William Wallace and All That

By Allan Burnett and Scoular Anderson

The wild, grisly story of the knight who led the battle for independence in medieval Scotland—told in lively illustrated prose for young readers.

William Wallace and All That is a real-life adventure packed with historical facts about Scotland’s legendary hero, the subject of epic poems and the classic movie Braveheart. Join Sir William Wallace on his fearsome quest to free the Scots from villainous King Edward and his evil empire. Growl with anger as you find out what nasty things Edward’s vile henchmen did to Wallace’s girlfriend and best pal. Get splattered with blood and gore as Wallace makes haggis of his enemies. Gasp with terror as you learn about the giant “hedgehogs” that helped Wallace win battles. Groan with agony as you feel what it’s like to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Discover how Wallace’s grisly death made his legend grow. Bursting with brilliant illustrations, this book will have you shouting “Freedom!” after every page!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9780857901323

Allan Burnett

Allan Burnett is a freelance writer and editor based in Sweden. He has worked as deputy editor for the Scottish Standard and as deputy foreign editor for the Sunday Herald. He is the author of a number of bestselling children's history books, including World War I Tales of Adventure, World War II Tales of Adventure, The Story of Scotland and Invented in Scotland (all Birlinn).

Book preview

William Wallace

AND ALL THAT

Allan Burnett

Illustrated by Scoular Anderson

This eBook edition published in 2011 by

Birlinn Limited

West Newington House

Newington Road

Edinburgh

EH9 1QS

www.birlinn.co.uk

First published in 2006 by Birlinn Ltd

Text copyright © Allan Burnett 2006

Illustrations copyright © Scoular Anderson 2006

The moral right of Allan Burnett to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

eBook ISBN: 978 0 85790 132 3

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

For my wife Linda, the true heroine of this and many other books

Contents

Prologue

1   A hero with many faces

2   Two royal knockouts

3   Longshanks the villain

4   Scotland gets squashed

5   Wallace rises up

6   Bloody revenge

7   No turning back

8   Helping hands

9   Bridge over troubled water

10   Flush them out!

11   Freedom

12   Back in business

13   Time for another battle

14   Dance of death

15   A new mission

16   Under siege

17   Betrayed

18   The ultimate price

Epilogue

Also Available

Prologue

Sheriff William Heselrig awoke with a jump as his bedroom door was suddenly kicked open. There, towering over him, stood giant Scotsman William Wallace.

Before Heselrig could move a muscle, Wallace brought down his sword on the sheriff’s brow and sliced his brain in half like a grapefruit. Talk about a splitting headache!

In a single stroke, by killing Sheriff Heselrig, Wallace became Scotland’s wildest outlaw. An outlaw was someone who lived outside the law, hunted and feared by those in power – and celebrated by poor people everywhere. Before long, Wallace was the greatest outlaw in history . . .

But hang on a minute. Was Wallace really the greatest outlaw ever? Greater than the famous highway robber, Robin Hood, who stole from the rich to give to the poor?

Much greater. Robin Hood was probably not a real person, he was just a made-up character. Wallace also stole from the rich to help the poor, yet he was definitely REAL – as real as you and me.

Surely Wallace couldn’t have been as fearsome an outlaw as the great Wild West cowboy Jesse James?

Actually, Wallace was much more fearsome. Wallace killed his enemies without using pistols – just a sword, or even his bare hands.

What about gunslinging Australian bushranger Ned Kelly? He was an outlaw who stole from the rich and powerful to feed his poor family. Was Wallace really greater than him?

You bet. Wallace wasn’t just a robber or a bandit, and he didn’t just look after his own – he was a freedom fighter who became the leader of a whole nation.

You see, the sheriff that Wallace killed, Heselrig, was an Englishman. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course – except that in Wallace’s day, the Scots and the English were not the good friends they are now. In fact, they hated each other’s guts!

The English had just invaded Wallace’s home country of Scotland and stolen the Scots’ land. The Scots had had their freedom taken away and were being treated like slaves. And the job of English sheriffs like Heselrig was to make sure the Scots couldn’t do anything about it.

By killing Heselrig, Wallace showed he was determined to stop at nothing until he got his land back. After that, he would never rest until all Scots were free again. And he was willing to wage war against the mightiest army in Europe, the English army, to win his struggle.

As if all that were not reason enough for Wallace to get his hands dirty, there’s also something else. According to reports, Heselrig had just murdered Wallace’s beloved wife.

Heartbroken, Wallace wanted revenge – a dish that’s best served cold. So after Wallace killed the sheriff, he chopped up the body up into meaty chunks. Ugh!

Make no mistake, Wallace lived in very bloodthirsty and savage times. And when people like Wallace wanted to settle their differences with somebody, they didn’t tell their teacher or call the police. They splattered them!

Besides the fact that he splattered the sheriff, a lot of Wallace’s early life is very murky and difficult to trace. In fact, nobody really knows for sure exactly how or when his