Sir Willliam Wallace

Born c.1270
Elderslie, Scotland
Died August 23, 1305
Smithfield, London, England

On this day in 1305 William Wallace was executed by the English; stripped naked and dragged through the city at the heels of a horse to Smooth Field. He was drawn, hanged and quartered — strangled by hanging but released while still alive, emasculated, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him, beheaded, then cut into four parts — at the Elms in Smithfield. His preserved head was placed on a pike atop London Bridge. It was later joined by the heads of his brother, John, and Simon Fraser. His limbs were displayed, separately, in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling, and Aberdeen.

"I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject."