ON ACTIVE STEED, WITH LANCE AND BLADE
THE LIGHT-ARMED PRICKER PLIED HIS TRADE –
LET NOBLES FIGHT FOR FAME;
LET VASSALS FOLLOW WHERE THEY LEAD,
BURGHERS TO GUARD THEIR TOWNSHIPS, BLEED
BUT WAR’S THE BORDERERS’ GAME.
THEIR GAIN, THEIR GLORY, THEIR DELIGHT,
TO SLEEP THE DAY, MARAUD THE NIGHT…
The story of the reivers can trace its roots back to the twelfth century. The Scottish King was dead and his heir, the Maid Of Norway, died on her way across the sea to Scotland.
With Scotland left leaderless, the country’s noblemen began to jostle for power. They couldn’t agree on who should be King and they turned to the English King Edward to act as referee. Hoping to rule Scotland himself, Edward chose the weakest of the candidates – and so John Balliol became King of Scots and Edward’s puppet.
But when John Balliol sided with the French and turned against Edward, the English King decided to act. He sent up a huge English army to subdue Scotland. The siege of Berwick ended in 7,000 townsfolk being massacred. With Scotland under attack from the English, the Scots fought back – freedom fighters included William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, later King of Scots.
And so the borderline became the two countries became a battleground. In order to survive, the borderers built sturdy tower houses to defend themselves against other families; they started to raid and steal from their neighbours; they started living, not by the rules of King or country, but by their own border rules.
Then in 1513 the Battle of Flodden Field was fought on the eastern border of England and Scotland. A desperate fight between the two countries, it was the darkest day in Scotland’s stormy history, claiming the lives of 10,000 of her sons and also her King, James 1V. At a stroke the flowers of the forest were a’ wede away.
With an infant King James V on the throne and the country’s best leaders gone, Scotland was in turmoil. The borderers, on the front line with England, began to brace themselves for retaliation or defence. With no firm rule from above, they were to become increasingly lawless…
And so they began to ride and raid – border families who saw reiving as a right.
The border reiver is a unique figure in British history. He was around from the 14th to the early 17th century. But it is in the 16th century, the 1500’s, that he really made a name for himself. Five hundred years ago the English/Scottish border was in turmoil. There was, quite simply, no law and order; stealing, feud, arson and murder – they were all rife.
With any border there are problems – and so it was with this one. When an English army came north, the fighting would often take place on the borderline. Over the years this stretch of land between the two countries literally became a battleground and the borderers, whose crops had been trampled or eaten by successive invading armies, had to do something to survive. And so they took to reiving – to riding and raiding and stealing from their neighbours.
There appeared to have been little social stigma attached to reiving; being a professional cattle thief just became a way of life, a means of earning a living and surviving. Scot stole from English and Scot stole from Scot – and sometimes even Scot and English would unite to steal from their neighbour. The allegiance was not to one’s King or country, but to a family or clan. No trust could be put in another unless he was a close relative. Blood feud was endemic. The governments of both countries tried to enforce some sort of law and order, but it was almost impossible. It was indeed an age when the English Queen Elizabeth 1st ruled the seas around her realm – but she could not control the edges of her own land.
So who were these reivers? Well the reiver came from every social class – and he could be a labourer or a landowner. Mighty chiefs like Scott of Buccleuch was a reiver – as were the powerful Wardens, the men chosen to try to keep law and order in their own Marches, or areas.
A skilled horseman, the reiver rode a sturdy pony, sometimes called a ‘hobbler’. It was small, but not lightweight and could travel great distances over boggy and hilly land. Behind his saddle, the reiver carried his food – some oatmeal and perhaps a bit of meat. On his head, he wore what became known as a ‘Steel Bonnet’, or pointed metal helmet; he also had on a ‘jack’ which was a leather quilted garment, stuffed with horn and other hard objects to try to deflect sword pricks. He carried a sword and a dagger and perhaps a long lance…
In 1603, James V1 of Scotland went south to London to become James 1st of England and only then was a concerted effort made to rid the borderlands of its troubles. The reiving that had once been acceptable on the edges of his old country were no longer so in what the new King called his ‘Middle Shires’. Armstrongs, Elliots, Grahams and others… they were rounded up; some were hanged, others were sent to fight in Europe – others were transported to Northern Ireland. It took ten years to subdue the borderlands… And so, they left us the words ‘blackmail’ and ‘bereaved’.
Descendants of reivers include… Neil Armstrong, TS Elliot, Rutherford the physicist, the footballing Charlton brothers, Sir Walter Scott, Robbie Burns, Presidents Nixon and Johnston…
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