Editing Braveheart (section)

== Historical inaccuracy ==
Randall Wallace, who wrote the screenplay, has acknowledged [[Blind Harry]]'s 15th-century [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] ''[[The Wallace (poem)|The Acts and Deeds of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Elderslie]]'' as a major inspiration for the film.<ref name="anderson">{{cite book|author=Anderson, Lin| title=Braveheart: From Hollywood to Holyrood| publisher=Luath Press Ltd.|date=2005|page= 27}}</ref> In defending his script, Randall Wallace has said, "Is Blind Harry true? I don't know. I know that it spoke to my heart and that's what matters to me, that it spoke to my heart."<ref name = anderson/> Blind Harry's poem is not regarded as historically accurate, and although some incidents in the film that are not historically accurate are taken from Blind Harry (e.g. the [[Barns of Ayr|hanging of Scottish nobles]] at the start),<ref name=Riddy>''Unmapping the Territory: Blind Hary's Wallace'', Felicity Riddy's chapter in Edward Cowan's ''The Wallace Book'' (2007, {{ISBN|978-0-85976-652-4}})</ref> there are large parts that are based neither on history nor Blind Harry (e.g. Wallace's affair with Princess Isabella).<ref name=white>{{cite news |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6738785.ece |title=The 10 most historically inaccurate movies |last=White |first=Caroline |work=[[The Sunday Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615070116/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6738785.ece |archive-date=June 15, 2011 |access-date=November 15, 2013}}</ref>

Elizabeth Ewan describes ''Braveheart'' as a film that "almost totally sacrifices historical accuracy for epic adventure".<ref name = "ewan">{{cite journal| author=Ewan, Elizabeth|title=Braveheart|journal= American Historical Review |volume=100|number= 4 |date=October 1995|pages= 1219–21|doi=10.2307/2168219|jstor=2168219}}</ref> It has been described as one of the most historically inaccurate modern films.<ref name=white/><ref>{{Cite news |title=Eight blockbuster films that got history wrong |date=November 2018 |work=[[BBC Bitesize]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zbrb7nb |access-date=2021-09-29}}</ref>
Sharon Krossa noted that the film contains numerous historical inaccuracies, beginning with the wearing of [[belted plaid]] (''feileadh mór léine''), which was not introduced until the 16th century,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.authenticireland.com/scottish+kilts |title=A History of Scottish Kilts &#124; Authentic Ireland Travel |publisher=Authenticireland.com |access-date=June 20, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205224244/http://www.authenticireland.com/scottish%2Bkilts/ |archive-date=December 5, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> by Wallace and his men. In that period "no Scots [...] wore belted plaids (let alone [[kilt]]s of any kind)." Moreover, when Highlanders finally did begin wearing the belted plaid, it was not "in the rather bizarre style depicted in the film". She compares the inaccuracy to "a film about Colonial America showing the colonial men wearing 20th-century business suits, but with the jackets worn back-to-front instead of the right way around."<ref>{{cite web|first = Sharon L.| last = Krossa| title = Braveheart Errors: An Illustration of Scale| url=http://medievalscotland.org/scotbiblio/bravehearterrors.shtml| date=October 2, 2008|access-date = June 15, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131009105036/http://medievalscotland.org/scotbiblio/bravehearterrors.shtml
| archive-date = October 9, 2013}}</ref> In a previous essay about the film, she wrote, "The events aren't accurate, the dates aren't accurate, the characters aren't accurate, the names aren't accurate, the clothes aren't accurate—in short, just about nothing is accurate."<ref name="Krossa">{{cite web| first=Sharon L.|last = Krossa
| url=http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotbiblio/braveheart.shtml|title = Regarding the Film Braveheart|date=October 31, 2001|access-date = November 26, 2009| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121113162027/http://medievalscotland.org/scotbiblio/braveheart.shtml| archive-date = November 13, 2012}}</ref> Peter Traquair has referred to Wallace's "farcical representation as a wild and hairy highlander painted with [[Isatis tinctoria|woad]] (1,000 years too late) running amok in a [[tartan]] kilt (500 years too early)."<ref name="traquair">{{cite book | first=Peter|last=Traquair|title=Freedom's Sword |publisher=HarperCollins|year=1998}} p. 62</ref>
Caroline White of ''[[The Times]] ''described the film as being made up of a "litany of fibs."<ref>{{cite web| url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/110075 | title=The 10 most historically inaccurate movies &#124; History News Network | date=August 4, 2009 }}</ref>
Irish historian Seán Duffy remarked that "the [[battle of Stirling Bridge]] could have done with a bridge."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyireland.com/medieval-history-pre-1500/braveheart-brave-attempt/|title=History Ireland|date=January 28, 2013|access-date=January 30, 2016|archive-date=October 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031222612/http://www.historyireland.com/medieval-history-pre-1500/braveheart-brave-attempt/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2009, the film was second on a list of "most historically inaccurate movies" in ''[[The Times]]''.<ref name=white/> In the humorous non-fictional historiography ''An Utterly Impartial History of Britain'' (2007), author [[John O'Farrell (author)|John O'Farrell]] claims that ''Braveheart'' could not have been more historically inaccurate, even if a [[Plasticine]] dog had been inserted in the film and the title changed to "''William [[Wallace and Gromit]]''".<ref>{{cite book| first=John| last = O'Farrell| title = An Utterly Impartial History of Britain| year = 2007| publisher = Doubleday| location = New York City| page = 126|isbn=978-0-385-61198-5}}</ref>

