I shall tell you of William Wallace.
Historians from England will say I am a liar,
but history is written by those who have hanged heroes.
The king of Scotland had died without a son,
and the king of England,
a cruel pagan known as Edward the Longshanks,
claimed the throne of Scotland for himself.
Scotland's nobles fought him
and fought each other over the crown.
So Longshanks invited them to talks of truce...
no weapons, one page only.
Among the farmers of that shire was Malcolm Wallace,
a commoner with his own lands.
He had two sons... John and William.
I told you to stay.
Well, I finished my work.
Where are we going?
MacAndrews'. He was supposed to visit
when the gathering was over.
- Can I come? - No, go home, boy.
But I want to go.
Go home or you'll feel the back of my hand.
Go you home, William.
MacAndrews!
Holy Jesus.
Aah!
It's all right!
William!
William, it's all right.
It's all right. Easy, lad.
William.
Uhh!
And I say we hit back now!
We cannot fight them! It's suicide!
Wallace is right! We fight them!
Every nobleman who had a will to fight
was at that meeting.
We cannot beat an army.
Not with 50 farmers.
We do not have to beat them, just fight them.
Now, who's with me?
I am, Wallace.
All right, all right.
Ready.
Where do you think you're going?
I'm going with you.
Ah, you're going with me, are you?
And what are you going to do?
I'm going to help.
Hey, and a good help you'd be, too,
but I need you to stay here
and look after the place for me
while I'm away.
I can fight.
I know.
I know you can fight.
But it's our wits that make us men.
See you tomorrow.
Ha!
Hiya!
English.
Get down.
With your father and brother gone,
they'll kill us and burn the farm.
It's up to us, Hamish.
Nah.
Uhh!
Uhh. Ahh.
Da?
William.
Come here, lad.
Amen.
William.
I'm your uncle. Argyle.
You have the look of your mother.
Mmm.
We'll stay here tonight.
Tomorrow you'll come home with me.
I don't want to leave.
You didn't want your father to die either, did you?
But it happened.
Did the priest give a poetic benediction?
"The Lord bless thee and keep thee"?
It was in Latin.
You don't speak Latin?
Well, that's something we shall have to remedy, isn't it?
The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
The Lord cause His light to shine on thee.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee
and give thee peace.
Amen.
Your heart is free.
Have the courage to follow it.
What are they doing?
Saying good-bye in their own way...
playing outlawed tunes on outlawed pipes.
It was the same for me and your daddy
when our father was killed.
First, learn to use...
this.
Then I'll teach you to use...
this.
Many years later,
Edward the Longshanks, King of England,
supervised the wedding of his eldest son,
who would succeed him to the throne.
Amen.
Asbride for his son,
Longshanks had chosen the daughter of his rival,
the king of France.
It was widely whispered that for the princess to conceive,
Longshanks would have to do the honors himself.
That may have been what he had in mind all along.
Scotland... my land.
The French will grovel to anyone with strength,
but how will they believe our strength
when we cannot rule the whole of our own island?
Where is my son?
Your pardon, milord.
He asked me to come in his stead.
I sent for him, and he sends you.
Shall I leave, milord?
If he wants his queen to rule when I am gone,
then, by all means, stay and learn how.
Please.
Nobles.
Nobles are the key to the door of Scotland.
Grant our nobles lands in the north,
give their nobles estates here in England,
and make them too greedy to oppose us.
But, sire, our nobles will be reluctant to uproot.
New lands mean new taxes,
and they're already taxed for the war in France.
Are they?
The trouble with Scotland is that it's full of Scots.
Perhaps the time has come
to reinstitute an old custom.
Grant them prima noctes.
First night.
When any common girl inhabiting their lands is married,
our nobles shall have sexual rights to her
on the night of her wedding.
If we cart get them out, we'll breed them out.
That should fetch just the kind of lords
we want to Scotland,
taxes or no taxes, huh?
A most excellent idea, sire.
Is it?
