Braveheart Movie

Introducion

The movie "Braveheart", is a story that is about real historical events and battles, though in the movie there is many inaccuracies that are left out of the movie or events in the movie that are inaccurate. The movie is entertaining and was successful, but there are many points to why people shouldn't accept what is in the movie as historically correct.

Discussion

At the battle of Stirling Bridge, the first battle in the movie, there is no bridge to be seen. The actual event was more of an ambush on the English. In the movie it appears that the English and Scottish both setup in an open field where the leaders of the two armies came together in the middle of the field to meet and discuss the terms before going to battle. While William Wallace speaks before the battle, he speaks of the hundred years of tyranny, that was actually a time of a few hundred years of solid relations between the English and the Scottish. Later on though, when Edward I attempted to decide where the crown of Scotland should be placed and he brought back the idea of overlordship.

In the movie it seems that William Wallace fathered Edward III while he had an affair with Isabella. The reason this could not have been true is because Wallace died in 1305 while Edward III was born in 1312. This legend could have been manufactured by a play written well before "Braveheart" was conceived. Another point that proves that Wallace could not have fathered Edward III is that Isabella was still living in France when Wallace was alive, which means she would have never met Wallace(White 2009). In the movie, she would meet him a few times. Isabella would actual have Edward II murdered and she would later go on to launch her own invasion on Scotland. This proves she was not the soft, peaceful lady that she was in the movie, and that she had no ties to Scotland.

William Wallace has a wife in the movie. There is no record of a name of his wife, and there is some doubt that he even had a wife. In the movie, it shows her being killed in front of the townspeople, which again, was not documented.

It is documented that Wallace had a relationship with a woman, but he never had enough time to settle down because he ...