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of London in Cheapside, and then back to the gallows and there is he hung by a chain of iron, and will hang as long as anything of him may remain. The place of execution is not mentioned. The probability is all in favour of the Elms of Tyburn.
    1305 August 23 William Wallace (Braveheart) drawn from Westminster to the Tower and thence to Tyburn, where he was hanged and quartered. In treating of the punishment for high treason, mention has already been made of the manner of carrying out the sentence on Wallace, ‘the man of Belial’, as he is constantly called in the Chronicles. Wallace was hanged on a very high gallows, specially made for the occasion. Edward was fond of high gallows. At the siege of Stirling Castle, in 1300, he caused to be erected two gallows, sixty feet high, before the gates of the castle, and swore a great oath ( jurra graunt serment ) that if surrender was not at once made, he would hang every one within the castle, were he earl, baron, or knight, high or low. ‘On hearing which,’ says the chronicler, ‘those within at once opened the gates and surrendered to the king, who pardoned them.’ The place of execution of Wallace was undoubtedly Tyburn. ‘The Elms’ is mentioned in Chronicles of the reigns of Edward I and Edward II, The sentence bore that Wallace’s head should be exposed on London Bridge. This is the first recorded instance of a head being exposed here. 10
    1306 Two other executions of Scottish leaders followed, both probably at Tyburn, though the place is not expressly mentioned. Symon Frisel [Fraser] was brought to London, and then, according to the chronicler, drawn, on 7 September, from the Tower, through the streets to the gallows as traitor, hanged as thief, beheaded as murderer; then his body was hung on a gibbet for twenty days, and finally burnt, the head placed on London Bridge. The execution of the earl of Athol followed on 7 November. Edward, grievously ill, found his pains relieved by learning of the capture of the earl. Athol claimed to be of royal lineage. ‘If he is of nobler blood than the other parricides,’ said Edward, ‘he shall be hanged higher than they.’ He was carried to London, and condemned at Westminster. Then, as being of royal descent, he was not drawn, but rode on horseback to the place of execution, where he was hanged on a gallows fifty feet high. Then let down, half alive, so that his torment might be greater, very cruelly beheaded (the chronicler does not say what was done to make the beheading unusually cruel), then the body was thrown into a fire previously kindled in the sight of the sufferer, and reduced to ashes. Then the head was placed on London Bridge among those of other traitors, but higher than the rest, in regard to his royal descent.
    1307 In May, John Wallace was brought to London, condemned as a traitor and hanged. His head was set on London Bridge near that of William Wallace.
    1330 Edward III was but a boy when crowned in February, 1327. All power was in the hands of Isabella, his mother, queen of the deposed and murdered king, Edward II, and of her lover, Roger Mortimer, baron of Wigmore and earl of March. For the murder of Edward II the queen-mother and Mortimer are held to be specially responsible. In 1329 a powerful confederation was formed to overthrow Mortimer. This was for the time defeated, but Edward, now eighteen, chafed under his subjection and took counsel with William de Montacute. It was resolved to seize Mortimer in the castle of Nottingham, where, during the session of Parliament held there, Isabella and her lover lodged. Mortimer was well guarded, and it was necessary to bring into the confederation Sir William Eland, the governor of the castle. He told the confederates of a subterranean passage, unknown to Mortimer, and unwatched, through which a sufficient force could be introduced. The rest of the story may be told in the words of Stow: ‘Then, upon a certaine night, the King lying without the castle, both