Editing Border reivers (section)

==Borderers as soldiers==
Border reivers were sometimes in demand as [[mercenaries|mercenary soldiers]], owing to their recognised skills as light [[cavalry]]. So impressed with the reputation of the quality of Borderers, [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]] reportedly created a whole unit fashioned upon the Scottish Reivers.{{sfn|Robson|1989|p=188}} Reivers sometimes served in English or Scottish armies in the [[Low Countries]] and in Ireland, often to avoid having harsher penalties enacted upon themselves and their families. Reivers fighting as [[Conscription#Medieval levies|levied]] soldiers played important roles in the battles at [[Battle of Flodden|Flodden]] and [[Battle of Solway Moss|Solway Moss]]. After meeting one reiver (the [[Walter Scott, 1st Lord Scott of Buccleuch|''Bold Buccleugh'']]), Queen [[Elizabeth I]] is quoted as having said that "with ten thousand such men, [[James VI and I|James VI]] could shake any throne in Europe."<ref>Fraser, George MacDonald. The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers. HarperCollins, 1995, p345</ref>

These borderers proved difficult to control, however, within larger national armies. They were already in the habit of claiming any nationality or none, depending on who was asking and where they perceived the individual advantage to be. Many had relatives on both sides of Scottish-English conflicts despite prevailing laws against international marriage. They could be badly behaved in camp, seeing fellow soldiers as sources of plunder. As warriors more loyal to clans than to nations, their commitment to the work was always in doubt. At battles such as [[Battle of Ancrum Moor|Ancrum Moor]] in Scotland in 1545, borderers changed sides in mid-combat to curry favour with the likely victors. At the [[Battle of Pinkie Cleugh]] in 1547, an observer ([[William Patten (historian)|William Patten]]) noticed Scottish and English borderers chatting with each other, then putting on a spirited show of combat once they knew they had been spotted.<ref>Moffat</ref>