In the [[DVD]] [[audio commentary]] of ''Braveheart'', Mel Gibson acknowledged the historical inaccuracies but defended his choices as director, noting that the way events were portrayed in the film was much more "cinematically compelling" than the historical fact or conventional mythos.<ref name=white/>

=== ''Jus primae noctis'' ===
[[Edward I of England|Edward Longshanks]] is shown invoking ''[[Droit du seigneur|Jus primae noctis]]'' in the film, allowing the lord of a medieval estate to take the virginity of his serfs' maiden daughters on their wedding nights. Critical medieval scholarship regards this supposed right as a myth: "the simple reason why we are dealing with a myth here rests in the surprising fact that practically all writers who make any such claims have never been able or willing to cite any trustworthy source, if they have any."<ref>{{cite book|first=Albrecht|last=Classen|title=The medieval chastity belt: a myth-making process|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_hncxYRQIoC&pg=PA147|year=2007|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|page=151|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130609130238/https://books.google.com/books?id=r_hncxYRQIoC&pg=PA147 |archive-date=June 9, 2013|isbn=9781403975584}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/weddings/customs/droit.asp |title=Urban legends website |website=Snopes.com |date=July 6, 2008 |access-date=June 20, 2013}}</ref>

=== Occupation and independence ===
The film suggests Scotland had been under English occupation for some time, at least during Wallace's childhood, and in the run-up to the [[Battle of Falkirk]] Wallace says to the younger Bruce, "[W]e'll have what none of us have ever had before, a country of our own." In fact, Scotland had been [[Wars of Scottish Independence#Background|invaded by England]] only the year before Wallace's rebellion; before the death of [[Alexander III of Scotland|King Alexander III]] it had been a fully separate kingdom.<ref>Traquair p. 15</ref>

=== Portrayal of William Wallace ===
As [[John Shelton Lawrence]] and Robert Jewett writes, "Because [William] Wallace is one of Scotland's most important national heroes and because he lived in the very distant past, much that is believed about him is probably the stuff of legend. But there is a factual strand that historians agree to", summarized from Scots scholar Matt Ewart:

{{blockquote|Wallace was born into the gentry of Scotland; his father lived until he was 18, his mother until his 24th year; he killed the sheriff of [[Lanark]] when he was 27, apparently after the murder of his wife; he led a group of commoners against the English in a very successful battle at Stirling in 1297, temporarily receiving appointment as [[Guardian of Scotland|guardian]]; Wallace's reputation as a military leader was ruined in the same year of 1297, leading to his resignation as guardian; he spent several years of exile in France before being captured by the English at [[Glasgow]], this resulting in his trial for treason and his cruel execution.<ref>{{cite book | first1=John|last1=Shelton Lawrence|first2=Robert|last2=Jewett |title=The Myth of the American Superhero | url=https://archive.org/details/mythofamericansu00lawr_0| url-access=registration|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan|year=2002 |page=[https://archive.org/details/mythofamericansu00lawr_0/page/163 163]}}</ref>}}

