Braveheart
Directed by Mel Gibson
- The begining of the film gives the starting date as 1280, and states that the king of Scotland had died. But Alexander III of Scotland did not die until 1286.
- The real William Wallace was reportedly as tall as 6'7". Mel Gibson is much shorter; his height has been listed everywhere between 5'6" and 5'11"
- Edward I of England, also known as Edward Longshanks, was not a pagan, as stated during an opening scene in Braveheart. There is no record of his having been a pagan. He was a Catholic who participated in the Crusades and donated money to Wesminster Abbey1. Paganism had been wiped out in Britain over five centuries before the action in Braveheart. Also, isn't it a big peculiar that, after claiming that the King was a pagan in a medieval Catholic country, the film fails to show any examples of Edward's supposed paganism, or to even mention it again?
- The future Edward II has a pretty boy named Phillip, a stand in for his early real-life “favourite”, Piers Gaveston.
- Edward Longshanks is not known to have pushed his son's “favourite” out the window. Piers Gaveston was exiled from England three times, once by Edward I2 and twice, later, at the insistance of the nobles3 but died at the hands of some angry Earls when Edward II was already king.4
- Edward II did not marry Isabella of France until 1308, half a year after the death of his father and three years after the death of William Wallace. Thus, Edward I could not have been present at the wedding.
- It is chronologically impossible for Wallace to have slept with Isabella. According to Alison Weir, Isabella was probably born sometime between May and November of 1295.5. At the time that the tryst is supposed to have taken place, she would have been eight years old, and had not yet left France. A pregnant, unmarried eight-year-old princess could scarcely have passed unnoticed. Had Wallace been a pedophile who went about impregnating royal daughters, the English would have subsequently made sure that everyone knew about it. But until Braveheart, there were no suggestions that knocking up Princess Isabella was one of Wallace's accomplishments.
- Prior to Wallace's execution, Isabella tells the dying Edward Longshanks,
A child who is not of your line grows in my belly. Your son will not sit long on the throne, I swear it.
Although Isabella was eventually instrumental in deposing Edward II, this did not occur until 1327. Twenty years sounds like a mighty long time in an era when the average life expectancy was under forty. Furthermore, there is no way that Isabella could have been present at the Edward I's deathbed, for reasons mentioned previously. - Edward III was born in 1312, seven years after the death of Wallace.
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Edward II later managed to father at least four children by Isabella.
- Compared to the real Wallace, Mel Gibson's character gets of comparatively easy in the death scene. The real Wallace was emasculated and eviscerated. There is a part at the end of the execution scene where the camera focuses on Gibson's face after the executionor introduces a sharp-looking torture instrument. Something nasty is clearly happening, but we aren't told visually what it is. I am 100% fine with this vagueness. Even those of us who belong to ethnic groups slandered by Mr. Gibson do not particularly want to see him castrated...at least not most of us...I don't think. It would just be nice if we could feel sure that he didn't hate us. He's even welcome to continue making historically inaccurate movies, because I get such a lot of mileage out of the many errors in his work.
Further facts and cited sources coming soon.
Sources
1. Costain, Thomas B. The Three Edwards
2. Weir, Alison.
Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England
3. Ibid, p. 44–47, 55–57.
4. Ibid, p. 65–66.
5. Ibid, p. 6.
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