In Andrew Fishers paper The Hunt For William Wallace he says, “According to this scenario, Edward, vicious and obsessive, had set out not merely to destroy Wallace’s body but also his reputation, to expunge his name from Scottish consciousness. In this objective, the king is seen as having failed. the truth may be otherwise. The facts, such as they are, suggest a different interpretation, both of the hunts for Wallace prior to his capture and on the question of his reputation after his execution.” I agree and disagree with this quote. The king does succeed in removing Wallace’s name from the Scottish conscience but only for the time. At the time of his execution The Scottish were done with their rebellion.  The people of Scotland were done fighting against the English.  They had given up and wanted to just go on with their lives.  So the death of Wallace took his name and story with him.  That took the memory of Wallace away, until historians brought back his legend. It lefts his story open for exaggeration, Historians and writers were able to twist his stay to inspire new masses against the English in several other situations.  So his tail would no longer be historically accurate but it would continue to inspire the people rebel and escape from oppression.  That means that the tail of Wallace was only lost for a short time but then revived to revitalize the will for independence.