History: Was Cleopatra beautiful? Apparently not as super hot as we are led to believe. Was Caligula mad? No doubt he had some issues, but you would too if your entire family was exiled and killed before your 21st birthday!
Whether through Hollywood conjurings, wrong teachings, or simply bad word-of-mouth, we've gained some pretty faulty knowledge when it comes to history. It is very doubtful that Genghis Khan looked or sounded like John Wayne?
One of Hollywood's most loved fantasies is the movie "Braveheart", people love it, but not for any historical accuracy.
The name "Braveheart" was not given to William Wallace, it was given to the King Robert the Bruce, the one Hollywood has betraying Wallace in the film, even though he didn't!
Robert the Bruce did not betray Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk – Robert wasn't even there.
Robert the Bruce did bide his time while Wallace was in hiding, until he proclaimed himself King of Scotland in 1306, the year after Wallace was captured by the English and executed.
First of all, Wallace wasn't an unwashed commoner in blue face make up wearing a kilt, the kilt wouldn't even exist until 400 years after Wallace's death, and in medieval times, plaid wool skirts would have been about as useful on the battlefield as Nerf swords. Wallace was also extremely tall for the time (a ruckman sized 6 foot 7 inches) not Gibson's Peter Dinklage sized wide eyed ruffian. More reliable sources than Hollywood paint a vastly different picture than Mad Mel and the real Wallace was more like that of an impetuous, hotheaded, Knight.
History gets more contorted with every telling of the story...You could rattle off a stack of historical figures and describe what they really looked like and what they really did, none of it resembles what was taught in schools or in the mind of a Hollywood scriptwriter. The combined forces of Hollywood, gossip, and biased sources have come together to portray out and out falsehoods or bend the truth to embellish the myth.
Brave heart apparently did give the Scottish national party a poll boost which seems to have had an effect