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→Death of William Wallace
==Death of William Wallace==
After the defeat at Falkirk, Wallace may have left for France or even Rome for a period of time. It is possible he was seeking assistance from the French and Pope for the Scottish cause. This is likely since there were wars between the French and English at this time and Wallace would have tried to appeal to a willing English enemy if he could. Sometime around 1304, Wallace likely returned to England and continued to raid parts of English occupied Scotland. The movie depicts an aging Edward I as being tormented by William Wallace. The attacks were shown as successful skirmishes in most cases, but it is likely these attacks were either negligible, failures, or were insignificant to affect the English presence in Scotland. More likely, Edward I probably did not consider Wallace a major threat at this point and Wallace was more in a desperate statetrying to raise a more significant force after the disaster at Falkirk.
In fact, because he probably now had a weakened position in Scotland, Wallace was betrayed, as suggested in the movie, by a Scottish noble (John de Menteith) who was loyal to Edward in 1305. Wallace was captured and soon put on trail for treason at Westminster Palace, where he did seem to say that he was not guilty of treason, the charge he was tried with, because he never claimed loyalty to the English crown, as depicted in the movie. However, he was also charged with other offences. Among the charges brought against him were those related to his pillaging of civilians, which was probably at least partially true. By the end of August 1305, Wallace was found guilty and drawn and quartered, a death reserved for traitors. Wallace's body parts and head were displayed in different parts of England to make an example against those considering of revolting against the English king.