NOTES ON OCTOBER 2009 MEETING

A History of the Border Reivers

Tom Moss was the speaker at the October meeting of the Alston Moor Historical Society and gave a fascinating insight into the affairs of the Border Reivers and, in particular, the events that surrounded the capture and escape of Kinmont Willie, a notorious Scottish reiver of the day. The speaker posed a number of interesting questions and it is clear that there was villainy and treachery on both sides of the border.

During the 16th century the border between England and Scotland was a wild and almost lawless place and the reivers were at the peak of their activities. Bands of English and Scots made incursions across the border killing, rustling animals, stealing and destroying property. This was the normal way of life and the population did their best to protect themselves, hence the number of bastles (fortified farmhouse) that still exist to this day.

Arguably the worst offender was Kinmont Willie Armstrong born in 1540 into Clan Armstrong, and he gradually became more audacious in making raids. It was usual for raids to be relatively furtive and at night but in 1593 Kinmont lead a thousand men in a daylight attack on Tynedale, carrying away a great deal of plunder and leaving chaos in his wake. The attacking force descended on Tarset with pennants flying and was, to all intents and purposes, a military attack against England. Subsequent complaints and appeals for justice went unheard, even by the Scottish king James V1 and, in English eyes, Kinmont became public enemy number one.

There was little law and discipline in the border Marches apart from the ‘Days of Truce’, which were held twice a year, with followers from the two camps meeting on either side of the border to air their grievances, with justice meted out by the March Wardens from both sides. On such days there was an important tenet of Border Law known as the ‘Assurance of the Truce’, which required a truce to last until sunrise on the day following the main event. The objective was to allow participants of both sides to return to their homes in peace and without being molested by their enemies.

On the 17th March, 1596, a ‘Day of Truce’ was held at the Dayholme of Kershope, between Cannonbie and Newcastleton. One of the men representing the Scottish side was Kinmont Willie who, by this time, was even more despised by the English as he had gone unpunished for so long. At the close of the meet the participants left to go to their homes. However after some raucous exchanges of verbal abuse the English felt sufficiently provoked to cross over the border, seize Kinmont, and take him to Carlisle Castle. The Scots complained that the truce has been broken but the English excused themselves by claiming (probably erroneously) that it expired at sunset the same day as opposed to sunrise the following day. The complaint reached both Elizabeth 1 of England and James V1 of Scotland without being resolved.

In April 1596 Sir Walter Scott lead a party of Scots to rescue Kinmont and seemed to accomplish this task without too much difficulty, despite the fact that Carlisle Castle was the second strongest fortress on the border. There were reports that scaling ladders were too short, the western postern gate had been undermined and that a very large force had attacked the castle. However, it is likely that there were simpler facts surrounding the escape and some reports were manipulated to avoid blame and for political reasons. On both sides of the border there was considerable support for Kinmont and the reality of the situation is that there was a lot of collusion at a senior level between the Scots and the English and many blind eyes were turned at the appropriate moments.

To support the case that the Scots were given a lot of help by the English the following facts need to be taken into consideration:-

· Given that Carlisle Castle was regarded as pretty well impregnable, why was the attacking force only 25 men?
· The English Graham family had no time for their March warden, Thomas Lord Scrope and they promised safe passage through the English border country to the Scots
· They also undertook to ensure that there were no marauding bands of English reivers in the area. An added bonus is that the weather was horrendous keeping people indoors
· Access to the castle by the rescue team of six Scots was quite easy as the door was opened from the inside! There was no need for ladders or tunnels!
· The occupants of the castle were conveniently sheltering from the rain and the only three men offering any opposition were easily dealt with.

Elizabeth 1 was furious and James V1 was anxious not to upset her further as he had a £700K pension at risk and was in line to be the next monarch of England. After a year of political wrangling the subject exhausted itself, and both sides accepted that nothing more could be done. And as for Kinmont, he continued raiding until 1603, when it is supposed he died in his bed. This affair was probably signalled the swansong of the Border Reivers and their activities began to reduce thereafter.

WHITLEY CASTLE

At the next meeting of the Society on Wednesday the 4th November, we are very pleased to welcome Stuart Ainsworth of English Heritage, rapidly becoming a TV celebrity, and he will talk about both the Whitley Castle project (the largely unexcavated Roman fort near Alston) and also the Miner-Farmer project. The meeting will be in the Masonic Hall and starts at 7.30 pm. Admission for visitors is £2.