If I said I was going to tell you a story of clans and cattle raiding, of 16th Century hard men, whose
loyalty was to their chief, before their king, who lived by their family name and code of honour, that
a modernising Stuart king was desperate to bend to his will. You might think that I was talking about
Gaelic speaking Highlanders, but no. Today I want to tell you a tale about Border Reivers. If you're
interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then click the subscribe button
at the bottom right of the screen. In the meantime, let me tell you a story. We're often accused of
knowing nothing about our history, so tell me this, did you realise that there were clans in the Borders?
Let me know in the comment section below. Now sometimes you read a quote that makes
an impact, but you can't for the life you remember where you saw it, and for me there
was one case of an historian writing, I think in 1603, who said, the history of the Borders is over.
Has nothing ever happened in the Borders since? Of course that has! There was that time in 1883 when
two Melrose butchers invented seven aside rugby, and of course there was that famous split between
Gala (Galashiels) and Melrose when Melrose stole the strips (uniforms) and the rugby goal posts. Border Reivers wasn't entirely
over! Oh aye, there's been a lot of history in the Borders down the years but 1603 book
ended a period that probably started with the English invasion of Edward Longshanks 300 years earlier.
There was a legitimacy to crossing the border and raiding, best exemplified by good Sir James,
the Black Douglas. There were numerous English invasions, where the English ravaged the south
of Scotland as they came, and of course often they never had the opportunity because Scottish leaders
employed a scorched earth policy, and burned their own border areas before the English got there, so
why risk farming the area, when raiding across the border was so often a tool of government anyway,
and why give loyalty to the crown, when they'd leave you unprotected and at the mercy of an invading
army next time round? This bred a particular style of hardy self-reliant people either side of the
border, who had more in common with each other than they did with their respective capitals, hence
at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, the most brutal battle of Henry the Eight's rough wooing,
Scots Borderers and English Borderers, who fought bitterly with each other from week to week,
where they were pitted against themselves here, and seen
chatting amongst themselves. It was only when they were noticed, that they started ...
but in 1603, James the Sixth of Scotland became James the First of England, and he wanted to stamp
out the lawless reiving either side of the border, that for him no longer existed.
Now the history of the Borders was over. In 1605, James is commissioned to bring
order to the middle shires, had 79 people executed, and many more in the years to follow, but James
wasn't the first to try to stamp out border reiving. I want to tell you about his grandad James the Fifth, and
Johnny 'Black Jock' Armstrong. Johnny Armstrong was a man in those debatable borderlands from which the
Armstrong's hailed. He wasn't a great landowner, and yet he was fabulously wealthy, and he could retain
150 men and put many more in the field. I've heard it said that it was he who funded Langholm Castle,
and Gilnockie Tower here was a stronghold. In a time where land was wealth, Johnny Armstrong had little.
He grew rich from blackmail. They say that there wasn't a town between here and Newcastle,
that didn't pay protection money to Johnny, so as to keep their family homes and cattle safe
from cross-border reiving. This was a problem for James the Fifth. James
was trying to maintain peaceful relations with Henry the Eighth, his southern neighbour, and of course his
uncle. Remember James was the son of Margaret Tudor. Incidentally I've made a video about her that I'm
really really pleased with, and if you watch it, it'll give you a context so you can understand
the position when James had just come into his period of personal rule. He certainly didn't
want lawlessness in the border to interfere with his relationship with his uncle Henry,
So on the 5th of July, 1530, James headed south with an army of men, to tackle the problem of border reiving.
Now I've heard accounts that James sent a letter to Johnny Armstrong, inviting him to hunt,
or some other pretext to lure him into the folly of a meeting. Personally I'm not entirely convinced.
Johnny was now a middle-aged man with years of experience surviving and growing rich, and knows
difficult borderlands. James a 17 year old boy, no doubt testosterone fuelled, who just entered
into his personal rule, after a painful wardship and difficult relations with stepfather the Earl of Douglas,
who he hated. He'd want to show who was boss and make sure that the people of Scotland
and uncle Henry knew it. Now I'm pretty sure Johnny Armstrong understood the real politic,
enough to recognise that there was danger. He'd asked for, and was granted, safe conduct,
but surely he knew the worthlessness of safe conduct that had been given, when James's
great-grandad, James the Second had murdered the Eighth Earl of Douglas in Stirling Castle.
Whatever the judgment, he travelled north from here to Caerlanrig, with a small group of his adherents.
He travelled unarmed and dressed in his finery, to meet the King, both would prove to be mistakes.
Johnny and his men came through this valley, along by the Mosspaul Burn. In front of them was
a narrow pass between these hills, it's a perfect place for an ambush, and here the ambush was sprung.
The Armstrongs were surrounded by the King's army. When taken before the young King, James accused him
of treason. Johnny stated his case. He'd never killed a Scotsman, and couldn't possibly be accused
of treason. Attacking the English was as often a Scottish foreign policy as it was a crime.
Johnny offered bribes from his ill-gotten wealth to save his skin, maybe not the most politic move,
after all, his ill-gotten wealth is what has got him in this fix in the first place, and James
used it against him. Armstrong had shown disrespect by coming to a meeting better dressed than the
King, that was his treason. Seeing that he was doomed, Johnny retorted, 'I'm but a fool to seek
grace at a graceless face, but had I known that you would have taken me this day, I would have lived
in the Borders, despite King Henry and you both.' Maybe he had expected to go hunting after all.
Now this is the churchyard at Caerlanrig. Johnny and several of his men were hung from nearby
trees, and buried in a mass grave, which was only recently discovered by archaeologists. And we can
feel sympathy for Johnny, and that's natural. We can romanticise him with border ballads,
and that's been done, but the truth is that in our day, we'd call Johnny Armstrong a gangster.
It's just on that day, he came across a bigger gangster, a more powerful gangster,
who was trying to keep good relations with a more formidable gangster still.
Johnny was small time, and he held the territory between two bigger crime families.
It's Scottish history, but it could have been an episode of 'The Wire'.
The authorities of the day were just the biggest gangsters and I'm not entirely sure
how much that's changed if I'm honest, but James may have created, rather than solved the problem.
You see he ended up at war with Henry anyway, and just days before he died as
James's army fled the Battle of Solway Moss, the Armstrongs and other border reivers attacked them,
taking the side of the English against their own duplicitous King. Johnny's remembered with this
memorial erected in 1897, what's more, Johnny had children who managed to escape the mass hanging,
and when Johnny Armstrong's grandson grew up, James's grandson the Sixth of his name,
had to deal with an even bigger Armstrong reiver, Kinmont Willie. You see history in the Borders
was not yet over. If you want to hear about Kinmont Willie, a video of his story will be
launched here in a few days after this one, and of course you can always visit the Clan
Armstrong Centre at the Gilnockie Tower. Tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.