Border Reivers - Born Out Of Conflict, Died In Conflict

In 1603 James V1 of Scotland, a man in his late thirties, became king of England. Thus he ruled over both countries. Elizabeth 1 of England, often referred to as the Virgin Queen, had died 'without issue' paving the way for James to rule both to the north and south of the English Scottish Border.

Whilst it seems at first strange that a Scotsman should rule in England, it becomes clear with no more than a cursory look at the ancestry of James.

His mother was Mary, Queen of Scots who was the grand-daughter of James 1V of Scotland and Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry V11 of England. James V1 thus had the blood of the English Tudors coursing through his veins.

One of the first moves he made on becoming king of both countries was to re-name the lands that surrounded the English Scottish Border as the Middle Shires of a new United Kingdom. The enmity which had existed since time out of mind in the Border country was to be obliterated in the wake of the policies he introduced to bring peace to a troubled land.

Prior to what is now known as the 'Union of the Crowns' in 1603, England and Scotland had been at war for centuries. Edward 1 of England in the early 1290's claimed 'overlordship' of Scotland and, dreams of imperialism dashed by 1296, sought to dominate the Scots; a stance which would lead to two hundred and fifty years of strife and animosity beginning with the Scottish Wars of Independence; a time well beyond the date that Scotland eventually achieved recognition of its sovereignty from its southern neighbour, England.

During this prolonged period of hostility, the people who lived on each side of the English Scottish Border were to suffer intolerable hardship. Geographically the first people of the opposing country that were encountered, be it Scots marching south into England or English moving north for yet another round of the endless confrontation, the Border folk on both sides were to suffer intolerable hardship as a result. Loss of livelihood, home and more often than not life itself, was the legacy left in the wake of these marauding armies.

The Border people, impoverished to the point of starvation through loss of crop and beast, responded in the only way they could. They began to thieve where they could. It matter not one jot should the theft be from neighbour in the same country or the 'enemy' from the other side of the Border line.

The inevitable result of the reiving was feud and blood-feud as clans and families, previously often allies, even branches of the same tribe, swore eternal vengeance against each other for the burgeoning crime, the loss of livelihood and loved ones. The Borderer became the Border Reiver.

To 'reive' is an old English word meaning to 'rob'.

As a consequence of the indiscriminate reiving from friend or foe, very soon the whole of the English Scottish Border lands were in disorder as neither government, for reasons which will become apparent, were resolute enough to curtail the reprehensible rounds of theft, murder, feud and blackmail.

At times the men in the corridors of power in London and Edinburgh, as well as the two monarchs, welcomed the lawlessness as it created havoc in an area well suited to act as a buffer zone between the two countries.

The power in the lands often clandestinely encouraged the mayhem as there were periods when any thoughts of an harmonious and lasting relationship between the two countries reached an impasse. The turmoil in the Borders acted as a deterrent and foil to any national action.

Equally there were times when both governments wished they could eradicate the 'canker' of Reiving for all time when associations between them were sweet, conducive to a lasting peace. Then the endless murder and robbery on the Borders became an embarrassment to a fostering of a better relationship between England and Scotland.

The clans and surnames (families) on the Border, inured to hardship and deprivation, experienced little gain from loyalty to either local or national authority. Nor were they enamoured with a monarchy that only acted with deceit and political deviousness against them: at times their way of life condoned, at others vilified.

The Border Reiver was steadfast to an older order, that of unfailing loyalty to his clan or family. The people of the Border were a racial mix of Saxon and Norse and some of the more prominent families who had reached the country in the wake of the Norman Conquest of 1066; a heady brew that swore allegiance to no-one but their own family. Authority and monarchy had done little to aid and defend their people through the hell of the wars that had often raged between England and Scotland.

The Border Reiver felt secure only in the hands of his Laird, Lord or Clan chief. As a result he had no time for any of the authority that endeavoured to influence his life, be it national, local, or monarch.

The strife which was endemic in the Borders spawned a man who was hard, obdurate, resilient and certainly not scared to die. Moreover he was a highly skilled cavalier, probably the best horseman in the whole of Europe. Totally at home on the sure-footed little hobelar which was his mount, he was particularly adept in the use of the long lance, sword, dirk and bow.

He was much prized by governments when war loomed between the two countries; another reason to turn a blind eye to the ever burgeoning crime which infested his homelands, and was present at the battle of Flodden in 1514 and Solway Moss in 1542, as well as others. Then the monarch would 'look through his fingers' at his way of life: the murder, the thieving.

In the romantic parlance of the nineteenth century writers he rode 'by moonlight' in his raids to steal cattle and sheep. In fact he rode when the nights were at their longest , from October to February, and the beasts were heavy after the summer pasture. Nor did he ride alone. Some of the raids were well organised and were made up of hundreds of men: the attacks on Tynedale, Northumberland by Reivers from the Scottish Border valleys in the 1580's saw up to one thousand men cross the Border into England.

Such actions were a far cry from the days of utter starvation during and immediately following the Wars of Scottish Independence when men stole to survive. Yes, there were many who still retaliated on account of their losses to the reive and in an endeavour to restock a dwindling larder, but there were others who, rich, powerful and strong in numbers, moved through the night in the dark time of the year intent on vengeance; nursing only enmity and animosity in their overloaded hearts.

With the Union of the Crowns in 1603 the day of the Border Reiver was about to end. The punitive policies of James V1 of Scotland and 1 of England would leave the Border country destitute of men as by turn they were murdered, captured or deported. James had promised amnesty to the Reivers on his accession to the English throne but quickly found reasons to go back on his word as both English and Scottish gentry who saw a chance to benefit in land from the demise of the Border Reiver, villified them at every opportunity. The Border lands cleared of the folk who had lived there for centuries, be they reiver or simple farmer, left rich pickings for the sycophants who endeared themselves to the new king.

The Border lands were cleared of the major figures who held sway in its hills and valleys as they were relentlessly trailed and tracked by the soldiers of the Commission that was set up to deal with them. When caught, they were dealt with mercilessly and hanged or drowned on the spot without trial. Men of lesser standing but still of some importance in the clan or family hierarchy were caught and sent to Holland to help in the Dutch wars with Spain. Many ended up in the garrison towns of Flushing and Brille. Older men, young boys, women and children were deported to Ireland, to the bogs of Roscommon were they eked out a precarious living endeavouring to tame an unyielding soil far from the lands they called home.

Other people who escaped the purges of what has become known as the 'Pacification of the Borders, reverted to their erstwhile ways and put away their weapons and took up the plough.