THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 WILLIAM GEORGE'S SONS LTI 
 
 BOOKSELLERS 
 89 PARK STREET, BRISTOL
 
 HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND
 
 POPULAR COUNrr HISTORIES 
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND 
 
 BY 
 
 CADWALLADER J. BATES 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 
 
 1895.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY THE FOUR DYKES 
 II. THE WALL .... 
 
 III. THE KINGDOM : BAMBURGH 
 
 IV. THE KINGDOM : CORBRIDGE 
 V. THE EARLDOM 
 
 VI. TYNDALE 
 VII. THE GREAT WARS . 
 VIII. THE PERCIES 
 
 IX. THE EAST AND MIDDLE MARCHES 
 X. THE RADCLIFFES 
 XI. NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE 
 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 22 
 48 
 
 75 
 98 
 123 
 147 
 177 
 205 
 232 
 264 
 283 
 
 8 
 
 
 9
 
 THE arms on the cover paly of eight or and gules are those on 
 the banner of St. Oswald preserved at Bardney Abbey, an d attributed 
 by Camden to Bernicia. They have been placed by the County 
 Council of Northumberland on their official seal. The device of a 
 castle used by some recent Clerks of the Peace is merely the badge 
 of every sheriff, as a mitre is of every bishop.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Rev. John Hodgson intended that his great 
 -1- ' History of Northumberland ' should consist of 
 three parts. The annals of the county as a whole were 
 to be followed by a description of the several parishes, 
 and an appendix of original documents was to complete 
 the work. Experience soon proved that, however just 
 this conception of an ideal county history, the order 
 adopted was the exact reverse of that called for in the 
 practical work 6f composition. The parochial history 
 required to be based on the documentary, while until 
 archives had been ransacked and localities viewed, the 
 crowning task of writing the general history could not 
 successfully be achieved. 
 
 Two generations since Hodgson have now been engaged 
 in collecting and publishing the records of Northumber- 
 land. So much material was ready to hand in 1890, 
 that a Committee was formed for the completion of the 
 parochial history, and thanks to the ability and industry
 
 ii Preface. 
 
 of our first editor, Mr. Edward Bateson, this vast under- 
 taking has been auspiciously launched. Similar considera- 
 tions have led me to prepare the present volume. The 
 time for giving the final touches to the general history of 
 Northumberland is far distant, but the unused evidence 
 which has accumulated during the last half-century 
 may well be given to the public in an accurate form, 
 without waiting for theoretical perfection. 
 
 I fail to see why the work of writing the history of the 
 Counties of England demands less careful treatment than 
 that accorded to the Provinces of the Roman Empire. 
 To my mind, there is no difference of kind between 
 parochial, provincial, national, and universal history ; but 
 prejudices die hard, and probably the historian whose 
 greatest service was the vehemence with which he insisted 
 on the unity running through all history, would have been 
 astonished at a proposal to treat the history of Somerset 
 in the same scholarly manner as that of Sicily. I have 
 given to Northumberland the same serious study that 
 I still hope to give to Poland, and in my first nine 
 chapters, at any rate, have traced every rill of history to 
 its fountain-head. 
 
 Original research must necessarily often lead to original 
 conclusions, and it is perhaps a little unfortunate that in a 
 popular series I have had to forego those footnotes of 
 reference and explanation that the subject often demands. 
 The present venture is, indeed, an epitome of a much 
 larger one which has long been in the course of prepara- 
 tion. In my anxiety to produce a Guide to Northumbrian
 
 Preface. iii 
 
 History that the Quaysider from Newcastle can really 
 carry on his bicycle, and the countryman afford to read 
 under the shadow of his bastle-house, I have had recourse 
 to compression almost hydraulic. My road, no doubt, is 
 sometimes too royal : results are given in a few words, 
 without the fatigue of following long trains of close reason- 
 ing. Few things can afford more genuine pleasure than 
 re-establishing the connection between architectural relics 
 and the main stream of history; but I have only been 
 able to touch slightly on our towers and castles, and have 
 had to leave out my readings of the great monastic fabrics 
 of Hexham, Tynemouth and Brinkburn. I am among the 
 first to recognise shortcomings that can be made good 
 in the three volumes of my dreams. 
 
 Of one advantage that attends a smaller work I have 
 made the most : I have kept as far as possible to a rigid 
 chronological proportion that enables one to judge of the 
 flight of time and the influence that each successive period 
 may have exerted on custom and character. 
 
 The history of Northumberland is essentially a drum 
 and trumpet history from the time when the buccina of 
 the Batavian cohort first rang out over the moors of 
 Procolitia down to the proclamation of James III. 
 at Warkworth Cross. It is a history of battles of kites 
 and crows from the apparent raid of the Britons of 
 Corbridge on the Britons of Windermere, down to the 
 first County Council elections on North Tyne and Rede. 
 I have not attempted to alter its character by discussing 
 matters, like the village land tenure, common to all Aryan
 
 iv Preface. 
 
 nations, which can equally well be studied in counties 
 whose history is less full of action. 
 
 Once, and once only, have I allowed myself to stray 
 into the by-paths of controversy, and that in the defence 
 of my old friends, Mr. John Clayton and Dr. Bruce. All 
 their conclusions as to the Roman Wall may not be 
 capable of absolute proof, but they were the unwearied 
 pioneers of its exploration, and it is to the charm of 
 their characters that it owes no little of its interest. 
 
 This abstention from controversy and criticism does 
 not argue any ignorance of the way in which Northum- 
 brian history has been treated by southern writers, most 
 of whom have thought it superfluous to catch their facts 
 before proceeding to jug them. I will only instance one 
 essay in Professor Freeman's ' English Towns and 
 Districts,' that on the Percy Castles, the leitmotif of 
 which is the allegation that there never was a real Percy 
 in our Northumberland as if Harry Hotspur were not 
 our ideal incarnation of a real Percy, and any shadowy 
 interest we take in the Norman Percies were not wholly 
 of a reflected order. Not to mention many minor errors, 
 we are gravely told that Jocelin of Louvain assumed 
 the name of Percy; that he and all his race down to 
 Jocelin, eleventh Earl of Northumberland, were male 
 descendants of Charles the Great, and ought to have 
 called themselves Karlings ; that the Tudor chapel of 
 the Percy College in Warkworth Castle is an Early 
 English cross-church of the Claverings ; and that Alnwick 
 itself is a pure Norman castle of the Vescis.
 
 Preface. v 
 
 To some extent the first part of Hodgson's scheme was 
 supplied already by the Rev. Philip Ridpath's ' Border 
 History,' a most admirable work to have issued from a 
 Scottish manse, though rather encumbered with diplo- 
 matic details. Recently, too, the information relating to 
 Northumberland inserted by Mr. Bain in his excellent 
 ' Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland ' forms an 
 amende honorable for many a Border raid. In our own 
 Record publications, unfortunately, Northumbrian matters 
 are dispersed haphazard, according to the whims of suc- 
 cessive editors, through the Domestic, Scottish, Border, 
 and Foreign series. At Belvoir the Historical Manu- 
 scripts Commission did signal service in calendaring 
 the Manners collection of Border papers ; but it is diffi- 
 cult to speak calmly of their perfunctory treatment of 
 the archives of Alnwick, Sion and Ford. With a few 
 brilliant exceptions, the volumes of the Rolls Series 
 of English Chronicles which deal with Northern affairs 
 deserve to be placed two or three shelves below the 
 Delphin Classics. 
 
 In the vexed question of spelling Old English names, I 
 have been guided more by their ordinary modern pro- 
 nunciation than by the sign -manuals of their original 
 bearers. Nothing has done more to widen the rift at 
 the Norman Conquest than the fashion of posting Ead- 
 wards and ^Elfrids on one side of it, and Edwards and 
 Alfreds on the other. It is evident that contortions like 
 ^Edwini, Vtrede, Qwoenburh, and Ecgferth can never be 
 intended to be on the lips of the nation.
 
 vi Preface. 
 
 It would be invidious to mention any of the numerous 
 kindnesses I have received in relation to special points, 
 without giving the whole list of my literary obligations. 
 In the general work of passing through the press, I have 
 received most valuable aid from my old college friend, 
 the Rev. A. C. Jennings, and only in a somewhat lesser 
 degree from Mr. Thomas Hodgkin, the Rev. F. J. Foakes 
 Jackson, Mr. J. Crawford Hodgson, and Mr. A. B. Hinds. 
 
 C. J. B. 
 
 LANGLEY CASTLE, 
 May 29, 1895.
 
 HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY THE FOUR DYKES. 
 
 THE very name of Northumberland is enough to 
 make anyone inquire how it happened that the great 
 kingdom which once stretched north from the Humber 
 to the Grampians shrivelled and shrank till it came to 
 be lineally represented by the present administrative 
 county. The names of other sovereign members of the 
 Heptarchy Kent, Essex, Sussex are also perpetuated 
 in existing counties, but these counties are practically 
 conterminous with the ancient kingdoms. Burgundy 
 probably affords the only other example in Europe of 
 geographical contraction such as Northumberland has 
 undergone. 
 
 The present county is often popularly described as the 
 land between Tyne and Tweed. This is, however, far 
 from being strictly accurate. A very large district south 
 of the Tweed and east of the central mountain range of 
 our island is comprised in Scotland, while a considerable 
 tract of Northumberland lies south of the Tyne. Then 
 too, Berwick Bounds, from a point on the coast a little 
 beyond Marshall Meadows, some three miles north of the 
 town of Berwick, to Gainslawhaugh, four miles up the 
 Tweed, are now included in Northumberland, so that the 
 
 i
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Tweed merely forms the boundary of the county from 
 Gainslawhaugh to Riding Burn, a distance of only some 
 eighteen miles, including all the bends of the river. 
 From the corner where Riding Burn enters the Tweed, 
 there are no physical features capable of forming a 
 natural frontier southwards, until we come to the 
 Cheviots ; the actual boundary was consequently a 
 matter of perpetual dispute. Northumberland got much 
 the worse of the final settlement, losing the upper valley 
 of the Bowmont. From Steer Rig, as far. as Thirleshope 
 Pike, the delimitation scientifically follows the water- 
 parting, the highest point on which, King's Seat, near 
 Cheviot, rises to 2,419 feet above the sea-level, Peel Fell, 
 at the head of North Tyne, being 444 feet lower. After 
 ceding to Scotland the left bank of the Bells Burn, a 
 tributary of North Tyne, Northumberland takes in the 
 east side of Kershope Burn, though this flows by the 
 Liddell into the Solway. 
 
 At Lamyford, Scotland, Northumberland, and Cumber- 
 land all meet. The boundary between the two counties 
 keeps pretty well to the sky-line of the hills, one of them 
 bearing the odd name of Horse Head, as far south as the 
 source of the Gair Burn, and then follows the course of 
 that stream, which after its junction with the Troutbeck 
 assumes the name of the Irthing. On the Cumbrian 
 side, the streams and hills are all becks and fells, on the 
 Northumbrian, burns and moors. Flowing first south, 
 then west, the Irthing continues to be the boundary till 
 the Poltross Burn joins it from the south, though in the 
 fourteenth century Denton in Gilsland was in the rural 
 deanery of Corbridge and the county of Northumberland. 
 Ascending the Poltross and crossing Blacklaw at 1,952 feet, 
 the boundary should, geographically speaking, have given 
 the whole basin of South Tyne to Northumberland; 
 but the upper part of the valley of the Hartley Burn 
 (opening out opposite Featherston, and including the small 
 lake called Tindale Tarn), as well as the extensive parish 
 of Alston at the head of South Tyne, cut off by the Gilder
 
 Introductory. 3 
 
 Burn on the west and the Ale Burn on the east, are in 
 Cumberland. 
 
 From Kilhope Moor, at the head of the West Allen, 
 where Durham meets Northumberland and Cumberland, 
 the boundary keeps along the hill-tops, of which that of 
 Kilhope Law attains an altitude of 2,206 feet, as far as 
 the burn which falls into the Derwent near Riddleham 
 Hope. The Derwent would then take up the boundary 
 till it joins the Tyne near Blaydon, were it not that the 
 parish of Ryton, though on the northern bank, is in the 
 county of Durham. As it is, the boundary turns north 
 from the Derwent up the Milkwell Burn, and from it 
 follows mere hedges and ditches to the Stanley Burn. 
 From Wylam, where the Stanley Burn flows into the 
 Tyne under the station platform, the latter river separates 
 Durham and Northumberland down to the sea ; but 
 Newcastle has been a county of itself since the reign of 
 Henry IV., though the enclave of the Moot Hall, includ- 
 ing the space formerly occupied by the Great Hall, King's 
 Chamber, and Half-moon Battery of the Castle has been 
 preserved to Northumberland for the assizes and other 
 public business. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that some Northumbrian water 
 flows down Liddesdale, some past Carlisle ; while Scot- 
 land and Cumberland both contribute their runlets to the 
 great waterway of Newcastle. There is" a Scottish field 
 south of the Tweed near Wark, a fragment of North- 
 umberland south of the Derwent ; while on the Tyne 
 both landings of Ryton Ferry are in Durham, both abut- 
 ments of Newburn Bridge in Northumberland. It may 
 seem superfluous to go into such details, but all these 
 variations from the natural boundaries of the county have 
 their origin in historical events of greater or less import- 
 ance. 
 
 The basin of the Tynes and their tributaries, the 
 Derwent, the Rede, and the two Aliens, includes about 
 one half of Northumberland, and is separated from the 
 basin of the Till, which extends from the Tweed right
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 down to the latitude of Alnwick, by that of the Coquet ; 
 these three being the only river-basins that extend to 
 the hills on the west side of the county, though the Am, 
 the Wansbeck, and the Blyth are considerable streams. 
 Between the Tweed and the Aln a score of little streams 
 run direct into the sea, of which the Waren is the only 
 one of much historical importance. This tract along the 
 coast is separated from the Till by a range of bleak 
 moors that rise to over 1,000 feet in Rose Castle, the 
 great central beacon of north Northumberland. The 
 moors of Rothbury Forest, reaching nearly 1,500 feet in 
 Tosson Hill and Simonside, cut the county practically in 
 two. 
 
 The lakes of Northumberland are small, all being sur- 
 passed in size by the artificial reservoirs of Colt Crag 
 and Hallington. In the north are those of Paston and 
 Pallinsburn, the latter famous for its gulls. At Egling- 
 ham and Sweethope are larger sheets of water, but 
 the name of the Northumbrian lakes is specially given 
 to the five near the Roman Wall: Greenlee Lough or 
 Wigglesmere, Crag Lough, Broomlee Lough, Hallypike 
 Lough, and Grindon Lough. 
 
 The islands along the coast are Lindisfarne, or Holy 
 Island ; the group of the Fames, whose quaint names 
 the Wedoms, the Knokys, the Walms, the Langstane, the 
 Cromstane, the Oxcarrs, and the Megstanes appear in 
 medieval manuscripts ; Coquet Island, near Warkworth ; 
 and St. Mary's, or Bates Island, a little to the north of 
 Tynemouth. 
 
 No traces of palaeolithic man have been found nearer 
 than the Yorkshire Wolds, but stone implements of the 
 neolithic period are of frequent occurrence in Northum- 
 berland. The celts are formed of the greatest variety of 
 materials : greenstone, porphyrite, flint, honestone, whin- 
 stone, and metamorphic rock. The examples in por- 
 phyrite from Burradon and Doddington are especially fine, 
 as are those in whinstone from Ponteland and Hetton ; 
 but the finest of all is, perhaps, an ochreous-coloured flint
 
 Introductory. 5 
 
 from Burradon-in-Coquetdale. A trimmed flake-knife 
 from Ford, and a magnificent perforated axe-head from 
 Seghill, are also important relics of the Stone Age. The 
 twenty stones found together on Corbridge Fell, and the 
 curious sink-stone from Percy's Cross, are possibly of 
 comparatively modern origin. 
 
 Hoards of bronze implements, though not on a scale to 
 suggest a manufactory, have been discovered at Alnwick, 
 Wallington, and Thrunton near Whittingham. At the 
 last-named place the swords and spearheads were sticking" 
 in the moss, arranged in a circle with their points down- 
 wards. One sword had, at the pommel end, very remark- 
 able curved horns with projecting cones. Another fine 
 sword, long and leaf-shaped, with seven rivet-holes, was 
 found in the Tyne near Newburn. The bronze celts 
 which deserve especial mention are a beautiful flanged 
 one, ornamented with an interlaced pattern, from near 
 Chollerford Bridge, and a trumpet-mouthed one of octa- 
 gonal section from Newham. A curious sandstone mould 
 for casting celts and rings was found at Cambo. 
 
 The barrows of Northumberland have hardly received 
 the investigation that might have been expected. A very 
 fine one at Dewley, near Newburn, is in process of being 
 rapidly levelled by the plough ; there is also another that 
 deserves exploration, on the line of the Wall, between 
 Brunton and St. Oswald. Nests of barrows occur in the 
 Cheviots. The centre of the county contains compara- 
 tively few, though there is a tempting one at Trewhit. 
 The Rev. W. Greenwell opened a barrow at Broomhill, 
 near Ford, raised apparently in memory of a child of two 
 years old, and containing remains of six attendants, prob- 
 ably killed at the funeral. His fine collection contains a 
 cinerary urn with two series of figures raised in relief, and 
 a drinking-cup ornamented with a notched piece of bone 
 or wood, both taken from a cairn near Rosebrough, as 
 well as other drinking-cups from Smalesmouth, Bewick, 
 and Old Rothbury. In jet, we have a fine necklace from 
 Blawearie and a button from Great Tosson ; in gold,
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 which is something extremely rare in prehistoric finds, 
 a necklace from Chesterhope Common. 
 