A. E. Christa Canitz writes about the historical William Wallace further: "[He] was a younger son of the Scottish gentry, usually accompanied by his own chaplain, well-educated, and eventually, having been appointed [[Guardian of Scotland|Guardian of the Kingdom of Scotland]], engaged in diplomatic correspondence with the [[Hanseatic League|Hanseatic cities]] of [[Free City of Lübeck|Lübeck]] and [[History of Hamburg|Hamburg]]". She finds that in ''Braveheart'', "any hint of his descent from the lowland gentry (i.e., the lesser nobility) is erased, and he is presented as an economically and politically marginalized Highlander and 'a farmer'—as one with the common peasant, and with a strong spiritual connection to the land which he is destined to liberate."<ref name="Canitz">{{cite book | year=2005 | first=A.E. Christa|last=Canitz | chapter='Historians ... Will Say I Am a liar': The Ideology of False Truth Claims in Mel Gibson's ''Braveheart'' and Luc Besson's ''The Messenger'' | editor1-last=Utz | editor1-first=Richard J. | editor2-last=Swan | editor2-first=Jesse G. | title=Studies in Medievalism XIII: Postmodern Medievalisms | publisher=D.S. Brewer |location=Suffolk, United Kingdom|pages=127–142 | isbn=978-1-84384-012-1 }}</ref>

Colin McArthur writes that ''Braveheart'' "constructs Wallace as a kind of modern, [[Nationalism|nationalist]] [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] leader in a period half a millennium before the appearance of nationalism on the historical stage as a concept under which disparate classes and interests might be mobilised within a nation state." Writing about ''Braveheart''{{'}}s "omissions of verified historical facts", McArthur notes that Wallace made "overtures to [[Edward I of England|Edward I]] seeking less severe treatment after his defeat at Falkirk", as well as "the well-documented fact of Wallace's having resorted to [[conscription]] and his willingness to hang those who refused to serve."<ref>{{cite book |first=Colin|last=McArthur |year=1998 |chapter=''Braveheart'' and the Scottish Aesthetic Dementia |editor-first=Tony |editor-last=Barta |title=Screening the Past: Film and the Representation of History |publisher=Praeger |pages=167–187 |isbn=978-0-275-95402-4}}</ref> Canitz posits that depicting "such lack of class solidarity" as the conscriptions and related hangings "would contaminate the movie's image of Wallace as the morally irreproachable ''[[primus inter pares]]'' among his peasant fighters."<ref name="Canitz"/>

=== Portrayal of Isabella of France ===
[[Isabella of France]] is shown spending a night with Wallace after the [[Battle of Falkirk]]. She later tells Edward I she is pregnant with Wallace's child, implied to be [[Edward III of England|Edward III]]. In reality, Isabella was a child and living in France at the time of the Battle of Falkirk, was not married to Edward II until he was already king, and Edward III was born seven years after Wallace died.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Ewan | first=Elizabeth | date=October 1995 | title=Braveheart |journal=The American Historical Review | publisher=Indiana University Press | location=Bloomington | volume=100 |issue=4 | pages=1219–21 | issn=0002-8762 | oclc=01830326 | doi=10.2307/2168219| jstor=2168219 }}</ref><ref name=white/> The breakdown of the couple's relationship over his liaisons, and the menacing suggestion to a dying Longshanks that she would overthrow and destroy Edward II mirror and foreshadow actual facts; although not until 1326, over 20 years after Wallace's death, Isabella and her lover [[Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March|Roger Mortimer]] would depose – and later allegedly murder – Edward II.<ref>{{cite book|last=Phillips|first=Seymour|date=2011|title=Edward II|publisher=New Haven, CT & London, UK: Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-17802-9}}</ref>

=== Portrayal of Robert the Bruce ===
[[Robert the Bruce]] did change sides between the Scots loyalists and the [[England|English]] more than once in the earlier stages of the [[Wars of Scottish Independence]], but he probably did not fight on the English side at the [[Battle of Falkirk]] (although this claim does appear in a few medieval sources).<ref>{{cite book|last=Penman|first=Michael|title=Robert the Bruce: King of the Scots|year=2014|location=New Haven|publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0300148725}} pp. 58-59</ref> Later, the [[Battle of Bannockburn]] was not a spontaneous battle soon after Wallace's execution; he had already been fighting a guerrilla campaign against the English for eight years.<ref>Traquair pp. 128-176</ref>  His title before becoming king was [[Earl of Carrick]], not Earl of Bruce.<ref>Traquair p. 58</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://thehande.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/braveheart-the-10-historical-inaccuracies-you-need-to-know-before-watching-the-movie/|title=BraveHeart – the 10 historical inaccuracies you need to know before watching the movie|date=5 December 2011|access-date=February 13, 2020|archive-date=February 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200213020453/https://thehande.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/braveheart-the-10-historical-inaccuracies-you-need-to-know-before-watching-the-movie/|url-status=live}}</ref>  [[Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale|Bruce's father]] is portrayed as an infirm [[leper]], although it was Bruce himself who allegedly suffered from leprosy in later life. The actual Bruce's machinations around Wallace, rather than the meek idealist in the film, suggests the father–son relationship represent different aspects of the historical Bruce's character.<ref>Traquair p. 254</ref><ref>Penman pp. 302–304</ref>  In the film, Bruce's father betrays Wallace to his son's disgust, calling it the price of his son's crown, when in real life Wallace was betrayed by the nobleman [[John de Menteith]].<ref>Traquair p. 123</ref>

