The story of Hobbie Noble of the Crew, one of the English Border Reivers of somewhat dubious reknown, is one such example of Scots and English coming together. He would aid the Armstrongs of Liddesdale, a Scottish Border clan, in their hour of need, yet eventually be betrayed by one of their own.

The Pathetic Remains of Crew Castle. Now nothing more than a Sheep Pen.

Hobbie Flees to the Scottish Borders.

Hobbie was from Bewcastle in what was known in his time as the Waste of north Cumberland; his home was Crew Castle. Little of what would once have been a formidable tower remains today; the earthworks, however, easily recognised, bear testimony to a place of formidable strength: the home of a family of prominence and importance in the region. The Waste is still there to this day. It is a harsh and unforgiving country yet delights in little pockets of sylvan beauty which are a delight to the eyes.

Hobbie spent many years raiding in Tynedale (Northumberland) and even parts of his homeland, to the south of his Cumberland fortress. It would seem that allegiance to his countrymen was of little concern to a man bent on raiding wherever the opportunity presented itself. The product of theft, the ‘reive’, meant more to Hobbie than allegiance to his own countrymen, his own people.

Eventually they disowned him as they tired of the retribution exacted on them by the surnames (families) he had raided within his own country and the clans to the north of the Border. Their lives were dominated by the relentless raids from Tynedale, other parts of Cumberland, and southern Scotland which, with regular monotony, raided the homesteads of the folk of Bewcastledale.

He was much prized by the English West March Warden, the law in Cumberland. Doubtless there were many crimes laid at his door in which he had taken no part.

Hobbie fled to Liddesdale in the Scottish Borders were he was well received by the Laird of Mangerton, head of the Armstrongs. Anyone on run from the law, irrespective of nationality, was welcomed by the Armstrongs of Liddesdale.

Hobbie is True to his Scottish Hosts.

When Jock Armstrong of the ‘Side’, a stalwart and leading member of the Scottish clan was captured and thrown into gaol in Newcastle to await a fate which would inevitably see him dangle at the end of a rope, Hobbie was a major force in planning and achieving his rescue. He was lauded by the Armstrongs of Mangerton for the sterling part he played in the rescue of Jock but there were other Armstrongs, within Scottish Liddesdale, who resented the popularity of the Englishman.

Mangerton Tower. Once home to the Chief of the Armstrongs of Liddesdale.

The remains of Mangerton Tower, Liddesdale

Hobbie is asked to lead a raid into England by the Armstrongs of the Mains

Sim Armstrong was Laird of the Mains, today a peaceful farm in Liddesdale, but in the days of the Border Reivers, the most dangerous valley in the whole of Europe. Sim had grown to hate the great English Reiver whilst the English Warden was bent on wresting Hobbie from the Scottish Border lands and bringing him to account for his crimes in England. Sim and the Warden made a deal whereby, in return for English gold, Sim would betray Hobbie into the Warden’s hands. Accordingly, on the pretext that Hobbie knew the English ground better than he did, Sim persuaded Hobbie to lead a raid south of the Border into England. The cattle and sheep were fat and ripe for the picking.

Hobbie is betrayed by Sim of the Mains

Hobbie led the Armstrongs of the Mains into England but at the same time Sim Armstrong sent word to the English Keeper of Askerton that Hobbie was back on English ground. Hobbie and the Armstrongs had rested overnight before their final assault on their target. At the first light of the following day Hobbie woke to see the English confronting him. He was not unduly concerned because he knew the ground right well. His fertile mind instantly recognised the path in which he and the Armstrongs could evade any confrontation. But it was not to be. The Armstrongs at his back suddenly voiced their allegiance to the English and Hobbie was betrayed for gold.

Askerton Castle.

Defence against the Border Reivers of Liddesdale

Hobbie is bound and taken to Carlisle

Hobbie was bound with his own bow-string and led ignominiously to Carlisle and thrown in the dark damp cells of Carlisle castle. He was told he would hang next day unless he would confess to stealing Peter of Winfield’s horse, a crime that had hung over his head for some time. There is some doubt that Hobbie was involved, that the charge was trumped up by the English to see an end to the great English Border Reiver. He denied the allegation and prepared himself for death. Next morning he was hanged. There was a lot of sympathy in the watching crowd for the man who had risked life and limb to rescue Jock of the ‘Side’ from the Black Tower of Newcastle.