Now in Edinburgh gathered the council of Scottish nobles.
Among these was Robert the 17th earl of Bruce,
the leading contender for the crown of Scotland.
Ah, I hear that Longshanks has granted prima noctes.
Clearly meant to draw more of his supporters here.
My father believes that we must
lull Longshanks into our confidence
by neither supporting his decree nor opposing it.
A wise plan.
And how is your father? We missed him at the council.
His affairs in France keep him long overdue.
But he sends his greetings,
and he says that I speak for all of the Bruces
and for Scotland.
Ah, it's all over now.
You've dropped your rock.
Test of manhood.
You win.
Ah.
Call it a test of soldiery, then.
The English won't let us train with weapons,
so we train with stones.
The test of a soldier is not in his arm.
It's here.
No. It's here.
Ha ha!
Hamish?
Mm-hmm.
Here you go, son.
Show him how.
Come on, Hamish!
Ha ha ha ha! My boy!
That was a good throw.
Aye. Aye, it was.
I was wondering if you could do that when it matters.
As it... As it matters in battle.
Could you crush a man with that throw?
I could crush you like a worm.
Ooh!
You could?
Aye.
Well, then do it.
Would you like to see him crush me like a worm?
Come do it.
You'll move.
I will not.
Right.
He'll move.
Come on, Hamish.
Come on there, boy!
Well done!
Ah!
Fine display, young Wallace.
Are you all right?
You look a wee bit shaky.
I should have remembered the rocks.
Aye, you should have.
Get up, you big heap.
It's good to see you again.
Aye. Welcome home.
Oh, me head.
Oh, you should have moved.
William...
will you dance with me?
Of course I will.
I've come to claim the right of prima noctes.
As lord of these lands,
I will bless this marriage
by taking the bride into my bed
on the first night of her union.
Oh, by God, you will not!
It is my noble right.
Good evening, sin'.
Ah, young Wallace.
Grand soft evening, huh?
Aye, it's that.
I was wondering if I might have a word with your daughter.
What do you want to have a word about?
Well, um...
Murron, would you like to come and ride with me
on this fine evening?
In this? You're out of your mind.
It's good Scottish weather, madame.
The rain is falling straight down.
Well, slightly to the side, like.
She cart go with you.
No the now, anyway.
No the now.
- No the now? - We'll see you later.
The weather's just fine. It's hardly raining.
Did you not hear what I said?
Murron! Get... Oh.
It's you she takes after.
How could you know me after so long?
Well, I didn't.
I saw you staring, and I didn't know who you were.
I'm sorry. I suppose I was.
Are you in the habit
of riding off in the rain with strangers?
It was the best way to make you leave.
Well, if I can ever work up the courage to ask you again,
I'll send written warning first.
Wouldn't do much good. I cart read.
Can you not?
No.
Well, that's something
we shall have to remedy, isn't it?
You're going to teach me to read, then?
If you like.
In what language?
You're showing off now.
That's right. Are you impressed yet?
No. Why should I be?
Do that standing on your head, and I'll be impressed.
My kilt will fly up, but I'll try it.
God, you certainly didn't learn any manners.
The French and Romans have far worse manners.
You've been to Rome?
Aye. Argyle took me on a pilgrimage.
What was it like?
What does that mean?
Beautiful.
But I belong here.
Murron?
Come in now.
Sin', I know it was strange of me
to invite Murron to ride last night,
but I assure you...
Mac Clannough's daughter is another matter.
I've come to fetch you to our meeting.
What kind of meeting?
The secret kind.
Your meetings are a waste of time, Campbell.
Your father was a fighter and a patriot.
I know who my father was.
I came back home to raise crops
and, God willing, a family.
If I can live in peace, I will.
Go on.
You say you want to stay out of the troubles?
If you can prove it, you may court my daughter.
Until you prove it, my answer's no.
No?
No, Wallace. No.
Didn't I just prove it?
No!
No?
No!
Uh!
