The Royal Society of Edinburgh

The Holywood Trust RSE Outreach Programme

My Hands are Tied but My Tongue is Free: Swords with Stories & Kinmont Willie

Dr Valentina Bold University of Edinburgh

Report by Kate Kennedy

Thursday 11 May 2017 at Dumfries Museum

This talk considered the story, remembered in song, of ‘Kinmont’ Willie Armstrong. A sword, allegedly belonging to Willie, was recently rediscovered in the Dumfries & Galloway Museums’ collection. This sword came complete with its own song, ‘The Ballad of Kinmont Willie’ which was first printed in Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border in 1802. Ballad scholar, Dr Valentina Bold, considered the song and the story of Kinmont Willie, as well as the significance of the song, setting it in the context of linked Border ‘riding’ ballads which also appeared in the Minstrelsy. Dr Bold further suggested that the ballad is largely and perhaps wholly, the composition of Sir Walter Scott, as a spirited tribute to the Duke of Buccleuch, to whom the Minstrelsy is dedicated.

Willie Armstrong of Kymont, described as ‘a rank reiver’ in the associated ballad was known for his violent behaviour and was guilty of ‘grievous murders’. He was captured during a day of truce on 17 March 1596, taken to Carlisle Castle and incarcerated under the supervision Lord Scrope, Warden of the English Welsh March. Despite the best diplomatic efforts of Walter Scott of Buccleuch, Keeper of Liddesdale, Willie was held prisoner in the castle, until the night of 13 April 1596, when Buccleuch and his men broke into the castle’s jail and took Willie back home over the Border.

A sword allegedly belonging to Kinmont Willie was recently rediscovered in Dumfries and Galloway Museums’ collection. It is unknown precisely when the object became part of the collection but, until recently, it had long been forgotten and classified as part of a collection of agricultural equipment. However, the vellum label accompanying the sword identifies the object as belonging to Kinmont Willie Armstrong. While further investigation regarding the origin of the sword is necessary, it is likely that, prior to arriving at the museum, the sword was in a private ‘cabinet of curiosities’ belonging to an unidentified antiquarian. Indeed, Dr Bold described how the early 19th Century saw an increased interest in collecting ‘celebrity swords’ throughout Europe. Walter Scott made prominent use of the Marquis of Montrose’s sword in ceremonial events; William Wallace’s sword was sent to the Tower of London for repairs; and new attention was given to Arthur’s Excalibur and swords belonging to Charlemagne, Durandal and El Cid.

Although not yet authenticated as definitely belonging to Kinmont Willie, the sword is a 16th Century object and an example of the ‘flowering of Scottish craftsmanship’ associated with this era. It measures approximately one metre long, is heavily rusted and resembles a practical weapon built to intimidate and ideal for reiving and battle. It has been examined by a range of experts who concur on its age and style; the blade and pommel are characteristic of the late 16th and early 17th Centuries and it comprises a section at the top of the blade, known as a ricasso, and grooves, or fullers, on the blade itself. Dr Bold further commented that the sword is a symbol of the ‘power of resistance’, exemplified in the border ballad of ‘Kinmont Willie’. Dr Bold ascertained that, in addition to the sword being an important example of material culture, its most significant and interesting aspect is the associated story of Kinmont Willie Armstrong. The late 16th Century is an era rife with tales of ‘border reivers’. As Bishop John Leslie wrote, in 1577, the men of the marches (Kinmont being based in the West March, which included Dumfries) were men who sought ‘their subsistence by robberies, or rather by plundering or rapine’. They saw no disparity between this lifestyle and their faith; they preferred reiving – for the pragmatic reason that they were as likely to be reived – to cultivating crops. In his Border Minstrelsy, Scott also commemorated and celebrated the reiving lifestyle, drawing attention to the elements of reciprocity of crime between Scotland and England and even between Scots. Indeed, the historical ballads found in the Minstrelsy are heavily dominated by reiving, or riding ballads while others relate to their people and worldview. These riding ballads celebrate, and commemorate, the violence of the marchmen—but also their cunning, trickery, and the punishments they faced for their actions, if and when caught, and often caught by trickery themselves.

Kinmont Willie was a fine representative of his freebooting type. He lived at Morton Rig, a bleak spot surrounded by hills, well-positioned for border reiving, being 11 miles from Carlisle and three miles from Gretna Green. In a 1583 raid on Tynedale, Kinmont Willie attacked eight villages, killed six men, wounded 11 more, took 30 prisoners, stole 800 cattle and £200 worth of goods. He returned a year later, attacking eight villages, stealing 80 cattle and oxen, 60 horses and mares and 500 sheep in a raid on Tynedale, burning 60 houses, causing £2000 sterling-worth of destruction and killing ten men. In 1585, he rode out with the Earl of Bothwell against King James VI at Stirling, pillaging in this area and taking back substantial booty and, in 1592, he was described as having a hundred followers in what was, in effect, a deadly, private army. Dr Bold described him as the “bane of the English Western March”.