Sir Walter Scott, avid lover of Scottish English Border history and eminent writer of the early nineteenth century gathered the story of Hobbie Noble and committed it to verse in his ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border’.

Here are two particularly poignant verses from the ballad:

‘And fare thee weel , sweet Liddesdale, (weel = well)

Baith the hie land and the law;

Keep ye weel frae the traitor Mains,

For gould and gear he’ll sell ye a’ (goud = gold, a’ = all)

‘Yet wad I rather be ca’d Hobbie Noble, ( wad = would, ca’d = called)

In Carlisle , where he suffers for his fau’t, (fau’t = fault)

Than I’d be ca’d the traitor Mains,

That eats and drinks of the meal and maut’. ( maut = malt)

English Gold was no benefit to Sim of the Mains

When the Laird of Mangerton, head of the Armstrongs, heard of Hobbie’s fate and Sim’s involvement, he was furious. Normally, as Hobbie was executed by the English, his retribution would have been aimed against the English families who dared to steal in his domain, Liddesdale or its surrounds. For once he directed his wrath against his own. He planned a great reprisal against the Armstrongs of Mains even though they were a sect of the clan. Sim fled to England but within two months, thanks to intelligence furnished to the English by Mangerton, Sim of the Mains also dangled at the end of a rope on Harrabee Hill, the killing ground of Carlisle. No tears were wept by a crowd who were pleased that he had got his come-uppance for the betrayal of Hobbie Noble of the Crew.

Noblestown today. Home of the Nobles following the Union of the Crown and the Pacification of the Borders.

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Border Reivers following the Hue and Cry

In 1530 James V, king of Scotland, was a mere lad of seventeen. Freed at last from the clutches of those men who endeavoured to reign in his stead, in his minority, he was determined to prove that he was the real power in Scotland.

One area where allegiance to the clan and its leader came before any deference to royal power was the Scottish Border country. There the clans were a law unto themselves, particularly troublesome and unruly.

Accordingly he moved south from his seat in Edinburgh intent on doling out justice and punishment to those who were of particular notoriety. It is said he had six thousand armed followers.

The history of Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie, a power in the Scottish Borders, is well recorded. By subterfuge, some say as the result of a ‘loving letter’ he was encouraged to wait upon the king at Carlenrig, south of the Borders town of Hawick. There James, incensed by the apparent affluence of the fierce Border Reiver and his twenty-four followers, ordered their execution without trial. Johhnie had fallen into a trap from which there was no way out. He pleaded with the rash, impetuous youth of a king but to no avail. He resigned himself to his fate but not before saying in the Border Ballad which tells his story:-

‘To seek hot water beneath cold ice,

Surely it is a great folly-

I have asked grace at a graceless face,

But there is none for my men and me!’

He and twenty-three of his followers were strung up on the spot. The twenty-fourth was burned alive in vengeance for the burning of a poor women and her son in which he was the instigator.

In time, when maturity replaced the rashness and callowness of youth, James would regret his actions at Carlenrig. He lost any allegiance the Armstrongs of Liddesdale had for the Scottish monarchy on that fateful day in July 1530. In 1542 at the rout of the Scottish army by the English at the Battle of Solway Moss, the Armstrongs withheld their support for the Scottish cause, even harassed the losers as the terrified remnants of the Scottish army fled the field of conflict and headed back north.

James died shortly afterwards. He was about thirty years old.

Before he arrived in Carlenrig in July 1530, James V was determined to mete out the royal justice against two other Border Reivers of particular renown. One was Adam Scott of Tushielaw, known as the ‘King of Thieves’. Not only did he reive both far and wide; he was feared for the way in which he summarily despatched his adversaries. He strung them up from the trees which surrounded his tower at Tushielaw.

He was soon apprehended by the army of James V, and, it is said, hanged from the very trees from which had swung in their death throes many of the Reivers who had contested his bloody and audacious raids.

The other Border Reiver who was the subject of James’ ferocity was William Cockburne of Henderland (near St. Mary’s Loch). It is said he was hanged over the doorway of his Tower there.

Sir Walter Scott tells us in the ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border’ that ‘in a deserted burial place, which once surrounded the chapel of the castle (the Tower of Henderland), the monument of Cockburne and his lady are still shown. It is a large stone broken in three parts; but some armorial bearings may yet be seen and the following inscription is still legible, though defaced:-

HERE LYES PERYS OF COKBURNE AND HIS WYFE MARJORY.

the grave of Perys and Marjorie Cockburne.