=== Portrayal of Longshanks and Prince Edward ===
The actual [[Edward I of England|Edward I]] was ruthless and temperamental, but the film exaggerates his negative aspects for effect. Edward enjoyed poetry and harp music, was a devoted and loving husband to his wife [[Eleanor of Castile]], and as a religious man, he gave generously to charity; the film's scene where he scoffs cynically at Isabella for distributing gold to the poor after Wallace refuses it as a bribe would have been unlikely. Furthermore, Edward died almost two years after Wallace's execution, not on the same day.<ref>Traquair p. 147</ref>

The depiction of the future [[Edward II of England|Edward II]] as an [[Effeminacy|effeminate]] homosexual drew accusations of [[homophobia]] against Gibson.

{{blockquote|We cut a scene out, unfortunately ... where you really got to know that character [Edward II] and to understand his plight and his pain ... But it just stopped the film in the first act so much that you thought, 'When's this story going to start?'<ref>{{cite news|work=USA Today|date= May 24, 1995|title=Gibson has faith in family and freedom|author=Della Cava, Marco R. }}</ref>}}

Gibson defended his depiction of Prince Edward as weak and ineffectual, saying:

{{blockquote|I'm just trying to respond to history. You can cite other examples—[[Alexander the Great]], for example, who conquered the entire world, was also a homosexual. But this story isn't about Alexander the Great. It's about Edward II.<ref>{{cite news|work=San Francisco Chronicle|date=May 21, 1995| title=Mel Gibson Dons Kilt and Directs|author= Stein, Ruth}}</ref>}}

In response to Longshanks's murder of the Prince's male lover Phillip, Gibson replied: "The fact that King Edward throws this character out a window has nothing to do with him being gay ... He's terrible to his son, to everybody."<ref>{{citation|work=Daily News |title=Gay Alliance has Gibson's 'Braveheart' in its sights |date=May 11, 1995 |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/gossip/1995/05/11/1995-05-11_gay_alliance_has_gibson_s__b.html |access-date=February 13, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604232204/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/gossip/1995/05/11/1995-05-11_gay_alliance_has_gibson_s__b.html |archive-date=June 4, 2011 }}</ref>
Gibson asserted that the reason Longshanks kills his son's lover is that the king is a "[[Psychopathy|psychopath]]".<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.dallasobserver.com/1995-05-25/film/icon/ | title=Icon: Mel Gibson talks about Braveheart, movie stardom, and media treachery | author=Matt Zoller Seitz |work=Dallas Observer |date=May 25, 1995 | access-date=August 19, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222002830/http://www.dallasobserver.com/1995-05-25/film/icon/ |archive-date=December 22, 2007}}</ref>

=== Wallace's military campaign ===
"MacGregors from the next [[glen]]" joining Wallace shortly after the [[action at Lanark]] is dubious, since it is questionable whether [[Clan Gregor]] existed at that stage, and when they did emerge their traditional home was [[Glen Orchy]], some distance from Lanark.<ref>{{cite book|author=Way, George|author2=Squire, Romily|name-list-style=amp|title= Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia|date= 1994|pages= 220–221}}</ref>

Wallace did win an important victory at the [[Battle of Stirling Bridge]], but the version in ''Braveheart'' is highly inaccurate, as it has no bridge (or [[Andrew Moray]], joint commander of the Scots army, who was fatally injured in the battle). Later, Wallace did carry out a large-scale raid into the north of England, but he did not get as far south as York, nor did he kill Edward I's nephew.<ref>Traquair pp. 77–79</ref>

The "Irish conscripts" at the [[Battle of Falkirk]] are unhistorical; there were no Irish troops at Falkirk (although many of the English army were, in fact, [[Welsh people|Welsh]]).<ref>Traquair pp. 81–84</ref>

The two-handed long swords used by Gibson in the film were not in wide use in the period. A one-handed sword and shield would have been more accurate and more efficient, since in the enemy army there were a lot of archers.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Matt|first1=Easton|title=Two-handed swords in Ironclad, Braveheart, Robin Hood & Kingdom of Heaven|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA4TxBZEOR8|website=YouTube|date=September 22, 2015 |access-date=February 26, 2016|archive-date=June 30, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630022819/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA4TxBZEOR8|url-status=live}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=March 2021}}