuses against civilians abounded, and for the most part, the Scottish nobles showed no interest in redressing these abuses. Little can be known for certain about Wallace’s life during this period except that he lived the life of an outlaw, moving constantly, avoiding the English when possible and intermittently confronting the invaders with lethal ferocity.

In 1296, Edward I himself led a campaign in southern Scotland and humiliated the ineffectual claimant to the Scottish throne, John de Baliol. In the same year, Wallace engaged local soldiers in the village of Ayr. After killing several of them, he was overpowered and thrown into a dungeon, where he was slowly starved. Apparently in a coma, Wallace was presumed dead, and his body was discarded. He was nursed back to health by sympathetic villagers. Recovered, Wallace attracted several local comrades-in-arms and began his systematic, deadly fight against the hated English and their Scottish sympathizers.

As his supporters grew in number, his attacks broadened. Early in 1297, Wallace, by then with as many as fifty men, revenged his father’s death by ambushing the knight responsible, along with a retinue of soldiers. He was no longer merely an outlaw but a local military leader who had struck down a number of Edward’s knights and fighters. William Wallace had become the king’s enemy.

Although most of Scotland was in Scottish hands by August, 1297, Edward (nicknamed “Longshanks”) had such confidence in his veteran commanders and battle-tested soldiers that he sailed for Flanders. The size of the English army left its leaders confident, and when Wallace and his coleader, Sir Andrew de Moray, marched their forces toward Stirling Castle, a stronghold of vital importance, the English commanders were confident that the upstart Scots would retreat or surrender. The Scots not only declined the terms but also sent a defiant rebuke.

Wallace and de Moray were both in their twenties. Neither could claim exalted status, and their aristocratic enemies had as yet little real respect for their burgeoning roles as national, not merely local, military commanders. Wallace, the man to whom the Scots chiefly rallied, was disparaged by the English leaders as a “thief.” Nevertheless, under Wallace, the Scots commoners and knights, not nobles coalesced into a spirited army consciously fighting for their liberty. Where Scotland’s nobles had capitulated and bargained, Wallace’s army of patriots remained steadfast.

At the Battle of Stirling Bridge on September 11, 1297, Wallace demonstrated that he was not only a charismatic leader and warrior but also a brilliant tactician. The English were lured into a rash advance and slaughtered; English fatalities approached five thousand. Never before had a Scottish army so triumphed over an English aggressor. The youthful but grimly determined Wallace had dispelled the myth of the invincibility of Edward’s experienced army. Young Wallace succeeded brilliantly where his aristocratic betters had utterly failed.

Victory over the formidable English army at Stirling Bridge enhanced Wallace’s fame and enthusiastic support throughout Scotland. Late in 1297 or early in 1298, Wallace was knighted. Recent scholarship suggests that the nobleman knighting Wallace was probably the earl of Carrick, who would become better known as Robert Bruce. In many ways, Wallace was a necessary precursor for Bruce, who would be crowned king of Scotland (King Robert) on March 25, 1306.

Ironically, Bruce’s family claims to the Scottish throne placed him politically at odds with Wallace, who remained loyal to the now-exiled king, John de Baliol. Yet, acknowledging Wallace’s meteoric rise to power, Bruce would later refer to him as Lord William Wallace. In any case, by early spring of 1298, the newly knighted Sir William Wallace also ruled as official regent, or guardian, of Scotland. In less than six years, this remarkable young warrior had risen from obscurity to one of the most important positions in the realm.

Wallace’s acclaim, however, was short-lived. By March, 1298, Edward had initiated plans for another invasion of Scotland, intending to crush Wallace and all others daring to assert Scotland’s independence. The English army entering Scotland may have numbered almost ninety thousand. On July 22, 1298, near Falkirk, Edward attacked the much smaller Scottish army. Although vastly outnumbered, Wallace’s disciplined troops withstood the initial charges of the English. Decimated by longbowmen able to dispatch numerous arrows over great distances, and deserted at a crucial moment by their nobles’ cavalry, the stalwart Scottish army was at last overwhelmed. As many as ten thousand Scots may have been killed; with the bloodied remnant of his army, Wallace retreated into the thick woods. Soon thereafter, he relinquished his guardianship of Scotland. With his defeat went Scotland’s apparent hopes of independence.

