Long after the Roman
occupation the time during the 13th century and for some 300 years to about the
middle of the 17th century, was a time of bloodshed, of cruelty and brutality
the almost constant warring between two countries Scotland and England changed
the lives of those living in places known as Liddesdale, Redesdale and
Tynedale. These clans & families were the most affected, owing to their
location they were frequently harrased by passing armies, who would require
supplies (usually without payment) but more likely destoying crops, homesteads
and murdering the people who lived immediately on both sides of the
border.
These families and clans regularly having their homesteads destroyed
and livestock stolen looked to other means of sustaining themselves
............. This was the time of the Border Reivers.
The Reeds were one of
the ancient Northumbrian families, in notoriety they came second only to the
Halls of Girsonfield.
Percy Reed of Troughend near Otterburn probably the
most famous, Percy and the Halls often joined up raiding the Croziers and the
Armstrongs just over the border in Liddesdale.
Not only did the Scots raid
the English and the English raid the Scots but they also took to raiding each
other.
 Over and above this was the constant Border warfare
between Scotland and England, one such battle was the
'Battle of Otterburn' On
a warm August night in 1388, an English army under Sir Henry Percy fought an
army of Scottish knights under the Earl of Douglas. Remembered by the name Sir
Walter Scott gave it, the Battle of Chevy Chase is famed in song and story.
Unlike those other great medieval battles Crecy and Agincourt however, the
Battle of Otterburn ended in defeat for the English. It left thousands dead,
Douglas killed and Percy taken captive. Sir Henry Percy eldest son of the 1st
Earl of Northumberland and heir to one of the greatest northern families, which
was said to be more powerful than the monarch himself is known to the world as
Henry Hotspur. Shakespeare calls him 'the never-daunted Percy' and portrays him
as a restless hot-head. Proud and arrogant, he was a bold fighter and impetuous
to the point of rashness.
It was in September 1402 That Henry Hotspur,
ransom no doubt paid, exacted his revenge at the Battle of Homildon Hill
Sir Henry won a resounding victory against the the son of his old enemy
Douglas. Shakespeare's Henry IV opens at Hotspur's castle at Warkworth with
news of the battle, Hotspur was eventually killed at the Battle of
Shrewsbury in July 1403 when he lead an army against the Lancastrian King,
Henry IV. |
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