This week's outlaws, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, come from late 13th and early 14th century Scotland.
William Wallace and Robert the Bruce rose up during the wars between Scotland and England (1296-1424). When Scottish king Alexander III's granddaughter's death in 1290 left no clear heirs, a conflict of succession arose among the various lords in Scotland. Edward I of England (1272-1307) chose to take advantage of this situation by invading Scotland in 1296 and deposing King John Balliol. The nobility reacted in confusion, since many of them held land and had sworn allegiances south of the border. Some submitted to Edward to save their lands and positions.
But others did not.
William Wallace, the second son of a minor landlord, became Guardian of Scotland in 1297. He won only one pitched battle, the Battle of Stirling Bridge on September 11, 1297. But his harrying tactics against the English worked well enough. Edward was determined to get Wallace and in 1305, got him he did. Wallace was charged with breaking an oath of fealty to Edward (there is considerable debate whether he ever took one) and suffered a rebel's execution in London on August 23, 1305. Unfortunately for Edward, Wallace was merely the most prominent of the Scottish "outlaws".
Robert the Bruce did not start off his royal career auspiciously. His father was one of the claimants to the throne following Alexander's death and the Bruce himself changed sides more than once. The Bruce's bitter feud with rival John Comyn eventually resulted in his murdering Comyn right in front of the main altar of a church in Dumfries on February 10, 1306 (a definite medieval no-no). A month later, the Bruce was crowned king, but despite considerable propaganda bashing his predecessor John Balliol, the Bruce's reputation had taken a serious hit, including papal execution and English condemnation as an outlaw. Driven into exile off Northern Ireland that winter, he seemed like another pretender who would amount to not very much.
But over the next eight years, the Bruce harried the lumbering English army of occupation as successfully as Wallace. The Bruce may have remained an outlaw, and not an officially recognized head of state, for the rest of his reign if not for one battle. On June 23-4, 1314, he completely routed the English army at Bannockburn with a much smaller force. It didn't end the war between Scotland and England, but it did prove once and for all that the Bruce was a legitimate monarch of his beleaguered realm, supported by his people. Wallace had died a martyr; the Bruce died a king.
