More unhistorical than many

Rating: 2/10 (30 May 2005)

Braveheart really messes up the history. For example, it has Robert the Bruce starting the Battle of Bannockburn within minutes of hearing of Wallace' death. I know that news traveled more slowly in those days, but Wallace was killed on August 23, 1305 and Bannockburn was fought on June 23 and 24, 1314. The report of Wallace's death did not take nine years to get from London to Edinburgh. There was a battle fought between the Scots and the English a year after Wallace's execution, but the Battle of Methven on June 19, 1306 was a decisive victory for the English.
King Edward I, AKA Longshanks, did not die simultaneously with Wallace. He died on July 7, 1307.
The movie suggests that Wallace had an affair with Isabella of France, and that she was pregnant with his child at the time of his execution. As the real Isabella had been in France all her life until she married Edward II in 1308 -- and Wallace was never in France -- that would have been impossible. There is also the minor matter of Isabella being a child of ten when Wallace died
That whole bit about English lords having the right to sleep on the "first night" with any newly married woman before her husband is crap. There was never such a "right". For one thing, can you imagine anything which would be more likely to incite revolts? For another thing, marriage law was determined by the Church. The Church has always supported marital fidelity. Any king or lord who tried to push this "right" would find himself excommunicated.
The Scots did have legitimate complaints against the English. But this pretended Prima Nocte was not one of them