In the era of border reiving, truce days were held about every 40 days, allowing wardens of opposing marches to meet and resolve differences in safety. During a truce day in March 1596, Willie was riding home through Armstrong country with a group of around 20 followers when, heavily outnumbered, he was captured in an attack by English soldiers, led by Thomas Salkeld, Deputy to the Warden of the West Marches, Lord Scrope. According to the ballad, he was bound to a horse with his hands tied behind him and taken to Carlisle Castle. These actions were met with public outrage and were widely perceived as having broken Border Law, given that this had happened on a day of Truce. Thus, Walter Scott of Branxholme, Keeper of Liddesdale, immediately demanded Willie’s release in a letter of complaint to Lord Scrope. Scrope replied, stating that until ‘good security’ was given for Willie’s behaviour, they would keep him in custody. Further diplomatic attempts to secure Willie’s release were met with the same stance and thus Buccleuch decided to take a more direct form of action.

Dr Bold reported that Buccleuch allegedly sent a woman into Carlisle Castle to visit Willie and, in the process, to find out where he was being held, how he was being guarded, and how high the walls of the castle were so that it was possible to determine the height of the scaling ladders. A plan to raid the Castle and free Willie was devised during a meeting attended by members of notorious local reiving families, including the Grahams and Scotts, and indeed members of the English branch of the Graham clan, with whom Buccleuch spoke at Langholm horse races. On 13 April 1596, Buccleuch and his supporters, many of whom could be described as ‘reiving royalty’ assembled at Kinmont Willie’s home, about ten miles from Carlisle, and carrying ladders, crowbars, pickaxes and sledgehammers, they rode through the Debateable Lands, across the Border where, upon reaching Carlisle, they attempted to scale the walls of Carlisle Castle. However, their ladders were too short and so they broke down the postern gate.

Dr Bold described how, in the ballad, they used ‘coulters’ and ‘forehammers’ to reach Willie in the inner prison and once there, they managed to overpower the Castle Guards, broke down Willie’s door and set him free, sounding a trumpet to give the appearance of a larger force. Lord Scrope and Thomas Salkeld took refuge, barricading themselves inside. The raid was finished by daybreak and, as signal beacons were being lit in Carlisle, the rescue party escaped. It was said that 1000 men pursued them, but the raiding party managed to cross the Eden Water and get away. In the ballad of Kinmont Willie, Buccleuch flings his glove at Scrope and mocks him: stating “if ye like na my visit in merry England, in fair Scotland come visit me!” In addition to the report contained in the ballad, historical records exist, detailing the costs for the replacement of the postern gate and Lord Scrope also wrote an account of Kinmont Willie’s rescue. Scrope never really recovered from the embarrassment. In his account, he wrote that his men had been in the right to take Willie, acting in the face of a man who had already broken the Truce. Following his rescue, Kinmont Willie continued with his former lifestyle, carrying out further raids in the border lands. He also experienced a raid from the English side, with his house sacked and burned, 300 beasts being stolen, and two men from his household killed. Kinmont Willie Armstrong’s last raid was in 1602 to the south of Carlisle around Low and High Hesket. His final resting place is in the graveyard at Sark.

The Ballad of Kinmont Willie, found in Scott’s Minstrelsy, is replete with local colour and referencing but does conform with historical sources detailing the capture and rescue of Willie from Carlisle Castle. Dr Bold commented that, in his introductory notes, Scott remarks that the ballad, while preserved by tradition on the west border, is “much mangled by reciters; so that some conjectural emendations have been absolutely necessary to render it intelligible. In particular, the Eden has been substituted for the Eske…, the latter name being inconsistent with geography”. Dr Bold suggested that these prefatory remarks strike her as suspicious as, from her research, they do not connect to other sources; indeed, there are no earlier or later versions of the ballad to be found in broadside ballad collections. “One would imagine, for instance, that there might be earlier ‘Robin Hood’ style ballads, or later, broadside versions relating to the ‘Kinmont Willie’ ballad found in Scott’s Minstrelsy”. Thus, it would appear that, Scott was the first to publish the story and is, therefore, considered the main authority on Kinmont Willie and the only ballad collector to have taken an interest in him. Dr Bold, remarked, “Can it be an accident that it celebrates a Scott of Buccleuch, the family whose descendant, Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, is the dedicatee of the Minstrelsy, and to whom Scott felt a close and personal connection? His own ancestor, too, Scott of Harden, is celebrated as one of those involved in the Kinmont Willie raid.” Rather than a ballad preserved by tradition, is this perhaps a ballad invented by Scott, in the tradition of riding ballads? Further evidence for this suggestion can be gleaned from the fact that Scott’s notes for the Minstrelsy, kept in the National Library of Scotland, while including other riding ballads, bear no mention or no correspondence relating to the Kinmont Willie ballad. Additionally, Dr Bold suggested that the ballad of Kinmont Willie is too good a literary text to have been written by anyone other than Scott himself. Furthermore, it is not a good singing text, unlike other ballads. While Dr Bold confirmed that this it is currently speculation, she believes that it is at least possible that the ballad of Kinmont Willie was not based on previous versions, but was a product of Scott’s own creativity, based on his desire to celebrate his family, and their outlaw history, through one of their best-known stories.

The Vote of Thanks was offered by Professor Ted Cowan FRSE.

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