Wallace and the Real History Braveheart (1995)

The historical William Wallace is a poorly documented figure. Most of what is known about him comes from English chronicles written by his enemies, from Scottish chronicles written a century or more after his death, and from Blind Harry's epic poem The Wallace, written approximately 170 years after the events it describes. The film's relationship to the historical record is loose; Randall Wallace's screenplay is faithful to Blind Harry's poem rather than to the chronicles, and the framework reading of the film on this wiki treats the film as a Wallace myth rather than a Wallace biography.

What the chronicles say

The English chronicles — particularly the chronicle of Walter of Guisborough — record the Battle of Stirling Bridge of September 11, 1297, which Wallace and Andrew Moray jointly commanded; the Battle of Falkirk of July 22, 1298, which Wallace lost; Wallace's appointment as Guardian of Scotland in 1297 (an office he held jointly, not solely); his diplomatic mission to France in 1299 in search of support from Philip IV; his return to Scotland to continue raids; his betrayal in 1305 by Sir John de Menteith near Glasgow; and his execution at Smithfield on August 23, 1305, after a trial at Westminster Hall.

The Scottish chronicles — particularly John of Fordun's late-fourteenth-century Chronica Gentis Scotorum and Walter Bower's Scotichronicon — provide more detail and add the heroic register the chronicles lack. They identify Wallace as the second son of a Scottish gentleman, place his birth in Elderslie in Renfrewshire (though the location is contested; Ellerslie in Ayrshire is also claimed), and treat him as the political and military architect of the rebellion in a way the English chronicles do not.

"The English chronicles call him a brigand. The Scottish chronicles call him the saviour of the kingdom. The historical Wallace is somewhere in between, and considerably less colorful than either." — Andrew Fisher, William Wallace (2007, biography, not available online)

What Blind Harry adds

Blind Harry's The Wallace is the document the film's screenplay is most directly drawing from. The poem, written around 1477 by a wandering Scottish minstrel, runs to roughly 12,000 lines and elaborates the Wallace story with mythic flourishes the chronicles do not contain. Among Blind Harry's additions: Wallace's wife Marion Braidfute, killed at Lanark by the English sheriff William de Heselrig (the historical sheriff was killed by Wallace, but the wife is Blind Harry's invention or elaboration); Wallace's sole architect-of-victory status at Stirling (Moray is sidelined); a scene in which Wallace is knighted Guardian of Scotland in his own right; and a death scene at Smithfield with heroic last words. (See Hesselrig and the Sheriff Question for the sheriff's name and the specific historical departures around his killing.)

The screenplay's debt to Blind Harry is direct. Murron MacClannough (the film's name for Wallace's wife) is Marion Braidfute; the Lanark killing of the sheriff is Hesselrig's killing; the architect-of-Stirling status is the poem's compression; the heroic death scene is the poem's invention. Randall Wallace (in Braveheart) has been explicit in interviews that the screenplay treats the poem as the source.

The principal historical departures in the film

Film element	Historical record
Wallace's wife Murron killed by Hesselrig at Lanark	A wife is not in the chronicles; Blind Harry's Marion Braidfute is the source. The Lanark sheriff William de Heselrig was killed by Wallace in May 1297, but the trigger event is unclear.
Stirling Bridge fought as an open-field battle, no bridge	Fought at the Stirling timber bridge as a chokepoint engagement; jointly commanded with Andrew Moray, who is absent from the film.
Wallace knighted alone as Guardian of Scotland	Wallace was knighted (probably) and made Guardian, but jointly with another Guardian (Moray initially, then others after Moray's death in November 1297).
Robert the Bruce in English armor at Falkirk	Bruce was not at Falkirk historically. His side-switching during this period was real, but the visor-lift is an invention.
Wallace's affair with Princess Isabella	Isabella of France was nine years old in 1305, in France, and never met Wallace. The romance is wholly invented. (See Isabella as Film Fiction.)
Prima nocte as a legal right of English lords	Prima nocte is a literary convention, not a historical legal right. There is no documentary evidence that Edward I granted such a right.
Bannockburn as the immediate institutional payoff	Bannockburn was fought June 23–24, 1314, nine years after Wallace's execution. Bruce had been at war with Edward I and Edward II for most of that period. The film compresses the nine years into a voice-over and a single charge.

Why the historical departures matter for the film's reading

The framework reading of the film on this wiki is "better tools, sufficient" — the post-midpoint approach (spend the body publicly, refuse the plea, choose the word) succeeds at the level of the political project, even though Wallace loses the survival contest. The reading depends on a Wallace who fights alone, is knighted alone, is betrayed alone, and is executed alone — because the political project the framework scores is Wallace's project, not the joint project with Moray, the multiple Guardians, the diplomatic mission to France, and the eight years of intermittent guerilla warfare the chronicles record.

The historical Wallace's project is more diffuse and ends less cleanly than the film's. The chronicle Wallace fights, loses, retreats to France, returns, raids, is betrayed, and is executed; his political project is one strand of a larger Scottish independence movement that includes Moray, Bruce, the bishops, the Comyn faction, and the diplomatic effort with Philip IV. The film's compression — Wallace alone, the body alone, the country watching — is what makes the framework reading possible. The chronicle Wallace would not produce the same framework reading.

"Braveheart is not history. It is a poem. The poem and the history are different documents about the same person. The framework on this wiki reads the poem; the chronicles are a different question." — Sharon Krossa, Medieval Scotland (2002, archived)

What the film gets right

The film gets the broad strokes right. Wallace was real. He led a rebellion against Edward I. He won at Stirling and lost at Falkirk. He was Guardian of Scotland. He was betrayed by a fellow Scot. He was executed at Smithfield in 1305 by hanging, drawing, and beheading. He refused to swear allegiance to Edward at his trial.

The film also gets the structural fact right that Wallace's death did not end the Scottish independence movement, and that Robert the Bruce did become King of Scots and won at Bannockburn in 1314. The voice-over's "It did not have the effect that Longshanks planned" is, in the broadest possible reading, true.