Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. Don’t recognize the name? If you have seen “Braveheart”, you have seen Hollywood’s version of the battle. Don’t use the movie as a history lesson!
As teachers, we can use films as a supplementary resource to give a visual addition to what we teach. But we must be careful what we use and what we recommend to our students. And we have to combat false history that popular films might plant in our students. Keeping in mind that films are made for entertainment purposes, they still should fall within reasonable bounds of accuracy to be considered historical supplements. The movie “Braveheart” is the story of William Wallace’s rebellion against England. Since Wallace was virtually unknown in America, the blockbuster movie served as a biography for many. It was easy to be fooled into thinking viewers had seen an entertaining history lesson. The problem with “Braveheart” is it was way more out of bounds than most Hollywood faux history movies. Let’s examine how it handles the Battle of Falkirk.
In the movie, King Edward’s army and Wallace’s army are staring each other down across the battlefield. Wallace opens the battle by having his archers fire flame arrows into the ground between Edward’s infantry and his cavalry. The ground had been saturated with an inflammable the day before, so it was set aflame, thus setting some of the cavalrymen on fire and separating the force from the infantry. Wallace then launched his foot soldiers against Edward’s infantry. A melee ensues. When Wallace signals his cavalry to intervene, it rides away. Edward explains that he bribed the Scottish noblemen to leave. He then orders his archers to fire into the melee, regardless of the fact that they will also be hitting his own men. He then sends in more infantry. Wallace is hit in the breast by an arrow as his men are being wiped out. In spite of his wound, Wallace goes after Edward as he is leaving the battle site. Robert the Bruce protects Edward by unhorsing Wallace. Wallace is rescued by one of his men.
And now here is what actually happened. The battle was part of the First Scottish War of Independence. In 1297, Wallace pulled a big upset at the Battle of Stirling Bridge (note the word bridge because in the movie there was none). This got Edward’s attention and one year later, he invaded Scotland with a larger army. In the battle, there was a marsh separating the two armies. Wallace’s army was in four schiltrons (formations similar to stationary phalanxes). His infantry was armed with 12-14’ pikes. In between the schiltrons were his longbowmen. Before Edward arrived with his central cavalry, his two wings decided to make a glory-grasping attack. They skirted the marsh and fell on Wallace’s flank schiltrons. Almost immediately, Wallace’s cavalry (which was at his rear) fled. Two theories are they were bribed by Edward or the cavalry nobles resented Wallace since he was not from the nobility. The cavalry cut down many of Wallace’s archers, but was unable to damage the schiltrons. Edward arrived and called back the knights. He ordered his archers to open fire. After Wallace’s archers and pikemen were whittled down, Edward launched another cavalry charge which routed the remainder of Wallace’s army. Wallace fled into the forest.
https://www.historynet.com/victory-of-a-new-order-the-battle-of-falkirk.htm
In case you want to watch the scene: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=braveheart+battle+of+falkirk+full+scene
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