On 23 August 1305 Sir William Wallace was found guilty of treason by King Edward I of England and sentenced to death.

Sir William Wallace was not the blue tattooed figure imagined by Hollywood but a Medieval Knight and Guardian of Scotland during the Wars of Independence.

This hero who kept the honour of Scotland alive and campaigned to resist subjugation by the English King was eventually betrayed by John Menteith and captured in 1305 near to Glasgow.

Tortured and put on trial in England, he was dragged naked to Smithfield. There he was hung until he was almost dead, he was mutilated, cut open and his insides were burned. He was then beheaded and his body cut into quarters. His head, dipped in tar, was put on a pike on London Bridge. His 4 limbs were put on display in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling, and Perth. Such was the humiliation that Edward had suffered at the exploits of Wallace that the King was determined that the hero’s fate would crush the Scots.

You can find out the story of Sir William Wallace at the monument erected for Scotland’s National Hero.