i will tell you of william wallace.
historians from england will say i am a liar. but history is written by those who have hung heroes.
the king of scotland had died without a son, and the king of england, a cruel pagan known as edward the longshanks, claimed the throne for himself. scotlands nobles fought him, and fought each other, over the crown. so longshanks invited them to talks of truce. no weapons, one page only.
among the farmers of that shire was malcolm wallace, a commoner, with his own lands and two sons: john.
and william.
twelve years later, longshanks supervised the wedding of his eldest son, also named edward, who would succeed him to the throne.
as bride for his son, longshanks had chosen a relative of his rival, the king of france.
it was widely whispered that for the princess to conceive, longshanks would have to do the honors himself. that may have been what he had in mind all along.
having seen to his obligations to provide for a successor, longshanks set about his fondest business -- to crush scotland, and turn his power against france.
now in edinburgh were gathered the council of scottish nobles.
among these was robert, the 17th earl of bruce, a leading contender for the crown of scotland.