Florencia Figini

Cultura de los Pueblos de Habla Inglesa I

Braveheart

1. Plot Summery:
The movie begins in Scotland, where most of the scenes take place. The
story starts in 1280, when the father and brother of William Wallace the main
character- are killed during the pacific talks with Longshanks Edward I, the king
of England who wanted to rule Scotland-. Being only a child with no relatives in
Scotland to take care of him, Wallace is taken under the care of his uncle Argile.
When Wallace is old enough, and an educated man, he returns to
Scotland, where Longshanks has granted the nobles the right to prima noctis. To
avoid the noble sleeping with his wife on their wedding night, Wallace marries
Murron the girl with whom Wallace was in love since he was a child- in the middle
of the night, with no witnesses but the priest who celebrates the wedding.
William Wallace is a pacific man until the kings soldiers give death to his
secret wife. Wallace starts a rebellion killing the noble, burning his castle and
sending the soldiers back to England to tell the king that Scottish men are free men.
Longshanks son sends an army to calm down the rebels; but even though
it is a much bigger army, Wallaces army defeats the kings men in Starling. Scottish
men win this battle, but Scotland still does not have a king nor does it have a
national identity, which makes it a weak country in front of Longshanks.
A truce is offered by the princess of Wales in name of Longshanks- in
exchange of Wallace acceptance of the English king as Scottish mens king, but this
offer is rejected. Even though Wallace obtains the promise of Scottish nobles to help
his army and receives the help of the princess of Wales warns him about the kings
1

intentions, William is betrayed by the nobles, defeated at Falkirks battle and later
captured by English soldiers.
William Wallace is taken to London where he is tried before English
magistrates and found guilty of treason. He is publicly tortured to death, and despite
the agony, he refuses to declare his guilt. Being a cry of Freedom his last words,
he is beheaded, and his body torn to pieces. His head is set on London Bridge, but
this does not have the effect Longshanks planned. The brutal act committed on
Williams body encouraged Robert the Bruce and the remaining Scottish army to
fight the English, finally defeating them at Bannockburn in 1314 and winning their
freedom.

2. Historical Context:
In the late 13th century, time on which the movie Braveheart is set,
Scotland had no king, Scottish nobles were fighting for the throne and even though
the English king was a very powerful man with strong and determined policies, the
system of homage and the rebellions made of it a violent and difficult period.
Alexander III of Scotland had three children, but by the time of the kings death in
1286, neither of them was alive. There was no heir to the throne, which made the
most powerful noble families of Scotland to start arguing on who had the right to
claim the throne. Had not the English king, Edward I, intervened, the situation
would have ended into a civil war. Being called to restore the Scottish throne,
Edward I carefully found the way of joining the Scottish territories to his United
Kingdom avoiding an expensive and difficult war (Sir William part 1, par. 14).
In order to do so, Edward dodged the issue of naming the successor to the Scottish
throne for two years when he got the promise of one of them to do homage to the
English king- and he cunningly gave lands to Scottish nobles in England and lands

to the English nobles in Scotland. The successor to the Scottish throne was John the
Balliol, who had to govern under Edwards rules and endure four years of
continuous rebellions. After Balliols surrender, popular resistance movements
started to fight the English army compelling them to leave Scotland. In 1320, the
Scots clergy meeting at Arbroath wrote to the pope to tell him that they would never
accept English authority (McDowall, p.33).

3. Review:
Braveheart is a movie with an attractive story, but with too frequent bloody
and violent scenes. The plot is appealing for its historical contents (though many of
them are not true) and for the emotions that evokes in the viewer. It is interesting the
way in which different feelings patriotism, treachery, love, etc. - arose from the
performance of the different characters throughout the whole movie.
Even though it may seem realistic, and some characters or battles are
present in history books, I do not think Braveheart is a faithful representation of
history. It may be said that some characters are faithfully shown in the movie, we
know that Edward I was a cruel man that William Wallace was and is considered a
hero for Scottish people that the nobles from Scotland fought for the Scottish crown,
etc. However, there are many other situations or scenes which are clearly not part of
history. For example, in the movie Wallace has an affair with Isabella of France, this
could not have been possible, since the real Isabella was a child when he was killed
in1305 (Historical par. 1). Another example is the juxtaposition of the captions
at the beginning of the movie Scotland, 1280 A.D. and the line The King of
Scotland had died without a son, given that Alexander III, the king of Scotland did
not die until 1286.

William Wallace is depicted as a brave man, a rebel who chooses to be an

outlaw instead of surrender his freedom to a foreigner Edward I of England-. He is
not shown as a common farmer; he is an educated man that can speak not only
English, but also French and Latin. He is also described and remembered as a Hero
for the Scottish people, a leader who earn the respect even of the superior nobles.

Bibliography
McDowall, David. An Illustrated History of Britain. England: Addison Wesley Longman
Limited, 1997.
Historical Inaccuracy, retrieved: 14 Apr. 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braveheart
Sir William Wallace of Elerslie Pro Libertate - For Freedom, retrieved 14 Apr. 2007

http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/wallace/truth2.htm