August 23

Sir William Wallace was brutally executed on the 23rd in 1305. He was a Scottish patriot who led the resistance to the English occupation of Scotland. He was the inspiration for Mel Gibson’s movie version of Randall Wallace’s novel Braveheart that in turn was inspired by the epic poem The Acts and Deeds of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Elderslie, which was written in the late 15th century by Blind Harry the Minstrel. In 2002, Wallace was ranked 48th in the 100 Greatest Britons poll and in 2003 the readers of the Glasgow Herald voted him the 10th Most Scottish Person. Following his arrest on August 5, Wallace was transported to London where he was tried in Westminster Hall. From here on things got rather nasty. Following his conviction (which was a foregone conclusion) on the 23rd, Wallace was taken from the hall, stripped naked and dragged through the city at the heels of a horse to Smithfield Market. He was then hanged, drawn and quartered — strangled by hanging but released while still alive, emasculated, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him, beheaded, and then cut into four parts. His head was then placed on a pike on top of London Bridge.