Page:History of Sir William Wallace (1).pdf/3

 HISTORY OF Sir William Wallace.

SIR WILLIAM WALLACE was the youngest son of Sir Malcom Wallace of Ellerslie, in the shire of Ayr, and his mother was a daughter of Sir Ronald Crawford, sheriff of that county. The period of his birth is un- recorded, but it must have been previous to the death of Alexander III. who met with an untimely death by a full from his horse, at Kinghorn, in 1286. That monarch was the last of a succession of princes, who had held the sceptre about 800 years, and left it in the hand of his grand- daughter, called the maid of Norway, who, dying in infancy. gave rise to the famous con- tert between Baliol and Bruce, for the crown, both parties having referred to the decision of Edward I of England who unjustly claimed the crown for himself, and attempted to deprive Scotland of her independence. To Wallace it A 2