Who were the Reivers

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A.� A lawless lot who roamed the Scottish borders for 350 years. They gave the word bereaved to the English language.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� Explain.

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Q.� How did this all start

A.� When warrior King Robert I the Bruce (1306-1329) defeated the English and made Scotland independent. During the 350 years between Robert the Bruce and the Stuart kings, about 100 border clans ruled over their own lands. They were fiercely territorial and loyal to no English or Scottish king, and held allegiance only to their chief.

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Q.� So what class were the Revisers Peasants

A.� No - that's what makes the Reivers unique. They came from every social class: agricultural labourers, smallholders, gentleman farmers, and even peers of the realm. These were professional cattle rustlers, fighting men and guerrilla soldiers of great skill. Theft, tracking and ambush came as second nature.

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Q.� Real large-scale stuff

A.� This was organised crime - an early version of the gangsters spawned by prohibition in Chicago of the early 20th Century. Some historians have also likened it to the American Wild West. It produced outlaws, corrupt officials, greed, misery and fights for survival. The city of Carlisle was attacked frequently. Fires often swept through the city, destroying the wooden and thatched buildings. Both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I ordered the city and castle walls to be repaired to maintain defence against the Reivers.

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Q.� And the word bereaved

A.� To lose family or friends at the hands of the Reivers. Be-reived.

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Q.� So how was this lawlessness stopped

A.� By the union of the two Crowns. James VI of Scotland also became James I of England and was determined to stamp out this threat to the king's peace. He sent strong armies to attack the Reiver clans from both sides of the border, drove them into swamps, surrounded their hiding places, torched their homes, hanged hundreds of warriors and broke the clans.

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Q.� What happened afterwards

A.� Clan families scattered throughout the world, some to the Highlands and some blended into English culture. Others were deported to Ulster and some were driven to Connaught, but most went to colonial America. Some blamed their downfall upon a curse.

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Q.� A curse

A.� The riding clans were so troublesome that at their height that the Archishop of Glasgow uttered a curse upon them. It's a good one, too - sometimes called the Mother of all Curses. Here's some of it:

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�I denounce, proclaim and declare all the committers of the said senseless murders, slaughters, burning, torturing, plundering, raping and pillaging, openly by daylight and under silence of night, even on such peaceful ground as church lands; together with their families, henchmen, suppliers, and willing conspirators who give them refuge, their receivers of goods stolen by them, and any benefit or part thereof, and their counsellors and defenders of their evil deeds, generally cursed, denounced, execrated ... with the great cursing.

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I curse their head and all the hairs of their head; I curse their face, their brain, their mouth, their nose, their tongue, their teeth, their forehead, their shoulders, their breast, their heart, their stomach, their back, their womb, their arms, their leggs, their hands, their feet, and every part of their body, from the top of their head to the soles of their feet, before and behind, within and without."

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I curse them going and I curse them riding; I curse them standing and I curse them sitting; I curse them eating and I curse them drinking; I curse their wives, their children, and their servants who participate in their deeds. I [bring ill wishes upon] their crops, their cattle, their wool, their sheep, their horses, their swine, their geese, their hens, and all their livestock...

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May the malediction of God, that fell upon Lucifer and all his fellows, that cast them from the high Heaven to the deep hell, light upon them.

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Steve Cunningham