In the following years, Wallace seems to have returned to his earlier tactics of engaging the English on a smaller scale, using hit-and-run guerrilla tactics in a war of attrition. Guided by his patriotism and unwavering hatred of the English, Wallace continued to serve his country selflessly. Along with several of his loyal supporters, Wallace apparently sailed to France on a diplomatic mission to seek support from King Philip IV ; in 1303, however, the Treaty of Paris effectively ended hostilities between England and France.

The treaty’s ratification also allowed Edward to focus his attention on the Scots, who continued to resist the English. Wallace was singled out; Edward’s order was for Wallace, unlike the Scottish nobles, to surrender unconditionally. Edward took personal charge of the Scottish campaign of 1304.

Stirling Castle fell to the English in July of 1304. Wallace, still denigrated by Edward’s officers as an outlaw, was hunted down. By refusing to acknowledge Wallace as a worthy opponent from another country’s army, the English could officially regard Wallace as a mere traitor. Thus, unlike the relatively lenient sanctions imposed on the Scottish nobles, the terms offered Wallace were unconditional an ominous message from such a vindictive king as Edward.

Captured at last by a Scottish knight in service to the English king Wallace was brought to London in August, 1305. Denied status as a captured soldier, Wallace endured a mock trial and was sentenced to a traitor’s death. Dragged through the streets of London, he was humiliated, tortured, hanged, drawn, and quartered on August 23, 1305. Edward ordered Wallace’s quartered body dispatched to four locations in Scotland and on the English border, to be hung in public view. His severed head was impaled on a pike and displayed on London Bridge. Edward believed that he had at last broken the Scots’ spirit. He was wrong. With Wallace’s barbarous execution, he had in fact made the Scots’ popular military leader a martyr.

Significance

William Wallace sought neither the glory nor the hardship that distinguished his short life. Thrust into the complex conflicts of late thirteenth century Scotland, Wallace accepted the roles his leadership and personal valor brought him. A violent man living in a violent age, he was intransigent in his resistance to the English invaders, implacable in his war against them. A ferocious, powerful warrior, he rarely granted quarter to English captives, nor did he ask any of his English enemies. Unlike the conniving Scottish nobles, Wallace never sought personal fame or benefited from it, and he never accrued wealth or lands. Late twentieth century scholars describe Wallace as an anomaly, a historical figure who truly lived his life by an inviolable code of honor. Yet for all his self-sacrifice and brilliance as a military leader, Wallace’s greatest achievement was his inspiration to his fellow Scots: to claim their own liberty and to be willing to die for it. His story became an Academy Award-winning feature film, Braveheart (1995), starring Mel Gibson as Wallace.

Bibliography

Barrow, G. W. S. Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000-1300. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981. Offers a broad social history of William Wallace’s Scotland. Includes an annotated bibliography and a helpful “chronological table” appendix.

Fisher, Andrew. William Wallace. 1986. Reprint. Edinburgh: John Donald, 2002. Synthesizes numerous sources into a concise factual biography. The author strives to be judicious in separating the legend from the man. Includes a lengthy bibliography.

Gray, D. J. William Wallace: The King’s Enemy. London: R. Hale, 1991. Chronicles Wallace’s life and times, profiling him as a medieval freedom fighter. Bibliographic references, index.

Mackay, James. William Wallace: Brave Heart. Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1995. Sympathetic toward Wallace and the Scottish struggle for independence, Mackay’s biography offers both accessibility to the facts and thorough research. Includes a select bibliography.

Mitchison, Rosalind. A History of Scotland. New York: Methuen, 1982. Chapter 3, “The War of Independence,” provides a brief but invaluable discussion of Wallace’s Scotland and the explosive political issues that brought Wallace and Robert Bruce to the forefront of the conflict. Includes a list of important dates, maps, and a lengthy annotated bibliography.

Morton, Graeme. William Wallace: Man and Myth. Stroud, England: Sutton, 2001. A Scottish historian deconstructs the myth of Wallace, fully examining contemporary sources.

Reese, Peter. Wallace: A Biography. Edinburgh: Canongate, 1996. Detailed look at the life and times of Wallace, with illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Scott, Ronald McNair. Robert the Bruce: King of Scots. Edinburgh: Canongate, 1982. Part 1 of Scott’s book provides an excellent discussion of the Scottish struggle for independence from 1295 to 1306, the period of Wallace’s heroic achievements. Among others, Wallace is placed within this historical context.

Young, Alan, and Michael Stead. In the Footsteps of William Wallace. Stroud, England: Sutton, 2002. Wallace’s story is accompanied by photographs and maps of historic sites.