William Wallace Patriot, Burglar , Guardian, Traitor : William Wallace has been many things to a lot of folk. But since Mel Gibson’s 1995 , ‘Braveheart ‘, to most he’s a liberty fighter and icon of Scottish autonomy. Small up to date record remains, and what info we do have comes, in the key, from memoirists like Blind Harry, written over 200 years after with their own agenda.
What is understood about Wallace’s early years is that, in contrast to the other potential leaders of the Scots at the time, he was of common birth. While not the peasant or ‘man of the people ‘ of legend, Wallace was simply a knight and miles away from the elegant league of Robert the Bruce, as an example. His view about the English was barely improved when, in 1291, his dad was finished in a skirmish with English troops. With Edward I’s presumption of feudal lordship over Scotland and the successive embarrassment of John of Thin , the legitimate king, the political scene was prepared for rebellion.
Edward, thru his treasurer, Hugh Cressingham, squeezed taxation from the Scots and popular support was on the side of the rebels.
Wallace’s first act of note was a strike against the imposed English authorities, when he snuffed out William Heselrig, more…