Mel Gibson`s film `Braveheart` has to be one of, if not the most unhistorical `historical` film ever made. It is full of historical errors, inaccuracies, and just plain nonsense and it shows the English king, Edward I in a dreadful light. In reality Edward was one of the greatest of all England`s monarchs, and an extremely important figure in the development of Parliament, for it was Edward who formalised the notion of a Parliament working with the monarch for the good of the nation. Edward was a mighty warrior fighting the French in a series of successful wars, conquering Wales and subduing Scotland, if only briefly. His hatred of William Wallace was insatiable and unforgiving. Once captured he had Wallace executed in the most horrific and barbaric manner, hanged, drawn and quartered. But if Edward thought that the death of Wallace was the end of his Scottish problems he was sadly and greatly mistaken for another Scottish hero took over Wallace`s mantle, Robert the Bruce. Edward was on his way north to Scotland to deal with The Bruce`s Scottish uprising when he died at Burgh-on-Sands, just a few miles short of the Scottish border. So great was his hatred for the Scots that he had his death bed set down facing Scotland and cursed it. Calling his son and heir, another Edward, to his dying side he had him swear to continue the war against Bruce until the very end. He also commanded his son that immediately upon his death he was to have his dead body boiled in water in a great cauldron so the flesh separated from the body. His skin, internal organs and other viscera where to be buried wherever his son chose, but his bones where to be placed in a chest and carried at the head of the English army against the Scots until final English victory. Only then where they to be buried. His son, Edward II, upon his father`s death promptly returned to London and had his father, flesh internal organs and bones buried in Westminster Abbey. Edward II lost the war against Robert the Bruce and the Scots.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 21:50:27 +0000
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