Wallace, SIR WILLIAM, the Scottish patriot, was born about 1274, the second of the three sons of Sir Malcolm Wallace of Elderslie, near Paisley, by Margaret, daughter of Sir Reginald Crawford, sheriff of Ayr. The name Wallace—otherwise Valeys, Walensis, le Waleys, &c.—means simply 'Welshman;' and the Wallaces may have come north with the Stewarts (q.v.), of whom they seem to have been feudal dependents. Blind Harry associates the hero's boyhood with Dundee, his youthful manhood with Ayrshire; whilst, according to Fordun, he got part of his education from an uncle, the priest of Dunipace, who instilled into him the maxim, 'Libertas optima rerum.' But his true history, even in the next generation, was so obscure that it now is next to impossible to separate truth from falsehood or exaggeration. He first stands out clearly in the spring of 1297 as the chief of a patriotic force, arrayed against Edward I. (q.v.) of England. To avenge, says Wyntonn, the murder of his young wife, he attacked the English garrison at Lanark and slew William de Hazelrig; he attempted to surprise the English justiciar at Scone; and with a large company he lay in the Forest of Selkirk. This last fact (the first that is absolutely certain) appears from a letter written by Cressingham to Edward on 23d July, a fortnight before which date the Scottish nobles, with the exception of Sir Andrew Moray, had submitted at Irvine to Edward. Edward himself was at the time in Flanders, but his general in Scotland was Warwick Earl of Surrey; and him on 11th September Wallace utterly defeated in the battle of Stirling Bridge, as he was trying to pass beyond the Forth. The whole kingdom submitted to Wallace, whom we find the next month making friendly overtures to the Hanse towns of Lübeck and Hamburg, and who, crossing the Border, harried all the north of England as far south as Newcastle. (Blind Harry absurdly takes him as far as St Albans, and makes him have a meeting with the English queen, when English queen there was none.) On his return from this expedition he was appointed 'Governor of Scotland, in name of King John [Baliol], and by consent of the Scottish nation.' In 1298 Edward in person invaded Scotland at the head of 88,000 men. Wallace adopted a Fabian policy, but was forced to give battle at Falkirk (22d July), where, deserted by the cavalry, his 'schiltrouns' or circular formations of infantry were shot down by the English archers and totally routed. The Scottish loss is variously estimated by the English chroniclers at from 22,000 to 100,000, but according to Scottish writers the whole army did not exceed the former number. With this defeat Wallace's brief but glorious career terminated. We know that he visited France, whose king, Philip, came near surrendering him to Edward; we know also that he at least contemplated a visit to Rome; and then, on 3d August 1305, seven years after the battle of Falkirk, we have his capture near Glasgow by Sir John Menteith, Edward's Scottish governor of Dumfries. He was brought to London, and, crowned with laurel in mockery, was tried for treason in the great hall of Westminster. He pleaded, and truly, that he had never been King Edward's vassal or subject; but he was condemned and executed that very same day at West Smithfield—hanged, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered, the quarters being sent to Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling, and Perth.
See the article HARRY (BLIND) for an account of the epic which moulded, whilst embodying, the popular conception of Wallace; and for authentic materials refer in the first place to the Rev. Joseph Stevenson's Documents illustrative of Sir William Wallace (Maitland Club, 1841), which may be supplemented by vol. ii. of Hill Burton's History of Scotland; the Marquis of Bute's Early Days of Sir William Wallace (Paisley, 1876), his Burning of the Barns of Ayr (ib. 1878); A. Brunton's Sir William Wallace (Glasgow, 1881); Henry Gough's Scotland in 1298 (Paisley, 1888); James Moir's Sir William Wallace (Aberdeen, 1888); the Rev. C. Rogers' The Book of Wallace (2 vols. Grampian Club, 1889—to be used with caution); A. F. Murison's Sir William Wallace ('Famous Scots,' 1898).