In Stirling, Scotland, there is a narrow bridge that spans the marshes and the river. The English knights attempted to cross the River Forth by this bridge, just ahead of the Scottish army. Inspired and led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray, they embraced their higher position on a hill and hurled long spears, stones and missiles at the English army. Most of the army was massacred in this way, and those who remained fled in fear of Wallace and the Scots. The English suffered their first major defeat here and the Scots won their first crushing victory. After capturing the bridge and defeating the English forces, Wallace captured Stirling Castle. Scotland was then freed from the occupying forces. A month later, he invaded northern England with his small army and took control of two counties. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay Before the end of the year, William Wallace returned to Scotland and was immediately knighted and appointed guardian of the kingdom of Scotland and began to reign. However, the Scottish nobles did not fully support him, as they all believed they had rights to the throne. Wallace had still not faced King Edward I. The following year, in July, Edward I returned from a campaign in France and invaded Scotland. King Edward I invaded Scotland with "an army of 2,500 mounted knights and 12,500 infantry, including a large number of Welsh". and English archers armed with longbows. Wallace's army was much smaller, consisting of "1,000 mounted knights and 5,000 infantrymen.) (Encyclopedia Britannica) He attempted guerrilla warfare but was forced to fight. He formed the spearmen into circular shapes, standing shoulder to shoulder, spears facing outwards, with a wall of armored men guarding each formation. The one not in these formations was an archer standing in the dead space between the two. They managed to hold off the English cavalry and infantry, but Edward had a new tactic. The longbowmen had not made significant progress in the battle thus far, slowly taking down Wallace's schiltrons. As the sciltrons became more and more broken, the cavalry became more and more successful in charging. The Scots had no choice but to flee into the woods. After this, William Wallace's renowned military prowess was destroyed and he soon after resigned his guardianship over the Kingdom of Scotland. Robert the Bruce succeeded him to accede to the throne. After 1299, William Wallace seemed to disappear from history. There is no memory in any document or history of where he was or what he was doing. After his demise, most of the Scottish nobility surrendered to King Edward I and ceded their lands to England. Despite this, the English continued to hunt Wallace. “On August 5, 1305, he was arrested near Glasgow. » (Encyclopedia Britannica) He was soon taken to London, England, and was condemned as a traitor to the king. He maintained that he never pledged allegiance to Edward or England. After that, the English tortured him: he was hanged, disembowelled and beheaded. It was part of English tradition to punish those who committed treason called draw and quartering. According to Wyatt Red, drawing and quartering was a multi-step process. First, they would be hanged and, on the verge of death, shot. They then removed the intestines from the body as they were pulled by a horse across the square, and then they cut off the traitor's genitals. They threw the body parts into the fire, beheaded the traitor, then.