Everything 'Braveheart' Gets Wrong About Scottish History

In the 13th century, lords and kings weren't slain on the battlefield; they were much too valuable to be offed like common peasants. Capture-then-ransom was the standard practice of the day. As a young man, Edward's future kingdom was in the midst of a power struggle between the English crown and the nobility. 

The balance of power swung back and forth, with the rebel leader Simon de Montfort succeeding in capturing Edward, his nephew, on more than one occasion. However, Edward wasn't content to stay put as promised, and escaped. The most brazen case was when he was permitted to exercise his horses outside the castle walls along with the guards. The young prince rode horses until all but one of the animals were exhausted. He hopped on the last fresh horse and reportedly shouted to his captors:

Lordlings, I bid you good day! Greet my father well and tell him I hope to see him soon, to release him from custody.

He then sped off into the night and raised a new army to wrest control of the kingdom back to the crown.

Because of his opposition to a peace deal with the Muslim rulers of the Holy Land, a bounty was placed on the English monarch's head. On June 1, 1272, Edward was assailed by an assassin; he was able to disarm and finish off his would-be slayer, but suffered a serious injury in the process. The wound was believed to have been inflicted with a tainted blade.

Almost certainly invented by a later writer, one story had the ever-devoted Eleanor suck the poison from her husband's wound to save his life. Although the romantic story is unlikely to have really occurred, Edward was seriously injured in the onslaught. The king's life was saved by an extraordinarily painful procedure where the flesh blackened by the toxin was hacked away by a surgeon. Edward drew up a will in the likely event of him succumbing to infection, but he ultimately pulled through. 

After spending Christmas 1272 in Italy on the way home, he returned to England to learn that he had become king. Although he planned to return to the Holy Lands on a Crusade, his 1272 departure proved final. 

Edward II was Edward I's oldest surviving son, and while he was similar to his father in appearance - he was also tall and muscular - he lacked his father's vigor when it came to leadership. The elder Edward was also deeply troubled by the allegations of his son's relationship with a knight named Piers Gaveston. 

When he learned of the younger Edward's intention to bestow lands upon his favorite, he summoned his son to a tense meeting. A chronicler records the choice words the king had for his son:

You b*stard son of a b*tch! Now you want to give lands away - you who never gained any? As the Lord lives, were it not for fear of breaking up the kingdom, you should never enjoy your inheritance!

The verbal abuse was matched with a physical assault; the elder Edward seized his son by the hair and tore out as much of it as he could before dismissing his heir. He became increasingly agitated toward the end of his life, doubtless foreseeing the trouble ahead for his dynasty.

This is another area where his Braveheart portrayal doesn't do him justice. Edward wasn't the tyrant shown in the film - quite the opposite. When he ascended to the throne in 1274, his first major act was to conduct a great survey of the kingdom. This led to the most comprehensive review of England in more than 200 years.

The findings would later be recorded as the Hundred Rolls; the original documents are still housed in the UK's National Archives today. Edward issued a series of reforms to reestablish royal authority and to address the grievances that sparked the conflicts that had blighted his father's reign.

In 1304 on yet another incursion of Scotland, Edward besieged the vital Stirling Castle. The fortress was sometimes called "the key to the kingdom" due to its strategic position in the center of Scotland. Although massively outnumbered, the strength of the castle allowed the garrison to hold out for weeks. 

Siege weapons were assembled to show off the strength of the English crown; Edward even thoughtfully installed a viewing gallery so the accompanying ladies of the court could watch the machines in action. After weeks of bombardment, the Scots garrison came forward to surrender, but Edward wasn't finished yet.

His largest machine, nicknamed Warwolf, hadn't been put to use yet and Edward was keen to test it before he'd accept the garrison's surrender. The mighty trebuchet took more than two months to assemble and was the largest such device ever built. After satisfying his desire to try out the machine, he graciously accepted the garrison's surrender and spared the mens' lives. 

The strangely festive spirit of the siege ended with a tournament, and Edward's army returned home. 

During the ill-fated Eighth Crusade, Edward found an unlikely ally in the form of the Mongols. Seldom has the old adage "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" been truer than it was when the Christian Crusaders realized the ferocity of the pagan Mongols could be useful if turned against their mutual enemy - the Mamluks. Upon his arrival in Acre, Edward dispatched emissaries to seek an alliance.

Abaqa Khan, leader of the Ilkhanate, was receptive to the plan and agreed to strike Syria from a base in modern-day Iran. The diversion allowed the Crusaders to launch an unsuccessful bid to take a key castle on the road to Jerusalem. The siege failed when a relieving force arrived and the Mongols withdrew from Syria without a decisive engagement. Abaqa's successor would ultimately convert to Islam and remove the possibility of further military cooperation with the Crusaders.