Of course, running a farm's a lot of work,
but that will all change when my sons arrive.
So you've got children?
Oh, not yet, but I was hoping
that you could help me with that.
So you want me to marry you, then?
Well, it's a bit sudden, but all right.
Is that what you call a proposal?
I love you. Always have.
I want to marry you.
Is that a "yes"?
Aye, that's a "yes. "
It is?
We best hurry. He'll be waiting.
Oh, wait.
Where are you going?
What's that?
You'll see.
Father.
I will love you my whole life,
you and no other.
And I you,
you and no other, forever.
When am I going to see you again?
Tonight?
I cart.
Why not?
My dad's growin' suspicious.
Growin' suspicious, is he?
Wouldn't have anything to do with that.
When? When? When?
When?
Tonight.
Look lively, Sergeant.
Where are you going, lassie?
Ooh, that looks heavy.
Let me help you with it.
No. It's fine.
I'm not going to steal it.
Oh, you remind me of my daughter back home.
Hello, lassie.
Aah!
No!
Shh! Shh!
Keep it quiet, Smythe.
Ah!
You bitch!
Aah!
Aah! You...
bitch!
Are you all right?
All right? Come on.
Are you all right?
Aye.
Are you all right?
Can you ride?
Aye.
Come back here, you bastard!
Raise the alarm!
Help!
Meet me at the grove.
Ride!
They're getting away!
Go round back!
Get him!
Come on!
Ah!
Murron?
Murron!
All of you know full well
the great pains I've always taken
never to be too strict, too rigid
with the application of our laws,
and as a consequence,
have we not learned to live together
in relative peace and harmony?
Huh?
And this day's lawlessness
is how you repay my leniency!
Well, you leave me with little choice.
An assault on the king's soldiers...
is the same as an assault on the king himself.
Now...
Let this scrapper come to me.
Sin'!
There.
Aah!
Argh!
Ahh!
Corporal.
Some archers on the tower now!
Ah! Aah...
Hold still.
Aah!
You idiot boy!
Aah!
Argh!
Aah!
Unh!
Father, how are you?
Unh.
Macaulish.
Macaulish!
Macaulish! Macaulish!
Wallace! Wallace! Wallace!
What you waiting for, boy?
Here. You can do it.
I'll hold him down.
Here. You can do it.
I'll hold him down.
Pour it straight in the wound.
It seems like a waste of good whiskey.
Indulge me. Ah!
Aah!
Hold him. Hold him.
Now let him go.
Aah!
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
That'll wake you up in the morning, boy.
There's somebody coming!
Arm yourselves!
There's somebody coming.
MacGregors... from the next clan.
We heard about what was happening.
We don't want you amadans
thinking you can have your fun without us.
Go home.
Some of us are in this.
Cart help that now.
But you can help yourselves.
Go home.
We'll have no homes left
when the English garrison from the castle
comes through and burns us out.
And they will.
Welcome.
Patrol returning, milord!
So what news?
I have dispatched 100 soldiers to Lanark.
They will be returning now!
What, are they dressed like this?
Actually, it was more like 50.
Make it quick.
You remember me?
I never did her any harm.
It was my right.
Your right?
I'm here to claim the right of a husband!
Ah!
I am William Wallace.
And the rest of you will be spared.
Go back to England and tell them there
that Scotland's daughters and her sons are yours no more.
Tell them Scotland is free.
Burn it.
The Scottish rebels have routed
one of my garrisons
and murdered the noble lord.
I heard.
This Wallace is a brigand, nothing more.
And how would you deal with this brigand?
Like any common thief.
Have the local magistrate arrest him
and punish him accordingly.
Leave us.
Wallace has already killed the magistrate
and taken control of the town.
Stand up.
In the morning,
I depart for France to press our rights there,
and I leave you here to quell this little rebellion.
Understood? Is it?
Unh!
One day, you will be a king.
At least try to act like one.
Get away from me!
Convene my military council.
Aah!
There!
After them.