 Of the many circles of upright stones that formerly 
 existed, only those at Three Stone Burn, near Yevering 
 Bell, and to the north of Duddo, can still be fairly traced. 
 The fine circle at Nunwick, on North Tyne, described by 
 Bishop Gibson, has long since disappeared. The King's 
 Stone, on Crookham Moor, and the Standing Stones at 
 Swinburn and Matfen, are examples of rude monoliths. 
 The two stones at Percy's Leap, and the Mare and 
 Foal near the Roman Wall, to the north of Haltwhistle, 
 are probably remains of cromlechs. 
 
 Hill-forts are much more numerous in the region near 
 the Wall, and to the north of it, than in the more southern 
 parts of the county. Among the more remarkable are 
 Yevering Bell, near Cheviot ; the triple town at Greaves 
 Ash, near Linhope ; Rose Castle, above Chillingham ; 
 Spindleston, near Bamburgh ; Old Bewick, Harehaugh, 
 Old Rothbury, the Moot Hills at Elsdon, Gunnar Peak, 
 Wardon and Shildon. The Rev. G. Rome Hall and Mr. 
 R. C. Hedley have done much to aid the study of individual 
 camps, but a great deal remains to be done in comparing 
 their outlines and making the most of the few clues that 
 may bring them into touch with known history. At 
 Rowting Linn, Old Bewick, Morwick, and elsewhere we 
 find those mysterious cups and rings that were first 
 prominently brought into notice by the late Mr. George 
 Tate, and as to the origin and signification of which it 
 were still folly to be wise. It is well to remember that 
 the popular term ' prehistoric,' in relation to British 
 antiquities, covers two periods the first before the 
 arrival of the Romans, the second after their departure. 
 Several of the camps may ultimately prove to be English, 
 Danish, or even early Norman, earthworks. 
 
 Much might be said to justify the addition to this list 
 of prehistoric antiquities of the lines of earthworks, 
 stretching from the Tyne at Newcastle to Dykesfield 
 near the Solway, known in popular archaeology under the
 
 Introductory. 7 
 
 name of ' The Vallum.' The historian of Northumber- 
 land is confronted at the outset with the triple problem 
 presented by the remains of the Roman Wall, and how- 
 ever earnestly he may wish to treat his subject in a manner 
 that may commend it to the general reader, runs the 
 greatest risk of being at once engaged in one of the most 
 complicated of controversies. It is as if the history of 
 England were necessarily to be prefaced with a disserta- 
 tion on the authorship of the ' Letters of Junius,' or that 
 of France with a laborious identification of the Man in 
 the Iron Mask. The evidence afforded by the remains 
 themselves, and by the references made to them by his- 
 torians, is not only too meagre to warrant any definite 
 conclusion as to their origin, but is often apparently con- 
 tradictory. Instead, then, of attempting to bolster up by 
 special pleading any dogmatic assertions as to the date or 
 dates of the construction of these lines of earthworks, of 
 the stone wall following the same course on the north, and 
 of the forts connected with both, it seems better at once to 
 declare that the whole question is still an open one ; and, 
 instead of playing the part of an advocate, to sum up the 
 evidence, such as it is, in as judicial a spirit as possible. 
 For this purpose, however, it is necessary, all the same, 
 to adopt a hypothesis of some sort in order to marshal 
 the facts of the case. That the hypothesis to be followed 
 is not one hitherto suggested, nor perhaps the one most 
 likely ultimately to prove true, appears to make it all the 
 safer medium for exhibiting, in an unbroken sequence, 
 the information we do possess, and at the same time im- 
 pressing upon us the danger of hastily drawing any con- 
 clusions from this. 
 
 The earliest detailed account of the Roman Wall after 
 the new birth of letters is to be found in a communi- 
 cation from Christopher Ridley, Vicar of Haltwhistle, in 
 about 1572. He there calls it ' one wall builded be- 
 twyxt the Brittons and Pightes (which we call the 
 Kepe Wall), builded by the Pightes,' thus giving expres- 
 sion to the current tradition of the neighbourhood in his
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 time that the Wall was the work, not of the Romans, but 
 of the Picts. It seems incredible that writer after writer 
 should have disregarded this tradition, and declare that 
 the local name of ' The Picts' Wall ' was derived from 
 the fact that it was believed to have been erected not by, 
 but as a defence against, that mysterious nation. The 
 value of traditions in general may be gauged by the way 
 in which, we see all memory of the Romans and their 
 works had been locally lost in Northumberland by the 
 time of Elizabeth, though the name ' Murus Roman- 
 orum ' occurs in the Black Book of Hexham, at the end 
 of the fifteenth century. There may, however, be a grain 
 of truth lurking in this particular tradition if, instead of 
 applying it to the stone wall, we restrict it to the earth- 
 works, ' the four great ditches builded within it all the 
 way,' as Christopher Ridley calls them. Equally in- 
 credible does it seem that it is only in 1892 or 1893 that 
 the fact of these earthworks consisting of four dykes or 
 mounds two of them, it is true, being more or less 
 intermittent has again been brought under notice. A 
 great ditch, about 8 feet deep, 32 feet wide at the top, 
 and 9 feet across its flat bottom, was their central and 
 main feature. The importance attached to this ditch 
 may be seen in the enormous labour expended in cutting 
 it through the basalt at Limestone Bank, west of Choller- 
 ford, and the little care taken to remove the basalt blocks 
 when once lifted out of it. Generally speaking, where 
 the ground rises immediately from this ditch, either to 
 the north or to the south, there is a mound on the opposite 
 edge, so as to make the actual ditch higher ; and the 
 same principle of disposing the excavated earth in a way 
 that should make the whole work as wide and deep an 
 eternal gulf of separation as possible has been carried 
 out by forming two great mounds, placed 24 feet back 
 from either side of the ditch, so as to render it difficult 
 for it ever again to be filled in either by intention or 
 accident. 
 
 The excavations initiated by Mr. Thomas Hodgkin
 
 The Four Dykes. 
 
 at the Great Hill, a little east of the village of Heddon-on- 
 the-Wall, in June, 1893, fortunately struck on a section of 
 these Four Dykes where the central ditch had been cut in 
 a bed of fire-clay. This circumstance not only enabled 
 the original shape of the ditch to be distinctly traced, 
 but, since the fire-clay was found deposited in both the 
 principal mounds and the northern marginal one there 
 present, proved them all to have been constructed of the 
 upcast at the time the ditch was dug. A few hours of 
 spade-labour thus disposed once for all of the ingenious 
 conjectures attributing different epochs and different 
 functions to the several mounds, which represented years 
 of theoretical pondering. The great mound on the south 
 side was at this point abnormally large, owing to the 
 stones where the ditch was cut through the rock on the 
 top of the hill, having been pitched upon it. In one 
 place these stones seemed to have been arranged to form 
 a sort of kerb to the mound, but further investigation 
 proved this idea to be fallacious. It is not to be sup- 
 posed that the several mounds ever had any regular 
 dimensions ; these varied according to the requirements 
 of the ditch, to which they seem to have been entirely 
 subsidiary. 
 
 That these earthworks now carried along the southern 
 slope of a hill as at Harlow Hill and to the east of Halton, 
 now overhung by crags or declivities on the south, as at 
 the Chapel Hill, near Housesteads, and most remarkably 
 so between Great Chesters and Walltown could ever 
 have been designed as a defence against either a northern 
 or a southern enemy, is an idea undeserving of serious con- 
 sideration. No military signification can be attributed to 
 them, for whichever side of the ditch we take, the great 
 mounds, or palisading upon them, would often require to 
 be carried up to the height of 30 feet or so in order to 
 command the bottom of it, which would otherwise have 
 served as a lurking-place for assailants. This self-evident 
 principle was properly attended to in the case of the 
 Wall ; and to suppose that this was built within a cen-
 
 io History of Northumberland. 
 
 tury of the ditch between the Four Dykes having been 
 dug, is, on this showing, to suppose that an entire revo- 
 lution in the art of fortification must have taken place in 
 the interval, and of such a revolution there is neither 
 sign nor symptom in any Latin or Greek military writer. 
 The builders of the Wall appear to have carried 
 their military road along the northernmost dyke when it 
 suited their purpose, but the little importance they 
 attached to it is shown by their having apparently levelled 
 it near Halton in order to carry the road through it. 
 
 It is obvious that the Four Dykes, as they have been 
 described, can neither be called a ' Murus ' nor a ' Vallum,' 
 not that for purposes of frontier defence there was in 
 Roman times any real technical distinction between these 
 interchangeable terms, which should once for all be 
 discarded, considering the great additional confusion 
 that has been gratuitously imported into the puzzle by 
 their employment. Nor, again, were any of the com- 
 ponent mounds ' cespititious/ that is to say, built of turves 
 laid brick-fashion one over two others, as has now clearly 
 proved to be the case with the wall along the line of the 
 Clyde and Forth. The Four Dykes would appear to have 
 constituted purely and simply a boundary-line such as two 
 nations might agree to set out between themselves, the 
 strategic advantages of the frontier being equally balanced, 
 if they were taken into consideration at all. In any case, 
 the ditch was everything, and its course may have been 
 determined to a great extent by the ground being suitable 
 for its excavation. 
 
 Notwithstanding what Tacitus says about certain 
 British communities in this district having treated the 
 Romans on terms of equality up to the time of his father- 
 in-law Agricola, it seems impossible to believe that any 
 Roman general, however hard-pressed, would have agreed 
 to a delimitation so humiliating to the prestige of the 
 Empire. Similarly, we cannot conceive that any Roman, 
 least of all the Emperor most famous for his skill in 
 engineering and architecture, could have incurred the
 
 The Four Dykes. n 
 
 enormous labour of carrying the Four Dykes across the 
 island, without at the same time making them available 
 for the protection of his province. Besides, if the Romans 
 were in quest of a frontier hereabouts, it would seem 
 natural for them, unless biased by some pre-existing 
 boundary, to have followed the transinsular course of the 
 Tyne and the Irthing, and to have erected their defensive 
 works along the southern banks of those rivers. Why 
 give up a line so strong and sheltered for a weak, 
 imaginary one running over what, even if then better 
 wooded, must have always been a series of bleak hillsides? 
 The fertile Valley of the Tyne was no doubt a valuable 
 source of supplies for the garrisons, but this would not 
 counterbalance the strategic and climatic disadvantages 
 that its inclusion entailed. Or if the Tyne Valley must be 
 included at all costs, why not keep to the top of the basalt 
 crags that form for miles a colossal wall of themselves, 
 instead of digging a ditch through the marshy ground to 
 the south of them ? 
 
 It was just here between the two seas that the terri- 
 tories of the great nation of the Brigantes terminated on 
 the north, without there being in nature any apparent 
 reason for their so doing, so that it may easily happen 
 that before the advent of the Romans the Four Dykes 
 formed the boundary between them and the Selgoouai to 
 the north-west and the Otalinoi to the north-east. Other 
 prehistoric dykes of this description are by no means rare. 
 Just over the Scottish border the Catrail, called also the 
 ' Fossa Galwensium ' and the Picts' Work Dyke, ' appears 
 to have consisted of a fosse or ditch, nearly twenty-four 
 feet wide, by about ten deep, and the earth thrown out on 
 both sides was formed into ramparts ' ; immediately oppo- 
 site the termination of the Four Dykes themselves, near 
 the southern shore of the Solway, ' an earthen rampart 
 and fosse ' begin on the northern shore, and run across 
 the upper part of the valleys of Dumfriesshire and Gallo- 
 way, till they terminate at Loch Ryan ; the so-called Offa's 
 Dyke between the Dee and the Wye is much longer than
 
 1 2 History of Northumberland. 
 
 our Four Dykes, and the tradition that that Mercian 
 sovereign pitilessly slew every Welshman found to the 
 east of it, illustrates the ancient use of a dyke, not as a 
 military defence, but as a definite boundary that was not 
 to be rashly overstepped ; and, not to cite further 
 examples, we have prehistoric earthworks on the Lower 
 Danube in no less perplexing proximity to the fortified 
 lines attributed to the Emperor Trajan than are the Four 
 Dykes to our own Wall. 
 
 Nothing Roman has as yet been discovered in connec- 
 tion with the Four Dykes, but, in making the section near 
 Heddon-on-the-Wall in 1893, a bronze axe-head, socketed 
 and looped, was found in the great north mound, and 
 although this may have been lying near the surface on the 
 line of the ditch, and have been shovelled up at its making, 
 still, it does undoubtedly suggest the possibility of its 
 having been dropped while the mound was being raised, 
 and that three or four centuries before the Christian 
 era. 
 
 Another point worthy of attention is that, while the 
 Four Dykes terminate to the west at Dykesfield, now 
 separated from the Solway by more than a mile of marsh, 
 the Wall is continued to Bowness, an extension that may 
 be easily accounted for, if between the times of their 
 respective construction a general elevation of the Cumbrian 
 coast had taken place, which rendered it necessary to 
 carry a line, whether limitary or defensive, further along 
 the firm land before ending at the sea. Such an elevation 
 is known geologically to have actually taken place prior to 
 the Roman occupation. At their east end, again, the 
 Four Dykes fall short of the Wall by the three miles 
 between Newcastle and Wallsend, and here, too, it is only 
 reasonable to suppose that the prolongation of the latter 
 may be explained by the gradual silting up of the lower 
 reaches of the Tyne, which consequently in that portion 
 of its course did not afford the same security to their 
 frontier that the Romans deemed to be sufficient between 
 Wallsend and Tynemouth.
 
 The Four Dykes. 13 
 
 Whatever the ultimate verdict on the origin and signi- 
 ficance of the Four Dykes may be, the line they follow 
 appears, as has been said, to have formed the northern 
 frontier of the Brigantes at the time when the country 
 beyond the Tyne first opens out in history. From the 
 Four Dykes to the Forth, the east coast was occupied by 
 the Otalinoi. Of the three towns which the ' Geographical 
 Guide ' of Claudius Ptolemy places in their territories, 
 one only, Bremenion, at High Rochester in Redesdale, 
 can be positively identified, though it is probable that 
 the longitude of another, Alauna, should be slightly 
 rectified, so as to place it at Alnwick, or Alnmouth, 
 instead of in the very middle of the Firth of Forth. The 
 Alauna, or Aln, is the only river mentioned by Ptolemy on 
 the coast-line between the Wear and the Forth, but we 
 may be the less surprised at this meagre list of towns and 
 rivers when we remember that his work was expressly 
 intended to be a geography, or an account of the earth as 
 a whole, and not a chorography or description of par- 
 ticular places. The exact date of its publication in the 
 reign of Hadrian or Antoninus Pius is immaterial, as its 
 ethnographical value as an account of the position of the 
 several native tribes at the time of the Roman conquest 
 is little affected by it. 
 
 As to the line of separation between the Otalinoi and 
 the Selgoouai, whose name possibly survives in that of 
 the Solway, this mere tribal boundary may be represented 
 by the Black Dyke, which, with the ditch on the west 
 side, entered Northumberland in the extreme north-west 
 corner, near Black Knowe, and, after keeping roughly to 
 the water-parting between the Irthing and the North 
 Tyne, and passing the Wall and the Four Dykes at right 
 angles about two miles east of Housesteads, is said to 
 have been traced across the South Tyne as far south as 
 Allenheads. Both in the first vague allusions to northern 
 Britain in the Latin classics and in the later historians, 
 when a general term was required to apply to the part of 
 the island beyond the Roman pale, the Otalinoi and
 
 14 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Selgoouai appear to have been both included in Caledonia. 
 It is just possible that the Otalinoi, whose name has often 
 been misspelt Otadinoi, and another tribe of Tadinoi, or 
 Gadinoi, manufactured out of it, may have given their 
 name to the Watling Street, the road which led to and 
 through their country, just as the Icknield Way is said to 
 derive its name from the Ikenoi, the ancient inhabitants 
 of Norfolk. 
 
 The portion of Northumberland to the south of the 
 Four Dykes appears to have been divided by the Black 
 Dyke among two tribes of the Brigantian nation : the 
 Maiatai, whose chief settlement, Maia, with its temple of 
 Mars Cocidius, would appear to have been near Keswick ; 
 and the Coroniatotai, whose name still lingers in that of 
 Corbridge. It is remarkable that while altars to Cocidius 
 abound to the west of the Black Dyke, even so close to it 
 as at Housesteads and Little Chesters, not one has yet 
 been discovered east of that line. 
 
 The Maiatai and Coroniatotai may have been among 
 those Brigantian communities hitherto treating the 
 Romans on terms of equality, whom Cnseus Julius 
 Agricola, Vespasian's general, induced, by an alternation 
 of sudden attacks and conciliatory measures, to agree to a 
 truce and the delivery of hostages on his famous march 
 north in the early summer of A.D. 79. Agricola proceeded, 
 Tacitus tells us, to surround the territories of these tribes 
 with prczsidia and castella, and in so doing paid more 
 attention and displayed more judgment than had till 
 then been bestowed on any newly - pacified portion of 
 Britain. We may, then, reasonably conclude that this 
 fortified investment of the district was something more 
 than an ordinary erection in it of camps and forts. It 
 was clearly Agricola's object not to protect these semi- 
 independent tribes from the raids of their northern neigh- 
 bours, but to bind them to their promises, and prevent 
 them from attacking him in the rear, while he was march- 
 ing forward with the avowed intention of conquering the 
 whole island.
 
 The Fo^lr Dykes. 15 
 
 In command of the Second Legion, and supported by 
 a small fleet, he himself appears to have advanced from 
 Chester along the ragged coast-line of Lancashire and 
 Cumberland ; while the Ninth Legion pursued a parallel 
 route from York, and a fleet sailed up the east coast to 
 effect a descent on the Tay, so as to prevent the Caledonian 
 tribes from moving down to meet him in mass, lest their 
 own homes should be ravaged in their absence. Taking 
 all this into consideration, it has been often surmised 
 that many of the Roman forts on the line of the Tyne 
 and Solway were originally founded by Agricola. If the 
 Four Dykes represent the northern bounds of the Brigan- 
 tian tribes he was desirous of encompassing, some of 
 whom we know maintained their semi-independence for 
 another sixty years, it would be natural for him to range 
 his forts along the north side of these mounds, especially 
 as he thereby gained the further object of protecting a 
 short road across the island, so as to keep up communica- 
 tions with his York column and North Sea fleet. 
 