The table-topped grave can still be seen on a little knoll of a hill in what was the churchyard of the Tower.

Following the deaths of Johnnie Armstrong and his followers emotions ran high and truth ran second best to fact; an approach handed down to the writers of Scottish Border history of the nineteenth century, including the rightly well-respected Sir Walter.

Perys Cokburne was not the William Cockburne who suffered at the hands of James V.

Neither Adam Scott ‘King of Thieves’ nor William Cockburne were summarily despatched within the confines of their own Towers. Rather they were taken to Edinburgh, tried and beheaded.

Robert Pitcairn (1797 – 1855) compiled the documents which recorded the fate of the Border Reivers who were tried and executed. The compilation is known as ‘Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials’.

For 1530 he records the following:-

William Cokburne of Henderland, Convicted (in presence of the King) of High Treason committed by him, in bringing Alexander Forester and his son, Englishmen, to the plundering od Archibald Someruile: And for treasonably bringing certain Englishmen to the lands of Glenquhome: And for common Theft, common Reset of Theft, outputting and inputting thereof – SENTENCE. For which causes and crimes he has forfeited his life, lands, and goods, moveable and immoveable; which shall be escheated to the King.- BEHEADED.

ADAM SCOTT of Tuschelaw, convicted of art and part of theftuously taking blackmail from the time of his entry within the castle of Edinburgh, in ward, of John Browne in Hopprow; and of art and part of theftuously taking blackmail of Andrew Thorbrand and William his brother: and of theftuously taking blackmail from the poor tenants of Hopcailzow: and of theftuously taking blackmail from the tenants of Eschescheill: BEHEADED.

Cockburne, it would seem, was convicted for his alliance with Englishmen which, under the Border Law, was treason, Scott for blackmail which was probably the least of his crimes.

And what of the Border Widow?

One of the most evocative of the Border Ballads is that of the ‘Lament of the Border Widow’. It has always been associated with the death of William Cockeburne following his capture by James V. Although this is historically impossible, it admirably portrays the emotion, the futility, isolation and sorrow which followed many a death in the days of the Reivers.

A BORDER WIDOW’S LAMENT.

My love he built me a bonny bower,

And clad it a’ wi’ lilye flour (all) (flower)

A brawer bower ye ne’er did see,

Than my true love he built for me.

There came a man, by middle day,

He spied his sport and went away;

And brought the king that very night,

Who brake my bower, and slew my knight. (broke)

He slew my knight, to me sae dear; (so)

He slew my knight and poin’d his gear; ( escheated to the king)

My servants all did life for flee,

And left me in extremitie.

I sew’d his sheet, making my mane, (grieving and crying)

I watch’d the corpse myself alane (alone)

I watch’d his body night and day;

No living creature came that way.

I took his body on my back,

And whiles I gaed and whiles I sat; (moved, went)

I digged a grave, and laid him in,

And happ’d him with the sod sae green. (covered) (so)

But think not ye my heart was sair, (sore)

When I laid the moule on his yellow hair? (soil)

O think na ye my heart was wae (weary)

When I turn’d about, away to gae? (go)

Nae living man I’ll love again, (no)

Since that my lovely knight was slain,

Wi’ a lock of his yellow hair,

I’ll chain my heart for evermair.

In the reiving times, the 13th to the 17th centuries, the Scottish English Border was a land in turmoil. Endless confrontation and bloody feud spawned a people who were hard both mentally and physically. The ‘Lament of the Border Widow’ shows another side of the relentless strife which dominated the land of which little is said. Sadness and sorrow followed in its wake.

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Kinmont was well prized by the English who had no answer to his constant raids into northern England. His organised forays south of the English Scottish Border Line, coupled with his contempt for English authority and its hapless attempts to curtail his reiving, had made him enemy number one to the Lord Scropes. They were members of the English aristocracy who, father and son, were Wardens of the English West March from 1561 to 1603.

Kinmont raided Tarset in Tynedale, Northumberland on more than one occasion and was party, in these particularly vicious forays, to the murder of many men. One of these raids was carried out in daylight, unusual in itself as the reivers usually operated at night, and contained over a thousand men from the valleys of southern Scotland. They returned to the Scottish Border valleys with thousands of sheep and cattle and left homelessness and destitution in their wake.

