Scottish Blog

Braveheart was a internationally renowned film portraying William Wallace and his fight against the English.

It can be safely said that Braveheart has been one of the most successful movies in modern history, with five Oscar wins, fifteen other prominent awards and gross revenues to date of well over $202,600,000 throughout the world.

While Braveheart was an internationally acclaimed hit, it did not have the same positive effect on Scottish historians. The film is considered to be inaccurate in many ways and completely incorrect in other regards. Some have even gone so far as to proclaim Braveheart to be a work of fantasy with only accidental ties to the history it was meant to portray.

While detailed lists can be found of how Braveheart differed to the true story of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and the Scottish Wars of Independence., but these lists are often so extensive that one would require a considerable knowledge of Scottish history to fully appreciate them.

Yet there are a number of differences between Braveheart and real life that can be appreciated by most.

Firstly, Braveheart was never used to refer to William Wallace as the movie might seem to imply. If it were to be applied to anyone, it would be best to say that Robert the Bruce would have been the recipient of the name. After his death, the heart of Robert the Bruce was carried on a pilgrimage, when the convoy was attacked, the carrier of the heart, Sir James Douglass, three the heart forward and yelled "Onward braveheart, Douglas shall follow thee or die."

Although Braveheart portrays William Wallace and Robert the Bruce as having met, argued and even fought each other, it is in fact an inaccuracy. The two figures had never actually met, and fought for two different causes.

There are further historical inaccuracies in Braveheart, I will cover these in a further article.