Essay On William Wallace

The focus of this report is The Battle Of Stirling Bridge, as well as William Wallace, a famous commander and leader during Medieval Europe. This report will go into detail about this significant event, person and the impacts that they had on Medieval Europe.

A lower class land owner, William Wallace (Figure 1) was a well-known Scottish knight who fought for Scotland’s political rights. Being born into a family of nobility, he was soon inducted into the minor lords of Scotland. His date of birth is disputed, but is generally known to be 1270. Little is known about Wallace’s past, other than during the battles he fought, as well as the last few weeks before his death. Wallace’s family consisted of his father, Alan Wallace and his two brothers,

On September 11 1297, William Wallace and Andrew de Moray with their small army of 2300 men, arrived in Stirling and took up positions along the north side of the river Forth, close to the Abbey Craig (Figure 3). They waited as the English army made their way across the bridge, soon to be recalled as one of their commanders had overslept. The Scots were then left waiting as their opponents made their way back. The English army, led by the Earl of Surrey and Hugh de Cressingham vastly outnumbered Scotland’s army, with army between 9000 and 13000 strong. The lead group of the English army, led by Surrey and consisting of 5400 members had started to cross the bridge. Seizing the opportunity, the Scots declared an attack. The Scottish spearmen started their attack from high ground and swiftly made their way towards the bridge. The lead group were extremely vulnerable to this attack as they were positioned in a narrow space of the bridge, leaving them separated from the rest of the group. The lead group was now unable to help their fellow leader, Hugh de Cressingham, whose body was “subsequently flayed and the skin cut into small pieces for souvenirs of the victory,” (Wikipedia, 2010-2014). Surrey and his small army of archers had stayed south of the river (See Figure 4). Most of his army had kept intact and although he could have blocked the Scots entrance towards the south, he