Scotland/Scots > Life of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Ellerslie, and Guardian of Scotland

NOTES.
235
P. 214. “ The martyrdom of Walays was per¬
formed at the Elms, in Smithfield, where Cow-lane
now is, on the 23d of August, 1305. It is thus de¬
scribed in a ballad written about a year after, when
the head of Sir Symon Frazer, one of the heroes of
Roslin, was set up beside those of Walays, and Le-
wellyn, the last sovereign of Wales:
« To wamy alle the gentilmen that duel in Scotlonde,
The Waleis wes to drawe, seth he wes unhonge,
Al quic beheveded, yo boweles ybrent,
The heved to London brugg was sent.”
M Sin Edward cure king, that fill ys of piete.
The Waleis* quarters sende to is oune contre,
On four half to honge huere myrour to be
Ther-opon to hinche that monie myhten se.”
M&: Harl. No. 2252, f. 596, Trivet, p. 340.
Thus did Edward glut his vengeance on the dead
body of this worthy man, whose living soul all his
power never could subdue.
“ Some of the English historians have stained
their pages with with low invectives against Walays.
Carte, in particular, (Hist. vol. ii. p. 290,) labours
hard to prove him a traitor to king Edward, whose
mercy he praises. That he was a traitor, he proves
from his being a native of Galloway, which, he says,
the kings of Scotland held, in vassalage, off the
crown of England; and, because the subvassals were,
in cases of rebellion, subject, by the same feudal law,
to the same forfeitures and penalties as the immediate
vassal.
“ A man must feel himself very much pinched of