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The Border Reiver represents a unique way of life which is not only reflective of Celtic tribal culture, but is deeply rooted in an ancient Indo-European ethos.
The Reiver period is generally considered to be prevalent between the 13th and 17th centuries, developing as a reaction to the constant warfare between the kingdoms of Scotland and England. During these centuries of conflict, devastation swept through these territories. Whole villages, fields and crops were regularly destroyed and burned as unscrupulous monarchs used the distress of the Borders to destabilize their neighbor.
While these conditions certainly provided an ideal environment for raiding to thrive, there is much evidence to suggest that the culture of Reiving is more ancient in origin, and is linked to pre-Christian ideologies.
It all started with gods
The cattle raid is central to Indo-European cultures. The oldest myths recorded in the Sanskrit Rig Veda describe a reiving culture in which gods mount their divine steeds and hitch their chariots to recover sacred cattle. We see the same theme across Bronze Age Europe in the Greek Homeric Hymns in which Hermes purloins Apollo’s cows, all the way to Ireland and the stories of the Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley).
Counting Cows
Cattle has been the basis of Celtic economy since at least the Iron age. Payment in cattle was a common tribute and the start of many feuds. Even silver could be measured in units of cows. [1]
Cattle was a measure of status and the currency of favor and justice, just as money is today.
Naturally many social customs grew up around the transfer and wealth of cattle, as well as pre-Christian practices, which became the bedrock of later Border society.
The Importance of Raiding
We tend to misunderstand raiding as an unfortunate result of circumstance, but in fact, raiding was encouraged. Raiding stimulated the cattle economy and helped to disperse resources among tribal communities. A young man could become a hero with acts of bravery and courage, and a warrior’s skills kept keen in times of peace. Raiding provided a means to settle debt without killing.
An Inherent Right
Under ancient Celtic custom, keeping cattle was a birthright - an idea that persisted in the Borders into modern times. Everyone was entitled to keep cows for their milk and sustenance; only what was considered excess was ‘moveable’. A raider never took from their own or from the needy, and a raid was never conducted during the winter months. Like the ranchers of America’s West, it was up to the wealthy to protect their own cattle, and their prowess to acquire more.
Raiding in Roman times
Raiding in times of war was different. When the Roman invaders reached the northern limits of their empire, at what we now call the Anglo-Scottish Borders, they found the native inhabitants recalcitrant and implacable. They responded in typical Roman fashion, they built a wall. History informs us that this wall was not very effective and the northern tribes frequently raided south carrying the wealth of Roman Britain beyond the grasp of their empire. As Rome’s power waned, the forays became more frequent; a tactic of de-economising that was to be employed many times over in the centuries and millennia following.
By the time the Roman Eagle had left the shores of Britain in about 420AD the Border regions had become a hotbed of Britonic nationalism which was to ignite a cultural resurgence and inspire the following generations to uphold their ancestral ways against incoming waves of influence.
Men of the North
During this time the area was briefly introduced to Christianity which seems to have taken little effect north of Hadrian's wall. By about the 6th century, a confederacy of tribes had developed on either side of the wall known as the Gwyr y Gogledd, the Men of the North. Famous bards of the day, such as Taliesin, Aneurin and Myrrdin Wyllt, praised them as champions of Britonic cultural identity and paragons of ancient Celtic chivalry.[2]
Regional leaders had embraced Christianity to varying degrees by this time, but one thing they all had in common is that they were Border Reivers. As Meirion Pennar wrote in 1988 with regard to a 6th century Christian king of Cumbria, “Urien, like all the Cymric leaders, was a cattle-rustler.”
The Border warrior
From this time forward, The Men of the North remained the enduring image of the Border warrior in history and ballads. From the battle of Gododdin in the sixth century to Robert the Bruce and to Border Clangs (clans) of the 17th century, we see evidence of these elite mounted fighting groups who were experts in raiding and guerrilla tactics, and who adhered to a strict sense of honor and courage as defined by the customs of the area.
Ancient Laws
More recently, Border Reivers have been popularized as anarchic, murderous, crime syndicates. However, history tells a different story.
