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The
Reiver
The Border revier, in modern terms, could be described as a small-holder
or gentleman farmer, but he was also a professional cattle rustler.
He was a fighting man, a guerrilla soldier of great resource to
whom the arts of theft, raid, tracking and ambush were second nature.
He
was also often a gangster organised on highly professional lines,
who had perfected the protection racket three centuries before Chicago
was built. The border reivier came from every class, and from both
sides of the England/Scotland border.
The
Border country
The Border country was divided for administrative purposed into
three Marches - East, Middle and West - with a boundary for the
English and Scottish side of each March. Each of the six marches
had a governing officer known as a Warden, appointed by their respective
governments.
The
warden's duties were to defend the frontier against invasion from
the opposite realm in wartime, and in peace to put down crime and
co-operate with the Wardens across the Border for the maintenance
of law and order. The wardens tended to be either locals or too
far from home to be accountable and the majority were susceptible
to corruption.
With
reckless thieving and violence, keeping the peace seemed a hopeless
task and corruption and adversity was rife. Only the English warden's
complaints have survived in the records. They describe the place
as "ungovernable".
In
one memorandum of 1579 a warden attempted to list the reasons for
the increasing deterioration of the English Marches.
It lists:
• Private English feuds
• Scottish spoils
• The long peace, which led to the neglect of horses and weapons
• Dishonest Scottish wardens
• and blackmail
The
debatable land
The debatable land was an area 20 miles long by 8 miles wide between
the realms of Scotland and England that belonged to neither crown.
In practice it was a no mans land, with its own 'laws', which in
practice, were virtually impossible to impose. The clans who lived
there were notoriously mercurial in their political allegiances
and the debatable land was known to be "English at its pleasure
and Scottish at its will".
The
border clans were outsiders in every sense of the word. By their
lawlessness but also socially and politically. The people who lived
in this area were detached from the crown realms of England and
Scotland. As a result they were a mercurial lot, who would change
their allegiance between countries to suit their own ends and swap
alliances between clans within the border territories if it would
provide dividends.
Scot
pillaged Scot, Englishman robbed Englishman just as readily as they
raided across the border frontier. Feuds were just as deadly between
families on the same side of the border as those from opposite sides.
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