Wallace Executed: Scotland's Hero Dies at Smithfield

William Wallace was dragged through the streets of London behind horses on August 23, 1305, before being hanged, cut down while still alive, disemboweled, beheaded, and quartered at Smithfield. Edward I of England ordered the pieces of Wallace's body displayed in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling, and Perth as a warning to anyone who might continue Scotland's fight for independence. The warning failed spectacularly. Wallace had emerged from minor Scottish nobility to lead a national resistance movement after Edward I conquered Scotland in 1296. His victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in September 1297, where a small Scottish force destroyed a much larger English army by attacking as it crossed a narrow bridge, made him a national hero. Edward appointed him Guardian of Scotland. But the English returned in force, and Wallace was defeated at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298 by Edward's longbowmen and heavy cavalry. After Falkirk, Wallace resigned the guardianship and spent years traveling, possibly to France and Rome seeking diplomatic support for Scottish independence. He continued guerrilla resistance upon returning to Scotland, but the Scottish nobility increasingly accommodated English rule. In August 1305, Wallace was captured near Glasgow, reportedly betrayed by Sir John de Menteith, a Scottish knight loyal to Edward. He was transported to London and tried in Westminster Hall on charges of treason. Wallace reportedly rejected the treason charge, arguing he had never sworn allegiance to Edward and therefore could not betray him. The court was unmoved. His execution was designed to be the definitive end of Scottish resistance. Instead, Robert the Bruce took up the cause the following year, crowned himself king in 1306, and won Scottish independence at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Wallace never saw the freedom he fought for, but his refusal to submit became the founding myth of Scottish national identity.