William Wallace was the second son of Sir Malcolm Wallace, a minor Scottish noble who had no love for English and refused to pay homage to Edward I. Born at Elderslie in 1270 William grew up to be a giant of a young man, 6 feet 7 inches tall, with a physique to match his height. There is a saying that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” and in the case of young Wallace this seemed to be true, for like his father before him, William also grew up with a hatred of English authority. Continually at odds with the overbearing foreign, so called masters and their treatment of the Scottish, whose lands they occupied, William rebelled and fought back. His frequently clashed with and left many an English soldier laying dead on the ground.
For this he was outlawed but when he killed the English Sheriff of Lanark, he was declared a murderer and a price was put on his head. Being outside the law meant that Wallace had a choice, he could flee, or stay and fight his enemy. He chose the latter and from that day on became a Guerrilla fighter. With a few men he attacked the English whenever he could and soon attracted others to his cause. As his force grew he began a series of raids and succeeded in taking the English fortresses of Aberdeen, Inverness and Montrose. While Wallace’s successes drew clansmen to the cause, only one of the Scottish clan nobles, Andrew de Moray openly supported him and Robert Bruce promised support, but changed his mind, although after Wallace’s death, he did eventually turn against the English. The rest, for the most part, preferred the protection of neutrality.
In 1297 Wallace and his lightly armed force of 7000 foot soldiers and 150 cavalry, besieged the chief English stronghold, Stirling Castle. This so incensed the English that they sent a great army consisting of 750 cavalry and 18000 archers and foot soldiers. The army was led by the Governor of Scotland, the Earl of Surrey and Sir Hugh de Cressingham the hated treasurer of Scotland. The plan was to crush Wallace and his men.
On reaching Stirling, the English found Wallace and his army holding the high ground around Abbey Craig hill on the north side of the river Forth. To reach Wallace the English on the south side had to cross a narrow wooden bridge and negotiate an equally narrow causeway. There were fords that could be used, but only at low tide. After a offer to negotiate was rejected by Wallace, the English sent 100 cavalry over the bridge, their job to protect against attack while the rest of the army began to cross. It was a slow process due to the narrowness of the bridge and Wallace waited until 5000 of the English foot soldiers had crossed before making his move.
By 11am when the English on the north side of the river had spread out beyond the causeway onto the soft rain-sodden ground, either side, Wallace and the main body of his army made a downhill charge. The English cavalry hampered by the ground conditions due to the overnight rain, had their mounts killed beneath them and were slaughtered where they fell. In fact, of all the knights to cross the bridge that day only one Sir Marmaduke Thweng made it back to the other side.
While Wallace and his men ploughed into the English, a detachment of Scots captured the northern end of the bridge sealing the trap and the Earl of Surrey was forced to watch, while goodly portion of his army was pushed back into a loop in the river and slaughtered. A few did escape by swimming the river, but many more drowned as their armour dragged them down.
The battle that began at 11am was over by noon and the defeated English army, harried by the Scots, slunk away.
While casualties were light on the Scottish side, Wallace’s friend, Andrew de Moray was badly wounded and died later. On the English side however those that died numbered in the thousands and many leading knights were slain. One of those killed was Hugh de Cressingham, the Scots flayed his body and pieces of his skin were handed out as trophies. Wallace was said to have used a long strip of Cressingham’s skin to make a new sword belt.
A few days after the battle Wallace captured the castle and became unconfirmed Guardian of Scotland.
One year later in 1298 taking advantage of a temporary lull in the fight against France, Edward I invaded Scotland and defeated Wallace at the battle of Falkirk. Wallace fled to France to try and raise support, but later returned and in 1305, after seven years on the run, was betrayed, captured and handed over at Robroystoun, by Sir John Menteith and 60 men.
Wallace was handed over to king Edward, tried for treason, found guilt and sentenced to be Hanged, Drawn and Quartered. (Partially hung, then revived and while still alive, emasculated, eviscerated, had his bowels burnt, his head cut off and his body chopped into four quarters). His Head was preserved and placed onto a spike on London Bridge. One each of his body portions were sent for display to the following towns, Newcastle, Berwick Upon Tweed, Stirling and Aberdeen.
