Appointed Guardian of Scotland in the name of John Balliol in 1298, Wallace began to make overtures to Europe in the hope of overthrowing English domination. Severely rattled, Edward I sent his forces north in 1298 and overpowered Wallace’s men at Falkirk. Wallace escaped to France where he tried, unsuccessfully, to raise allies. On his return to Scotland he was captured and taken to London, where he was tried for treason. It was an unfair charge since, unlike many Scottish nobles, he had never conceded power to the English king. His execution on 23 August 1305 is one of the most brutal in British history. This account of it is a translation from a contemporary Latin record of the trial.
It is considered that the aforesaid William, for the open sedition which he had made to the same lord the King by felonious contriving, by trying to bring about his death, the destruction and weakening of the crown and of his royal authority and by bringing his standard against his liege lord in war to the death, should be taken away to the palace of Westminster as far as the Tower of London, and from the Tower as far as Allegate, and thus through the middle of the city as far as Elmes, and for the robberies, murders and felonies which he carried out in the kingdom of England and the land of Scotland he should be hanged there and afterwards drawn. And because he had been outlawed and not afterwards restored to the king’s peace, he should be beheaded and decapitated.
And afterwards for the measureless wickedness which he did to God and to the most Holy Church by burning churches, vessels and shrines, in which the body of Christ and the bodies of the saints and relics of the same were wont to be placed together, the heart, liver, and lung and all the internal [parts] of the same William, by which such evil thoughts proceeded, should be dispatched to the fire and burned. And also because he had committed both murders and felonies, not only to the lord the King himself but to the entire people of England and Scotland, the body of that William should be cut up and divided and cut up into four quarters, and that the head thus cut off should be affixed upon London bridge in the sight of those crossing both by land and by water, and one quarter should be hung on the gibbet at Newcastle upon Tyne, another quarter at Berwick, a third quarter at Stirling, and a fourth quarter at St John’s town [Perth] as a cause of fear and chastisement of all going past and looking upon these things.