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From: "Ray C. Williams" <>
Subject: Sir William Wallace and the Movie "Braveheart"
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 21:36:08 GMT


I just saw "Braveheart" for the first time last Friday night - I thought
I'd
missed it, but they re-issued it to ride the favorable publicity of its
being
nominated for the "best movie" Oscar this year.

I'm sure that this movie must have engendered spirited discussion on this
(or
similar) bboards when it first came out! My server doesn't carry any
postings
from that long ago, and I'd be grateful if someone could pass along any
information that came out at that time; or, if this is covered in an FAQ
somewhere, tell me the pointers to it. I have only recently become a
reader
of this bboard/listserver.

I've already exhausted the Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB), Compton's, and
Microsoft's Bookshelf 1994 on the subject of Sir William Wallace, Edward
I,
Edward II, Isabella of France, Robert the Bruce, and the histories of
England
and Scotland in this period, but I find I'm not yet satisfied. Still, the
sources I have indicate the screenwriters made a number creative changes
to
history. The more egregious distortions written into the movie seem to
be:

- Wallace won the battle of Stirling on September 11, 1297, because the
English army under the earl of Surrey had to cross a narrow bridge
over
Forth (and was slaughtered trying), _not_ by a highly innovative use
of super-long spears.

- Isabella was only about nine years old and still with her family in
France when Sir William Wallace was executed (1305), so she couldn't
have been his lover or carried his child.

- Edward I didn't throw Edward II's friend/companion/lover(?) Piers
Gaveston out a window (though the thought probably did occur to him) -
he just banished him. Piers didn't get executed until 1312.

- Isabella married Edward II (1308) after Edward I had died (1307), so
she
probably never even met the man, much less taunted him as he died.

- Edward I died two years after Sir William Wallace was executed, and
was
well enough just before he died to be leading his army back to
Scotland
(he didn't die in his bed in London, unable to speak and hearing
Wallace
shout out "Freedom!" in his death throes).

And, beyond that:

- There seems to be little mention of Robert the Bruce's father (leprous
or otherwise), though he did die in nearly the right time-frame (1304)
But it was Robert himself who died (or may have died) of leprosy(!)

- The EB says that "from the autumn of 1299 nothing is known of
[Wallace's] activities for more than four years." You'd think someone
would have written something about all those Scottish nobles he was
killing in the movie!

The only pointer EB gives to a book on Sir William Wallace is "William
Wallace, Guardian of Scotland" by Sir James Fergusson (1938). There is no
indication whether this is a reliable source. Does anyone know about this
book? Has any reputable historical work been written in connection with
the production of "Braveheart"?

--Ray Williams,
Member of the Technical Staff
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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