Editing Border reivers (section)

==Nature==
[[File:WatHarden.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Walter Scott of Harden|Auld Wat of Harden]]'' by [[Tom Scott (painter, born 1854)|Tom Scott]]. A romanticised image of a notorious raider, Walter Scott of Harden.]]

The Anglo-Scottish Borderlands were characterised by a significant proportion of boggy terrain, poorer soils, and a harsher climate compared to southern or central England. These conditions favoured pastoralism over arable farming, encouraging dispersed settlement patterns and limiting the development of urban centres.<ref>Ellis, Steven G. ''Tudor Frontiers and Noble Power: The Making of the British State''. Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 258.</ref>

Borderers who dwelled in the highlands led a [[transhumance]] existence, moving their herds with the seasons—driving them up to the highland pastures in summer for lush grazing, and returning to the lowlands in winter for shelter and fodder.<ref>Moffat, Alistair. The Border Reivers: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Borderlands. Birlinn, 2007, p.17.</ref><ref>Robson, Ralph. The English Highland Clans: Tudor Responses to a Mediaeval Problem. Edinburgh: John Donald, 1989. {{ISBN|978-0-85976-246-5}}. pp16</ref><ref>Moffat, Alistair. The Reivers: The Story of the Border Reivers. Birlinn, 2011., pp54</ref><ref>Hay, D. "England, Scotland and Europe: The Problem of the Frontier." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 25, 1975, pp. 82. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3679087. Accessed 12 Feb. 2025.</ref> The practice of transhumance in the Borders appears to have predated the Norman invasion.<ref>O'Brien, C. (2002). The Early Medieval Shires of Yeavering, Breamish and Bamburgh. Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th Series, 30, p24</ref> An unusually large proportion of the land was held in [[common land|common]], at least on the English-side.<ref>Ellis, Steven G. Tudor Frontiers and Noble Power: The Making of the British State. Oxford University Press, 1995, p.68.</ref>

A system of partible inheritance is evident in some parts of the English side of the Borders in the sixteenth century.<ref name="Ellis, Steven G 1995, p68">Ellis, Steven G. Tudor Frontiers and Noble Power: The Making of the British State. Oxford University Press, 1995, p68.</ref> By contrast to [[primogeniture]], this meant that land was divided equally among all sons following a father's death; it could mean that the inheriting generation held insufficient land on which to survive.<ref name=Durham5>Durham & McBride, p.5</ref><ref name="auto25"/><ref>Etty, Claire. "Neighbours from Hell? Tynedale and Redesdale." In Liberties and Identities in the Medieval British Isles, edited by Michael C. Prestwich, Alexander Grant, and Keith J. Stringer, 121. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2008.</ref> As a result of their distinctive practices of [[partible inheritance]], [[Cattle raiding|cattle-rustling]], and [[Clan|clan-nism]], Elizabethan observers frequently compared the Borderers to the [[Irish people|Irish]].<ref name="Ellis, Steven G 1995, p68"/>

It was not uncommon for tenancy agreements to stipulate that, rather than providing labor or agricultural produce, tenants were required to contribute military service, offering their fighting strength in lieu of traditional rents.<ref>Sargent, A. (2003). The English West March towards Scotland in Tudor Times. In R. Esser, M. Ellis, & A. Sargent (Eds.), Frontiers and Border Regions in Early Modern Europe (pp. 79–92). University of Groningen.</ref><ref>Scott, J.G. "The Partition of a Kingdom: Strathclyde 1092–1153." Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, Series III, Vol. 72, 1997, pp.21</ref> As part of that arrangement, tenants were also obligated to maintain their own weapons, horses, and harnesses.<ref>Ellis, Steven G. Tudor Frontiers and Noble Power: The Making of the British State. Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 38.</ref> This system of military tenancy may have originated on the Border as early as the Norman colonisation of the Borders, when the need for a readily available mounted force was paramount in securing and defending the frontier.<ref>Scott, J.G. (1997). "The Partition of a Kingdom: Strathclyde 1092–1153". ''Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society'', Third Series, 72: 21.</ref>

