Wallace evades capture by the English until…
August 1305 CE
Wallace evades capture by the English until August 5, 1305 when John de Menteith, a Scottish knight loyal to Edward, turns Wallace over to English soldiers at Robroyston near Glasgow.
Transported to London, Wallace is taken to Westminster Hall, where he is tried for treason and the execution of civilians and prisoners, and is crowned with a garland of oak to suggest he is the king of outlaws.
He responds to the treason charge, "I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject."
With this, Wallace asserts that the absent John Balliol is officially his king.
Wallace is declared guilty.
Following the trial, on August 23, 1305, Wallace is taken from the hall, stripped naked and dragged through the city at the heels of a horse to the Elms at Smithfield.
He is hanged, drawn and quartered—strangled by hanging but released while still alive, emasculated, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him, beheaded, then cut into four parts.
His preserved head is placed on a pike atop London Bridge.
It is later joined by the heads of the brothers John and Simon Fraser.
His limbs are displayed, separately, in Newcastle upon Tyne, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Stirling, and Aberdeen.