Clan Wallace · 1305
Execution at Smithfield
Captured in 1305 and tried at Westminster, Wallace refused to plead — denying he had ever been Edward I's subject.
Draft entry · awaiting review
After Falkirk in 1298 Wallace had renounced the guardianship and waged a guerrilla war. He spent time on the Continent — at the French court, perhaps in Rome — soliciting support that never came in force. He returned to Scotland and to outlawry.
In August 1305 he was taken by Sir John Menteith near Glasgow and handed to the English. Carried south in chains, he was tried in Westminster Hall on 23 August. He refused to plead to treason — he had never sworn allegiance to Edward I, therefore he could not have betrayed him. The court found him guilty regardless.
He was dragged the four miles to Smithfield, hanged but cut down alive, disembowelled and beheaded. The body was quartered: limbs sent to Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth and displayed there as warnings. The warnings became the cause. By 1314, Bannockburn.