What's that you say?! Not Braveheart?! Well, The Free Dictionary's article on the subject lists the following inaccuracy's in the movie:
Perhaps the best known account of the life of William Wallace is the 1995 film Braveheart, directed by and starring the actor Mel Gibson, written by Randall Wallace, and filmed in both Scotland and Ireland. {...} While the film is allegedly based on historic events, it contains numerous historical errors. The most prominent factual error is the suggestion that Wallace sired Edward III, someone born seven years after his death, through a romance with Isabella of France, a ten year old child at the time of his death whom he never met. Additionally, the nickname "braveheart" originally referred to Robert the Bruce, not Wallace. Furthermore, William Wallace and, future king, Robert Bruce never actually met and were fighting effectively on different sides. Wallace was fiercely loyal to King John Balliol while Robert Bruce upheld his own claim to the Scottish throne.
And the Wikipedia article on the movie says
Noting the inaccuracies do not make the movie any less enjoyable, of course. Heck, sometimes, picking a movie to shreds for the inaccuracies and anachronisms is half the fun...Historian Elizabeth Ewan describes Braveheart as a film which "almost totally sacrifices historical accuracy for epic adventure".[1]
As well, historian Sharon Kressa notes that the film contains numerous historical errors, beginning with the wearing of belted plaid by Wallace and his men. She points out that in the period in question, no Scots "wore kilts of any kind,". [2] and when highlanders finally did begin wearing the belted plaid, it was not "in the rather bizarre style depicted in the film".[2] She compares the inaccuracy to that of a film about "Colonial America showing the colonial men wearing late 20th century blue jeans, but instead of having the men's blue jeans use a zipper in the front, putting the zipper prominently on the left hip."[2]
Historian Alex von Tunzelmann writing in The Guardian noted several historical inaccuracies, including the fact that William Wallace never met Isabelle (as she married the Prince of Wales three years after Wallace's death), in the film the Battle of Stirling Bridge didn't include Stirling Bridge itself and the primae noctis decree was never used by King Edward.[3]
Screenwriter Randall Wallace is very vocal about defending his script from historians who have dismissed the film as a Hollywood perversion of actual events. Admitting that Braveheart is based more on Blind Harry's poem than any historical source, he has said: "Is Blind Harry true? I don't know. I know that it spoke to my heart and that's what matters to me, that it spoke to my heart."[4]
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