William: I can fight!

Malcolm: I know. I know you can fight. But it's our wits that make us men.

Argyle: First, learn to use this (mind), then I'll teach you to use this (sword).

Longshanks: 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 can't get them out, we breed them out. That should fetch just the kind of lords we want to Scotland, taxes or no taxes.

MacClannough: You say you want to stay out of the troubles?

William: Ay.

MacClannough: If you can prove it, you may court my daughter. Until you prove it, my answer is no.

William: No?

MacClannough: No Wallace, no.

William: Didn't I just prove it?

MacClannough: No.

William: No?

MacClannough: No.

William: Of coarse, running a farm is a lot of work, but that will all change when my sons arrive.

Murron: So, you've got children?

William: Well not yet, but I was hoping that you could help me with that.

Murron: So you want me to marry you, then?

William: Well, that's a bit sudden but alright.

William: 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.

Nicolette: When the king returns, he will bury them in those new clothes. Scotland is in chaos. Your husband is secretly sending an army north.

Isabella: How do you know this?

Nicolette: Last night I slept with a member of the War Council.

Isabella: He shouldn't be telling secrets in bed.

Nicolette: Englishmen don't know what a tongue is for.

Isabella: Ah. This Scottish rebel, Wallace. He fights to avenge a woman?

Nicolette: I nearly forgot. A magistrate wished to capture him, and found he had a secret lover. So he cut the girl's throat to tempt Wallace to fight, and fight he did. Knowing his passion for his lost love, they next plotted to take him by desecrating the graves of his father and brother, and setting an ambush at the grave of his love. He fought his way through the trap and carried her body to a secret place. Now that's love, no?

Isabella: Love? I wouldn't know.

William: We'll make spears. Hundreds of them. Long spears, twice as long as a man.

Hamish: That long?

William: Ay.

Hamish: Some men are longer than others.

Campbell: Your mother's been telling stories about me again, ah?

Stephen: Him? That can't be William Wallace. I'm prettier than this man. Alright Father, I'll ask him. If I risk my neck for you, will I get a chance to kill Englishmen?

Hamish: Is your father a ghost or do you converse with the Almighty?

Stephen: In order to find his equal, an Irishman is forced to talk to God. Yes, Father. The Almighty says don't change the subject; just answer the fooking question.

. . .

Stephen: Excellent. Stephen is my name. I'm the most wanted man on my island, except I'm not on my island, of coarse. Mores the pity.

Hamish: Your island? You mean Ireland.

Stephen: Yeah. It's mine.

Hamish: You're a madman.

Stephen: I've come to the right place, then.

William: Sons of Scotland, I am William Wallace.

Short soldier: William Wallace is 7 feet tall.

William: Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds, and if he were here he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his ass. I am William Wallace, and I see before me an army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What would you do without freedom? Will you fight?

Tall soldier: Fight against that? No, we will run, and we will live.

William: Ay, fight and you may die, run and you'll live. At least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom.

Hamish: Where are you going?

William: I'm going to pick a fight.

Hamish: Well, we didn't get dressed up for nothing.

Cheltham: Mornay, Lochlan, Craig. Here are the king's terms. Lead this army off field and he will give you each estates in Yorkshire, including hereditary title, from which you will pay--, from which you will pay him an annual duty--.

William: I have an offer for you.

Mornay: Cheltham, this is William Wallace.

Cheltham: From which you will pay the king an annual duty--.

William: I said I have an offer for you.

Lochlan: You disrespect a banner of truce?

William: From his king? Absolutely. Here are Scotland's terms. Lower your flags, and march straight back to England, stopping at every home to beg forgiveness for 100 years of theft, rape, and murder. Do that and your men shall live. Do it not, and every one of you will die today.

Cheltham: You are outmatched. You have no heavy cavalry. In two centuries no army has won without--.

William: I'm not finished. Before we let you leave, your commander must cross that field, present himself before this army, put his head between his legs, and kiss his own ass.

Stephen: The Lord says He can get me out of this mess, but He's pretty sure you're fooked. Ah!

William: I will invade England and defeat the English on their own ground.

Craig: Invade? That's impossible.

William: Why? Why is that impossible? You're so concerned with squabbling for the scraps from Longshank's table that you've missed your God given right to something better. There is a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with possession. I think your possession exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.

Robert: Wait! I respect what you said, but remember that these men have lands and castles. It's much to risk.

William: And the common man who bleeds on the battlefield, does he risk less?

Robert: No, but from top to bottom this country has no sense of itself. Its nobles share allegiance with England. Its clans war with each other. If you make enemies on both sides of the border, you'll end up dead.

William: We all end up dead; it's just a question of how and why.

Isabella: I understand you have recently been given the rank of knight.

William: I have been given nothing. God makes men what they are.

William: A lordship and titles. Gold. That I should become Judas?

Isabella: Peace is made in such ways.

William: Slaves are made in such ways. The last time Longshanks spoke of peace I was a boy. And many Scottish nobles, who would not be slaves, were lured by him under a flag of truce to a barn where he had them hanged. I was very young, but I remember Longshank's notion of peace.

Isabella: I understand you have suffered. I know about your woman.

William: She was my wife. We married in secret because I would not share her with an English Lord. They killed her to get to me. I have never spoken of it. I don't know why I tell you now except I see her strength in you. One day you'll be a queen, and you must open your eyes. You tell your king that William Wallace will not be ruled, and nor will any Scot while I live.

Craig: We can not defeat this army.

William: We can. And we will. We won at Stirling, and still you quibble. We won at York and you would not support us. If you will not stand up with us now then I say you're a coward. And if you are Scotsmen, I am ashamed to call myself one.

Robert: I have nothing. Men fight for me, because if they do not, I throw them off my land and I starve their wives and their children. Those men who bled the ground red at Falkirk, they fought for William Wallace, and he fights for something that I've never had. And I took it from him when I betrayed him and I saw it in his face on the battlefield, and it's tearing me apart.

Longshanks: You see, as king, you must find the good in any situation.

William: My lady. I received your message. This is the second time you've warned me of danger. Why?

Isabella: There will be a new shipment of supplies coming north next month. Food and weapons, they will--

William: Why do you help me? Why do you help me?

Isabella: Because of the way you are looking at me now.

Hamish: I don't want to be a martyr.

William: Nor I. I want to live. I want a home, and children, and peace.

Hamish: Do ya?

William: Ay, I do. I've asked God for these things. It's all for nothing if you don't have freedom.

Hamish: That's all a dream, William.

William: A dream? Just a dream? What we've been doing all this time; we've lived that dream.

Leper: At last, you know what it means to hate. Now you're ready to be king.

Isabella: Sir, I've come to beg you to confess all and swear allegiance to the king, that he might show you mercy.

William: Will he show mercy to my country?

Isabella: Mercy is to die quickly, perhaps even live in a tower. In time, who knows what could happen.

William: If I swear to him, then all that I am is dead already.

Isabella: You will die. It will be awful.

William: Every man dies, not every man really lives.

Isabella: Drink this. It will dull your pain.

William: No. It will numb my wits, and I must have them all. For if I'm senseless or if I wail, then Longshanks will have broken me.

William: I am so afraid. Give me the strength to die well.

Robert (narrator): After the beheading, William Wallace's body was torn to pieces. His head was placed on top on London Bridge, his arms and legs sent to the four corners of Britain as a warning. It did not have the effect that Longshanks planned. And I, Robert the Bruce, rode out to pay homage to the armies of the English king and accept his endorsement of my crown.