WALLACE, WILLIAM, the famous Scottish patriot, was the younger son of a knight of good family in the s.w. of Scotland. Neither the date nor the place of his birth has been ascertained; but there is no doulst that the former may be assigned to the middle of the reign of Alexander III. Nothing certain is known of his education or his early years. Blind Harry's half-fabulous poem has indeed inseparably associated his birth with Ellerslie, his boyhood with Dundee, and his youthful manhood with Ayrshire; but his true history, even in the next generation, was so obscure, that it is now impossible .to separate truth from falsehood or exaggeration. He first appears in the light of autheritic history as the chief of a band of insurgents against Edward, king of England. Taking advantage of his superior power, of his influence over the barons of Norman race, who then were the foremost persons the nobility of Scotland, and of the position of umpire to which he had been chosen among the various claimants to the Scottish crown, Edward had established his supremacy over the northern kingdom, and afterward deposed John Baliol, and attempted to govern in his own absolute right. See SCOTLAND, History, The injustice of the claim, and the cruelty with which it was enforced, roused the opposition of all classes in Scotland except the higher nobles. The gentry and the middle and lower classes of the Lowlands, had for many years identified themselves with the country in which they dwelt, rather than with the great English race from which most of them drew their descent; and what has been called the war of independence began, which resulted in the deliverance of Scotland from foreign'rule, at the cost of the comparative civilization and tranquillity which the country had enjoyed under the descendants of Malcolm Canmore. In this struggle Wallace was the most successful leader; and in the course of the year 1297 the insurrection became general. Edward himself was at that time in Flanders; but his general in Scotland, the earl of Surrey, led his army to Stirling. On Sept. 11 they encountered the Scots under Wallace, and were completely defeated. The whole kingdom submitted to Wallace; who, passing the border, ravaged Cumberland and Northumberland without opposition. On his return from this expedition lie was elected by his countrymen governor of Scotland, in name of king John, whose title was still recognized. In the following year Edward in person entered Scotland at the head of a numerous army. He was met at Falkirk (q.v.) by Wallace on July 22; but the Scots were defeated. It is generally assumed that the jealousy of some Scottish nobles, who envied the position of the governor, had aided in bringing about the disaster, and Wallace, in consequence resigned his high office. With this event, his brilliant public career may be said to have terminated. All that is certainly known is that he continued to struggle for his country's independence, and never made his submission to Edward, or took those oaths of fealty to him which were so lightly made by the Scottish nobles, and as recklessly broken. The events of this
period related by modern writers under the name of "Lives of Wallace." are either transactions in which there is no evidence that he took any part, or the doubtful legends which, as years went on, gathered round the name of the Scottish hero. Some docu ments of undoubted authenticity make it probable that he was for some time in France. The close of his life forms an exception to this obscurity. When Edward offered pardon to the other Scottish leaders on certain terms, Wallace was excepted by name. If he chose to surrender, he might do so, but it was to be without conditions, and his life was to be at the king's mercy. Efforts were also made to discover his retreat and secure his person, and these were finally successful. In the year 1305 he was seized by some of his own countrymen, and delivered to Edward. He was carried to London, and with a mockery of the forms of justice, tried for treason. He denied the charge, asserting, with truth, that he had never been the vassal or subject of Edward;: but his plea was disregarded. He was condemned and executed on Aug. 23; and his death was accom panied by acts of barbarity uncommon even in that age. and marking the merciless character which distinguished the later years of the English king. Contradictory as are the accounts of the English and Scottish chroniclers, it is not difficult to discover the true character of Wallace. He was the true leader of a national insurrection against a foreign yoke. The cruelties inflicted in his invasion of England are undeniable, but he did what he could to mitigate them; and he should not be severely blamed if, under far greater provocation, he tolerated what the good king David, in his war of the standard, was unable to prevent. His memory lives, and will ever live in the hearts of his countrymen, who know that they owe to him and to those who followed in the same course, that their history has not been as unhappy as the history of Ireland. The chief authority for the life of Wallace, as told by popular Scotch writers, is the poem of Henry the minstrel, who lived, however, nearly two centuries after his hero, and whose narrative is an almost unbroken series of picturesque impossibilities. The fullest modern account is that given by Mr. Tytler in the first volume of his History of Scotland,. and in his Life of Wallace in the first volume of his Scottish Worthies; but Tytler is to a large extent Blind Harry over again, with judicious excisions. All that is really known of Wallace will be fodnd in Mr. Burton's history of Scotland,. and it is satisfactory to know that the result of a careful examination of the real facts by a writer so impartial, and so little apt to be carried away by enthusiasm, corroborates the most favorable estimate of Wallace's character.