Border Marches showing the Border Line

The ‘Day of Truce’ at the Dayholme of Kershope.

In March 1596 a ‘Day of Truce’ was held near Kershopefoot on the Border of England and Scotland. It was a day purportedly to be held at monthly intervals in each of the East, Middle and West Marches of both countries; a day when felons were brought to the very Border Line to answer for their crimes in an open-air venue. Many men, both English and Scottish, were requested to attend the court and witness that the proceedings were both honourable and fair and upheld the principle and spirit of the Border Law. All who attended were granted safe conduct whilst the Truce lasted through the medium of the ‘Assurance of the Truce’. Such a measure was necessary as both the Scots and English invited to attend as witnesses might, outside the Truce, be at Feud or deadly enemies of each other, the result of previous reiving or family disagreement. Many a man viewed his neighbour of the day with suspicion, hatred or scorn.

Theft of cattle, sheep and ‘insight’, i.e. household and farming goods and tools, were the most common reasons for trial but murder, the result of constant feud and searing animosity against neighbour or enemy from across the Border Line, was ever present. Murder was the inevitable outcome of the hatred that hardened in men’s hearts. It mattered not a whit should such enmity concern a fellow countryman. The product of the Feud often encompassed many generations.

Kinmont Willie is Present at the Truce

Kinmont Willie was called by the Keeper of Liddesdale, Walter Scott of Branxholme and Buccleuch, to attend the ‘Day of Truce’ at the Dayholme of Kershope to represent the Scots. The trials of the Border Reivers on the day went without incident and both Deputy Wardens, presidents of the proceedings, were satisfied that justice had been achieved. Just before sunset both English and Scottish parties began to make their way home. The safe conduct or ‘Assurance’ of the Truce was enshrined in Border Law and lasted until sun-up of the following day. Thereby all who had attended were confident that they could make their way home unmolested by erstwhile enemies who, on this occassion, were required to honour the Law.

Kinmont Willie is Captured by the English.

As Kinmont Willie rode down the Scottish bank of the river Liddel, he was seen by a party of English making their way home on the opposite side of the river, down the English bank. They could not resist the temptation of seeing the greatest Reiver of the age tantalisingly within their grasp. Safe conduct and ‘Assurance’ thrown to the wind, they turned and rode hard across the river Liddel and chased Kinmont down. He was bound and taken to Carlisle castle where he was imprisoned.

War of Words leads to Deadlock

When Buccleuch, Keeper of Liddesdale, learned that Kinmont Willie was in prison as a result of being taken against the honour of the ‘Assurance of the Truce’, he was incandescent with rage. He took no time in writing to the English March Warden, Thomas Lord Scrope, demanding Kinmont’s immediate release. Scrope, like his father Henry before him as Warden, so coveted the neck of the much vaunted Reiver that he refused to succumb to Buccleuch’s forthright petitions. Rather he met the fury with measured indifference and cited more than one spurious reason why he would not comply. Even James Vl of Scotland and Elizabeth l became embroiled in the acrimonious affair.

Eventually tiring of the impasse, Buccleuch resolved to breach the defences of Carlisle castle and rescue Kinmont. He was heartened by the fact that he would have inside help from members of the English garrison of the castle who had tired of Thomas Lord Scrope’s dictatorial rule as well as aid from the premier English clan, the Grahams of Netherby and Mote.

Branxholme-the Nesby Tower-Home of Walter Scott

A Small Rescue Party achieves its Aims

On 13th April 1596 the rescue party led by Buccleuch and consisting mainly of Armstrongs, moved south through English territory to Carlisle. It was a horrendous night of heavy rain and thick cloud. They were adeptly aided by members of the Grahams who had been at odds with the Scropes for years.

The rescue was achieved with an ease that defied logic. A postern gate was opened from the inside by one of the friends of the English Carletons, another family who had vowed to see the end of Thomas Lord Scrope. Having previously been told exactly where Kinmont was warded, the five of the rescue party who entered the castle lost little time in freeing the great Scottish Reiver. The remainder of the rescue band were outside the castle walls banging on drums, blowing trumpets at a strident pitch and making such a discordant noise that the English garrison, already sheltering under coverlets from the veritable downpour, refused to stir. They thought there was an army outside the walls.

