Prince Edward fails to send reinforcements to York, enabling Wallace to sack the city, killing Longshanks' nephew whose severed head is sent to the king. Wallace leads his army to victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge where he decapitates the English commander Cheltham. Alongside his friend Hamish, Wallace rebels against the English, and as his legend spreads, hundreds of Scots from the surrounding clans join him. Longshanks orders his son Prince Edward to stop Wallace by any means necessary while he visits the French King to secure England's alliance with France. In retribution, Wallace leads his clan to fight the English garrison in his hometown and sends the surviving garrison back to England with a message of rebellion for Longshanks. Wallace rescues Murron from being raped by English soldiers, but as Wallace fights off the soldiers Murron is captured and publicly executed. Meanwhile, a grown Wallace returns to Scotland and falls in love with his childhood friend Murron MacClannough, and the two marry in secret. Years later, Longshanks grants his noblemen land and privileges in Scotland, including jus primae noctis. Young William Wallace witnesses Longshanks' execution of several Scottish nobles, suffers the deaths of his father and brother fighting against the English, and is taken abroad on a pilgrimage throughout Europe by his paternal uncle Argyle, who has Wallace educated. In 1280, King Edward "Longshanks" invades and conquers Scotland following the death of Alexander III of Scotland, who left no heir to the throne.
The film depicts the life of Wallace leading the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward I of England. Braveheart is a 1995 American epic historical drama film directed and co-produced by Mel Gibson, who portrays Sir William Wallace, a late-13th century Scottish warrior.