 The watchful eye Agricola kept over tribes that other- 
 wise might have threatened his base of operations is one 
 explanation of the remarkable fact that most of the forts 
 on the Tyne-and-Solway Border front, not, as might be 
 expected, the unsubdued north, but, on the contrary, the 
 partially-subdued south ; for, with a devotion to red-tape 
 more than worthy of a British Government department 
 in our own days, the Romans laid out their encampments 
 and the stone forts that succeeded them on certain fixed 
 lines, from which they seldom departed. Their camps, 
 which would otherwise have been squares with the 
 corners rounded off, and a gateway in the centre of each 
 of the four sides, were lengthened into oblongs in the 
 direction of the enemy or the intended march. In this 
 lengthened portion of the camp the main body of the 
 troops was quartered. The gate by which they were 
 supposed to march out was called the Praetorian Gate, 
 that at the opposite end of the camp the Decuman. 
 Between the two gateways in the side walls stretched the
 
 1 6 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Via Principalis, or High Street. . The centre of the camp 
 was occupied by the Praetorium, the house of the com- 
 mander, and the temple of his soldiers, opening on to the 
 Via Principalis. At the Decuman Gate, the back-door of 
 the camp, the market-people collected, and through it 
 the disgraced soldier was led to execution ; the granaries 
 and storehouses were placed contiguous to it. The 
 great camp of the Saalburg on the German Limes, 
 which has been completely excavated, offers an excellent ex- 
 ample of a Roman fort arranged on these stereotyped lines, 
 the Praetorian Gate facing the enemy's country. Along the 
 line of the Northumbrian Wall, on the contrary, the 
 Prsetorian gates of the forts at Benwell, Rudchester, 
 Halton, Chesters and Carraw are turned towards the 
 south, as though that were the quarter in which danger 
 threatened. In the cases of Halton and Great Chesters, 
 the water was, originally at any rate, brought in aque- 
 ducts from a considerable distance to the north of the 
 Wall, and the other supplies must have been drawn from 
 the same direction, as there are no signs of any roads 
 crossing the Four Dykes, to reach the Decuman gates. 
 
 The southern aspect of these forts is especially apparent 
 when they occupy sites of great natural strength, as at 
 Birdoswald and Stanwix ; the latter, dominating so 
 splendidly over Carlisle, can surely never have been 
 selected as a mere tete-de-pont. Even poor, despised 
 Gildas, in the fifth century, noticed that these forts had 
 not been designed originally as a line 1 of defence against 
 the north, but had chanced to be built where they stand 
 as a defence against enemies in general. 
 
 One objection that naturally suggests itself against the 
 claim of Agricola to have founded these forts is the 
 absence among them of any inscription of his time. 
 This is, however, met by the fact that none have been 
 discovered in the chain of forts he is known to have 
 established between the Clyde and the Forth. Indeed, 
 there are very few inscriptions in Britain before the reign 
 of Trajan ; the fashion of carving them did not begin
 
 The Four Dykes. 17 
 
 till that of Hadrian, nor become fully developed before 
 that of Severus. A more serious objection is the fact 
 that Bremenium (High Rochester) and Prima Static 
 (Risingham), and other stations on the Watling Street, 
 also have their Praetorian gates on the southern side, 
 which rather implies that some catastrophe like that 
 which swallowed up the Ninth Legion at York a general 
 revolt of the Brigantes, no doubt found the Roman 
 legate of the day engaged with his army in a Caledonian 
 campaign, just as Suetonius Paullinus was far away in 
 Anglesey at the time of Boadicea's sack of Camalo- 
 dunum, and that the whole series of forts rose during 
 the war of re-conquest he was forced to undertake from 
 the North. 
 
 Another illustration of the little importance the 
 Romans attached to the Four Dykes as a military work 
 is the way in which Watling Street crosses them at some 
 considerable distance from the fort at Halton Chesters, 
 which was the nearest fortified passage through them. 
 That Watling Street was made before the building of the 
 Wall may be surmised from its having crossed it, not 
 through one of the gate-towers by which it was pierced 
 at every Roman mile, but through a special gateway, 
 half within, half without the Wall, with the ditch belong- 
 ing to this latter carried purposely round it. 
 
 A very valuable, though much distorted, list of the 
 names of native towns and Roman fortresses existing 
 in the North soon after the time of Agricola has been 
 fortunately handed down to us. The anonymous com- 
 piler of the geographical treatise in which this is pre- 
 served, idiota ego hujus cosmographies expositor, as, perhaps 
 with some reason, he calls himself, was born at Ravenna, 
 and wrote about the middle of the seventh century. 
 Other countries he described according to their state in 
 his own time ; but Britain had so completely dropped 
 out of the known world in consequence of the Saxon 
 invasions, that for his account of it he avowedly had 
 recourse to some ancient map or road-book, probably 
 
 2
 
 1 8 History of Northumberland. 
 
 originally written in Greek. This account gives the 
 names of ' cities ' between the Clyde and the Forth, that 
 are evidently the same as the forts still to be traced there, 
 and probably founded by Agricola ; and since, though 
 mentioning the Second Legion, styled Augusta, at Caer- 
 leon-upon-Usk, and the Twentieth, Victrix, at Chester, 
 it assigns no legion to York, it may be inferred that it was 
 originally drawn up in the interval between the disap- 
 pearance there of the Ninth Legion and its replacement 
 by the Sixth, on the Emperor Hadrian's arrival in the 
 island. This inference is very materially strengthened by 
 the string of names in question, not including that of 
 Pons ^Elius (Newcastle-upon-Tyne), so called after the 
 bridge, doubtless, thrown across the Tyne under Hadrian, 
 a member of the ./Elian family ; while the forts usually 
 known as Borcovicium (Housesteads) and Amboglanna 
 (Birdoswald) appear under what seem the earlier names 
 of Velurtion and Banna. Then, again, we find in this 
 list of forts neither Alio (Whitley Castle), an important 
 post on the Maiden Way, nor Petrianae (Old Carlisle), 
 the very centre of the elaborate network of Roman 
 defences on the west coast as finally developed. 
 
 Unlike the ' cities ' between the Clyde and Forth, 
 which, according to this account, were joined together, 
 una alien connexa, as if already some sort of limitary ram- 
 part stretched across that isthmus,' those between the 
 Tyne and Solway are merely said to have been in a 
 straight line from, sea to sea. Their names, mostly 
 in the ablative case, are given under the corrupt 
 forms of: 
 
 SERDUNO Wallsend. 
 
 CONDECOR Benwell. 
 
 VlNDOVALA Rudchester. 
 
 ONNO Halton Chesters. 
 
 CELUNNO Chesters. 
 
 BROCOLITI Carrawburgh. 
 
 VELURTION Housesteads. 
 
 ESICA Great Chesters. 
 
 BANNA Birdoswald.
 
 The Four Dykes. 19 
 
 UXELLUDAMO Ellenborough. 
 
 AVALANA Papcastle. 
 
 MAIA Keswick(?) 
 
 FANO COCIDII Whitbarrow (?) 
 
 BROCARA Brougham. 
 
 It will be noticed that this belt of forts leaves the line 
 of the Wall after Birdoswald, and first reaches the 
 western sea at Uxelludamum, near Maryport, following, 
 no doubt, what always remained the great military route 
 between the two seas. Carlisle, however, was already in 
 being, as we learn from the following whorl : 
 
 VALTERIS Brough. 
 
 BEREDA Old Penrith. 
 
 LUGUBALUM Carlisle. 
 
 MAGNIS Carvoran. 
 
 GABAGLANDA On Haltwhistle Burn(?). 
 
 VINDOLANDE Little Chesters. 
 
 LINEOJUGLA Settlingstones (?). 
 
 VINOVIA Binchester. 
 
 LAVARIS Bowes. 
 
 The two of these forts that are positively known to be 
 in Northumberland, Magnse and Vindolana, lie on the 
 Roman road known in the Middle Ages as the ' Stane- 
 gate ' or ' Carelgate,' from its being paved and leading to 
 Carlisle, and which put Birdoswald in direct communica- 
 tion with Chesters, following reasonable gradients along 
 the middle slopes of the hills on the left bank of South 
 Tyne. There seems no more reason for confounding 
 Gabaglanda with Amboglanna, the other name of Birdos- 
 wald, than with Glannibanta, which, as we shall see, 
 was no doubt the same as Stanwix, near Carlisle ; many 
 of these barbarous names have much the same ring about 
 them, and the interesting camp that guarded the bridge 
 by which the Stanegate crossed Haltwhistle Burn certainly 
 deserved a name. A camp at Settlingstones, that may or 
 not have been Lineojugla, is shown very plainly on Arm- 
 strong's map of Northumberland in 1769, but seems to 
 have been since obliterated.
 
 2O History of Northumberland. 
 
 The very peripatetic geographer of Ravenna now leads 
 us a dance down to the Moray Firth, and right across Scot- 
 land to Loch Ryan in Galloway, and then tempts us with : 
 
 EBIO Ebchester (?). 
 
 CORITIOTAR Corbridge (?). 
 
 CELOVION Chesters(P). 
 
 These are just the places that were required to fill in his 
 circular tour between Settlingstones and Binchester. Eb- 
 chester, though it cannot well be the Epiakon of Ptolemy, 
 has no positive connection with the Northumbrian princess 
 St. Ebba ; the name Coritiotar at once reminds us of the 
 Coroniatotai, and Celovion comes quite as near Cilurnum 
 (Chesters) as does Celunno, the form previously given. 
 
 A few more names follow, apparently of places in the 
 North of Scotland, and then the Ravennas (as a native of 
 Ravenna was called) comes out on the surer ground of: 
 
 TRIMUNTIUM Melrose (?). 
 
 EBUROCASLUM Netherby(P). 
 
 BREMENIUM High Rochester. 
 
 COCUNEDA Holystone. 
 
 ALAUNA Alnmouth (?). 
 
 OLEICLAVIS Ulchester (?). 
 
 EVIDENSCA Derrydikes (?). 
 
 RUMABO On the Tweed (?). 
 
 Eburocaslum seems to be a manifest blunder for 
 Exploratorum Castrum, as Netherby, the first station 
 on the Roman road north of Carlisle, was called, from 
 the camp of the scouts there ; but the name may equally 
 well have been applied to Risingham or other camps on 
 the west branch of the Watling Street, north of Cor- 
 bridge, along which exploratores were also quartered. 
 The cross-road from Bremenium on the west branch of 
 the Watling Street to the east branch at the Cove Burn 
 can still be distinctly traced, but there are no traces of 
 Roman remains now visible at Holystone, where this road 
 crosses the Coquet, nor of the continuation of it towards 
 Alnmouth. The fine camp at Ulchester, now corruptly
 
 The Four Dykes. 2 1 
 
 called Outchester, seems to be Roman ; that at Derry- 
 dykes, west of Belford, is more doubtful. Nothing ap- 
 pears to be known with certainty as to how the eastern 
 branch of the Watling Street terminated on the Tweed ; 
 and, except for the faint trace of Oleiclavis to be found 
 in Ulchester, the passion of the Ravennas for circular 
 tours is the chief reason for supposing him to have turned 
 north again from the Aln.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE WALL. 
 
 THE Roman occupation of Northumberland with 
 roads and fortresses would seem to have been 
 well-nigh completed when the Emperor Hadrian landed 
 in Britain in A.D. 121. He is usually credited with 
 having favoured the resumption of the cautious policy of 
 Augustus, who deprecated any extension of the Empire 
 beyond the limits he himself had assigned to it. Hadrian 
 certainly abandoned the provinces east of the Euphrates, 
 but he retained Dacia, cutting it off from the rest of the 
 Empire, and rendering an invasion of Moesia more difficult 
 by destroying the bridge his predecessor Trajan had 
 thrown with so much labour across the Danube. Britain 
 he also retained, though, by force of circumstances, 
 perhaps, rather than of fixed policy, he appears to have 
 relinquished all idea of subjugating the whole island, 
 and to have fallen back for his northernmost frontier on 
 the line of forts existing between the Solway and the 
 Tyne. 
 
 Two fragments of a slab found in the church of Jarrow, 
 but very possibly taken from Wallsend, notwithstanding 
 that Jarrow itself had a Roman fort, seem to record the 
 fact that ' troops stationed in the province of Britain in 
 forts between the two shores of Ocean, were commended 
 by Hadrian for having, under circumstances that tried the 
 faith and loyalty of all, preserved intact the boundaries of
 
 The Wall. 23 
 
 the Republic, being only restrained by dire necessity from 
 subduing the furthermost limits of the known world.' 
 
 A similar allocution, inscribed on the pedestal of a 
 column in the camp of the auxiliaries at Lambaesae, in 
 Algeria, shows the pleasure it gave Hadrian to find 
 masonry substituted for turf-walls. He there thanks the 
 horsemen of the Sixth Cohort of the Commageni for 
 ' accomplishing in one day work that others would have 
 spread over many; for having constructed a long wall 
 similar to those of winter forts with stones, large, heavy 
 and unequal, in little longer time than it could have been 
 built with turves, which, cut all of the same size, are easily 
 carried and put together; and for having excavated a 
 well-trimmed ditch through hard and rough gravel.' 
 
 In order to make the eastern portion of the new British 
 frontier more accessible to his troops, the destroyer of the 
 bridge of Turn-Severin threw over the Tyne the ^Elian 
 Bridge, commanded by a fort now obliterated by the city 
 of Newcastle. His general policy of Imperial defence in 
 plabes where the barbarians were marked off (dividuntttr), 
 not by rivers, but by limites, was to keep them out 
 (separavit) by great stakes fastened together and fixed at 
 the bottom like a mural fence. In Britain, we are told, 
 as something exceptional, he first erected a wall eighty 
 miles long, not so much for the purpose of keeping out 
 the barbarians, as for that of marking them off (divideret) 
 from the Roman citizens. Bowness, on the Solway, is 
 almost exactly eighty Roman miles from Wallsend ; but 
 we might have expected to find a line of demarcation 
 like the limes between the Rhine and Danube or the turf- 
 wall between the Clyde and Forth, rather than a stone 
 wall averaging 8 feet in width and 16 feet in height, 
 with gate-towers every mile, and three or four turrets in 
 each interval between them. The construction of this 
 great Wall, mighty work of engineering though it is, 
 seems to involve a confession of military inferiority to 
 the tribes beyond that it seems hardly credible even the 
 most pacific Emperor could have made in the second
 
 24 History of Northumberland. 
 
 century. Still, we know the very theatrical turn of 
 Hadrian's genius, and the imposing on the Empire of an 
 artificial boundary of this enduring character may have 
 been as much an example of it as is the extraordinary 
 museum of buildings he formed in the neighbourhood of 
 Tivoli. It is perhaps strange that a mimic Caledonian 
 Wall does not figure in that collection. 
 
 As has been said, Hadrian's Wall, whether built of stone 
 or turf, was designed for a dividing-line, and not an 
 absolute partition. The ruined stone Wall, with its 
 frequent gate-towers, bears out this description. Indeed, 
 the Scottish historian Fordun was so struck by this 
 aspect of it that he rendered its then current name of 
 the Thirlwall by the Latin Munis Perforatus, as though 
 these openings had been drilled through it. The gate- 
 towers or mile-castles, as they are now usually termed, 
 were about 60 feet square inside. That they are of 
 the same date as the Wall itself, which formed their 
 north wall, is shown by their other walls being of the 
 same section and masonry ; the east and west ones, indeed, 
 are bonded into it. To the north as well as to the south 
 were gateways about 9 feet wide, formed of more solid 
 masonry. Sometimes the north gate of a mile-castle 
 opens out into space over the brink of a precipice, sug- 
 gesting that the Wall, though its general course is 
 admirably adapted to the nature of the ground traversed, 
 was in this particular subject to theoretical instructions 
 transmitted from a distance. It is very improbable, 
 therefore, that the work was personally superintended 
 by Hadrian or any other emperor. Much wheeled traffic 
 does not appear to have passed through these gate-towers, 
 which, after all, may have been chiefly used for sorties to 
 disperse any hostile force approaching to attack the Wall, 
 or to readmit the Romans in case of defeat. Nevertheless, 
 the unworn state of their thresholds is a strong argument 
 in favour of their having been built at a very late period. 
 Unlike the barbicans of medieval castles, these towers 
 had both their gates opening inwards, and in this respect
 
 The Wall. 25 
 
 were better fitted for independent defence on all sides 
 than for launching sallies on the enemy. 
 
 Identical inscriptions bearing the names of Hadrian 
 and Aulus Platorius Nepos, his lieutenant in Britain, 
 have been found in four nearly consecutive mile-castles, 
 between Borcovicium (Housesteads) and ^Esica (Great 
 Chesters). There is a little difficulty about the only one 
 of these that is quite perfect. Wallis, the historian, says 
 it was found in the foundations of a mile-castle in an 
 opening of the precipice by Crag Lake, called Lough- 
 End-Crag, or Milking Gap, in digging stones for building 
 a farmhouse belonging to William Lowes, to the north- 
 east of Vindolana (Little Chesters). This house was 
 that known by the name of Hotbank, and just between 
 it and the outlet of the overflow from Crag Lough, now 
 called Milking Gap, are the remains of a mile-castle. 
 This was, however, not on the Lowes estate, as was the 
 next castle to the west, at Steelrig, in the opening of the 
 basalt precipice at the head of the lough. It is, no doubt, 
 to the latter, situated to the north-west of Vindolana, that 
 Wallis referred ; otherwise he would not have so carefully 
 noted the different direction of the farmhouse. 
 