Kinmont was soon across the river Eden and heading north sheltered by his comrades in arms. He was to lie low in the valley of the Ewes, north of Langholm.

The Aftermath

Elizabeth l was furious when she received the news of the rescue. How dare any Scot attack one of her premier Border fortresses when peace existed between the two countries? The diplomatic wrangle between various ambassadors and the two monarchs went on for over a year. Elizabeth demanded that Buccleuch be handed over to the English for punishment as he was the one who had orchestrated the affair. James Vl, reluctant to upset his countrymen who to a man applauded Buccleuch’s outrageous actions, refused to do so.

Tomb of Thomas Lord Scrope in the Village of Langar, Nottinghamshire

As was usual in the Borders of the times where a catalogue of crime superceded the event, the heat finally went out of the situation but not before the strained allegiance between England and Scotland was severely tested.

Kinmont Willie? He went on to reive for many another day and died in his bed about 1603.

Sark Churchyard-Burial Place of Kinmont Willie.

Sark Churchyard-Burial Place of Kinmont Willie.

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THE RIVERS ESK AND EWES AT LANGHOLM.

Sir John was born in 1542, son to an illustrious family which hailed from Lanarkshire. He was a direct ancestor of the Earls of Hindford.

He was Scottish Deputy March Warden at the ‘Day of Truce’ which was held on the Border in the hills aside present day Carter Bar in July 1575. The Day of Truce, a meeting to try the perpetrators of crime, both English and Scottish, was enshrined in Border Law. March Wardens from each side of the Border presided over the affairs and were charged with bringing the criminals for trial; juries were a mix of both Scots and English. Yet the ‘Day’ was a time when many men attended from both England and Scotland to witness that fair play presided throughout.

In 1575 numbers who attended were limitless; it was not unusual for a thousand men from each country to witness the events. Thus it was nigh on impossible to bring Scots and English together without inviting many who were at feud. Such was the turmoil that reigned in the Border country that even blood-feud prevailed as men from the same clans and same side of the Border rubbed shoulders at the Truce but smarted for revenge at the sight of an adversary with whom they were at odds. The atmosphere was charged with belligerence and aggression, yet there was little alternative. All invited might ostensibly be there to see fair play but there was another reason, unspoken yet acknowledged by all. Their presence was some insurance that neither side would take advantage of the other, nor resort to violence should any judgement be deemed unfair by family or friend of the accused. All who attended the Truce were to arrive unarmed but the reality was so different. No man would have been so foolish as to adhere to this code in the cauldron of ill feeling which prevailed. The Wardens turned a blind eye to the steel which swung at each man’s belt.

All took an oath to honour the precept of the Truce. They swore that they would not offend ‘by word, deed or countenance’.

THE BORDER MARCHES

At the Raid of the Redeswire Carmichael fell victim to the invective and guile of Sir John Forster, seventy-five years old, and English Middle March Warden. Reaction to the aggressive exchanges of the two Wardens soon spilled over to the men of both sides who attended and all hell let loose.

The Redeswire affair was the last battle between English and Scottish Border Reivers and the last time that the English used the longbow in warfare. The English came off the worse in this encounter and Carmichael was warded in York in an effort to appease the wrath of Elizabeth l of England. Sir George Heron of Chipchase in Tynedale, Northumberland was murdered in the affray.

There was at least one other occasion where Sir John Carmichael played a prominent part. In the Raid of Ruthven in 1582 the sixteen year old king of Scotland, James Vl, was captured by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, and confined for ten months. Gowrie was unhappy at the influence of Catholicism and the effect this might have on the young king. Carmichael held the same views and readily espoused the cause of ridding the nation of the pro-catholic and pro-French influences epitomised in the young king’s cousin, Esme Stuart.

Carmichael was soon pardoned for his part in the affair. In 1588 he was one of the ambassadors sent to Denmark to negotiate the marriage between James Vl and Anne, daughter of the king of Denmark.

When Carmichael was made Warden of the Scottish West March in 1598 he had come of age. For all his turbulent past he was respected as a Warden who would see fair play between the English and Scots. There were many in the Scottish Border Lands who resented his impartial approach; none more so than the Armstrongs of Liddesdale.