[[Bernard Gilpin]], the early [[Protestantism|Protestant]] reformer, recounted visiting Redesdale and finding no minister, bell, or book. During the visit, he was reportedly approached by a horseman who, recognising him as a godly man, handed him the corpse of a dead infant and said, “Come, parson, and do the cure.”<ref>Robb, Graham. The Debatable Land. London: Picador, 2018, p. 63.</ref>

The reivers were both English and Scottish and raided both sides of the border impartially,<ref>Neville, C. J. "The Law of Treason in the English Border Counties in the Later Middle Ages." Law and History Review 9, no. 1 (1991): 5. {{doi|10.2307/743658}}.</ref> so long as the people they raided 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. Borderers were reported to have raided as far north as the outskirts of Edinburgh, while incursions reached as far south as Yorkshire.<ref>Fraser, George MacDonald. The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers. HarperCollins, 1995., p92</ref> The main raiding season ran through the early winter months, when the nights were longest and the cattle and horses fat from having spent the summer grazing.<ref>Moffat, Alistair. The Reivers: The Story of the Border Reivers. Birlinn, 2011., pp56</ref> The numbers involved in a raid might range from a few dozen to organised campaigns involving up to three thousand riders.<ref>George McDonald Fraser, ''The Steel Bonnets'' (London: Harvill, 1989), p.38</ref> Although criminal activity was widespread, [[highway robbery]] was exceptional and often noted when it occurred.<ref>Robb, Graham. The Debatable Land: The Lost World Between Scotland and England. W. W. Norton & Company, 2021, p72</ref> Those who didn't keep their word were ritually humiliated in a practice called 'baunchling,' where the man's glove or image was held aloft on the end of a lance.<ref>Robb, Graham. The Debatable Land: The Lost World Between Scotland and England. W. W. Norton & Company, 2021, p62</ref>

According to local tradition, some Border reivers were said to have buried their most hated enemies beneath the threshold of their tower houses or bastles, so that they might symbolically tread upon them for eternity.<ref>Robb, Graham. The Debatable Land: The Lost World Between Scotland and England. London: Picador, 2018, p. 64.</ref>

When raiding, or riding, as it was termed, the reivers rode light on hardy nags or ponies renowned for the ability to pick their way over the boggy moss lands (see: [[Galloway pony]], [[Hobelar]]).<ref>Moffat, Alistair. The Reivers: The Story of the Border Reivers. Birlinn, 2011., p56-57</ref> The Borderers had an extensive knowledge of the terrain, including hidden routes and river fords, which allowed them to navigate the region efficiently and evade pursuit even in rough weather.<ref>Ralph Robson, The English Highland Clans, (Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, 1989). p101</ref><ref>Neville, C. J. "The Law of Treason in the English Border Counties in the Later Middle Ages." Law and History Review 9, no. 1 (1991): 13. {{doi|10.2307/743658}}.</ref><ref>Moffat, Alistair. The Reivers: The Story of the Border Reivers. Birlinn, 2011., pp36</ref>

The original dress of a [[Northumbrian tartan|shepherd's plaid]] was later replaced by light armour such as [[brigandine]]s or [[Jack of plate|jacks of plate]] (a type of sleeveless [[doublet (clothing)|doublet]] into which small plates of steel were stitched), and metal helmets such as [[burgonet]]s or [[Morion (helmet)|morions]]; hence their nickname of the "steel bonnets". They were armed with light lances and small shields, and sometimes also with [[longbow]]s, or light [[crossbow]]s, known as "latches", or later on in their history with one or more pistols. They invariably also carried [[sword]]s and [[dirk]]s.<ref>Durham, Keith. Border Reiver 1513–1603. Osprey Publishing, 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-84908-193-1}}, p28</ref>