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Post by eBob on Nov 20, 2006 13:11:01 GMT -5
Sir William contrived to evade capture by the English until August 5, 1305, when Sir John de Menteith, a Scottish knight loyal to Edward, captured him near Glasgow. After a show trial, the English authorities had him executed on August 23, 1305, at Smithfield, London in the traditional manner for a traitor. He was hanged, then drawn and quartered, and his head placed on a spike on London Bridge. The English government displayed his limbs, separately, in Newcastle, Berwick, Edinburgh, and Perth.
The plaque in the photograph above stands in a wall of St Bartholomew's Hospital near the site of Wallace's execution at Smithfield. Scottish patriots and other interested people frequently visit the site, and flowers often appear there.
A sword which supposedly belonged to Wallace was held for many years in Dumbarton Castle, and is now in the Wallace National Monument near Stirling. However examination of the sword by the experts has concluded that its design belongs to a period a few centuries after Wallace.
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