 In a sparsely-inhabited country, the names of localities 
 constantly vary, and the shepherds of Steelrig may easily 
 have had their milking gap as well as the shepherds of 
 Bradley. The slab was no doubt discovered, not in the 
 actual foundations of the walls of the castle, but at the 
 bottom of the debris with which the interior was filled, 
 the fragments of the identical inscriptions in the Caw- 
 fields and Housesteads mile-castles being found in this 
 position, one close beside, the other not far from, the 
 respective south gateways. The presence of two inscrip- 
 tions in honour of Hadrian in the same castle would not 
 necessarily prove that one of them, and therefore possibly 
 both, had been brought from some other place, as there 
 may well have been an inscription over each gateway. 
 These slabs, it may be fairly argued, did occupy some 
 elevated position in the masonry of the walls ; and even
 
 26 History of Northumberland. 
 
 if used up again in subsequent restorations, there is no 
 reason why they should not have been placed there origin- 
 ally by Hadrian's lieutenant. 
 
 On the other hand, the fact of the intended trans- 
 portation of the Steelrig slab to the farmhouse on Hot- 
 bank, illustrates the long distance it was considered worth 
 while to cart ready-dressed stones, even in the eighteenth 
 century. The tombstone of Dagvald, a Pannonian 
 soldier, found in the Cawfields mile-castle, where it had 
 apparently been used for a hearth-stone, must have been 
 brought a long way. Coins of Hadrian and Antoninus 
 Pius were found in excavating the Housesteads mile- 
 castle. 
 
 Other inscriptions of the time of Hadrian have been 
 yielded by the forts of ^Esica (Great Chesters), and 
 Procolitia (Carrawburgh). At Magnse (Carvoran), in con- 
 sequence of a dream, Titus Flavius Secundinus, whose 
 name occurs on a diploma of Trajan, dedicated in 
 A.D. 137, as prefect of the First Cohort of Hamian 
 Archers, an altar to Fortuna Augusta (whose golden image 
 stood always in the Imperial chamber), for the recovery 
 of Lucius ./Elius Csesar, Hadrian's adopted heir, whom 
 the Emperor himself had prophetically described in the 
 words of Virgil, as 
 
 ' That youth the Fates but just display 
 To earth, nor let him longer stay.' 
 
 Hadrian's actual successor, Antoninus Pius, took land 
 from the Brigantes, who had ventured to attack the allies 
 of Rome. It is just possible that the Corionototai, the tribe 
 of Brigantes round Corbridge, had indulged in a raid on 
 the tribe round Windermere (Genounia, Vinonia). At 
 any rate, Quintus Calpurnius Concessinus, prefect of horse, 
 rendered thanks at Corbridge. to the sun-god Mithras 
 for assistance in slaughtering a number of Corionototai. 
 The tribe was probably exterminated, and their lands given 
 to a small military colonia. It is difficult to see how the 
 Emperor, under the circumstances, could take lands from
 
 The Wall. 27 
 
 the Brigantes in any other way. The name of Corbridge 
 still reminds us of the Corionototai, while the Roman 
 walled town at the north end of the bridge by which 
 Watling Street crossed the Tyne, and locally known as 
 Colchester, preserves the memory of the colonia. The 
 irregular walls of this town included about twenty-two 
 acres, a third of the area of York, the capital of Britain, 
 while Cilurnum (Chesters), almost the largest fort on the 
 line of the Wall, did not occupy much more than five 
 acres. Corstopitum (Colchester-on-Tyne) was thus the 
 most important Roman settlement in the North, and 
 signs of the high state of culture and civilization that 
 prevailed in it are abundant. Two altars with well-turned 
 inscriptions in Greek hexameter verse, one dedicated by 
 the archpriestess Diodora to the Tyrian Hercules, the 
 other by a man called Pulcher to Astarte, the Ashtoreth 
 of the Book of Kings, recall the Greek schoolmaster, a 
 native of Tarsus, whom Plutarch met at Delphi, returning 
 from Britain. 
 
 The silver dish, or lanx, about 20 inches long and 15 
 broad, found here in the Tyne, probably represents, in the 
 moulded bas-relief that has provoked so many learned dis- 
 sertations, nothing more recondite than the Judgment of 
 Paris. There are the three goddesses, Minerva, Juno and 
 Venus, the last veiled and seated, as she is often depicted 
 on Greek vases. To their right is Apollo, with his lyre 
 laid down, as it had to be when the apple of discord was 
 thrown into the marriage-feast of Peleus, and with the 
 bow uplifted that was destined to slay Achilles. On their 
 left stands Paris, in the costume he generally wears, with 
 a bow and the fatal arrow. The roundlet on a pedestal in 
 front of Paris appears to be the apple itself. The rest ot 
 the objects the tree with ten birds in its branches, the 
 temple entrance with its twisted columns, the pillar sup- 
 porting a globe, and the hound, elk and griffin in the 
 base are mere decorative accessories. 
 
 Of even more delicate workmanship and truer art are 
 the fragments of four silver paterae, or saucepan-shaped
 
 28 History of Northumberland. 
 
 vessels, found at Capheaton, but probably part of the spoil 
 of Corstopitum. The most interesting had its handle 
 ornamented with a bust of Hercules, and the symbols of 
 his six labours : the Nemaean lion, the Cerynian stag, the 
 Erymanthine boar, the apple-tree of the Hesperides, the 
 Hydra, and the Strymphalian birds. From Corstopitum, 
 too, came the one vestige of Roman Christianity in the 
 North unless we count a Gnostic gern recently found 
 at ^Esica in the shape of a silver basin for the priest to 
 wash his hands in, with the sacred monogram of the 
 Labarum repeated round its rim. There is every prob- 
 ability that many of the carved stones of Corstopitum 
 were taken by Wilfrid to build his great church at 
 Hexham, but this does not of itself prove there was no 
 Roman settlement at the latter place. 
 
 The greatness of Corstopitum must belong to the period 
 when the country north of the Wall was also under 
 Roman rule. Antoninus sent his lieutenant, Quintus 
 Lollius Urbicus, on a Caledonian campaign. The names 
 of Urbicus occur on a slab carved by a cohort of the 
 Lingones, and found in the centre of Bremenium (High 
 Rochester) in close vicinity to a water-tank, adorned with 
 a representation of three long-haired nymphs at their 
 ablutions. Urbicus drove the barbarians beyond the line 
 of the Forth and Clyde, along which he erected, if we con- 
 strue the Latin strictly, a third wall built of turves (olio 
 muro cespitaceo). We now know that this wall of Urbicus 
 was really built of turves overlapping one another like 
 bricks, and that the Four Dykes were not built of turves, 
 but were mere earth-mounds, possibly not Roman at all. 
 As has been already suggested, a turf-wall may have con- 
 nected Agricola's forts between the Forth and Clyde 
 before the time of Hadrian, and Urbicus may have only 
 rebuilt this ; while Hadrian's Wall, though built on the 
 exact site of the present stone structure between the 
 Tyne and the Solway, may have also been composed of 
 turves. It is much to be wished that the locality between 
 Birdoswald and Wallbower, where there are indications
 
 The Wall. 29 
 
 of the stone wall having for once swerved from the line of 
 an earlier one of turves or palisades, should be carefully 
 examined. The Second Legion, from Caerleon-on-Usk, 
 was especially employed in building the Antonine Wall. 
 Marcus Liburnius Pronto, one of the centurions, being 
 at Condercum (Benwell), addressed his prayers for the 
 safety of this legion to Dolichenian Jove, whose shrine 
 was on the Aventine. 
 
 There was again trouble on the Border in the beginning 
 of the reign of Marcus Aurelius, in A.D. 162. The Cale- 
 donians seem to have burst through the northern wall, 
 whose effective existence was thus limited to some twenty 
 years. Calpurnius Agricola took the field against the 
 enemy. During Agricola's lieutenancy in Britain, Aulus 
 Licinius Clemens, prefect of the Hamian Archers, raised 
 an altar at Magnse to the Syrian Goddess. Lest there 
 should be any doubt as to who this divinity was, Marcus 
 Caecilius Donatianus, another prefect, recorded on a slab 
 there a mystic exposition of her creed. The original 
 Latin iambics may be roughly rendered : 
 
 ' There is a Virgin who above the Lion 
 Shines in the heavens. She first gave us corn, 
 Justice established and founded cities. 
 Through Her grace we came to knowledge of the gods. 
 Styled thence Mother of the Gods, as also 
 Peace, Virtue, Ceres, and the Syrian Goddess, 
 She holds our lives and fate in the balance. 
 Syria sent forth this Her constellation, 
 Manifested to be worshipped in Libya, 
 Whence it is that we all are instructed. 
 In this Thy faith Thou didst initiate 
 Marcus Caecilius Donatianus, 
 Prefect, with tribune's rank conferred by the Emperor.' 
 
 Marcus Aurelius admitted the unworthy Commodus to 
 a participation in the Empire. During their joint reign 
 (A.D. 177-180) and the lieutenancy of Ulpius Marcellus, 
 Tineius Longus, another prefect, who, with complacent 
 vanity, describes himself as decorated, like Donatianus, 
 with the broad stripe of a legionary tribune, and treasurer-
 
 30 History of Northumberland. 
 
 designate in addition, placed an altar in honour of the 
 god Anociticus in a small temple at Condercum (Benwell) 
 with an apse at the south end. In the opposite corner, 
 on the other side of the opening into the apse, stood an 
 altar to the god Antenocitus, presented by ^Elius Vibius, 
 a centurion of the Twentieth Legion. Probably the 
 divinity referred to on both altars was the Invincible 
 Sun-god. 
 
 A British war was the principal military event in the 
 sole reign of Commodus. The Caledonians broke through 
 the wall that separated them from the Roman camps, and 
 slew a general and a number of soldiers. Ulpius Mar- 
 cellus was sent to stem their ravages. 
 
 On the murder of Commodus, Clodius Albinus, then 
 lieutenant in Britain, attempted to seize the purple. He 
 was defeated by Septimius Severus with the army of 
 Illyria, at Lyons, in A.D. 197. Before hastening to Rome 
 to reap the fruits of his victory, Severus put the affairs of 
 Britain in order, and, with a view to prevent another 
 governor following the example of Albinus, he divided it 
 into two prefectures. A line drawn from the Humber to 
 the Mersey or the Ribble probably now formed the boun- 
 dary between the province of Britannia Superior, that 
 nearer Rome, and the more distant Britannia Inferior. 
 The comparatively small size of the northern province 
 for Chester-on-the-Dee was at any rate in the southern 
 points to a determination already taken by Severus to 
 reduce the whole island to the Roman obedience. In a 
 certain sense, then, Severus may be regarded as the 
 creator of Northumberland. His northern province, with 
 its central machinery at York, was destined to be of 
 stunted growth, like the Plantagenet kingdom of Scotland 
 with its chancery at Berwick. The idea of a Britannia 
 Inferior stretching from the Humber to the Pentland 
 Firth took ecclesiastical shape in the mission-schemes of 
 Gregory the Great, and the origin of the two convocations 
 of York and Canterbury may be legitimately traced to the 
 pronimciamiento of Clodius Albinus.
 
 The Wall. 31 
 
 Profiting by the transfer of British troops to the battle- 
 field of Lyons, the Maiatai, who dwelt near the Wall in 
 the plains and marshes of Cumberland, rose in revolt, and 
 were naturally supported by the Caledonians from the 
 mountainous districts to the north. In A.D. 207 Severus 
 came in person to the island. He dismissed the barbarian 
 envoys who came to sue for peace, and passing with a 
 great army the ' rivers and mounds (khomata) that formed 
 the defences of the Roman dominion,' entered Caledonia. 
 The mounds in question can scarcely be other than the 
 Four Dykes, but the special mention of them by an eye- 
 witness like Herodian, notorious for his love of rhetorical 
 effect, does not quite preclude the existence of a wall. 
 During the first year that Severus was in the island, an ex- 
 tensive quarry was opened on the Gelt, near Lanercost,and 
 before the close of it the fort of Prima Static (Risingham), 
 on Watling Street, north of the Wall, was re-occupied by 
 a cohort of the Vangiones, the inhabitants of the most 
 eastern part of Belgic Gaul. The south gateway, which 
 had fallen into ruins, was now restored by order of Alferius 
 Senecio, Governor of Britain, under the supervision of the 
 Imperial procurator, Oclatinus Adventus, and the tribune 
 ^Emilius Salvianus. A quarry at Coome Crag, on the 
 Irthing, appears to have been abandoned three years later. 
 This, no doubt, points to very considerable building 
 operations during the very time that, according to many 
 historians, Severus built a wall across the island in order 
 to protect the two provinces in Britain that he had 
 recovered from Clodius Albinus. The length of this wall 
 is variously given as thirty-two and a hundred and thirty- 
 two Roman miles. If the former be correct, those who 
 hold that this refers to the Tyne-and-Solway Wall may 
 suppose that Severus reconstructed the works of Hadrian 
 between Birdoswald and Bowness, the part most affected 
 by the confederacy of the Maiatai and Caledonians ; if the 
 latter, that he undertook a general fortification of the 
 frontier, from Tynemouth to Ravenglass. It is remark- 
 able that the Venerable Bede particularly insists on the
 
 32 History of Northumberland. 
 
 fact that the wall of Severus was made of turves, with a 
 palisade along the top. We now know that this was not 
 at all the character of the Four Dykes, and what Bede 
 must have had in mind was a turf-wall on the very same 
 site as the stone wall, the construction of which he 
 attributes to the fourth century. 
 
 On the whole, however, Septimius Severus is the very 
 last man upon whom we should expect the Northumbrian 
 Wall to be fathered. Like Julius Agricola and Edward 
 Longshanks, he certainly contemplated the conquest of 
 the entire island. After he had divided it into two 
 provinces on the assumption that the whole would 
 belong to the Empire, is it likely that he would open his 
 Northern campaign by erecting a permanent barrier which 
 would limit the size of Lower Britain to about a sixth 
 both of Upper Britain and of its own intended extent ? 
 If he erected a wall at all, he probably rebuilt for the 
 third time the turf one between the Clyde and Forth, 
 where, indeed, Nennius does distinctly place his wall. 
 This allocation harmonizes both with Bede's clear state- 
 ment that the wall of Severus was a turf one, and with the 
 account of the earliest writers, that its length was thirty- 
 two Roman miles. The cool assertion of those who would 
 have it of stone and place it between the Tyne and Solway, 
 that neither xxxn. nor CXXXIL, but LXXXIL, is the correct 
 number of miles, is a piece of unwarranted criticism. Pos- 
 sibly the idea of Severus having built a wall at all may 
 have had its root in a misconception of the contemporary 
 passage in Herodian, which mentions his division of the 
 Roman portion of the island into two provinces. 
 
 Not only did Severus defeat the Caledonians, but he 
 forced theiy to agree to a perpetual peace. Passing the 
 Wall on his return, he discharged a certain Moor there 
 was a band of Moorish horse afterwards quartered at 
 Abalabba (Papcastle) from military service, perhaps in 
 order that he might carry home the news of his successes 
 to the disturbed frontier in Africa. Approaching the 
 next posting-station, possibly Colchester-on-Tyne, the
 
 The Wall. 33 
 
 Emperor kept turning over in his mind what omen would 
 happen to him on this solemn occasion. The omen was 
 a very black one : an Ethiopian ran out to meet him with 
 a cypress wreath, shouting, ' Caesar, thou hast been 
 everything, be now a god !' Bassianus, the elder son of 
 Severus, who longed for his father's death, may have 
 arranged this funereal reception in the hope of giving the 
 poor old man a fatal shock. Severus and his sons are 
 commemorated on a slab in the roof of the crypt at 
 Hexham, probably taken from Corbridge. After being 
 longer in Britain than any other emperor, Severus died 
 at York in A.D. 211. 
 
 Caracalla, as Bassianus is usually called, not only 
 murdered his brother Geta, who was associated with 
 him in the purple, but caused his name to be carefully 
 chiselled out of every inscription throughout the Empire 
 upon which it appeared. The slab from over the south 
 gateway of Prima Static (Risingham), and that in the roof 
 of Hexham crypt, afford examples of this fraternal affec- 
 tion. The defence of the frontier, however, was by no 
 means neglected during Caracalla's sole reign : the forts of 
 Prima Static and Bremenium (High Rochester) were both 
 strengthened ; and the Rhaetian spearmen of the former 
 appear to have pushed further north. New mile-stones 
 were placed on the military road along the Wall, and fresh 
 works carried out at Alio (Whitley Castle) on the South 
 Tyne. The personal crimes of the Emperors did not put 
 a stop to progress in the provinces. There is a bare 
 possibility that about this time the rough Illyrian giant 
 Maximinus, who became Emperor in A.D. 235, erected a 
 temple with a bas-relief of Jupiter near the mouth of the 
 Tyne, while he was serving in the Sixth Legion. 
 
 While that Eastern voluptuary Heliogabalus was 
 defiling Rome with his evil pleasures, a balistarium was 
 built from the foundations on the west side of Bremenium 
 in A.D. 220, and in the following year a building that had 
 become ruinous through age was solemnly re-dedicated 
 at Cilurnum on October 30. At Bremenium, too, Lucius 
 
 3
 
 34 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Caecilius Optatus, tribune of the Vardulli, erected a 
 temple to the Sun, whom Heliogabalus had associated 
 with himself in the Empire. 
 
