Catherine McCormack plays Murron in this epic tale loosely based on the life of William Wallace. After having nearly been raped by British soldiers, Murron makes her escape on horseback with William's aid but is recaptured when she's knocked off her steed with a spear handle. She's taken and tied to a post at the center of town for execution as the British lord brags of hid former leniency till this point. Murron scans the hills for any sign of William coming to her aid, but there is none. Her throat is cut. The British lord dares William to come to him now. He gets what's coming to him.
*There's some violence in this clip. Be warned !*
10 Historical Errors in Braveheart
1. The epithet "Braveheart" referred to Robert the Bruce. Although he repeatedly changed alliances between the rebels and the English, mostly for political reasons, Bruce never betrayed Wallace directly, and Wallace was not known to have been a staunch supporter of Bruce.
2. The scenes depicting Princess Isabella and her hand maiden speaking French while at the English court for privacy are inaccurate. From the time of the Norman invasion the language spoken by the English royal court and the vast majority of the nobility, at least at court, would have been French.
3. Princess Isabella was a 13-year-old girl living in France when William Wallace was executed. She married King Edward II three years after Wallace's death.
4. No Scots ever wore belted plaids let alone kilts of any kind during the time Wallace was alive. They wore the long saffron shirt.
5. The final scenes of the film also suggest that William Wallace and Edward I of England died at exactly the same moment, which is false. Wallace was executed in 1305 and Edward I died in 1307.
6. The Battle of Stirling was actually the Battle of Stirling Bridge where the outnumbered Scots could focus on the tightly packed men and horses as they tried to cross.
7. The voice-over at the beginning of the film tells us that Malcolm Wallace was a commoner with his own lands and constant references are made through-out the film to William being a commoner. However this is a common historical myth. Malcolm Wallace was in fact born as a minor noble and became a knight, as was William. They were poor as noble families went but were still infinitely more privileged than the commoners of the day.
8. At the battle of Falkirk, the Irish soldiers fighting for Edward change sides at the last moment and go over to fight with the Scots. In reality, there were no Irish troops present at the battle. The only troublemakers amongst the English army were the contingent of Welsh bowmen who showed a reluctance to fight Wallace but this was more out of fear rather than sympathy for the Scots.
9. In the movie the Scots sack the English city of York. Actually they sacked the city of Carlisle.
10. William Wallace's father Malcolm was not killed in a minor scuffle with the English. He, in fact, fought for several years with the English in order to free John de Baliol from the tower of London. At the time, Baliol was the rightful heir to the Scottish crown, and that was actually William's reason for fighting the English. Robert the Bruce was the one who actually liberated Scotland.
