The New Student's Reference Work/Wallace, Sir William

Wallace, Sir William, the most popular national hero of Scotland, was born about 1270. While studying at Dundee, so tradition relates, he killed a young Englishman in revenge for an insult, and was outlawed. He gathered around him a band of desperate men, whom he led in attacks on the English. His followers and his successes increased until the English king recognized it as an insurrection, and sent an army against the insurgents, when most of the nobles deserted Wallace. He fled to the north, soon collected another army, and drove the English from Scotland, and was chosen guardian of Scotland in 1297. The English renewed the contest, and, the Scottish nobles again deserting, Wallace was defeated at the battle of Falkirk, 1298, and a price put upon his head. He was captured and executed as a traitor, Aug. 22, 1305, though he denied the accusation of treachery, saying he could not be a traitor to the king of England, as he had never been his subject. Consult Jane Porter's The Scottish Chiefs; Early Days of Wallace by Bute; Life by Carrick; and Tales of a Grandfather by Sir Walter Scott.