The Border Reivers

Those not fortunate enough to belong to one of these powerful Border families were subject to extortion and blackmail. This led to them also turning to theft and reiving as a means of support and they became the mercenaries or "broken men" of the Borderland, selling their reiving skills to the highest bidder. This of course, suited both national Governments, as the families raided each other over the Borders, causing the constant turmoil which provided the buffer zone both Governments needed and had so actively encouraged. 

Because the frontier was such a unique place, both Kingdoms agreed that it should be governed under it's own laws; in November 1248 six English and six Scottish Knights met to "correct, according to ancient and approved custom of the March, such matters as required to be redressed". This conference resulted in a written code of thirteen articles agreed the following year, which allowed for fugitives to be captured and returned to their own countries and also for accused persons to be summonsed to appear before a special Border court to answer for their crimes; this last became the origin of the "Day of Truce". These Thirteen Articles were added to and developed over ensuing years and became the "Leges Marchiarum" or Border laws under which the Marches operated until 1603, when James VI/Ist repealed them and abolished the Marches.

The Border Reivers thus evolved from 300 years of raiding and feuding, into a race of expert light horsemen, skilled in raiding, scouting ambush and skirmishing. They were cursed in both countries as "evell disposed personnes, Inclined to wildness and disorder", but occasionally hailed as "fine soldiers, able with horse and harness, nimble, wile and always in readiness for any service". Though despised in peacetime, the Reivers were eagerly recruited by their respective national governments in time of war. 

The English army by 1540 could call on 2,500 such men and this division was called the "Border Horse". It was said that the "most remarkable of the mounted men in Henry VIll's army were the Northern Horsemen who, havlng been called into existence by the eternal forays of the Scottish Border were light cavalry, acknowledged as the very best in Europe".

There does not seem to have been a standard uniform, but they were expected to have a "steill cap, jak of plate, botes, spurres, sword, dagger, horsemans staffe, case of pistolles" and of course a horse. Sometimes they carried a longbow or more often a small but handy crossbow.

Recruited as light horsemen or "prickers", the role of the Border Horse was simply an extension of their usual daily activities on the Borders. They scouted, ambushed enemy patrols, rustled livestock, stole supplies and provisions and plundered towns and villages. In 1544 a large English force supported by a naval fleet, under the command of the Earl of Hertford, invaded the east coast of Scotland, sacking Leith and Dunbar and capturing Edinburgh. While the main English army was burning the city, they were joined by "400 light horsemen from the Borders, by the King's Majesty's Appointment; who after their coming did such exploits in riding and devastating the country that within seven miles of every side of Edinburgh, they left neither pele, house nor village standing unburnt, nor stacks of corn, besides great numbers of cattle which they brought in daily to the army and met with such good stuff which the inhabitants of Edinburgh had for the safety of the same conveyed out of the town".

The Border Horse also served in Ireland during the O'Neill and Tyrone rebellions. The Irish, fighting on their home ground, generally confined themselves to "skirmishing in passes, bogs, woods and all places to their advantage". The Border Horse were in their element here, especially as they were better mounted than the Irish, "having deep war saddles with stirrups and using pistolles as well as staffes and swords many having jak of plate and such-like defensive arms, and being bold and strong for encounters and long marches and of greater stature than the lrish must needs have great advantage over them". In 154O, it was said that a hundred English Northern spears on horseback combined with a like number of longbow men and hack butters would be a much more effective force than 1,000 of the regular army stationed in Ireland.

Observance of religion does not seem to have played a large part in the life of a Reiver, although attendance at Sunday evensong was certainly required at Arthuret. Legend has it that the Reivers also prayed hard before a raid to ensure it's success. Quite often Church services were interrupted by Reiver families bringing their weapons and feuds into the service and the clergy's attempts to subdue the Borders by threatening hell and damnation went unnoticed; the most famous being the Archbishop Gavin Dunbar of Glasgow in his "Monition of Cursing" which stretched to 1500 of the most descriptive words of cursing of all time; it was read from every pulpit in the Borders to little effect, except that some of the more cynical of the Reivers held their own communion service in defiance of the interdict where one Hector Charlton "resaved the parson's dewties and served them all of wyne" 

Their exploits are legendary, but their greatest moments were undoubtedly Flodden and Sollomoss, where 800 of the "De'ils Dozen" Reivers defeated a full Scottish invading army of up to 18,000 men, cavalry and artillery, with the loss of 7 dead and 1 wounded. In the process they captured the whole Scottish military leadership, hundreds of prisoners, the whole Scottish artillery and almost all their standards, sending the routed army fleeing back to Scotland after taking even their boots off them "bicause they shuld the more spedely flye homewerts" without the encumbrance of their clothing!

The Debateable Land:

Although the western Anglo-Scottish Border was agreed in Edward II's reign with David II of Scotland in 1330, to run along the course of the Esk and Liddle from Gretna to Kershopefoot (the rest of the Border being more or less accepted) to delineate between the English and Scottish West Marches, in practice this region was controlled by Wardens who usually held the land in their own right. In Scotland the Maxwell's, Johnston's and Scotts secured the Scottish West March to Gretna and Lang Holm and in England the region was controlled from Carlisle. The Esk basin at Arthuret was a marshy bogland which was difficult to police and with the Scottish jurisdiction having difficulty policing their side from Gretna to Canonbie, the powerful families who lived there became uncontrolled.

