No national hero ever excited greater admiration than that of William Wallace. No hero remained such a shadowy figure, his life and actions beset by myths and contradictions. When Scotland's hope of becoming independent was smashed, when the Scots were oppressed, and their nation virtually wiped out, Wallace emerged from the shadows like some bright meteor in the night sky. He gained a spectacular victory over the English in one battle and sustained a crushing defeat in a second. He disappeared from recorded history just as swiftly as he had come, emerging only briefly seven years later when he was betrayed to the English, brought to London, subjected to a mockery of a trial and executed in a most hideous and barbaric manner (Mackay 9). Though his life came to a tragic end, William Wallace's life greatly influenced the movement for Scotland's independence.…