LIDDESDALE

In 1600 Carmichael made it plain that he would use his power as March Warden even against his own people and especially the Armstrongs whose raids south of the Border were a particular embarrassment to a man dedicated to bringing peace to the Borders. The Armstrongs decided to plead for leniency on the promise of amendment to their nefarious ways and sought an audience with Sir John. They sent a brother of William Armstrong of Kinmont to parley with Carmichael, one Alexander Armstrong, known as Sandeis Ringane. Carmichael had heard the promises too many times before and would have no truck with the Armstrong clan. Their past outrages deserved the punishments he held in store.

THE RUINS OF MANGERTON TOWER; THE MAIN ARMSTRONG STRONGHOLD

At the meeting with Carmichael were a few of his young followers. They began to taunt the elderly Armstrong and endeavoured to humiliate him at every opportunity. It would seem that Carmichael did little to curb their youthful pranks and overt hostility to the once powerful warlord. At one stage they removed his sword and filled his scabbard with egg yolks. Having replaced the sword it was now impossible to remove it from the scabbard.

Sandeis Ringane was besides himself with fury and swore that should any of the present company of Carmichael ever stray on Armstrong land he would have no compunction in pulling his sword and ridding the world of their odious presence.  The meeting broke up with acrimony.

On his return home Sandeis Ringane told his sons of his mistreatment. His eldest son, Thomas Armstrong, said little in the way of comfort to calm the distress and shame of his unfortunate father but the thought of revenge was soon at the forefront of his mind.

He knew that next morning Sir John Carmichael was to leave Langholm and ride for Lochmaben where he was to preside over a Warden Court. The journey, through hilly woodland, would surely present the perfect opportunity to confront the illustrious March Warden.

THE RUINS OF LOCHMABEN CASTLE

Accordingly next morning a party of Armstrongs including Thomas Armstrong and his father along with a Taylor, a Forrester, a Scott and a Graham lay in wait for Carmichael at a place still known to this day as the Raesknowes, on the way to Lochmaben. As the March Warden passed the ambush party a number of hagbutts rang out and Carmichael fell dead.

The ambush party scattered and sought refuge at the homes of friends who had been apprised of the intention to kill Carmichael but they were relentlessly pursued on the orders of King James.

Carmichael was a king’s Warden of the Marches and the perpetrators of the murder were therefore considered as traitors. Murder in the Border lands was pretty commonplace in the 16th century but this one was different. Murder of a man appointed by the King himself was not to be tolerated. The wrongdoers would pay the ultimate price for their rash and impetuous crime against a King’s man.

In 1601 Thomas Armstrong, son to Sandies Ringane, was apprehended, taken to the Mercat Cross at Edinburgh and hanged. Before he stood the drop that ended his life his right hand was cut off. Subsequently his body was wrapped in chains, the lifeless corpse hung up at the Borroughmuir.

‘And Thomas Armstrang, “sone to Sandeis Ringane” was condemned to be “tane to the mercat croce of Edinburgh, and thair his richt hand to be stricken fra his arme; and thaireeftir, to be hanget upoune ane gibbet, quhill he be deid; and thaireefter, to be tane to the Gallows on the Burrowmure, and thair his body to be hangit in irn chains…

Thomas Armstrong was the first man ever to be hanged in chains after death; at least he is the first recorded as such in the Scottish records. Even in death he was to suffer for his crime, his body subject to the butt of endless atrocity by the Edinburgh populace.

One man evaded capture until 1606.

Should you ever find yourself taking the road from Canonbie to Newcastleton in the Scottish Borders, you will come across a statue to Lang Sandy as you pass through the village of Rowanburn. It is on your right as you pass through the village.

Lang Sandy, as his name implies, was a huge man. His real name was Alexander Armstrong, the board at his feet simply declaring that he was hanged in 1606.

He took part in the ambush and murder of Sir John Carmichael in June 1600 but was not caught until six years later.

At his trial he admitted the murder but not before saying that the crime was brought on against his will.

The murder of Sir John Carmichael would herald the end of the Armstrongs as the superior force in the Scottish Border Lands. Within three years of the murder, James Vl of Scotland would also rule in England on the death of Elizabeth l. He would not forget the atrocity committed by a clan that had often been the bane of his endeavours to cement a lasting and firm relationship with the English queen before her death. Many of the Armstrongs would be unjustly hounded and persecuted, evicted from their lands, deported and executed without trial.

Carmichael‘s death would signal their demise.

LANG SANDY OF ROWANBURN

Border Reivers

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