Border Reivers (gang)
As Border Reivers ( Engl. "Border Robbers") were bandits designated along the Scottish border in the period from the late 13th century to the early 17th century. The gangs were made up of members of families from both nations and raided on both sides of the border, regardless of their origin. They married in the 16th century during the reigns of the Stuarts in Scotland and the Tudors in England .
Reive is an outdated English word for "plunder" or "rob". It comes from the Middle English-Scottish verb to mature , which in turn has its roots in the Old English rēafian and the old-fashioned standard English verb reave .
causes
There was a constant state of war between England and Scotland in the Middle Ages. During these wars, armies passing through threatened the existence of the inhabitants of the border areas. Even in peacetime, these tensions persisted, not least because of the often inadequate exercise of royal power on both sides. Neither loyalty to a distant, weak ruler nor the belief in the usefulness of laws brought security, but let the residents become victims of raids.
With this uncertainty in their existence, people began to look for security in their own strength. With violence or cunning, one's own situation was improved at the expense of nominal enemies. Other factors also supported a predatory life: The system of real division among all sons led to parcels that people could no longer feed. In addition, most of the land in the border region consisted of either open moor or mountainous hills; it was therefore suitable for grazing, but not for agriculture. For mounted robbers who knew “their” country, cattle theft was easy; Small household items and valuables were just as easy to take away as the ransom for prisoners from wealthier families.
The attitude of the Scottish and English governments to families on both sides of the border has fluctuated between leniency and support, as these combative people were the first line of defense against attack from the other side. On the other hand, the punishment could be merciless if the lawlessness was unacceptable to the governments has been. It is to be understood that this alternation between ignorance and state harshness also promoted banditry.
Appearance and equipment
Border Reivers could be either English or Scots. Regardless of this, they plundered on both sides of the border as long as their victims did not belong to their own clan or had powerful protectors. Their looted areas were limited to the area around where they lived or stayed and were usually within a day's ride north and south of the border. However, there are also reports of English Border Reivers who penetrated into the outskirts of Edinburgh during their raids , Scottish Border Reivers came as far as Yorkshire . The number of members of a gang could range from a few dozen to three thousand horsemen, the preferred season for such raids was early winter: the nights were long and the cattle of the summer were still fat.
During a raid, the Border Reivers rode run-down horses or frugal, sure-footed ponies. The original clothing of Scottish or English shepherds was supplemented by light armor up to the brigantine . They owe their later nickname "steel bonnets" to the change from Bonnett to Burgonet . The armament consisted of a lance or spear and a small shield, sword and dirk . A longbow or a light crossbow , and later one or more pistols , completed the armament.
Reivers as soldiers
If they were active as soldiers, the Border Reivers were considered to be one of the best cavalry troops in Europe. Queen Elizabeth I is said to have said after meeting a Border Reiver, “With ten thousand such men, James VI. could shake any throne in Europe ”(“ With ten thousand such men, James VI could shake any European throne ”).
Border Reivers served as paid mercenaries in the English and Scottish armies, but could also be compelled to serve as a substitute for other punishments. Settled Border Reivers played important roles in the battles of Flodden Field and Solway Moss . As a voluntary part of larger troops, however, they were difficult to control due to their obligations on both sides of the border. They described themselves as "Scottish if forced, English at will and a Reiver by grace of blood" (freely: "Scots if forced, willed English, Reiver by birth").
In the troop camp of bad behavior, plundering instead of obeying orders, the question of their loyalty arose again and again. At the Battle of Ancrum Moor in 1545, they switched sides in the middle of the battle to offer themselves to the supposed victor. At the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547, an observer reported that even in the middle of the battle they spoke to each other and only had one exhibition match.
Dwellings and fortifications
The residents of the border areas lived on constant alert, so in the worst times of the war only simple, peat-roofed huts were built, the destruction of which meant no great loss. When circumstances permitted, special fortified tower houses , known as bastle houses, were built to serve as both refuge and defense. Two storeys high and with walls up to one meter thick and slate or stone roofs, the stables were to be found in these houses on the ground floor. The living area on the first floor could only be reached via a ladder, loopholes mostly served as windows and for ventilation. Such buildings could hardly be set on fire. If their inhabitants were forced to leave (by an army), they prevented a detonation with gunpowder by leaving behind smoking, smoldering peat.
