20 Reasons Why 'Braveheart' Might Be The Most Historically Inaccurate Movie Ever Made

From the very beginning, nothing about the film's timing and its sequence of events makes any historical sense. The film opens in 1276, at which point in reality King Alexander III of Scotland was still alive and the English weren't yet making much of a fuss over Scotland. The rebellion began in 1296.

Additionally, in reality King Edward I did not die at the same time as William Wallace as the film suggests, he died several years later. King Edward II did not marry Isabella until after Wallace's death, at which time she was 13, considerably younger than the 29-year-old Sophie Marceau who played her in the film.

Throughout Braveheart, the viewer is reminded that William Wallace comes from humble means. The nobles refer to him as a commoner, his burlap outfits are covered in dirt, and the roof of his house is made of straw. This imagining, however compelling, is fiction.

The Wallaces were a longstanding and noble family and William's father, Malcolm, was a knight. William would have had an excellent education and military training. Oh, and he wasn't a Highlander, either. He was from the Lowlands, of the same Anglo-Norman descent as his English rivals.

Admittedly, in the context of the movie, this fact really changes nothing. But for what it's (historically) worth, Wallace and his men never sacked York, they looted and destroyed the city of Carlisle.

Isabella of France was 13 at the time of Wallace's death and not yet even married to Edward II. So while the film uses her as a love interest, she didn't know William Wallace and he did not father the future king of England, Edward III.

Interestingly, Isabella did actually eventually lead a rebellion against her husband with her lover, but that was much later and was to ensure that her son would take the throne.

The cruelest irony of Braveheart is that it completely slanders the man that actually bore the film's title name. Robert the Bruce was a conflicted nobleman, but he highly favored the Scottish side and did not fight against Wallace at Falkirk, nor did he or his father have anything to do with the betrayal of Wallace and his subsequent execution.

Bruce is considered a national hero in Scotland, not a villain as the movie makes him out to be.

The scene depicting the Battle of Falkirk shows Irish soldiers, originally fighting for the English, switching sides to fight with the Scottish rebels, even greeting them with handshakes on their walk over. This did not happen in any way, shape, or form.

There were no Irish at this battle, but it does make the English look like idiots in the movie.