his aides, clerks, and supporters were brutally murdered
by Wallace’s troops. The English sought revenge by mur-
dering Wallace’s uncle, Sir Ronald Crawford, and several
other Scottish nobles. Wallace’s forces then struck back,
burning down the Barns of Ayr, where English troops in
Scotland were garrisoned.
The burning of the Barns of Ayr forced the En-
glish government to react: King edWard i dispatched
an army under the command of Sir Henry Percy and
Sir Robert Clifford to hunt down Wallace and his al-
lies. The English met Wallace’s forces at Irvine, and all
of his men but Sir Andrew Moray abandoned him and
made a peace with the English. Wallace, with Moray,
fled north, and even though most of the barons and
nobles had turned on him, many Scots began to join his
army. With this force, Wallace marched south and took
possession of nearly all of the areas north of the Firth
of Forth. He was besieging the city of Dundee when
he received intelligence that the English under John de
Warenne, the earl of Surrey, were approaching from the
south.
To head off Surrey, Wallace marched his forces to
Stirling, camped his men near the Abbey Craig, now a
national monument, and waited. Surrey offered him a
surrender, but when Wallace refused, Surrey crossed the
bridge over the river Forth (11 September 1297). Wal-
lace waited until half of Surrey’s army had crossed—then
he attacked. The assault came with such precision that
most of this first half of the English army were slain and
their bodies thrown into the river. The rest of the army,
unable to help because of the narrowness of the bridge,
panicked and fled, with Wallace attacking their rear until
the city of Berwick. During this latter part of the battle,
Sir Andrew Moray was killed.
Wallace’s victory at Stirling forced the English to
pull their troops from Scotland and reorganize them.
However, Wallace invaded northern England and began
a systematic campaign of looting in Northumberland,
which eventually led him to the city of Newcastle. He
soon retreated back to Scotland, where the citizenry
elected him by acclamation as the “guardian of the
realm” in March 1298. Wallace was, in effect, in control
of all of Scotland.
Edward I, who became known as “The Hammer
of the Scots,” decided once and for all to end Wallace’s
rebellion. Once again he sent an army led by the earl
of Surrey, which captured Roxburgh castle. Edward
then commanded the army himself and marched to
Falkirk. There, on 22 July 1298, he attacked Wallace’s
forces with a largely superior force, including some
3,000 cavalry and many archers, easily defeating the
Scots. During the battle, Wallace’s close friend Sir John
de Graham was killed, leaving him without one of
his most important advisers. Blind Harry’s account
of Wallace’s grief is considered one of the eloquent of
the passages in his story. Moving north to escape the
English, Wallace resigned his position as guardian of the
realm and prepared for an all-out war against Edward
and the English. Allegedly, he visited several countries
on the European continent, and presumably met the
French king, although this is only speculation from his-
torians and not based on any solid facts. What is fact is
that in 1303, Edward exacted from the Scottish nobles
an agreement to submit to his rule, but he specifically
excluded Wallace, on whose head he placed a bounty.
When Wallace returned to Scotland in 1305, he
was betrayed almost immediately and handed over to
the English on 4 August 1305. Removed to London in
chains, he was taken to Westminster Hall, now part of
the Palace of Westminster (the Houses of Parliament),
where he was tried, found guilty of treason, and sen-
tenced to death by Sir Peter Mallorie, the king’s justice.
That same day, he was taken and tortured with extreme
brutality and cruelty; his head was cut off, and his body
sent to four different sections of England as a warning to
those who might fight the Crown.
On 24 June 1861, 556 years after Wallace was ex-
ecuted, a crowd of some 100,000 people formed in Stir-
ling, the site of the famous 1297 battle, to dedicate a
300-foot high National Monument to Wallace and his
fight for Scottish independence. The Academy Award-
winning film by Mel Gibson, Braveheart, exaggerated
many details of Wallace’s life but nonetheless brought his
story to modern audiences nearly seven centuries after
his execution.References: Henry the Minstrel, The Actis and Deidis of
the Illustere and Vailoeand Campioun Schir William Wal-
lace, Knicht of Ellerslie, by Henry the Minstrel, Commonly
known as Blind Harry, edited by James Moir (Edinburgh,
Scotland: W. Blackwood and Sons, 1889); Murison, Alex-
ander Falconer, Sir William Wallace (Edinburgh, Scotland:
Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1898); Fisher, Andrew,
William Wallace (Edinburgh: J. Donald, 1986); Mor-
ton, Graeme, William Wallace: Man and Myth (Stroud,
Gloucestshire, U.K.: Sutton, 2001). wAllAce, SiR williAm