The 23rd August should be an official day of commemoration and reflection across Scotland. For it was on this day in 1305 that a Scotsman called William Wallace was put on trial for treason in Westminster Hall in London and denied a defence.
He was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was stripped naked and dragged behind a horse to Smithfield's Market where he met a very gory end. He was hanged until almost dead, then his guts were pulled out, his head chopped off and his body cut into pieces. His head was displayed on a pike on London Bridge and his limbs were sent to Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth to warn others who were tempted to rebel. The Scots were crushed and their rebellion against Edward was at an end. Or so King Edward thought.
Within a decade Scotland rose again against English rule and under the leadership of Robert the Bruce defeated the larger English army at Bannockburn over a two-day battle on 23rd-24th June 1314. English troops were driven from Scottish land and after years of continued hostilities and battles by 1328 her status as an independent nation was established once again. That independent status lasted for almost four hundred years until the dishonourable Nobles signed it away in the secret and shoddy 1707 Act of Union deal which had no public support.
Over 700 years later we should remember national heroes like William Wallace not because we hanker to return to a state of war with England and express nostalgia for the rule of…
