Scottish knight William Wallace: biography. A Brief History of the Uprising

Scottish knight William Wallace is the national hero of his country. He became the leader of the uprising against the dominance of the English, which took place in the XIII century. Like everything connected with the Middle Ages, the facts of his life are rather sketchy, especially those that relate to the early years, when he was still unknown.

Origin

William Wallace was born around 1270. He was the second son in the family of a small-known and little-known knight. Since William was not the eldest, the titles passed him. However, this did not prevent him from mastering the mastery of the sword and other weapons, without which it was difficult to imagine the life of a man. When at the age of 16 he had time to determine his future, an unforeseen happened.

Situation in the country

King of Scotland Alexander III died because of the tragic accident. He did not have any sons who could legally inherit the throne. But there was a little four-year-old daughter Margaret. With her ruled by regents from among the Scottish nobility. The southern neighbor - the King of England Edward I - decided to take advantage of this situation and agreed that the girl would marry his son. A compromise was achieved for a time. However, little Margaret died of the disease at the age of eight. This led to turmoil inside the country. Many of the feudal lords of Scotland claimed of their claims to power.

Some of them turned to Edward to judge who has more rights to the throne. He offered his man - Balliola. It seemed to him that the protege would obey him and, among other things, would lead his own army to help the British in the war against France. However, this did not happen. Edward regarded this as treason and decided to take advantage of the opportunity to subordinate the whole of Scotland to himself alone. If in the south-east of the country he managed to restore order, the northern provinces rebelled.

Beginning of fame

Among the rebels was the young William Wallace. At first he was an ordinary soldier. Once he was captured by the English, who threw him into prison. However, local Scottish peasants wore supplies to him and helped him escape. Then William Wallace assembled his own partisan detachment, with whom he successfully plundered and killed hated aliens.

For a young military commander this was a matter of principle, since the British killed his father. William, with his squad of thirty men, tracked down the guilty knight and set up a massacre over him. The Scottish villages heard a rumor about the people's avenger. Many people were displeased with the intervention. Basically, they were simple villagers tired of extortion and injustice. It was the year 1297. At the same time, Wallace was first mentioned in the written reliable sources of the then chroniclers.

New supporters

Soon the efficient squad became attractive to the local nobility, some of whom were against English interference in the affairs of the Scots. The first nobleman who entered into an alliance with the insurgents was William Hardy, who had the title of Lord Douglas. In order to calm the rebel, Edward sent Robert Bruce to the north .

It was Lord Annandale, initially loyal to the English monarch. The reason for this position was that Robert was the opponent of Balliol, whom Edward had punished with his invasion of the neighboring country. But at the moment when Bruce was alone against the partisan movement, he decided to join the rebels.

The Battle on the Sterling Bridge

The British government could not tolerate a rising uprising. This time to the north went the 10 thousandth army of Earl Surrey John de Varennes, on the cross to which William Wallace went. The history of the uprising hung in the balance: if the leader were defeated, the British would immediately be in the defenseless north.

The Scots had only infantry, which, in addition, was still inferior in number to the enemy. Wallace gave the order to take positions on a high hill in front of the bridge from the castle of Sterling. This only way was very narrow, and on it hardly could fit a few people in one line. Therefore, when the British began to cross the river, on the opposite shore there were very few troops from among the avant-garde. It was he who was attacked by partisans armed with short swords and peaks several meters long. The last weapon was especially effective against the heavily armed but slow knights of the Count. When the British tried to accelerate the crossing of the bridge to help his comrades, he collapsed, and with him a significant part of the army appeared in the river. After this fiasco, the king's army fled. However, even these soldiers could not, because behind them was a marshy swamp, in which they got bogged down. Because of this, the remnants of the army became easy prey for the Scots. One of the most important English governors, Hugh Cressingham, was killed. There is a legend that he was ripped off his skin, which went to a sling on the sword of William Wallace.

But even among the Scots there were heavy losses. First, about a thousand soldiers died, that for a united but small movement was a serious blow. Secondly, one of the commanders and leaders of the partisan, Andrew de Morrey, who was William's faithful companion, fell.

After the victory on the Sterling Bridge, the British left almost all of Scotland. The barons of the country elected William the regent, or the custodian of the country. However, many of them treated the artillery upstart with distrust and went to its recognition only under the pressure of the popular masses, on the contrary, wholly sympathetic to Wallace. On a wave of success, he even attacked the northern regions of England, where he destroyed small garrisons.

The Invasion of Edward I

However, these were only temporary successes. Up to this point, the campaign against Wallace had not been directly attended by Edward I, who had distanced himself from the conflict while engaged in French affairs. But in the new year of 1298 he again invaded Scotland with fresh forces. This time in the army there was a thousandth detachment of heavily armed cavalry, which had a colossal experience of fighting, including in France.

The insurgents had few resources. This was understood by William Wallace. Scotland was tense at the limit of its capabilities. All battle-worthy men had long since left peaceful towns and villages to protect the Fatherland. The direct confrontation against the great royal army was like death.

So Wallace decided to take advantage of the scorched earth tactics. Its essence consisted in the fact that the Scots were leaving the southern regions, but before that they completely destroyed the local infrastructure - fields, roads, food, water, etc. This complicated the problem as much as possible for the British, as they had to chase the enemy in a desolate desert.

The Battle of Falkirk

When Edward had already decided that it was time to leave Scotland, in which it was so difficult to catch the partisans, he learned about the exact location of Wallace. He was standing next to the town of Falkirk. There was a battle.

In order to protect the soldiers from the cavalry, Sir William Wallace surrounded the infantry with a palisade, in the intervals of which stood archers at the ready. However, his army was greatly weakened by the betrayal of some nobles, who at the last moment turned to the side of the British, while taking with them their troops. The king's army was twice the Scottish (15 thousand against 7 thousand). Therefore, the victory of the British was logical.

The Last Years and the Execution

Despite the defeat, parts of the Scots managed to retreat. Among them was William Wallace. The biography of the commander was badly corrupted. He decided to seek support from the King of France, where he left, previously taking off the powers of the regent and transferring them to Robert Bruce (in the future he will become the king of independent Scotland).

However, the negotiations did not end with anything. William returned home, where in one of the skirmishes was captured by the British. He was executed on August 23, 1305. The method was the most fanatical: at the same time, hanging, quartering and evisceration were used. Despite this, the brave knight remained in the memory of the people as a national hero.