Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The son of a minor Ayshire lord, Wallace refused to accept that Edward 'Longshanks' had conquered the Scots in 1296, instead raising an army and winning a famous victory at Stirling Bridge on September 11, 1297, massacring over 5,000 men. . . . The manner of his most gruesome death made William Wallace the supreme Scottish patriot." [1001 Days] "But none of the Twelve Peers emerged as the leader of Scottish rebellion. That role fell to the energetic second son of a minor landholder: William Wallace, aged twenty-five, six foot six and a hater of the English. . . . the outlaw Wallace was forced to marry his beloved in secret. Caught visiting her, he fought his way out of Lanark, killing a good number of English soldiers on the way. The sheriff, Sir William Heselrig, put Marion to death in retaliation. Maddened by grief, Wallace came back to Lanark, broke into Heselrig’s castle at night, and dismembered the sheriff as he slept. . . . Wallace, advancing towards the enemy, met them at Stirling Bridge, over the Forth. On September 11, 1297, his army wiped out the English and killed their general. A thirty-two-year struggle, the First War of Scottish Independence, had formally begun."