Braveheart: Fact Or Fiction?

The villain of the film is King Edward I of England, also known as Edward Longshanks. He was an intelligent and ruthless king that masterfully conquered Scotland. Was he a psychotic lunatic like the film made out? No.

Early in the film there is a haunting scene when a young Wallace walks into a hut full of hanging Scottish nobles. The film implies that Edward organised this meeting to select the Scottish king and then had them all slaughtered. This unequivocally did not happen.

Longshanks was invited by the Scottish nobles to elect a king to lead Scotland. An acknowledgment of his overlordship. Edward elected a puppet king, John Balliol, to take advantage of the fractious nobility in Scotland. Balliol proved to be useless and Edward assumed power.

The execution of nobles was very rare. A mass execution like there was in the film was beyond even the most tyrannical leader. It was certainly beyond Edward I. The Scottish hating madman that Mel Gibson created, perhaps not.