10 Films With Glaring Historical Inaccuracies

Mel Gibson's back with a vengeance, this time in a film famed for its failure to correctly portray the Scottish Wars of Independence. There are some things that are historically accurate: William Wallace was Scottish (glad he didn't screw that one up); Edward I of England ruled Scotland through a puppet after the death of the last king, Alexander III; Wallace led a rebellion to regain independence from Scotland. That's everything that the film gets right.

Braveheart kicks things off badly, getting the dates wrong from the start. The film begins in 1280, six years before Alexander III died. Seriously, how do you get that wrong?

The film even gets Wallace's background wrong. The part where his wife is killed? Yeah, that didn't happen either, as Wallace was never recorded as having a wife. Wallace actually rebelled when the English attempted to confiscate his family lands.

It's difficult to work out which battle Mel Gibson thought he was in when he gave his uplifting speech, but it certainly wasn't the Battle of Stirling Bridge. The Scots won the battle not by believing in freedom, but by ambushing the English army as it crossed the bridge. They didn't just run at them across an open field, which would have been utter madness.

Finally, the horrific death scene at the end of the film was actually toned down. In real life, William Wallace was dragged naked through the streets and castrated before any of the disembowelling occurred. There's no way he was screaming "Freedom" after that.