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For the three centuries before the union of the Crowns under James VI and I the Anglo-Scottish border was subjected to near constant warfare, some of it large scale Royal campaigns, much of it much smaller border raiding, carried out by rival families who faced each other across the border but often had much in common.
Although we start with a look at the border of the Border Reivers, they aren’t actually the focus of most of the book (although they do get plenty of coverage). Instead most of the chapters look at the more formal warfare that plagued the borders throughout this period, from the outbreak of the Scottish wars under Edward I to ‘Rough Wooing’ under Henry VIII. These were the most disruptive campaigns – major armies could cause far more damage than local raids, even if they weren’t present for as long, and the major battles such as Homildon Hill had a long term impact and saw great loss of life. Not all of the conflict examined was cross-border either – we get a good section on the War of the Roses in the north, and in particular in Northumbria, where the Lancastrian cause held out for rather longer than elsewhere, with limited Scottish and French support. What comes across here is the shear pointlessness of most of these conflicts. English campaigns into Scotland could capture castles, sack Edinburgh and other towns and cities but once the English army had gone the Scots came back and rebuilt, and little or nothing changed. Scottish raids into northern England could cause a great deal of local damage, but almost never threatened the political heartland of the country, far to the south (and the main occasions when they did came after the merger of the crowns – the battle of Worcester and the Jacobite advance during the ’45 being the main example). The major royal raids into the south also came with the very real danger of disaster, as at Homildon Hill or Flodden.
Most of the time the author’s tone adds a certain vitality to the narrative. This isn’t the standard neutral tone of most historical writing, but instead often more flamboyant and opinionated. He has firm opinions on the major battles, based on a good knowledge of both the sources and the ground they were fought over, and makes some very good points about flaws in some of the standard accounts of these battles. The best example is Homildon Hill, where many accounts have the two armies facing each other from opposing hills, an idea that makes little sense if you look at the area, as the gap between Homildon and its neighbouring hills is simply too large. The author has written extensively on these border battles, so his views on these battles have the benefit of significant study.
There are some moments where the author’s tome misfires. One example is the fate of James III of Scotland, who was overthrown in a civil war and killed either during or soon after the battle of Sauchieburn in 1488. Sadler describes an earlier crisis in 1482 as seeing the ‘wholesale murder of his metrosexual cabal’. This would appear to be a reference to the possible death of a Thomas or Robert Cochrane, an alleged favourite of James who doesn’t appear in that role in contemporary sources, and only really emerges in chronicles written much later. Another of the alleged victims of this was James Hommyll, an Edinburgh merchant known to have survived until 1515. James’s actual favourites, John Ramsey, 1st Lord Bothwell and William Scheves, Archbishop of St. Andrews, both outlived James. The use of metrosexual in what is clearly meant to be a negative way also grates.
The author makes a clear distinction between the borderers, who he has a lot of time for (being one himself), and the border reivers, who he has very little time for. This comes to the fore most clearly in the chapter on their eventual destruction after James VI of Scotland became James I of England. At a stroke the border disappeared, at least as an area of international conflict (at least under James anyway – it came back during the Civil War). I’m not convinced by his argument that James’s attitude amounted to ethnic cleansing – he wasn’t targeting a group that could be identified by any ethnic or national or religious description, but instead what amounted to a group of criminal gangs, scattered along the border and living on either side of it. As he points out, most of the ‘names’ found amongst the border reivers can still be found in large numbers living along the borders (and down into my area of west Cumbria). However James’s methods were pretty brutal, and did involve mass hangings on both sides (again almost entirely of people who had committed capital crimes). The hammer really fell on those families who failed to adapt to the changed times – other well known border reivers who reformed were rewarded for it, and thrived under James. He also considers what impact the reivers might have had on the modern character of the borders, and concludes that they had little or no impact – instead the years of heavy industry were far more significant.
This is an excellent study of the long series of wars that ravaged the borders for so long, written by someone with an obvious love for the area and deep knowledge of his subject. The author’s style feels like it fits well with this topic, making for a lively read without romanticizing the often dreadful events.
Chapters
Introduction – The Border Line
1 – Genesis of a Frontier
2 – Fall of the Hammer
3 – Chevy Chase
4 – ‘At Homildon Met’
5 – Game of Thrones
6 – Seasons of Discontent
7 – Flowers of the Forest
8 – A Very Rough Wooing
9 – Those Middle Shires
10 – Revolution and Reinvention
Author: John Sadler
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 268
Publisher: Whittles
Year: 2023