 The young Severus Alexander, the best of all who ever 
 assumed the name of Caesar, paid special attention to the 
 state of the frontiers. He granted to the officers and 
 soldiers stationed along them the lands that had been 
 taken from the enemy, and these were to continue in 
 their families, and never again become private property 
 as long as their heirs continued to do military service. 
 ' They would do their duties better,' he said, ' when the 
 fields they defended were their own.' His lieutenant, 
 Claudius Xenophon, restored the gates and towers of 
 Vindolana (Little Chesters), and placed new mile-stones 
 along the Carel Street. In A.D. 225 the Asturian cohort 
 quartered at vEsica (Great Chesters) rebuilt an old granary 
 there that had collapsed. Mile-stones of the succeeding 
 Emperor, the rough Maximinus (A.D. 235-238), were set 
 up just west of Corstopitum (Colchester), and at Crindle- 
 dykes near Vindolana. During his joint reign with his 
 son Maximus (A.D. 237), the first Batavians, and their 
 prefect Burrius, appear to have strengthened the north- 
 east corner of the fort of Procolitia (Carrawburgh). 
 
 Egnatius Lucilianus, the legate of Gordian (A.D. 238- 
 244), inscribed an altar at Bremenium (High Rochester) to 
 the Genius of the Emperor, of the first Vardullian cohort, 
 and of the local band of scouts ; while the prefect 
 Agrippa restored at Condercum (Benwell) the temple 
 of the Three Campestral Mothers and the Genius of the 
 first Asturian horse. These three mother-goddesses of 
 the plains are again commemorated on an altar found at 
 Gloster Hill near the mouth of the Coquet. They are 
 styled ' the Transmarine Mothers ' on a stone at New- 
 castle which portrays them seated in a triple arcade, and 
 on the very ornate altar of Julius Victor at Risingham ; 
 and simply * the Mothers ' on the handle of a silver 
 saucepan in the Backworth find. They seem to be again 
 represented in a group of three figures seated on a bench,
 
 The Wall. 35 
 
 with cups in their right hands, from Borcovicium (House-, 
 steads). By the side of the burn to the east of this fort 
 were three similar ladies ensconced in separate chairs. 
 
 In the reign of Gallus and Volusian, a sanctuary of the 
 god Mithras, whose worship had spread from Persia 
 over the whole Roman world, was cut out of the east 
 side of a knoll to the south of Borcovicium. The front 
 wall, with the entrance slightly north of the centre, was 
 faced on both sides with dressed stone ; the other walls 
 were only lined with it. The interior would have been 
 about 12 feet square, but the west part of it formed a 
 recess, 7 feet long and 30 inches deep. In front of this 
 recess stood a slab with a half-length figure of Mithras? 
 in full relief, clasping a sword in one hand, a torch in the 
 other, and set in a sort of oval band, ornamented with the 
 signs of the zodiac. On either side of this was an altar 
 to ' the Invincible and Eternal Sun-god.' That on the 
 north was dedicated by Litorius Pacatianus, that on the 
 south, erected in A.D. 252, by the centurion Publius Pro- 
 culinus on behalf of himself and his son Proculus. Be- 
 hind the slab with the zodiac stood a small statue of one 
 of Mithras's attendants in Phrygian costume, with an 
 uplifted torch. A great bas-relief, 6 feet high, represent- 
 ing Mithras killing a bull (the protoplasm of all living 
 things, according to Zoroaster), was probably inserted high 
 up in the west wall of the building, below a low-pitched 
 gable. This, at least, is the position occupied by the 
 similar groups of Mithras and the bull carved on the 
 rocks of Schoepheim, near the Rhine, and of Bourg-Saint- 
 Andeol in the Rhone Valley. The faithful dog who 
 guarded the bull and another attendant with an uplifted 
 torch are among the remaining fragments of the taurine 
 tablet of Borcovicium. 
 
 Another temple of Mithras, the Invincible Sun-god, 
 on the brow of the hill outside the south-west corner of 
 Vindobala (Rudchester), was restored by Tiberius Clau- 
 dius Decimus Cornelius Antoninus, a prefect with almost 
 as many names as a Spanish prince of the blood. In
 
 36 History of Northumberland. 
 
 this temple Lucius Sentius Castus, of the Sixth Legion, 
 placed an altar, with the simple dedication DEO, showing 
 how the belief in a single supreme Divinity was surely 
 gaining ground. It was probably to Mithras that an 
 altar was set up at Magnse (Caervoran), in A.D. 258, for 
 the health of the prefect Desidienus yElianus. This is 
 the last dated inscription we meet with ; after that mile- 
 stones are the only things that afford any clue to the time 
 of their erection. 
 
 The British Empire that existed for ten years (A.D. 287- 
 296) independent of Rome, under Carausius and Allectus, 
 terminated in the reconquest of the civilized portion of 
 the island by the Caesar Constantius. In accordance 
 with his general policy, Diocletian appears to have further 
 subdivided the two provinces of Severus, so that while 
 Upper Britain consisted henceforth of Britannia Prima 
 and Britannia Secunda, Lower Britain comprised 
 Maxima Caesariensis, with a consular governor at York, 
 and Flavia Caesariensis, with a prases probably at Bin- 
 chester. 
 
 The road-book possibly begun by the Emperor Marcus 
 Aurelius Antoninus, whose care for the great routes of 
 the Empire is specially recorded, and continued under 
 the name of the ' Antonine Itinerary,' just as the ' Brad- 
 shaws,' ' La Chaixs,' and ' Hendschells ' of our own day 
 bear the names of their original compilers, seems, in the 
 form in which it has come down to us, to undoubtedly 
 belong to the age of Diocletian. Its value as a picture 
 of Roman Britain depends on the time of the composi- 
 tion of the extant edition ; the question of when and by 
 whom it was first compiled is one of comparative indiffer- 
 ence. The first route given in it, that ' From the Limes, 
 that is, from the Wall to the Praetorium ' (apparently on 
 the Humber), runs as far as York : 
 
 From BREMENIUM (High Rochester) 
 
 To CORSTOPITUM (Corbridge) ... xx. Roman miles. 
 
 To VINDOMORA (Whittonstall ?) ... viii. 
 
 To VINOVIA (Binchester) xviii.
 
 The Wall. 37 
 
 To CATARACTO (Catterick) xxii. Roman miles. 
 
 To ISURIUM (Aldborough) xxiii. 
 
 To EBURACUM (York) xvii. 
 
 Leg. vi. Victrix (the Sixth Legion). 
 
 This road seems to have been continued north to the 
 Antonine Wall, but when this edition of the road-book 
 was brought out, Bremenium was the last Roman out- 
 post on it, as was Blatum Bulgium (Birrenswark) on the 
 road leading north from Carlisle. 
 
 It is extraordinary to think that generation after gene- 
 ration of antiquaries should have racked their brains in 
 vain over the tenth route, which seems to admit of a very 
 simple explanation. We know from inscriptions that 
 Bremetonacum is Ribchester, and Alo Whitley Castle, 
 on South Tyne ; from its position in the sequences of the 
 Ravennas, and, as we shall see, of the Notitia, we may 
 shrewdly suspect that Glanoventa is the fort of Stanwix, 
 overlooking Carlisle ; while on the south side of the 
 Tipalt, opposite Magnae (Carvoran), is the camp of Gap 
 Shield, eighteen Roman miles from Stanwix and twelve 
 from Whitley Castle. We have only, then, to correct the 
 distance between the latter and Overborough from xix. 
 to XLIX. miles in order to identify the central part of this 
 tenth Iter with the Maiden Way, the steep raised road 
 that leads over moor and fell from Overborough in Lons- 
 dale, into the upper valley of the South Tyne. 
 
 Taking the recorded and actual distances in Roman 
 miles, we thus get : 
 
 From BREMETONAOE (Ribchester) 
 
 To CALACUM (Overborough) ... xxvii. (27) Roman miles. 
 
 To ALO (Whitley Castle) ... xix. (xlix.) (49) 
 
 To GALAVA (Gap Shield) xii. (12) 
 
 To GLANOVENTA (Stanwix) xviii. (18) 
 
 In this, as in so many other moot points of antiquarian 
 lore, writers generally lose themselves in clouds of ex- 
 ploded hypotheses, forgetting that these are only curi- 
 osities of antiquarian literature, and that raking them
 
 38 History of Northumberland. 
 
 out again impedes rather than furthers a just comprehen- 
 sion of History itself. 
 
 Constantius, who became Emperor of the West in 
 A.D. 305, carried a successful war into the woods and 
 marshes of the Caledonians and other Picts. In A.D. 343, 
 and again in A.D. 360, the Picts from beyond the Wall 
 and the Scots from Ireland ravaged the outlying portions 
 of the Roman dominions. Lupicinus, sent to Britain by 
 Julian, could do no more than temporarily stem the 
 torrent of barbarian invasion. In A.D. 364 the Picts and 
 Saxons, and the Scots and Attacotti, fell on the unfor- 
 tunate province. The Attacotti, a warlike race of men, 
 were perhaps the same as the Otalinoi of Claudius 
 Ptolemy. 
 
 A systematic defence had already been organized ; the 
 troops along the northern frontier had been placed under 
 the command of the Duke of the Britains, the forts 
 along the south-east coast, from Portsmouth to Bran- 
 caster, under that of the Count of the Maritime Tract. 
 The Count, Nectarides, was slain, probably by the 
 Saxons ; the Duke, Fallofaudus, besieged by the Picts 
 and Scots. The great general Theodosius, accompanied by 
 his son, the future Emperor of that name, delivered the 
 provinces of all these enemies, who had extended their 
 ravages as far as London. His fleet chased the Scots to 
 Ireland, the Saxons to the Orkneys. He conquered the 
 Picts in a single campaign, bridled Caledonia with forts, 
 and protected the frontiers with guards and watches. A 
 province that had yielded to the enemy, and was now 
 recovered, received the name of Valentia, in honour of 
 the reigning Emperor Valentinian. Possibly this new 
 province was Wales ; the idea that it was the country 
 between the Walls of Hadrian and Antonine is one of the 
 legacies we have received from the spurious Richard of 
 Cirencester. We find about this time that the Attacotti 
 were enlisted in the Roman army, not as auxiliaries, but 
 as foederati ; that is to say, not as natives dwelling within 
 the Empire, but as barbarian volunteers from outside of
 
 The Wall. 39 
 
 it. St. Jerome met with some of them in Gaul, and 
 declares that they preferred a rump-steak of shepherd or 
 a cutlet of shepherdess to any delicacies of beef and 
 mutton. Possibly their savage appearance gave rise 
 to this charge of cannibalism, just as the first West 
 Highland cattle exhibited in France were credited by 
 the Parisian press with occasionally devouring their 
 keepers. 
 
 In A.D. 383, Clemens Maximus, the commander of the 
 Roman army in Britain, allowed himself to be proclaimed 
 Emperor. He put firmly down an invasion of the Picts 
 and Scots, but following the example of Albinus rather 
 than that of Carausius, he crossed over to Gaul with all 
 the troops available, including the Twentieth Legion. In 
 Gaul he ruled, a half-recognised Emperor, for four years, 
 and then, descending into Italy, was slain by Theodosius, 
 son of the re-conqueror of Britain, under the walls of Aqui- 
 leia. To Theodosius and his sons Arcadius and Honorius, 
 recently raised to the rank of Augustus, an essay on 
 military affairs was dedicated by an anonymous writer. 
 In this curious tract the attention of the princes was 
 specially directed to the state of the frontier in places 
 where the barbarians were concealed by woods, assisted 
 by mountains and protected by frosts (pruinis) no doubt 
 the Caledonian frosts (Caledoniis pruinis) of Hadrian's 
 epigrams and Claudian's panegyric. The Roman soldiers 
 were to wear a thoromachus, or woollen guernsey, under 
 their cuirass or breastplate in travelling through these 
 icy (glaciates} countries Claudian, it will be remembered, 
 speaks of icy Ireland (glacialis I erne). The thoromachus 
 would suffice against the cold, and protect the wearer 
 from smaller darts without his being obliged to carry his 
 shield, and this was of importance, since often the thick 
 woods were inaccessible for heavy-armed soldiers, who 
 found themselves weighed down and cut off in case of 
 retreat. The best way of protecting a frontier, according 
 to this writer, was to erect a series of castella at the 
 distance of every mile, with a solid wall and strong
 
 4O History of Northumberland. 
 
 towers. These fortifications might, he thought, be com- 
 pleted without charge to the State by the tenants of the 
 adjoining lands, who would also keep watch and ward 
 along them, and by their belt of garrisons ensure the im- 
 munity of the provinces from attack. His advice seems 
 to have been eventually followed in a restoration, at any 
 rate, of the Wall between the Tyne and Solway, with 
 its mile-castles and turrets. The Picts and Scots were 
 driven back by a legion (probably the twentieth) sent over 
 by Stilicho, the minister of Honorius. Claudian repre- 
 sents this legion as spread out at the furthest extremity 
 of Britain, which, strengthened by Stilicho, feared no 
 longer either the Saxon or the Scot crossing from Ireland. 
 Possibly the Roman liburncz, or swift galleys that pursued 
 the Scots, were furnished with paddle-wheels worked by 
 pairs of oxen going round in gins, as recommended by 
 the author of the tract dedicated to Theodosius and his 
 sons. According to Gildas, it was at this time that a 
 wall of turves was built across the island, a statement 
 that must be supposed to refer to a restoration of the 
 Antonirie Wall. 
 
 In A.D. 402 the legion sent by Stilicho seems to have 
 been again withdrawn. The Second Legion was moved 
 from Caerleon-on-Usk to Richborough, on the coast most 
 threatened by the Saxons, and it is just possible that the 
 Sixth Legion may at the same time have left York for 
 Carlisle, to defend the northern frontier. Gildas informs 
 us that fresh troops were sent over by the Romans, and 
 that the stone wall was built. It may have been re- 
 constructed during the vicariate of Chrysanthus, who is 
 stated to have executed many wonderful works in Britain. 
 The Scots, who, with their oars and sails, contrived to cir- 
 cumvent the Wall, were again driven beyond the sea by 
 the sudden onslaughts of cavalry patrols, that appear to 
 have formed a new inner line of defence. 
 
 A very valuable list of the troops stationed in the north 
 at about this time (A.D. 406), under the command of the 
 Duke of Britain, is preserved in the Notitia Dignitatum.
 
 The Wall. 
 
 In order to understand fully the general scheme of 
 northern defence, it is best to give the entire list, especi- 
 ally as it is rarely met with, even in the most comprehen- 
 sive works on the subject. The first portion seems to give 
 the newer garrisons stationed between Danum, the ' Dan- 
 caster ' of Leland, situated on Jarrow Slake, where the 
 little river Don enters the Tyne, and Derventio, or Borough 
 Walls, at the mouth of the Cumbrian Derwent, near 
 Workington. 
 
 
 NAME OF FORT. 
 
 RANK OF 
 GOVERNOR. 
 
 GARRISON. 
 
 MODERN NAME. 
 
 I 
 
 
 Prefect 
 
 6th Legion 
 
 York? 
 
 2 
 
 PRESIDIUM 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Dalmatian Horse 
 
 Binchester ? 
 
 3 
 
 DANUM 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Crispian Horse 
 
 Jarrow 
 
 4 
 
 MORBIUM 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Horse Cuirassiers 
 
 South Shields? 
 
 5 
 
 ARBEIA 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Band of Tigris Bargemen 
 
 Tynemouth ? 
 
 6 
 
 DICTIUM 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Band of Dictian Nervii 
 
 Lanchester ? 
 
 7 
 
 CONCANGII 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Band of Watchmen 
 
 Chester-le-Street 
 
 8 
 9 
 
 LAVATRES 
 VF.RTER^; 
 
 Prefect 
 Prefect 
 
 Band of Scouts 
 Band of Guides 
 
 Bowes 
 Brough 
 
 10 
 
 ii 
 
 BRABONIACUM 
 MAGLO 
 
 Prefect 
 Prefect 
 
 Band of Defenders 
 Band of Solenses 
 
 Kirby Thore 
 Whitbarrow ? 
 
 12 
 
 MAG^: 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Band of Pacenses 
 
 Keswick ? 
 
 13 
 
 LONGOVICIUM 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Band of Longovicani 
 
 Longthwaite ? 
 
 14 
 
 DERVENTIO 
 
 Prefect 
 
 ] 
 
 Band of Petuerian Surprisers 
 
 Borough Walls ? 
 
 i 
 
 The second portion gives the older garrisons along the 
 Wall, the Cumbrian coast, and the hills between Lanca : 
 shire and Yorkshire. It is with this, containing as it does 
 the names of a dozen garrisons in Northumberland nine 
 of them, Segedunum, Pons ^Elius, Cordercum, Vindobala, 
 Hunnum, Cilurnum, Procolitia, Borcovicium, and yEsica, 
 incorporated in the Wall; two, Vindolana and Magnae, 
 situated on the Stanegate ; and one, Alio, on the Maiden 
 Way that we are chiefly concerned. It will be seen that 
 this latter list follows pretty well the line of the Wall (per
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 lineam Valli) from Wallsend to Birdoswald, and returns to 
 it again from Bowness to Stanwix : 
 
 
 NAME OF FORT. 
 
 RANK OF 
 GOVERNOR. 
 
 GARRISON. 
 
 MODERN NAME. 
 
 15 
 
 SEGEDUNUM 
 
 Tribune 
 
 4th Cohort of Lingones 
 
 Wallsend 
 
 16 
 
 PONS ^ELIUS 
 
 Tribune 
 
 1st Cohort of Cornovii 
 
 Newcastle 
 
 17 
 
 CONDERCUM 
 
 Prefect 
 
 ist Ala of Astures 
 
 Benwell 
 
 18 
 
 VlNDOBALA 
 
 Tribune 
 
 1st Cohort of Frisians 
 
 Rudchester 
 
 19 
 
 HUNNUM 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Sabinian Ala 
 
 Halton 
 
 20 
 
 ClLURNUM 
 
 Prefect 
 
 2nd Ala of Astures 
 
 Chesters 
 
 21 
 
 PROCOLITIA 
 
 Tribune 
 
 1st Cohort of Batavians 
 
 Carrawburgh 
 
 22 
 
 BORCOVICIUM 
 
 Tribune 
 
 ist Cohort of Tungrians 
 
 Housesteads 
 
 23 
 
 VlNDOLANA 
 
 Tribune 
 
 4th Cohort of Gauls 
 
 Little Chesters 
 
 24 
 
 JESICA. 
 