The Debateable Land arose because the Graemes, Armstrong's, Elliot's and Bells were too powerful and the Wardens left them alone. These four families raided equally in both England and Scotland, claiming allegiance to neither country; it actually suited both Governments to have such a "buffer" zone, so the district became a sort of no-mans land, where neither country could or would enforce their jurisdiction. Eventually the lawlessness of all such no-go areas over spilled and both Wardens demanded that the Debateable Land be eradicated. So in 1552 the French ambassador was appointed to finalise the

Border line. Typically he simply divided the Debateable land into two halves cut by a man-made ditch called the Scots Dyke, giving the western half (Graemes and Bells) to England and the eastern half (Armstrong's and Elliot's) to Scotland.....intriguing that England received the main western road into Scotland, while Scotland received little else but moorland. In point of fact nothing much changed, except a Dyke was constructed, but the four families continued their raiding activities just as equitably and lawlessly as they had in the past.

Notes:

a. They were honourable..... Even today a borderer will not break his given word lightly, written contracts and legalese still take second place to the old "spit and shake". In the original Thirteen Articles there was provision for "Bauchling" which was the accusation of breaking a given-word or bond; a glove representing the false hand was displayed at the end of a lance and the name of the accused called out. Such a disgrace was either removed by the accused challenge and fight to the death or his own family executing him to wipe out the stain. It is interesting that the offence of perjury covered in the Thirteen Articles, was only punished by imprisonment for a year and a day, so breaking the given-word on the Borders was significantly worse than lying to the court! Bauchling is believed to be the origination of the word "Botch" (botched job, etc) and may have given it's name to Botchergate in Carlisle where such felons had their names displayed on the Southern gate.

b. Blakmeale or Black mail was invented by the Grahams of Arthuret and Hutcheon Graham, a notorious Reiver collected it each week after Sunday Evensong service in the porch of Arthuret Church; it was originally a payment of grain ("Meale"), paid at night ("Blak") to insure against the animals being stolen again and another more expensive form to actually employ the Reiver blackmailer to retreive stolen goods......not much different to our modern insurers really! However it still actually prevails today as a border custom at the livestock auctions in the payment of "Luck" money from the seller to the buyer of his animals. Nowadays it is a customary "thanks" for buying, but it's origins are in the blackmail payment being passed on to the new owner so that he could afford protection after paying for the animals as a guarantee/insurance against them being reived back again.

c. There is a review of the original "Leges Marchiarum" in the Bishop of Carlisle's records, which was written by Richard Bell, Warden Clerk to both Lord Scropes. Richard's version is the only extant record of "Leges Marchiarum" and as he was the last West March Warden's Clerk, retiring with the second Lord Scrope after the Union of the Crowns, it gives a clear picture of how the law had been reviewed and developed from the original Thirteen Articles.

d. The original forerunner to the Kings Royal Border Regiment (The Corbies). The Corbies were and in their recently combined form are still based at Carlisle Castle (The Corbies Nest), which is one of the oldest working Castles in Britain, perhaps the oldest if the Roman occupation of Luguvallum (Carlisle) and their Fort (on the present Castle site) is included.

e. The Reiver's horse was also the result of warring evolution; when the Romans arrived they brought with them Frisian horses from Europe, which then evolved over the next millennium into a shaggy, but sturdy pony called variously a "hobbler", "bog trotter" and "nag". It would eat anything, did not require much attention, had incredible stamina and were very sure-footed, a pre-requisite for the boggy marshes of the Solway and the moor lands of Tynedale and Teviotdale. Border Reivers were born into into the saddle and with a plentiful supply of these fell-ponies became expert well mounted horsemen.

f. Legend has it that Reiver children were baptised with their fighting hand covered, so that it was unchristian to allow it to be used in unholy fashion conducting feuds against their enemies.

g. The "De'ils Dozen" is a nickname given to the thirteen most powerful and active West March Reiving families. These thirteen families were responsible for more Reiving activity than the rest of the Border Families put together; they instigated the greatest raids, were involved in the most legendary exploits and consisted of most of the more infamous and legendary Reivers across the three centuries of the Reivers. 

And Finally...............

An amusing anecdote about how the debateable land came to belong to neither side is told around the local hostelries when the natives are in their "cups". Apparently at some time around the early 16th century, the English and Scottish West March Wardens grew tired of being unable to enforce their jurisdictions, because no one knew exactly where the border lay. They then met and agreed that two Scottish nobles from Edinburgh along with two English nobles from London would mark out an agreed border line. These four just worthies met up at Annie-Janes pub the evening before the day appointed for this purpose and as nobles do consumed vast quantities of the local brew as a pre-requisite for their hard task. In the morning, the Englishmen were up early and being impatient to be about their task, left without the two Scotsmen, to mark out the border from Kershopefoot to Gretna. They
established that their route would take them down the Liddle and Esk Rivers to Longtown and then to Gretna.

Meanwhile the two Scotsmen arriving at breakfast late, asked about the route the Englishmen have taken, to be told by the locals to follow the River Liddle to the Esk and then to Langtoon, which they would recognise by it's bridge (actually not built until 1746) across the Esk. Setting off the two Scotsmen travel down the Liddle to the Esk and meeting a shepherd ask him the way to the Lang place with the bridge. They are duly directed up the Esk to Langholm. So the net result is two borders: one from Kershope to Longtown to Gretna; and the other via Langholm to Gretna. The resulting 12 mile long by 5 mile wide strip between the two became the Debateable Land.