Roots of Conflict
When the Romans built Hadrian's Wall across our region in 122 AD it was built as a means of military control and more or less marked the northern limit, or border of the Roman Empire.

Norman Borderland
When the Norman conquerors arrived in England in 1066 the Kingdom of Northumbria was already a distant memory. Yorkshire, once an important part of Northumbria had fallen to the Vikings two hundred years earlier and it too had been incorporated into England well before William the Conqueror arrived.

Baliol & Braveheart
Tensions between England and Scotland reached great heights in the 1200s and 1300s particularly during the reign of the English King, Edward I. Edward came to be known as the Hammer of the Scots. After his successful subjugation of Wales, this king hoped to add Scotland to his kingdom.

Robert The Bruce
In 1306, Robert the Bruce a descendant of the Berwick claimant of 1291 took up Wallace's cause and had himself crowned King of Scotland. Edward seized the land owned by the Bruce family at Hartlepool and launched a new invasion of Scotland.

Hotspur & Percy
Throughout the later 1300s and 1400s the family called Percy emerged as the most powerful barons in Northumberland and played a big part in the border warfare that constantly troubled the region. Only the Nevilles, an equally powerful family of Durham and Yorkshire could match the Percys in status.

Border Reivers
The constant warfare that ravaged Northumberland and neighbouring counties on both sides of the border forced many people to live by lawlessness. Here 'Border Reiver' families like the Armstrongs, Robsons, Milburns, Charltons and Grahams raided and thieved from each other in a constant cycle of feud and revenge.

Civil War
Before we leave the story of the history of the Border warfare there is one more Scottish invasion that we should mention that occurred in the 1715 during the Jacobite rebellion.

Jacobites
Before we leave the story of the history of the Border warfare there is one more Scottish invasion that we should mention that occurred in the 1715 during the Jacobite rebellion.