 Tribune 
 
 1st Cohort of Astures 
 
 Great Chesters 
 
 25 
 
 MAGN/E 
 
 Tribune 
 
 2nd Cohort of Dalmatians 
 
 Carvoran 
 
 26 
 
 AMBOGLANNA 
 
 Tribune 
 
 I st^Elian Cohort of Dacians 
 
 Birdoswald 
 
 27 
 
 PETRIAN^E 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Petrian Ala 
 
 Old Carlisle 
 
 28 
 
 ABALLABA 
 
 Prefect 
 
 Band of Aurelian Moors 
 
 Papcastle 
 
 29 
 
 CONGAVATA 
 
 Tribune 
 
 2nd Cohort of Lingones 
 
 Moresby 
 
 30 
 
 AXELODUNUM 
 
 Tribune 
 
 1st Cohort of Spaniards 
 
 Ellenborough 
 
 31 
 
 GABROSENTIUM 
 
 Tribune 
 
 2nd Cohort of Thracians 
 
 On the Waver 
 
 32 
 
 TUNNOCELUM 
 
 Tribune 
 
 ist yElian Naval Cohort 
 
 Bowness 
 
 33 
 
 GLANNIBANTA 
 
 Tribune 
 
 ist Cohort of Morini 
 
 Stanwix 
 
 34 
 
 ALIO 
 
 Tribune 
 
 3rd Cohort of Nervii 
 
 Whitley Castle 
 
 35 
 
 BREMETENNACUM 
 
 
 Cuneus of Sarmatians 
 
 Ribchester 
 
 36 
 
 OLENACUM 
 
 Prefect 
 
 ist Herculean Ala 
 
 Ilkley? 
 
 37 
 
 VIROSIDUM 
 
 Tribune 
 
 6th Cohort of Nervii 
 
 Bainbridge 
 
 In A.D. 407 a certain Constantine, who had been pro- 
 claimed Emperor in Britain, withdrew the remaining 
 legions from the island ; in A.D. 410 Honorius wrote to the 
 estates of Britain, advising them to undertake measures 
 for their own safety, as the Empire was incapable of aiding 
 them, and so the Roman domination came definitely to 
 an end. 
 
 Although the occupation had lasted for a period as 
 long as from the battle of Bosworth to the present day, 
 and the forts along the Wall contain remains of three very 
 distinct periods, it is extremely difficult for any student 
 to regard the Roman civilization of the North otherwise 
 than as a whole, especially when the memorials of its last 
 two hundred years are comparatively meagre. There is 
 therefore little to be gained by attempting to break up, 
 chronologically, the vivid picture of this civilization that 
 has been brought down to us on altars and monuments.
 
 The Wall. 43 
 
 As we have seen from the army list of A.D. 406, very 
 few of the soldiers quartered in the North were real 
 Romans, although we need not conclude that all the 
 auxiliaries were natives of the countries in which their 
 regiments were originally raised. The figures of the 
 soldiers themselves differ widely from our preconceived 
 ideas. Flavinus, a standard-bearer of the Petrian horse, 
 possibly killed in battle with the Corionototai, near Cor- 
 bridge, at the age of twenty-five, is represented as a slim 
 youth lightly clad, a plume of feathers for his head-dress, 
 a dagger by his side, riding rough-shod over a hairy 
 curled-up Briton, whose sword is pointed upwards as if to 
 strike him in the moment of victory. His standard con- 
 tains an image of the sun ; his well-reined horse is fur- 
 nished with martingales, and covered with a square-cut 
 saddle-cloth. Manius Suilius Victor, an Asturian horse- 
 man of Cilurnum (Chesters), appears, on the contrary, 
 almost nude, with a long sword in his hand and a jackal- 
 like steed destitute of all trappings. Milenus, the bare- 
 legged standard-bearer of the Batavians, at Procolitia 
 Carrawburgh, again, is in full war-paint. His plain stan- 
 dard, with the figure of a bull on the top of it, is provided 
 with three prongs to fix it in the ground. His loose tunic 
 is gathered in round the waist with a belt, the long strap 
 fastened by a round buckle ; a short sword is suspended 
 from over his right shoulder ; the umbo of the small 
 oblong shield in his left hand is ornamented with a hexa- 
 foil. An archer of Borcovicium, armed with a bow and 
 quiver and a poniard, presents himself to us so full-faced 
 that the crest of his helmet is a mere line. Poor Robin 
 of Risingham, a rock sculpture, the upper part of which 
 was blown off by a Northumbrian churl, as Sir Walter 
 Scott calls him, in order to preserve from trespass his 
 moor, worth a shilling an acre, never thinking of what he 
 might have gained by showing it to strangers (an example 
 which, alas ! has not lacked imitators), also carried a 
 bow with the quiver over his left shoulder, and seems 
 to be bringing back from the chase a hare or rabbit. By
 
 44 History of Northumberland. 
 
 far the noblest figure met with on the Wall, indeed the 
 only one realizing our conception of a true Roman, is a 
 helmeted spearman of Borcovicium, in a tight-fitting 
 corslet reaching to his knees, with plates of armour on the 
 shoulders, his oval shield turned inwards, revealing the 
 handle contained in the central boss. Another life-like 
 specimen from the same fort, with a high galea on his head, 
 seems to have short sleeves and a sort of double-flounced 
 kilt of plate armour. The oblong umbo, in bronze overlaid 
 with tin, of the shield of Junius Dubitatus, a soldier of the 
 Eighth Legion, found near the mouth of the Tyne, has an 
 eagle holding an olive-branch on the central boss, and 
 spirited figures of the four seasons Spring struggling with 
 a March wind, Summer with a scythe, Autumn with 
 grapes and a fruit-basket, Winter donning his wraps 
 incised in the corners. A round umbo of the shield of a 
 soldier serving in the century of Ruspus Quintus was 
 found at Matfen. 
 
 Two small statues of civilians at Borcovicium, one in 
 the fringed mantle of Roman Gaul, have lost their heads. 
 Another civilian is setting out from Bremenium, probably 
 on his last long journey, with a staff in one hand and a 
 bag containing his viaticum in the other. The good man, 
 now in the wall of the chapel at Dilston, is clad in his 
 nightgown, and seems to have already helped himself to 
 the food placed beside him at his burial. The figure of 
 poor little Pervica, an ^Esica child, is peculiarly quaint. 
 
 We are not left without some touches of the personal 
 history of the strange collection of individuals from all 
 nations who were cantoned along the Wall. From Pan- 
 nonia, the land of the Drave and Save, came Dagvald 
 and Cornelius Victor, both probably to Vindolana. The 
 latter had enlisted as late as his twenty-first year, and 
 died eleven days before his fifty-sixth birthday. Messius 
 Magnus, a duplaris of the Sabinian ala, and his brother, 
 left their home in the adjoining Noricum, which included 
 the Salzkammergut, to defend the fort of Hunnum 
 (Halton Chesters). Caius Valerius Tullus, a soldier of the
 
 The Wall. 45 
 
 Twentieth Legion, born at Vienne on the Rhone, laid 
 his bones at Magnae (Carvoran), and at the same place 
 Aurelia Itala, the faultless wife (sine ulla macula) whom the 
 centurion Aurelius Marcus had brought from Salona in 
 Dalmatia, was taken from him at the age of thirty-three. 
 Terentius Firmus, master of the camps of the Sixth 
 Legion, who dedicated an altar, now at Hexham, to 
 Apollo, was a native of Siena. Quintus Petronius 
 Urbicus, the prefect of the Gauls, who caused a quaint 
 family of storks to be carved on an altar at Vindolana, 
 belonged to Brescia ; while apparently Rufinus, the 
 husband of the ' very illustrious ' Julia Lucilla, had served 
 in both a Portuguese and a Bosnian cohort, and had 
 been assistant-overseer of the Flaminian Way (the road 
 from Rome to Rimini), when at the age of forty-eight 
 years six months and twenty-five days death overtook 
 him as tribune of the Vardulli at Bremenium on Watling 
 Street. The monument erected near Cilurnum to a 
 curator of the second Asturian horse, by his heir the 
 decurion ^Eliomenus, points to some relationship between 
 them and little difference in social standing. The curator 
 appears to have attained to the temporary command of 
 the regiment after fifteen years' service the Caledonians 
 no doubt considerably quickened promotion. 
 
 Family affection was very marked : Fabius Honoratus, 
 tribune of the Vangiones at Risingham, and Aurelia 
 Eclectiane, placed a tombstone at Cilurnum to the 
 memory of Fabia Honorata, ' their sweetest daughter.' 
 Aurelia Eclectiane was probably the lady referred to in 
 the faulty hexameters on an altar found near a spring at 
 Risingham, to the effect that 
 
 ' Warned by a dream, a soldier to the Nymphs 
 Bade Fabius's wife this altar raise.' 
 
 At Risingham, too, Dionysius Fortunatus wrote ' May 
 earth lie light on thee ' over the grave of Aurelia Lupilla, 
 his ' most pious mother,' while Blescius Diovicus did not 
 neglect to commemorate his little daughter of a year and
 
 46 History of Northumberland. 
 
 three weeks. Many of the settlers were killed no doubt 
 by the climate, while others fell on the field of battle. 
 One of them seems to have been struck dead by lightning 
 in a field near Hunnum (Halton Chesters). 
 
 Possibly it was the uncertainty of life that gave so very 
 religious a turn to the thoughts of the mural soldiery. The 
 deities to whom they addressed themselves were various 
 in the extreme. The Tungrians at Borcovicium having 
 had recourse in some emergency to the oracle of Apollo 
 at Clarus in Ionia, erected by his advice a regular 
 Pantheon to all the gods and goddesses. In the same 
 state of perplexity, the tribune Julius Victor inscribed a 
 little altar at Risingham to the guardian gods of that 
 place. The way in which this host of divinities became 
 reduced in nature-worship to one is illustrated by an 
 altar to the god Silvanus Pantheus at Bremenium. 
 
 Some of the images of the gods are no mean works of 
 art. The Hercules of Vindobala (Rudchester), a fine 
 torso, holds a club in his right hand, the four apples of 
 the Hesperides in his left, with the skin of the Nemaean 
 lion thrown over one shoulder. It is, however, difficult to 
 believe that the crude representations of this god on the 
 altar erected by Caius Vitellius Atticianus, a centurion of 
 the Sixth Legion, at Alio (Whitley Castle), can have in- 
 spired worshippers with any feelings of reverence. In one 
 of these, a chubby infant, he is strangling the two serpents 
 sent by Juno to devour him ; in another he is about to 
 leisurely smite the tree-like Hydra with his club. The 
 Hercules that accompanies Mars on the tablet placed by 
 the Twentieth Legion over the east gate of Bremenium is 
 also repulsively coarse. The Fourth Cohort of the Gauls 
 succeeded better with a gateway tablet at Risingham, on 
 which is a Mars of very delicate workmanship, and an 
 equally good companion figure of a winged Victory, her 
 right foot on the globe, a wreath in one hand, and a palm 
 in the other. Borcovicium also had a splendid winged 
 Victory over the south gateway, and one holding a palm- 
 branch on the eastern. At Hunnum, Victory was repre-
 
 The Wall. 47 
 
 sented poised in the air (as on a Pompeian wall-painting) 
 and at Rose Hill, near Gilsland, as issuing from a round 
 native hut and hovering over the Roman eagle. 
 
 On the legions being entirely withdrawn, the Picts seized 
 the country up to the line of the Wall, along the top of which 
 was ranged a British force slow to fight, and frightened 
 even to flee. With quaking hearts this senseless soldiery 
 wore itself out with watches day and night, while there 
 was no cessation of the barbed missiles, the Scottish tela 
 of Claudian, with which the naked barbarians brought 
 down the citizens from the walls of the forts. At last, 
 leaving both the forts and the high wall, the Britons took 
 to flight, and chaos followed. 
 
 While the past history of the Roman Wall presents so 
 many difficult problems, it is unfortunately easy to predict 
 that unless the island is conquered by some civilized 
 nation, there will soon be no traces of the Wall left. 
 Nay, even the splendid whinstone crags on which it stands 
 will be all quarried away to mend the roads of our urban 
 and rural authorities.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE KINGDOM : BAMBURGH. 
 
 THE Teuton had appeared with the Roman on the 
 Border. The great victory of Julius Agricola 
 over the Caledonians at Mons Grampius was won by a 
 charge of his Tungrian and Batavian auxiliaries, and 
 along the line of the Wall, Tungrians, Batavians, and 
 Frisians settled down to garrison life at Borcovicium, 
 Procolitia, and Vindobala, in the same geographical 
 order that their tribes occupied on the German sea- 
 board. At Borcovicium, two German citizens raised a 
 shrine to Mars Thingsus, the Tuisco of Tacitus and 
 original patron of our Tuesday, in conjunction with the 
 two Valkyries, Beda and Filomena. Teutonic soldiers, 
 too, frequently occur in cohorts first raised in other parts 
 of the Empire. 
 
 The withdrawal of the last Roman legion from 
 Britain leaves us in doubt as to the fate of these auxiliary 
 troops, and it seems probable that many of them at least 
 may have preferred to remain in the British homes to 
 which they were attached by the ties of three or four 
 centuries, and where they might still hope to overawe the 
 native population, rather than either return to barbarism 
 in their old recruiting-grounds, or run the chance of being 
 butchered in Gaul or Italy. 
 
 For two hundred years, that is to say, from the 
 abandonment of Britain by the Emperor Honorius at
 
 The Kingdom : Hamburg h. 49 
 
 the beginning of the fifth century, to the arrival of the 
 Italian missionary Paulinus at the beginning of the 
 seventh, we have no certain knowledge of the affairs of 
 Central Britain, but is that any reason for summarily 
 rejecting what traditions we do possess, wild and in- 
 coherent though they be, under a lazy plea of antecedent 
 improbability ? 
 
 In the first place, a great wave of Cymric migration 
 is said to have rolled down from beyond the Wall to the 
 southern shores of Wales. Cunedda, 'a chief of lion 
 aspect,' who had embraced Christianity, threatened 
 Lugubalium (Carlisle) and Virosidum (Bainbridge) with 
 his nine hundred horse, exactly the number, it is said, 
 that were attached as auxiliaries to a legion : 
 
 'There is trembling from fear of Cunedda the Burner 
 In Caer Weir and Caer Lliwilydd.' 
 
 This Guledig, or Celtic Imperator, seems to have been 
 carried to his last battle on a hurdle by the men of 
 Bryniech, or Bernicia, a kingdom of Celtic origin on the 
 east coast north of the Tyne. To the south of the Forth 
 the Jutes established a settlement soon after the middle 
 of the fifth century, under the traditional leadership of 
 Octa, son of Horsa, and his brother Ebusa. The three 
 Lothians possibly represent the three ' lathes ' into 
 which Jutish districts were divided. Vortigern, it must 
 be remembered, in calling Hengist and Horsa to assist 
 him against the Picts and Scots, was strictly follow- 
 ing the Roman precedent of enlisting the services of 
 fazderati. 
 
 Another early Teutonic colony was established at 
 Ccldingham, the Caer Golud of the bards, and Urbs 
 Coludi of Bede. The change of the English name of 
 ' Coludesbyrig ' to Coldingham is intensely interesting 
 as proving that Colud, the ancestor from whom the 
 Coludings claimed a common descent, lived himself on 
 British soil, and we may infer that the same was the case 
 with Eagulf and Eadulf, the progenitors of the Eagul- 
 
 4
 
 50 History of Northumberland. 
 
 fings and Eadulfings, whose 'hams' were at Eglingham 
 and Edlingham, and with the other protoplasms of 
 Northumbrian villages ending in the same two syllables. 
 Certain tribal differences may be traced in the facts that 
 while Coldingham and Chillingham are pronounced as 
 written, Edlingham, and all the villages further south, 
 like Ellingham, Bellingham, and Ovingham, end phoneti- 
 cally in 'jam,' while the ear could always distinguish 
 Whittingham (' Whittinjam ') on the Aln from Whit- 
 tingham in Lothian even before the latter was given a 
 final ' e.' The termination ' ton ' belongs to a later 
 period, when the Ovings of Ovingham had so increased 
 and multiplied that it became necessary for them to 
 throw off a colony at Ovington. Thousands of absurd 
 derivations of place-names might have been avoided by 
 taking the trouble to unearth their earliest forms, which 
 are generally connected with some English settler or his 
 descendants : thus, Burton in Bamburghshire was Bur- 
 nulfeston. the 'ton' or enclosure of Burnulf; Pawston, 
 Pollokston, the ' ton ' of Pollok ; and Farrowshields, 
 Ferewithescheles, the shields or summer quarters of the 
 shepherds of a certain Ferewith. 
 
 It has been conclusively proved that Napoleon Bona- 
 parte was a solar myth, and it is of course equally easy 
 to do the same with King Arthur. Of the twelve great 
 battles in which Arthur is said to have been engaged 
 previous to 516, the first may have been fought at the 
 mouth of the Glen near Wooler, and the tenth at 
 Trewhit, to the north-west of Rothbury, where there is 
 a remarkable barrow. The memory of the Wall the 
 Northumbrian stone wall, of course seems to linger 
 strangely in the bardic minstrelsy. We are shown it 
 lined with sixty centuries, the number that composed a 
 legion : 
 
 ' Three score centuries stood on the Wall : 
 Difficult was converse with its watchman ;' 
 
 while Arthur, the Guledig, said to have arisen
 
 The Kingdom: Bamburgh. 51 
 
 ' From the destruction of chiefs, 
 
 From the loricated legion 
 
 Around the old famous Border,' 
 is given 
 
 ' His red purple, 
 
 His attack beyond the Wall, 
 
 His appropriate Chair 
 
 Among the patrol of the Wall.' 
 
