William Wallace (ca. 1272? - 1305) was a Scottish knight who became one of the most prominent figures of the Wars of Scottish Independence.Following the deaths of King Alexander III of Scotland and all of his heirs in the 1280s, Scotland found itself in a difficult and dangerous succession crisis. The nobility had turned to Edward I of England to mediate the disputes. After securing acknowledgments of Edward's overlordship from most of the contestants, he named John Balliol as the new king, but imposed humiliating and often burdensome authority over Balliol and Scotland. The final straw came when Edward demanded that Scotland provide military aid for his war against France.The Scots refused, and struck a peace treaty with the French. In the mid to late 1290s, William Wallace emerged as a charismatic figure, drawing an army to himself. Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace utterly crushed an English army at the Battle of Sterling Bridge (1297), but was subsequently defeated by an army led by King Edward himself at the Battle of Falkirk (1298). Although Wallace survived and escaped the battle, he was betrayed and captured some years later, in 1305. He was sent to London, where he was convicted of treason, and publicly executed. Show less «