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carried out on the same day in the most inhumane possible way. He was stripped naked and dragged through the streets of London by his heels, a horse pulling him to the gallows. After being hanged for a short time, he was taken down, still breathing, and his bowels were torn out and burned before him. His head was then struck off, dipped in tar, and placed on a pike atop London Bridge. His limbs were displayed, separately, in four different sites where he had led the uprising.
Centuries after his execution, historians honor William Wallace as a self-effacing and fervent patriot. Unlike the conniving Scottish gentry who collaborated with the English in return for financial benefits, Wallace neither sought personal gain nor benefited from it––he did not accrue any wealth or land. He became a lasting symbol of passionate patriotism not only for the people of Scotland but all around the world.
The story of William Wallace is not very different from other stories of patriots. Polish historians commemorate Thaddeusz Kosciusco, a Polish-Lithuanian military leader who led the 1794 uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia, inspiring enthusiasm among Polish patriots through the ages and during Poland’s seemingly everlasting struggle for independence. Magyar historians glorify Imre Thokoly, who led the Hungarian Protestant resistance against the repressive Habsburg policy in 1680. Italian folklorists praise Guiseppe Garibaldi, who fought for Italian independence against the superior French military in 1849. Other patriotic heroes include Salah-Adin, who led the Muslims against the Franks and other European Crusaders and eventually recaptured Palestine from the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem through persistency and bravery.
Patriots have not only been men; women too have demonstrated themselves as such throughout history. Boudica was the wife of Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, a British tribe in northern Wales, at a time when Britain was a Roman province. When Prasutagus died, he willed half of his kingdom to the Roman Empire and half to Boudica and their two daughters. However, whereas British law allowed royal inheritance to be passed to daughters in the absence of a male heir, Roman law did not. The Roman administrator therefore ignored the will and proceeded to