The 18th Century Version of William Wallace

Wallace at his trial in London

Wallace was executed at the Elms in Smithfield, London. Matthew of Westminster, the chronicler, gloated over his suffering: "He was hung in a noose, and afterwards let down half-living; next his genitals were cut off and his bowels torn out and burned in a fire; then and not till then his head was cut off and his trunk cut into four pieces." According to D.J. Gray in "William Wallace: The King's Enemy" the body of Wallace was dismembered and his head set on a spike on London Bridge.

"Before long it was to be joined by those of other distinguished victims, his brother John, the Earl of Atholl, and Sir Simon Fraser.

His right leg was taken to Berwick, and his left to Perth, his left arm to Stirling and his right arm hung above the bridge at Newcastle-upon-Tyne 'over the common sewer'.

Sir John de Segrave received 10 shillings for conveying Wallace's dismembered body in accordance with King Edward's wishes, 'for terror and rebuke to all who pass by and behold them'.

There is a local tradition that when the flesh had fallen away, the monks from Cambuskenneth Abbey went at dead of night to collect what remained of the left arm. This they buried in the Abbey ground, the hand outstretched and pointing toward Abbey Craig, the site of Wallace's superb victory, where today stands the magnificent monument to the memory of a great patriot."

Nobody has any real knowledge of the remains of Wallace's body now.
However, there is news this week (August 1998) of the last remaining part of Robert the Bruce's body - his heart. To read an interesting story about Bruce's descendents and the heart that ran in the Scotsman Newspaper in 1998 go to my Bruce website