Border society was governed by its own Britonic law, which was contrary to the foreign forces who were encroaching upon it. The Border people considered themselves an independent region, and their fierce loyalty, as in tribal days, was to their local lairds and chiefs. They were both the recipients and custodians of ancient ancestral tradition which governed their customs, rules and their economy.
Those forces which sought to subdue the Borders learned that they could not be overcome, and could not be overruled. The only way forward was to grudgingly recognize the Border independence and its ancient institution.
March Law
In 1249 a traditional assize of nobles from the Anglo-Scottish border convened to document the laws and customs of the Border people as they were known at that time, outlining the lawful practice of reiving, settling of disputes and self-policing based on ancient precedents.[4]
This later became the foundation of the March Law. This is usually cited to be beginning of ‘Reiving times’ however it is clearly a codification of much earlier practice.[5]
Truce Day
One important Border tradition dating from ancient times was Truce Day - a market day during which weapons were prohibited, laws were pronounced, contracts were made and grievances could be publicly brought to bear.
These procedures were a direct continuation of the open air legislative meetings held at festivals known as a Mod among the Britons or a Moot in Anglo-Saxon culture.
Mabon's Stone
The Lochmaben Stone in Dumfries is one site where Truce day was held. Marking the old border between Scotland and England, this standing stone is a remnant of a bronze age circle. It was recorded by Romans as a tribal center, the Locus Maponi and continued to be a community meeting place throughout medieval times, denoting a continuity of tradition from antiquity. [6,7]
Vanishe and Delete [8]
March Law continued to operate alongside the Common Law of England and Scotland until the Union of the Crowns in 1603. At this time March Law was no longer tolerated and a new brutal tactic to pacify the Borders was introduced. Mass hangings, summary executions, imprisonment and the transportation of entire families decimated the Border population. [9]
Despite the harsh punishments imposed, it is unreasonable to think that Border culture ceased when March Law was rescinded, or that raiding stopped. Certain families still considered Reiving a birthright, although they were now called outlaws, highwaymen and thieves.
Borders and beyond
Not surprisingly, a legacy of raiding culture continued in the countries where displaced Borderers settled, both as outlaws and as heroes. In the US, the confederate army led by Border descendant Wade Hamilton is famous for the Great Beefsteak Raid in 1864, and cattle rustling was prolific among Anglo-Scots who settled in the Western ranges.
We also see similar cattle raiding cultures in the Caterans of the Scottish Highlands and the curious Red Bandits of Mawddwy in central Wales, indicating that Reiving was once widely spread across Britain and part of pre-Norman society. [10]
A Culture of Defiance
The survival of culture often comes from geographical isolation, but in the case of the Borders we see a pattern of clan-oriented people fiercely adhering to their heritage in the midst of conflicting nations. Since Romans times, they have found strength in a nationalism without a country and identity in a shared native culture.
The persistence of Raiding - an ancient Indo-European practice woven into the customs and ethos of the Borders - shows us how tenaciously ancestral heritage can survive, hidden in the everyday. Likewise, other antiquities of pre-christian origin have survived alongside Christianity, and continues to be passed on to the generations following in story, legend and song.
Brehon Law - ancient native laws of Gaelic speaking people
Talesin Poems, trans. Meirion Pennar, Lanark Press UK 1988
In Border law, a panel of twelve made up of six Scots, appointed by the English, and six Englishmen, appointed by the Scots, which are neither traitors, murderers or fugitives
The March Laws, Stair Society Miscellany vol.1, p11-77, ed G. Neilson and T.I. Rae, Stair Society, Edinburgh 1971
March, from the french word Marche meaning Boundary
Paganism in Arthurian Romance, John Darrah, BOYE6, UK, 1999
Mabon is designated by the Romans as Apollo, and compared by some scholars with Mithra god of contracts, and the harvest in Celtic lore - all of which could be relevant to an ancient market or moot.
James I England, VI Scotland decreed the Border Reivers be 'Vanishe and Delete' [9]
website:borderreiverstories-neblessclem.blogspot.com
School of the Moon: The Highland Cattle-raiding Tradition, S.Hardy, Birlinn Ltd UK, 2004