 Legends of the court of Arthur held beneath the crags 
 of Sewinshields were turned to political account by 
 Thomas of Lancaster in the reign of Edward II., and 
 were still current in the beginning of the present century, 
 while one of the remarkable basalt rocks near the Wall in 
 the same neighbourhood retains the name of the King's 
 Chair. The forts on the Wall, especially Cilurnum and 
 JEsica, exhibit remains of a third period of occupation, 
 almost too barbarous to be Roman of the Lowest Em- 
 pire, and yet very unlikely to be English. Particular 
 ridicule has been cast on the stories of Arthur's victories 
 over Gauls, Dacians, Spaniards, and Romans, but con- 
 sidering the polyglot character of the garrisons on the 
 Wall, he may easily have fought and beaten all these, 
 and Moors and Syrians into the bargain, without stirring 
 more than twenty miles from what perhaps deserved in 
 his day the name of Merry Carlisle. 
 
 Arthur's chief antagonist in his cycle of battles was 
 Ossa Cyllelawr, or Ossa the Knife-man, whose son ac- 
 quired the ominous name of ' Mug mawr drevydd ' (Great 
 Burner of Towns), while Ida, who founded the English 
 kingdom of Bernicia in 547, was probably his grandson. 
 A list of previous English leaders in Northumberland, 
 commencing with a certain Hiring, seems a mere distor- 
 tion of the Jutish traditions already mentioned. It is 
 possible that Lindisfarne, and not Bamburgh, was the 
 original English settlement on the Northumbrian coast. 
 A genealogy of the kings of the Lindisfari, containing 
 northern names like Beda and Biscop, does not seem to 
 belong to Lincolnshire, which is usually credited with
 
 52 History of Northumberland. 
 
 it. Ida's work, according to the earliest account, con- 
 sisted in uniting the three states of Dinguayth, Guarth, 
 and Berneich, which we may guess to be Bamburgh, 
 Warkworth, and Berwick. The hackneyed passage de- 
 scribing how he ' timbered Bamburgh, that was first with 
 hedge " betined," and thereafter with wall,' is an inter- 
 polation of a Kentish scribe in the eleventh century. All 
 the same, there is no doubt that the acquisition by Ida 
 of the great rock fortress that was known to the Celts as 
 Dinguardi, and was to figure in Arthurian romance as 
 Joyous Garde, marked the definite ascendancy of English 
 interests between Tweed and Tyne. 
 
 Ida is said to have had twelve sons, six by his Queen 
 Beornach, and six by his concubines. The frequent oc- 
 currence of the number twelve and its fractional parts in 
 Bernician traditions makes it seem probable that the con- 
 federacies of Twelve Towns that we meet with on the 
 Bowmont and South Tyne had their origin during the 
 first period of English colonization, while the Ten Towns 
 of Coquetdale and the Ten Towns of Glendale were 
 somewhat later organizations. 
 
 The six legitimate sons of Ida Glappa, Adda, Ethelric, 
 Theodric, Frithwulf, and Hussa figure one after another, 
 in rather uncertain order, as kings of Bernicia. The 
 crown, if there was such a thing, appears to have descended, 
 not from father to son, but to the most able member of 
 the royal house, and that possibly by a rough-and-ready 
 form of election. 
 
 During the reigns of Theodric, Frithwulf, and Hussa 
 (A.D. 572-592), Bernicia was almost reconquered by the 
 celebrated Urien, prince of Reged, a Celtic state that 
 appears to have long afterwards retained its semi-inde- 
 pendence as the franchise of Redesdale. When we re- 
 member how completely the Celtic names of the country 
 have been lost how Medcaud, for example, has become 
 Lindisfarne, and Dinguardi Bamburgh little good can 
 come of attempting to identify places named by the 
 bards who sang the praises of Urien. One of his exploits
 
 The Kingdom : Bam burgh. 53 
 
 was forcing the passage of the Garanwynion, possibly 
 the Waren ; and it was at this same ford, perhaps, that 
 he had a bloody encounter with Frithwulf. Hussa, known 
 to the Britons by the terrible name of Flamdwyn, or the 
 Burner, advanced one Saturday morning with four hosts 
 to overwhelm Reged and the neighbouring principality of 
 Godeu (Kidland ?). To his demand for hostages, Urien's 
 son Owain retorted that his ancestor, Ceneu, would have 
 raged like a lion if he had been asked to give hostages to 
 anyone ; while Urien himself bade his banner be unfurled 
 on the mountain as a gathering signal for their whole 
 clan to rush down to the slaughter of Flamdwyn and 
 his Englishmen. The great Celtic victory of Argoed 
 Llwyfain followed. Eventually, in alliance with three 
 other princes, Urien had driven the English across the 
 sands into Medcaud, or Lindisfarne, when, in the moment 
 of what might have proved a final triumph, he was assas- 
 sinated by the traitor Llovan Llawdivro, at the mouth 
 of the Low (Aber Lieu), a little stream near Beal. A 
 messenger escaped out of the battle with Urien's head, 
 to bear the evil tidings to his capital of Erlleon. This 
 was fated to become desolate, and the hearth on which 
 wood provided by Reged was wont to blaze to be over- 
 grown with nettles and brambles ; nor was it long before 
 Owain, ' the chief of the glittering West,' fell by the 
 sword of Flamdwyn. 
 
 The conquest of Reged by the English of Bamburgh 
 can hardly have been completed before Aedan, the king 
 of the small Scottish state of Dalriada, appeared as the 
 champion of the Celtic race. In A.D. 600 he revenged 
 his defeat in the previous year by a victory in which 
 Enfrid of Deira, brother-in-law of Ethelfrid, who had 
 succeeded his uncle, Hussa, in the Bernician kingdom, 
 was slain by Maelum mac Baodan. 
 
 Three years later, profiting by a Bernician rising in 
 favour of Hering, the son of Hussa, Aedan advanced 
 as far as Daegsanstan, most probably Dissington, the 
 Digentun of the Hexham chroniclers, nine miles to the
 
 54 History of Northumberland. 
 
 north-west of Newcastle, where he was utterly overthrown 
 by Ethelfrid. The victory, however, was purchased with 
 the life of Ethelfrid's brave brother, Theodbald. 
 
 A year or two after Daegsanstan had secured him from 
 the North, Ethelfrid, having married Acha, daughter of 
 Ella, the founder of the English kingdom of Deira, 
 between the Humber and the Tees, seized on that king- 
 dom, driving into exile his wife's nephew, the boy-king 
 Hereric, and her brother Edwin, then a young man of 
 twenty. 
 
 In A.D. 607, already surnamed by the Britons Flesaurs, 
 or the Destroyer, he extended his ravages across the 
 island to the Dee. The battle of Chester, won from 
 Brochwel Gag-tooth, prince of Powys, and followed by 
 the massacre of the monks of Bangor, drove an English 
 wedge between the territories of the Cumbrian and 
 Cambrian Celts. Fearful of the exiled princes of Deira, 
 Ethelfrid appears to have persuaded Cedric, prince 
 of Elmet, near Leeds, to poison Hereric. Redwald, King 
 of the East Angles, at that time the Bretwalda, or chief- 
 king of the Heptarchy, was only dissuaded by his wife 
 from selling Edwin to Ethelfrid. 
 
 In A.D. 617, while Edwin was still in doubt as to his 
 fate, St. Peter is said to have appeared to him in dis- 
 guise, and, placing his right hand on his head, to have 
 promised him a reign of unexampled glory. In return 
 Edwin engaged himself to follow the religious instruc- 
 tions of whoever should repeat that sign. Soon after, 
 Ethelfrid fell at the battle of the Idle, in Northampton- 
 shire, overpowered by the superior forces of Redwald, 
 and Edwin succeeded not only to his own inheritance 
 of Deira, but also to Bernicia, the two together forming 
 the kingdom of Northumberland. Bebba, who seems to 
 have been the second wife of Ethelfrith, possibly retained 
 possession of the great stronghold of Dinguardi, which 
 he had given her, and which derives from her its English 
 name of Bamburgh (Bebbanburg). 
 
 In the eighth year of his reign Edwin married, as his
 
 The Kingdom : Bamburgh. 55 
 
 second wife, Ethelburg, a Christian princess from Kent. 
 She was accompanied by the Bishop Paulinus, who, after 
 Edwin's providential escape from assassination, and con- 
 sequent defeat of the West Saxons, repeated the sign 
 given by St. Peter, and persuaded the King to be bap- 
 tized at York on Easter Day, A.D. 627. A wholesale 
 conversion of the Northumbrian nation followed. St. 
 Paulinus, who became Archbishop of York, spent thirty 
 days with the King and Queen at Ad-gefrin, or Yevering, 
 baptizing the people in the neighbouring river Glen. The 
 royal town at Yevering (possibly the camp on the Bell), 
 was, as Bede tells us, afterwards removed to the preferable 
 site of Melmin, probably Kirknewton, where the dedica- 
 tion of the church to St. Gregory recalls the beginnings 
 of English Christianity. 
 
 The glories of the reign of Edwin, the peace he estab- 
 lished from sea to sea, and the imperial pomp he affected, 
 belong to Deira rather than to Bernicia, where he must 
 have been regarded as an intruder. At length, in A.D. 633, 
 Penda of Mercia, a fierce adherent of the Northern gods, 
 revolted against Edwin's authority, and, in alliance with 
 Cadwalla, King of North Wales, defeated and slew him 
 at the battle of Hatfeld. This battlefield, known to the 
 Britons by the name of Meicen, was placed by them near 
 the Severn. 
 
 The kingdom of Bamburgh now regained its indepen- 
 dence under Enfrid, the eldest son of Ethelfrid. En- 
 frid had embraced Christianity, according to the Celtic 
 rite, during his exile, but he now apostasized. Within a 
 year, however, his head was struck off by Cadwalla, and 
 his country laid waste by the Britons. Advancing, prob- 
 ably, from York to Corbridge, Cadwalla found Enfrid's 
 next brother, Oswald, drawn up to oppose him at Hefen- 
 feld, near the Roman Wall, on the high ground to the 
 west of Watling Street. It is remarkable that, in the 
 one battle in which the Wall plays a part, its site seems 
 occupied as a position against a southern attack. Forti- 
 fied, it is said, by a vision of St. Columba, the venerable
 
 56 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Apostle of the Celtic North, Oswald erected a wooden 
 cross, the first in all Bernicia for the mission of Paulinus 
 in Glendale seems not to have led to the regular establish- 
 ment of Christianity in that country and, bidding his 
 followers kneel before it, awaited with confidence the 
 assault of the Britons. Cadwalla was strenuously re- 
 pulsed, and forced to flee across the Tyne, where he 
 was overtaken and slain, beside the Denisburn, a tributary 
 of the Devils-water, now known as Rowley Burn. 
 
 In consequence of this victory, Oswald not only suc- 
 ceeded to his father's kingdom of Bernicia, but seized 
 also that of Deira, his mother having been the sister of 
 Edwin. He sent to lona for a missionary to instruct his 
 people in Christianity. The first one made no impression 
 on them, and returned disconsolate. The work was taken 
 up by Aidan, who offered the Northumbrians ' milk of 
 milder instruction,' and settled on the island of Lindis- 
 farne, where he became Bishop. Oswald himself acted as 
 interpreter for Aidan. 
 
 One Easter Day, as the King and Bishop were seated 
 at dinner, probably at Bamburgh, the attendants entered 
 to say that the street outside was filled with starving 
 poor. The King ordered not only the meat on his table 
 to be given them untouched, but also the silver dish itself 
 to be distributed among them. Upon this the Bishop 
 seized Oswald's hand, and pronounced the blessing that 
 it might never perish. Even from his enemies, the 
 Britons, Oswald received the surname of Llangwyn, or 
 Fair Hand. 
 
 After a glorious reign of eight years, Oswald became 
 involved in a western war, and probably, like Edwin, 
 hemmed in by an alliance between the Welsh and the 
 Mercians, fell in the battle of Maserfeld, in A.D. 642. 
 
 The savage Penda proceeded to ravage Northumber- 
 land. The city of Bamburgh would have fallen a prey to 
 the flames of the brushwood he had piled around it, if the 
 prayers of Aidan on Fame had not diverted the wind. 
 Oswi, brother of Oswald, succeeded to the Bernician
 
 The Kingdom: Hamburgh. 57 
 
 throne ; but as he was probably the son, not of Acha, but 
 of Bebba, Deira fell to Oswin, son of Osric. On the eve 
 of a battle between these two Northumbrian kings, Oswin 
 disbanded his army, and was put to death by order of 
 Oswi. He was, it seems, buried at Tynemouth, on Ber- 
 nician soil, for fear lest his own people should make 
 political pilgrimages to his shrine. Aidan, who had been 
 especially attached to Oswin, died twelve days after him, 
 leaning against the west end of the wooden church in the 
 village of Bamburgh. That same night a vision of angels 
 bearing Aidan's soul heavenwards appeared to a shepherd 
 named Cuthbert, as he lay, cross-like, in prayer on the 
 ground, while watching his master's flocks on the distant 
 mountains of Lauderdale. As the mantle of Elijah fell on 
 Elisha, so a double portion of the spirit of Aidan seems 
 to have descended on Cuthbert, who immediately resolved 
 to embrace the monastic life. 
 
 There is no reason to suppose that Cuthbert was a 
 Scotsman in the modern sense, any more than in the 
 seventh-century acceptation of the term. At the age 
 of eight he appears to have been taken into the house of 
 a widow named Kenswith, in the village of Wrangham, 
 near Doddington in Glendale, and we first meet with him 
 joining other boys there in the not very edifying pastime 
 of walking on their hands, with their legs in the air. 
 Even thus early his serious turn of mind was remarked by 
 his companions, and it was confirmed by a long affection 
 of the thigh-joint. Relieved from this, and compelled to 
 wander in search of a livelihood, he had the courage, while 
 still a boy, to rebuke the heartlessness of the half-heathen 
 countrymen at North Shields, who were enjoying the 
 spectacle of five boats, manned by monks, who had just 
 settled on the opposite bank of the Tyne, being swept out 
 to sea in a strong westerly gale. 
 
 Cuthbert's intention of entering a monastery was 
 deferred by the call of duty to serve as a soldier in defence 
 of the Christian faith and Bernician monarchy. Oswi 
 had done his best to live on friendly terms with Penda of
 
 5 8 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Mercia. His eldest son, Alcfrid, was married to Penda's 
 daughter Cuneburg, and his daughter Elfled to Penda's 
 son Peada. Preparatory to his marriage, Peada was 
 baptized with his thanes by Finan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 
 the successor of Aidan, at Oswi's palace of Ad Murum, 
 probably Heddon-on-the-Wall, the twelfth Roman mile- 
 castle from Wallsend. It was perhaps this conversion of his 
 son that roused the wrath of the fierce votary of Woden. 
 In vain did Oswi give his eldest son by Enfled, a boy of 
 ten, named Egfrid, to be brought up as a hostage at the 
 Mercian court. In the strange company of Ethelhere, 
 King of the East Angles, Ethelwald, son of Oswald, the 
 ruler of some portion of Deira, and Cadwallader, son and 
 successor of Cadwalla, with other British princes, Penda 
 proceeded to lay waste the whole of Bernicia. The 
 wooden stay against which Aidan had leant in his last 
 moments was all that was left standing among the 
 smouldering ashes of the church and village of Bamburgh. 
 Oswi himself fled to Giudi, or Judeu, probably the Jutish 
 stronghold that afterwards acquired the name of Edin- 
 burgh from some local Edwin. At any rate this fortress 
 was considered more impregnable than even Bamburgh 
 itself, and Penda and his allies allowed themselves to be 
 bought off by the surrender of all the treasure Oswi had 
 with him. During its march southwards through Lothian, 
 Penda's host, forced to halt on the banks of the Winwsed 
 (perhaps the Tweed), then swollen with heavy rains, found 
 itself suddenly overtaken by Oswi and his eldest son 
 Alcfrid. The Bernician forces numbered only a third of 
 the Mercian, but actuated, perhaps, by religious scruples 
 at the last moment, Cadwallader withdrew under cover of 
 night, and Ethelwald deserted in the course of the battle. 
 Penda himself fell with Ethelhere, and in the panic that 
 ensued more of their followers perished in the raging 
 flood than by the swords of the victorious Bernicians. 
 
 Before this battle, fought on November 15, 655, Oswi 
 had vowed, if successful, to dedicate his daughter Elfled 
 to the service of God, and to give twelve small townships,
 
 The Kingdom : Bamburgh. 59 
 
 six in Bernicia and six in Deira, each containing ten 
 families, for the purpose of erecting monasteries. It 
 would appear also that Cuthbert received at this time 
 a grant of twelve towns in the valley of the Bolbend 
 (Bowmont), four of which, Eltheburne (Elterburn), 
 Thorburnam (Thornington), Scotadun (Shotton), and 
 Minethrum (Mindrum), are on the Northumbrian side of 
 the present border. Returning from the south in the 
 depth of winter, through the great waste that then 
 stretched from the Tees to the Tyne, Cuthbert providen- 
 tially found some sustenance for himself and his horse in 
 the deserted shielings of some shepherds near Chester-le- 
 Street. Although he was acquainted with the saintly 
 monks of Lindisfarne, where at this time a young man of 
 about his own age, named Wilfrid, was making astonish- 
 ing progress in his studies, he was led to enter the 
 monastery of Melrose through the great reputation of its 
 Prior, St. Boswell. Two or three years later he was 
 taken by the Abbot Eata, one of twelve boys confided 
 by Oswald to Aidan, to be hosteller of a new foundation 
 at Ripon. 
 