“ Peel Tower ” (also “Pele Tower”) were usually three stories high and were built by local rulers (such as the clan chiefs) especially for defense. Smailholm Tower or Gilnockie Tower are fine examples of the many preserved Peel Towers.
Both the Peel Tower and the Bastle houses were often surrounded by a low curtain wall made of stones, the interior of which was used as a gate for the cattle at night.
law and order
In peacetime, a special "Border Law" was formed to deal with the special situations of the Border Reivers. This right allowed an assaulted person to use "hound and horne, hew and cry" to retrieve their property within six days. The procedure was regulated and described in every detail. Officials like the “Deputy Warden of the English West March” had the authority to take action against violations.
The areas on both sides of the border were divided into "marches", each under the control of a "March Warden". The tasks of the warden included patrols to prevent raids, but also negotiations for the return of stolen property. Officially, they also had the opportunity to enforce demands: They traveled to the “Days of Truce”, mostly fair-like meetings, in their area along the border and were supposed to settle disputes and end violence between different families on both sides of the border. However, the March Warden were ineffective in implementing the law. The Scottish Warden were mostly residents of the border areas and were involved in raids, preferred their own relatives and were hated by other Scottish families in the border region. Many English Warden came from the south and could not win the loyalty of their subordinates or the respect of local families. Local warden such as B. John Forster, who was "Warden of the Middle March" for 35 years, were considered to be just as corruptible as their Scottish counterparts.
With the death of Queen Elizabeth I, conditions along the border became so bad that the government briefly considered the restoration of Hadrian's Wall . There was an outbreak of violence known as "Ill Week". The reason for this was the misconception that every law would be suspended with the death of a king and that only the new ruler would make the laws valid again. James VI. , as James I on the English throne, abolished the "Border Law", changed the term "Border" to "Middle Shires" and cracked down on the Border Reivers so hard that it meant the end of the bandits.
ancestry
The families along the border can be viewed as clans , especially since the Scots themselves used both terms equally well into the 19th century. In a law of the Scottish Parliament of 1597, the description "Chiftanis and chieffis of all clannis ... duelland in the hielands or bordouris" was found. This meant all clan chiefs or heads of family throughout Scotland, as can be seen from the list of clans in this law. George MacKenzie of Rosehaugh, the Lord Advocate , wrote around 1680: “By the term 'chief' we call the representative of the family from the word chef or head and in the Irish (Gaelic) with us the chief of the family is called the head of the clan " . From this it became clear that the terms chief or head as well as the terms clan or family could be used interchangeably. It was therefore possible to speak of the Maxwell family or the MacDonald clan. The idea of clan in the Highlands and family in the Lowlands dates back to the 19th century.
In 1587 a Scottish law found: "For the quieting and keping in obiedince of the disorderit subjectis inhabitantis of the borders hielands and Ilis." Attached was a list of surnames, both from the Highlands and the border region. Under the border region there were 17 "clannis" with clan letters and local "marches":
- Middle March: Elliot , Armstrong , Nixon, Crosier.
- West March: Scott , Bates, Little, Thomson, Glendenning, Irvine , Bell, Carruthers, Graham, Johnstone, Jardine, Moffat, Latimer.
Of the families in this appendix, Elliot, Armstrong, Scott, Little, Irvine, Bell, Graham, Johnstone, Jardine and Moffat are recognized as a clan by the Lord Lyon King of Arms . The other clans are either extinct or have lost land, titles and rights.
However, the historically documented list of surnames was significantly longer:
- East March
- Scotland: Hume, Trotter, Dixon, Bromfield, Craw, Cranston.
- England: Forster, Selby, Gray, Dunn.
- Middle March
- Scotland: Burn, Kerr, Young, Pringle, Davison, Gilchrist, Tait of East Teviotdale, Scott, Oliver, Turnbull, Rutherford of West Teviotdale, Armstrong, Croser, Elliot, Nixon, Douglas, Laidlaw, Turner, Henderson of Liddesdale.
- England: Anderson, Potts, Reed, Hall, Hedley of Redesdale, Charlton, Robson, Dodd, Milburn, Yarrow, Stapleton of Tynedale, Fenwick, Ogle, Heron, Witherington, Medford (later also Mitford), Collingwood, Carnaby, Shaftoe, Ridley , Stokoe, Stamper, Wilkinson, Hunter, Thomson, Jamieson.
- West March
- Scotland: Bell, Irvine, Johnstone, Maxwell, Carlisle, Beattie, Little, Carruthers, Glendenning, Moffat.
