The Border Reivers

Border Reivers were raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border (Border country), for nearly three hundred years from the late 13th century to the end of the 16th century, although their heyday was perhaps in the last hundred years of their existence.
England and Scotland were frequently at war during the late Middle Ages. When monarchs as ruthless as Henry VIII of England made war, the livelihood of the people on the borders was devastated by the contending armies. Even when the countries were not at war, tension remained high, and royal authority in one or other Kingdom was often weak.

The uncertainty of existence meant that communities or peoples kindred to each other would seek security through their own strength and cunning, and improve their livelihoods at their nominal enemies' expense. Loyalty to a feeble or distant monarch and reliance on the effectiveness of the law usually made people a target for depredations rather than conferring any security.

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Another factor which promoted a predatory mode of living was that much of the border region is mountainous or open moorland, unsuitable for arable farming but good for grazing. Livestock was easily rustled and driven back to raiders' territory by mounted reivers who knew the country well. (The raiders also often removed "insight", easily portable household goods or valuables).

The attitudes of the English and Scottish governments towards the Border clans alternated between indulgence, as these fierce families served as the first line of defence against invasion from the other side of the Border, and draconian and indiscriminate punishment when the Borderers' lawlessness became intolerable to the authorities.
The reivers were both English and Scottish and raided both sides of the border impartially, so long as the people they hit had no powerful protectors and no connection to their own kin. Their activities, although usually within a day's ride of the Border, extended both north and south of their main haunts. English raiders were reported to have hit the outskirts of Edinburgh, and Scottish raids were known as far south as Yorkshire. The main raiding season ran through the winter months, when the nights were longest and the cattle and horses fat from having spent the summer grazing.

The inhabitants had to live in a state of constant alert, and for self-protection, they built fortified houses, such as the bastle houses and Peel towers which are characteristic of this area and period. Smailholm is one of many surviving Peel towers.

Many reivers collected tribute from more peaceful folk to spare them from attack; this was called "blackmail" or "black rent," and this is where the term "blackmail" entered the English language.

When raiding, the reivers rode light but hardy nags or ponies. They wore light armour such as brigandines or "jacks of plaite" (a type of sleeveless doublet into which small plates of steel were stitched), and a metal helmet such as a burgonet or morion; hence their nickname of the steel bonnets. They were armed with a lance and small shield, and sometimes also with a longbow, or a light crossbow known as a "latch", or later on in their history with one or more pistols. They invariably also carried a sword and dagger.
As soldiers, the Border Reivers were considered among the finest light cavalry in all of Europe. After meeting one Reiver, Walter Scott of Buccleuch, who had broken a prisoner out of Carlisle Castle, Queen Elizabeth I is quoted as having said that "with ten thousand such, James (VI) could shake any throne in Europe." Many Reivers served as mercenaries, both in the Low Countries and in Ireland; such service was often handed down to captured raiders as punishment in lieu of death. Many took part in the plantation of Ulster becoming the people known as Ulster-Scots (Scots-Irish in America).

The reivers also served both English and Scottish kings as levied soldiers; Flodden Field and Solway Moss were battles where they played an important part. They were difficult to control, frequently plundered for their own benefit instead of obeying orders, and there were always questions about how loyal they were. At battles such as Ancrum Moor in Scotland in 1545, it was possible for Borderers who found themselves on the side which looked like losing, to change sides and attack their former comrades, so as to be able to curry favour with the victors. Many Borderers had relatives on the other side of the Border, despite laws forbidding international marriage, and could describe themselves as belonging to whichever nationality happened to be more advantageous.
During periods of nominal peace, a special body of customary law, known as Border Law, grew up to deal with the situation. Under Border Law, a person who had been raided had the right to mount a counter-raid within six days, even across the border, to recover his goods. This Hot Trod had to proceed with "hew and cry, hound and horne" (sic), making a racket and openly announcing their purpose to distinguish themselves from unlawful raiders proceeding covertly. Any person meeting this counter-raid was required to ride along and offer such help as he could, on pain of being considered complicit with the raiders. The Cold Trod mounted after six days required official sanction.

Both Borders were divided into "Marches", each under a "March Warden". The respective kingdoms' March Wardens would meet at appointed times along the border itself to settle claims against people on their side of the border by people from the other kingdom. These occasions, known as "Days of Truce," were much like fairs, with entertainment and much socializing, and the threat of violence to spice things up; many reivers resisted being taken by force.

March Wardens (and the lesser officers such as "Keepers" of fortified places) were rarely effective at maintaining the law. The Scottish Wardens were usually borderers themselves, and they almost invariably favoured their own clan or were complicit in raiding. Many English officers were from southern counties in England, and although less corruptible, could not often command the loyalty or respect of their locally-recruited subordinates or the local population.

By the death of Elizabeth I of England, things had come to such a pitch along the Border that the English government considered re-fortifying and rebuilding Hadrian's Wall. Upon his accession to the English throne, James VI of Scotland (who became James I of England) moved hard against the reivers, abolishing Border Law and the very term "Borders" in favor of "Middle Shires," and dealing out stern justice to many known reivers, who could no longer duck into the other kingdom until things cooled down. By the end of James VI/I's reign, the Borders were fairly peaceful; such surviving thieves as existed did not have the infrastructure behind them that their ancestors would have had.
Border clans and families naturally differed quite widely from Highland clans who had an active existence that lasted a century and a half longer. Both Border and Highland clans however, had the essential feature of chiefship and had territories in which a majority of the clansmen lived. Border clans did practice some Gaelic customs, such as tutorship when an heir who was a minor succeeded to the chiefship, and giving bonds of manrent. Although feudalism existed, tribal loyalty was much more important and this is what distinguished the Borderers from other lowland Scots.

Relationships between the Border families varied from uneasy alliance to open "deadly feud". It took little to start a feud; a chance quarrel or misuse of office was sufficient. Feuds might continue for years until patched up in the face of invasion from the other kingdom, or when the outbreak of other feuds caused alliances to shift. The border was easily destabilised if clans from opposite sides of the border were at feud. Feuds also provided ready excuse for particularly murderous raids or pursuits.

In 1587 the Parliament of Scotland passed a statute: “For the quieting and keping in obiedince of the disorderit subjectis inhabitantis of the borders hielands and Ilis.” Attached to the statute was a Roll of the Clans, and contained both a borders portion and a highland portion. Of the 71 known reiver families, 17 are listed as Clans with a Chief:
Long after they were gone, the reivers were romanticized by writers such as Sir Walter Scott, although he got some things wrong; the term "moss-trooper" more correctly refers to one of the robbers that existed after the real reivers had been put down. The stories of legendary border reivers like Kinmont Willie were retold in folk-song as Border ballads. There are also local legends, probably untrue, such as the "Dish of Spurs" which would be served to a border chieftain to remind him that the larder was empty and it was time to acquire some more plunder.

Hawick in Scotland holds an annual Reivers' festival as do the Schomberg Society in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland (the two often co-operate). The summer festival in the Borders town of Duns is headed by the "Reiver" and "Reiver's Lass", a young man and young woman elected from the inhabitants of the town and surrounding area. The Ulster-Scots Agency's first two leaflets from the ‘Scots Legacy’ series feature the story of the historic Ulster tartan and the origins of the kilt and the Border Reivers. Reiver descendents can be found throughout Ulster with names such as Elliot, Armstrong, Beattie, Bell, Hume and Heron, and Turnbulls amongst others.

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