Braveheart - by Randall Wallace

Braveheart

by Randall Wallace, Penguin Readers Level 3

In the year 1276 there was war between England and Scotland. In Scotland there was no king, and so Longshanks, the English king, wanted to choose a ruler for Scotland, but so did the Scotsmen.

William Wallace lived with his brother and his father in a Scottish valley. But one day, the Sottish rebels attacked the English, and in the battle William's brother and father died.

So William had to stay with his uncle Argyle, who taught him to use his head and his sword.

Years later, William met his father's friend Old Campell and his own best freind Hamish in a valley called Lavark. William met also Murron there, a young woman, and fell in love with her.

Only little later they married, and Murron was going to have a baby.

But one day an English soldier made fun of her, and when William wanted to help her, he beat English soldiers sitting around there. One soldier shouted that he was a rebel. William ran away fast and saw Murron escape. But the soldiers caught her, and one of them, Hesselrig, cut through her throat. So Murron died.

In his anger, William rode with the rebels against the English soldiers. The batte was short. Nobody could stop Wallace and his angry followers. From this day on, every day Scotsmen came to fight with William against the English.

Then there were a lot of battles. One was at Stirling Castle and the English were many more than the Scots. But the Scots had secret weapons: spears, twice as tall as a man. They pointed them at the horses of the English. So the Scots won, and the English had no army anymore in Scotland.

After that battle, Wallace was famous all over the land. Soon he was the "First Lord Of Scotland". He couldn't be the king because he was not noble.

During that, Longshanks came back from France to London. He was very angry and quarreld with his son Edward and with Edward's friend Peter becaus of the lost men. In his anger Longshanks threw Peter out of the window and kicked Edward until he was almost dead. Longshanks thought about making a truce with the Scots and sent Isabella, Edward's wife, to speak to William Wallace.

When William saw Isabella he thought of his dead wife. Isabella knew the story of William and Murron. William trusted her and told her he whole story. But Isabella couldn't persuade him to make a truce. Wallace wanted the battle.

At home, Isabella realized, that Longshanks didn't really want a truce. He wanted to win time, because soldiers were already on their way to England with terrible, new weapons. So Isabella sent Nicholette, her freind, to tell William the king's plans.

In a bad battle, Wallace lost a lot of men. all zhe Scottish nobles agreed to serve Longshanks as their king.

Isabella had a plan. She told Longshanks that William trusted her and would met her. Then they could kill him. But secretly she wanted to protect him. The place of the meeting was a certain farm and this should be a warning for William, because when he was a child Scotsmen were hanged there. So apparently he rode there. They caught William but he could escape. Then he rode to Isabellas castle.

Some days later, the Scottish nobles wanted a meeting with Wallace. He knew that he couldn't trust them. But he rode to the meeting place. Suddenly there were English soldiers everywhere. They threw Wallace into prison.

Longshanks was very ill. Isabella said to him, that a child having the blodd of William Wallace was growing inside of her.

On 23^rd August 1305 William Wallace died slowly in front of a big crowd.