The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers

by Macdonald-Fraser, George

• ISBN13: 9781585790258
• ISBN10: 1585790257
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-06-01
• Publisher: Trafalgar Square

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Border Reivers	1	(10)
PART ONE: The Making of a Frontier	11	(20)
Hadrian draws the line
The moving boundaries
England v. Scotland, 1286-1500
PART TWO: People of the Marches	31	(52)
Border country
``A martial kind of men''
Food and shelter
The riding surnames
Hands across the Border
Bangtail and company
The game and the song
PART THREE: ``Shake Loose the Border''	83	(126)
Lance and steel bonnet
How the reivers rode
Nothing too hot or too heavy
A parcel of rogues
Carleton's Raid
Hot trod and red hand
The ability to kill
The Wardens of the Marches
Leges Marchiarum
Days of truce
The unblessed hand
Terror, blackmail, kidnapping and ``decaie''
``Fyre and sword upon Tuesday next''
PART FOUR: The Long Good-night, 1503-1603	209	(144)
Flodden and after
The Devil, and Lord Angus
Armstrongs in action
A rope for Black Jock
The violent peace
The road to Solway Moss
The rough wooing
Wharton and Maxwell
England's grip broken
The Debateable Land
The women's touch
Queen on the Marches
The Countess and the reivers
The last armies
Reidswire and Windygyle
The stirring world of Robert Carey
``Fyrebrande''
Lances to Carlisle
The Carleton Brothers
PART FIVE: The Middle Shires	353	(28)
Carey's ride
Breaking the Border
Malefactors of the name of Graham
The thieves dauntoned
After the riding
Afterword	381
Thomas Meagher
Appendix I: The Archbishop of Glasgow's ``Monition of Cursing'' against the Border reivers
Appendix II: The ballad of Kinmont Willie
Bibliography
Glossary
Index