William Wallace- the welshman? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

The answers /u/Searocksandtrees linked will provide a more comprehensive account of William Wallace than I am going to here. The short version is that we don't know a lot about his early life, but what we do know is broadly supportive of him being a member of the lesser Scottish gentry. I've vaguely encountered the whole 'Wallace' as old-English for 'Welsh', but we don't know if that is where Wallace got his name, and even if he did it would be far more likely to refer to his ancestors having once lived in Wales (or somewhere south, medieval people sometimes didn't show the firmest grasp on geography).

Edward I fought a lot of wars. Like, a lot. Between the Ninth Crusade, Baronial Revolts, Conquest of Wales, War in Scotland, and his French Wars with Philip IV he may have fought more wars than any other medieval English king. Across all these wars he obviously used a lot of soldiers, and while Edward left surprisingly detailed records for some of these campaigns, there are far too many for them to be comprehensive. We can rule out Wallace's participation in some of these based on date, Wallace was far too young to participate in the Crusade, Baronial Revolts, or early Welsh Wars (he's usually thought to have been born approx. 1270, and those conflicts are all pre-1280), but we can't rule out entirely his participation in other conflicts. The idea of him serving Edward during the Scottish Wars is pretty unlikely, though, I think we can all agree. The window between Wallace rising to military age and the Scottish Wars beginning isn't huge. Wallace would have been about 15 in 1285, which wouldn't make him the youngest soldier ever, which gives him about a decade of service before Edward's storming of Berwick in 1296. In that time he could have participated in the Anglo-French wars (approx. 1294-1303) or in suppressing some of the later Welsh revolts (1287-8 and 1294), but we don't have any evidence that says he did, and he isn't from the sort of background that would make it likely that he would have. On the rare occasion that I've seen someone support Wallace's participation in these campaigns, and I haven't found it anywhere in current scholarship (although I also haven't read every one of the dozens of books on the Scottish Wars), it usually derives from a belief that Wallace's success must be indicative of him having previous military experience. If you accept this (and I don't, firstly I don't think he was that successful, secondly I don't agree that even if he was he would have had to be battle tested first), then participating in one of Edward's many wars is the most logical place for a young noble to have gained military experience.

As a final note, Michael Prestwich (an eminent scholar of this period), has across a range of articles made a rather convincing case for the idea that the Welsh mercenaries employed in Edward's armies (and then later in the 14th century), primarily consisted of spearmen, not archers. The strong association between the welsh and archers is primarily the result of late 19th and early 20th century scholars, and not something that is particularly supported by the contemporary evidence. Prestwich's Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages is one of the best books on the subject, and should include references to articles where he discusses the Welsh spearmen in more detail (I'm at work without my copy so I can't pull them up, and even if I could I'm not sure they're particularly easy to track down outside of an academic library).