I watched two history channel shows, one on Wallace, one on Bruce, after this thread. Bruce and the nobles indeed left the field at Falkirk, convinced that riding in to Wallace’s aid was suicide. Wallace, on the other hand, was no Mel Gibson. He sacked English cities, his men raped, pillaged, he killed monks. I understand his anger, but it’s not like he was pure.
I believe he was no angel, though with hindsight we now know the clergy at the time weren’t either.
For all of its Catholicism, Ireland’s woes at the hands of the English can be directly traced to a Pope (Adrian IV) giving the English crown (Henry II) the authority to rule Ireland in 1171.
How’s that for a kick in the pants?