- England: Graham, Hetherington, Musgrave, Storey, Lowther, Curwen, Salkeld, Dacre, Harden, Hodgson, Routledge, Tailor, Noble.
Relations between these clans fluctuated between "unusual alliance" and "deadly enmity". A feud only needed a small trigger. It could last for decades, survive wars and even be converted into temporary alliances for other feuds. A feud with clans on both sides of the border could destabilize an entire region and was occasionally an excuse for bloody raids.
Border Reivers today
Long after their disappearance, the Border Reivers were romanticized by writers like Walter Scott . He wrote traditional stories, such as the story of Kinmont Willie Armstrong, with artistic freedom. In doing so, however, he also made mistakes: The term "moss trooper" came from a later era. Nigel Tranter also used local stories like "Dish of Spurs" by the Charlton clan chief for his stories.
The names of the great Border Reivers families are still present. But even if local newspapers like to refer to the cross-border rugby games as "the annual repetition of the bloody battle of Otterburn " - the pacification of this border has made Scots English and vice versa.
Hawick hosts an annual Reivers' Festival, as does the Schomberg Society in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland. The summer festival in Duns is advertised with the elections for (Mister -) "Reiver" and for (Miss -) "Reiver Lass".
The Ulster Scots Agency explained the history and origin of the Ulster kilt with the Border Reivers in their first two brochures from the 'Scots Legacy' series; Descendants of exiled Reivers families named Elliot, Armstrong, Beattie, Bell, Hume, Heron, Rutledge, and Turnbulls are common in Ulster.
Border Reivers family surnames can be found in all major Scottish-Irish settlement areas on the east coast of the United States , in isolated cases as far as the Appalachians . Fischer describes in detail the roots of the “border culture” in the USA; MacDonald Fraser ironically judges the connection between Border Reivers origins and modern historical conflicts (Presidents Johnson and Nixon ).
A descendant of a Border Reivers family, Neil Armstrong , was the first man on the moon and visited Langholm , home of his ancestors , the following year .
swell
- Carey, Robert: The Stirring World of Robert Carey, Robert Carey's Memoirs 1577-1625 . RippingYarns.com ISBN 1-904466-29-X
- Durham, Keith; McBride, Angus: The Border Reivers: The story of the Anglo-Scottish borderlands . Osprey Publishing, 1995. ISBN 1-85532-417-2
- Ennis, Garth: War Stories: Volume 2 . Vertigo, 2006. ISBN 1-4012-1039-2
- Fischer, David Hackett: Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America . Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York, 1989
- Howker, Janni: Martin Farrell . Red Fox, 1997. ISBN 978-0-09-918161-3
- MacDonald Fraser, George: The Steel Bonnets . HarperCollins, New York, 1971. ISBN 0-00-272746-3
- Moffat, Alistair: The Reivers . Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84158-674-8
- Turnbull, Rob: The Border Reivers: A stain on the image of Tudor England . Medieval History Magazine, Vol. 4, 12/2003
- Moss, Tom: Deadlock and Deliverance: The Capture and Rescue of Kinmont Willie Armstrong . Rose Cottage Publications, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9558016-0-0
Web links
- The Border Reivers website
- The Border Reivers
- Border Reivers DNA Project
- Yet Another Border Reivers website
- The Routledge Reivers
- The Capture and Rescue of Kinmont Willie Armstrong
Individual evidence
- ↑ Translation by Merriam-Webster.com
- ^ Durham / McBride, 1995 , p. 5.
- ^ MacDonald Fraser, 1971 , p. 38
- ^ Durham / McBride, 1995 , p. 24.
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↑ Durham / McBride, 1995 , p. 20.
This procedural specification includes u. a .: Tracking the perpetrators, announcing, recovering the stolen property with words or deeds. - ↑ MacDonald Fraser, 1971 , pp. 215 ff.
- ↑ MacDonald Fraser, 1971 , pp. 139 f.
- ^ MacDonald Fraser, 1971 , p. 210.
- ^ MacDonald Fraser, 1971 , p. 360.
- ↑ Clans, Families and Septs on ElectricScotland.com
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↑ Great Britain III Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, 1587 , p. 466f.
free: "To enforce calm and obedience on the rampant subjects who inhabit the border areas, highlands and islands." - ↑ MacDonald Fraser, 1971 , p. 56ff.