 Meanwhile Wilfrid was enabled to carry out his long- 
 cherished wish of visiting Rome. Kneeling in the church 
 of the monastery of St. Andrew, from which Augustine had 
 set out on his mission to Canterbury, he devoted himself 
 to the task of winning the whole of England for the Latin 
 rite. On his return to Northumberland in A.D. 659, the 
 storm that had long been gathering between the followers 
 of lona and Canterbury with reference to the date of 
 Easter, the form of the tonsure, and other minor matters, 
 broke out in full violence. The Celtic monks clung per- 
 tinaciously to the old Roman practice of fixing Easter as 
 confirmed by Pope Leo the Great in A.D. 443, and refused 
 to accept the change made by Pope Victor in A.D. 525, 
 when Britain was cut off from the rest of the Western 
 Patriarchate by the piratical fleets of the heathen Saxons. 
 The conferences on the subject held between St. Ronan, 
 a Scot who had studied on the Continent, and St. Finan,
 
 60 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Bishop of Lindisfarne, only led to more bitter estrange- 
 ment, owing to the Bishop's hot and violent temper. 
 Influenced by Wilfrid, Oswi's eldest son Alcfrid, who 
 acted as Viceroy of Deira, ordered the monks of Ripon 
 to either adopt the new Easter or leave their monastery, 
 so Eata and Cuthbert returned to Melrose. 
 
 In the spring of A.D. 664, the Northumbrian Witena- 
 gemot, held at Whitby, definitely condemned the 
 Leonine Easter. St. Colman, Finan's successor, with- 
 drew from Lindisfarne to Ireland, taking with him some 
 of St. Aidan's bones, and burying the rest in the cathedral 
 sacristy. Eata and Cuthbert now conformed to the new 
 usage, and, on Colman's parting recommendation, Eata 
 was appointed Abbot over the English monks who re- 
 mained on Lindisfarne. King Oswi had greatly loved 
 Colman on account of his wisdom. The simple life of 
 the monks in his time contrasted favourably with their 
 extravagances in the succeeding age. A violent outbreak 
 of the yellow plague carried off, among many other victims, 
 Tuda, the new Bishop, and St. Boswell of Melrose. It was 
 the custom in Britain to call churches after the saints 
 who founded them, and the dedication of the church of 
 Tweedmouth to St. Boswell was probably a memorial 
 of his personal labours on the spot. St. Cuthbert suc- 
 ceeded him as Prior of Melrose. 
 
 The Northumbrian Witenagemot, presided over by 
 Oswi and Alcfrid, unanimously elected Wilfrid to the 
 vacant bishopric, the seat of which was to be transferred 
 to York in compliance with the scheme of Gregory the 
 Great for re-organizing the dioceses of Britain, probably 
 on the same lines as they occupied during the Roman 
 occupation. In order to be consecrated by bishops of the 
 Latin rite, Wilfrid went to France ; during his prolonged 
 absence Alcfrid died, and, a reaction taking place, Oswi 
 promoted Chad, a bishop of the Celtic rite, to the vacant 
 see. In A.D. 669, Theodore of Tarsus, the great Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, obtained the substitution of Wilfrid, 
 who continued to be Bishop of all Northumberland and the
 
 The Kingdom : Bamburgh. 61 
 
 Picts for nine years. It seems to have been on Tweed- 
 side that a woman bringing her dead child to be baptized, 
 with others, by Wilfrid, had her faith in its resuscitation 
 fully justified. 
 
 In A.D. 670 Oswi died, after a reign of twenty-eight 
 years. He was succeeded by his two sons, by Egfrid in 
 Bernicia, and Elfwin in Deira. A formidable insurrection 
 of the Picts followed. They came down from the moun- 
 tains, and drove the English under-king Bernhith across 
 the Forth. Egfrid marched to his assistance with a small 
 army, and the whole country was reduced to complete 
 subjection. As a thank-offering for an equally successful 
 campaign against Mercia, Egfrid is said to have given 
 Carham to St. Cuthbert, who appears to have been still 
 at Melrose. 
 
 Egfrid, now about twenty-seven, had been married for 
 twelve years to Etheldryd, an East Anglian princess nine 
 years older than himself. Etheldryd's scruples had ren- 
 dered this marriage a mere mockery, though otherwise the 
 King and Queen lived not unhappily together. The royal 
 house seemed on the point of extinction, and the kingdom 
 might at any moment be shaken to its foundations for want 
 of a direct heir. With exemplary patience Egfrid had 
 waited till it was dangerous to wait longer. Wilfrid, to 
 whom he appealed, was unable to overcome Etheldryd's 
 unnatural obstinacy, and, as the best solution of the diffi- 
 culty, aided her in becoming a professed nun, and so 
 rendering the marriage void in canon law. Egfrid reluc- 
 tantly consented to this course, and as his affection for 
 Etheldryd was very real, he seems to have now given her 
 the territory of Hagustaldesham, or Hexham, a petty 
 state that some forgotten Hpgustald had probably con- 
 quered from the Britons. Etheldryd, however, preferred 
 to retire to Ely among her own people, and bestowed 
 Hexham on Wilfrid, who founded there a monastery in 
 honour of St. Andrew, like that at Rome, which had 
 been the starting-point of Augustine's mission and of 
 his own spiritual life. His church was the wonder, not
 
 62 History of Northumberland* 
 
 only of that, but of the two . succeeding ages. Stone 
 foundations laid deep in the ground, with many well- 
 finished crypts, supported a complicated superstructure 
 of many aisles, with columns of various designs. The 
 length and height of the walls were remarkable ; the 
 passages running round the different stories were 
 approached by winding stairs. There is every reason to 
 suppose that the high altar, as usual in basilicas of that 
 period, was at the west end, above the existing crypt, 
 while the present market-place occupies the site of the 
 atrium, or entrance court. The whole was surrounded 
 by a wall and towers of great strength and thickness. 
 Free use was made of Roman friezes and altars, and the 
 walls were covered with a coat of hard cement that 
 excited especial admiration. Wilfrid was himself super- 
 intending the work, when a boy named Bodhelm fell from 
 a high turret on to the stone floor, but eventually 
 recovered. 
 
 In reading of the magnificence affected by Wilfrid, we 
 seem to hear the rustle of the robe of Wolsey. Irminburg, 
 the new Queen of Northumberland, drew her husband's 
 attention to Wilfrid's great secular wealth and his 
 immense army of retainers. It was not only the King, 
 but also the Metropolitan of Canterbury, whose dignity 
 was completely eclipsed by the splendour of the Bishop 
 of York. They therefore agreed to divide the great 
 Northumbrian diocese by creating the separate sees of 
 Lindisfarne and Hexham, the former extending from the 
 Forth to the Aln, the latter from the Aln to the Tees. 
 Hexham appears to have been intended for Wilfrid in case 
 of his acquiescence in the scheme, but when he opposed 
 it to the length of personally appealing to Rome, the 
 administration of Hexham was intrusted, in A.D. 678, to 
 Eata, Abbot of Melrose and Lindisfarne, in whose person 
 the island-see was now revived. Eata appears to have 
 compelled Cuthbert, who had been Prior of Melrose for 
 some years, to leave that great centre of his missionary 
 activity, and assume, as Prior of Lindisfarne, the charge
 
 The Kingdom : Bamburgh. 
 
 of the cathedral-monastery. Cuthbert, however, con- 
 tinued his old practice of wandering about among the 
 country people, instructing them in the faith. One day a 
 prefect of King Egfrid, named Hildimer, came and 
 begged him to send a priest to his wife, who was at the 
 point of death, and to accord her sepulture on Holy 
 Island. Himself accompanying Hildimer, on horseback, 
 Cuthbert rightly conjectured that the lady had gone out 
 of her mind, and comforted her husband with the assur- 
 rance that by the time they reached his house possibly 
 Ilderton, formerly called Hilderton she would come out 
 to welcome them cured in body and mind, and it was so. 
 It was no easy task to persuade the brethren of Lindis- 
 farne to change their old customs for the rule he framed 
 for them himself, but Cuthbert was patience itself, and if 
 the opposition was too strong in the Chapter one day, he 
 calmly adjourned the meeting to the next. The dress 
 prescribed by his rule was of undyed wool. He would 
 often pass three or four nights together in prayer, warding 
 off sleep by manual labour, or by walking round the 
 island and examining everything on it. At last he 
 obtained the permission of Eata and the brethren to 
 adopt a solitary life. He retired first of all to Thrush 
 Island, a rock about a hundred yards from Lindisfarne, 
 and, like it, surrounded at high-water only. Here he 
 constructed a 'thurs-house,' or hollow scooped out of the 
 rock. Wishing, however, to withdraw still further from 
 the world, he chose the island of Fame for his hermi- 
 tage. Aidan had always had a companion during his 
 stay there : Cuthbert resolved to brave the awful solitude 
 alone. His mansio was a circular pit about twelve feet 
 deep and fifty feet in diameter. The wall round it was 
 carried up to a man's height with turf and rough stones 
 excavated in the interior. Considerable protection was 
 thus afforded from the wind, while the eyes and thoughts 
 of the occupant were continually directed heavenwards. 
 Within this enclosure were two huts, an oratory and a 
 cell the walls formed of natural earth, the roofs of rough
 
 64 History of Northumberland. 
 
 beams and dry grass. Cuthbert dug a well in the middle 
 of his cell, and this never went dry nor overflowed. He 
 showed his practical sense as a sanitary engineer by 
 erecting an out-house, supported on a twelve-foot beam, 
 across the chasm known as St. Cuthbert's Gut. His well 
 is now in the basement of the tower built at the end of 
 the fifteenth century by Prior Castell, of Durham. 
 
 At first, St. Cuthbert accepted a small pittance of 
 bread from Lindisfarne, but afterwards, recalling the text, 
 ' He who doth not labour, neither shall he eat/ he asked 
 the brethren to bring him some tools and seed-wheat. 
 The wheat sown in the spring came to nothing by mid- 
 summer, so Cuthbert begged for some barley, declaring 
 that if that, too, failed, he would rather return to Lindis- 
 farne than be supported by the labour of others. Although 
 sown so late, the barley proved a splendid crop ; but as 
 soon as it began to ripen, the birds did a great deal of 
 damage. ' Why touch ye that which ye sowed not ?' 
 inquired Cuthbert. ' Maybe ye have more need of it 
 than I ? If, then, God has given you leave, do His will ; 
 but if not, get ye gone, and do no more harm to another's 
 property.' Whereupon the birds flew away, and never 
 came near the barley again. Another day Cuthbert saw 
 two crows pulling the thatch off the ' sailors' home ' he 
 had constructed near the landing-place. As they paid 
 no attention to a slight waive of his hand, he solemnly 
 adjured them to quit the island. They obeyed at once, 
 but three days later one of them returned, and, its wings 
 flapping and head abased, seemed with a pitiful caw to 
 beseech Cuthbert's forgiveness. The saint willingly 
 withdrew his ban, and the two crows speedily came back 
 carrying a piece of hog's lard, which they deposited at 
 his feet, and which he used to grease the boots of his 
 visitors. After two or three years, however, of agricultural 
 experience on this wild rock, Cuthbert shut himself up 
 entirely in his 'monastery,' only communicating with the 
 outer world by means of a window, and after a time he 
 never opened the window except to bestow his benedic-
 
 The Kingdom : Hamburgh. 65 
 
 tion. His great reputation for sanctity brought many 
 visitors to Fame from all parts of Britain. 
 
 Meanwhile, Wilfrid, whose tastes and character differed 
 so widely from those of Cuthbert, had returned as the 
 successful Apostle of the Frisians, armed with the decrees 
 of Pope Agatho and 'the Lateran Council, commanding 
 his restoration to the Northumbrian bishopric. King 
 Egfrid and his Witenagemot, however, instead of deferring 
 to the voice of Christendom, condemned Wilfrid to nine 
 months' imprisonment. He was sent to Bromnis (possibly 
 either the Roman Bremenium or Byrness), in a region of 
 thick mists, and kept in a dark dungeon. This was said 
 to be miraculously illuminated as he was singing his 
 psalms, and he was credited with saving the prefect's 
 wife there from death's door. He was transferred to 
 the harsher custody of Tydlin, prefect of Dunbar, and 
 it was only the illness of Queen Irminburg, after she had 
 appropriated his small case of relics, that brought about 
 his release. 
 
 Egfrid still had no son. In the spring of A.D. 684 his 
 sister Elfled, the young Abbess of Whitby, prevailed 
 on St. Cuthbert to meet her on Coquet Island. In 
 answer to her anxious inquiries, the hermit -prophet 
 declared that Egfrid had only a year to live, and would 
 be succeeded by a king whom she would embrace with 
 the same sisterly affection. ' Thou seest,' he continued, 
 ' this great and broad sea, how it aboundeth in islands. 
 It is easy for God to provide someone out of one of these 
 to be set over the kingdom of the English.' Elfled at 
 once understood him to refer to Aldfrid, a reputed son of 
 her father Oswi, who was devoting himself to study on 
 a Scottish island. 
 
 The following autumn Cuthbert was elected Bishop 
 of Hexham in place of Tumbert, who had rilled that new 
 see since 681, and was now deprived ' for disobedience,' 
 at a synod held at Twyford (probably Alnmouth), on the 
 Aln, the boundary between the dioceses of Hexham and 
 Lindisfarne. Egfrid was compelled to go to Fame 
 
 5
 
 66 History of Northumberland. 
 
 himself, with Trumwine, Bishop of Abercorn, and other 
 dignitaries, and beseech the recluse to accept the prof- 
 fered dignity. Even then Cuthbert made it a condition 
 that the consecration should be deferred to enable him 
 to pass the winter on Fame. This seclusion was inter- 
 rupted by his visit to Eata, still Bishop of Lindisfarne, at 
 Melrose. On the return journey he crossed the Tweed 
 at Examford, a little above the great earthwork of Wark. 
 Sibba, the lord of the ' wick,' that preceded the medieval 
 castle, besought him to turn aside and bestow his blessing 
 upon it. Accordingly Cuthbert entered the stronghold 
 with solemn chant of psalm and hymn. One of Sibba's 
 servants, who lay dangerously ill, recovered after a third 
 draught of water blessed by the Bishop-elect. 
 
 At Easter, A.D. 685, Cuthbert was consecrated, and the 
 same day he appears to have exchanged sees with Eata. 
 The districts of Carlisle and Cartmel, recently taken from 
 the Britons, were added to Cuthbert's diocese of Lindis- 
 farne ; the diocese of Hexham extended no further west 
 than Wetheral. On Saturday, May 20, as Cuthbert 
 was standing beside the Roman Well of Carlisle, he 
 had a prophetic intuition of the slaughter of Egfrid and 
 his army by the Picts, and hastened to advise Queen 
 Irminburg to get ready her chariot to leave Carlisle for 
 Bamburgh at daybreak on the Monday. His fore- 
 bodings proved too true ; Egfrid had fallen at Nechtans- 
 mere, the Mire of Dunnichen, in battle with Breide, King 
 of Fortrenn. In consequence of this signal disaster, the 
 Picts recovered the territory occupied by the English to 
 the north of the Forth, while the Scots of Dalriada and 
 Britons of Strathclyde renounced the suzerainty of North- 
 umberland. 
 
 Aldfrid the Wise, having ascended the throne, soon 
 restored the fortunes of the Northumbrian kingdom 
 within its ancient limits. In the course of his episcopal 
 visitation, Cuthbert came to the 'wick' of Hemma, a 
 comes of the new King, situated probably at Greencastle 
 in Kenterdale, the old name of the valley in the Cheviots
 
 The Kingdom : Bamburgh. 67 
 
 behind Homildon. Hemma's wife, restored to health 
 after being sprinkled with water blessed by the Bishop, 
 herself offered him the 'loving cup.' He proceeded across 
 the Tweed to Bedesfeld (now Bettyfield, near Smailholm), 
 where he had shortly before afforded a refuge for some 
 nuns who had abandoned their convent further north 
 through fear of the victorious Picts. Turning back to 
 Hexham in October, in order, probably, to be present at 
 the burial of Bishop Eata on the south side of the 
 cathedral (where a stone chapel was afterwards erected 
 over his tomb), he set out for Carlisle, no doubt along the 
 Carel-gate. Half-way between the two cities, he spent 
 two days in a wild mountainous district, preaching and 
 confirming at a place called Aehse, or Echse, which seems 
 to be none other than the Roman fortress of ^Esica. If 
 so, it was then almost as desolate as to-day, for there was 
 no church nor place large enough to receive the Bishop 
 and his company, who took shelter in tents and shanties 
 of boughs by the roadside. At Carlisle Cuthbert received 
 the religious profession of Queen Irminburg, whose 
 sanctity now won for her the title of ' Agna Domini.' 
 There, too, he took leave of his friend, St. Herbert of 
 Derwentwater. Passing through Hexham and Medoms- 
 ley, where the plague was committing frightful ravages, 
 he consecrated a church for the Abbess Elfled at Easing- 
 ton, after which he received a splendid welcome from the 
 Abbess Verca at South Shields. 
 
 Immediately after Christmas, A.D. 686, Cuthbert retired 
 once more to the storm-lashed rocks of Fame. On 
 February 27, Herefrid, Abbot of Lindisfarne, who had 
 spent three days on the island, tapped at the window to 
 receive his blessing, when he heard a deep groan. Cuth- 
 bert's reply led him, however, to suppose that it was an 
 attack of an old complaint, and a great storm prevented 
 his returning from Lindisfarne till five days later, when 
 he found the Bishop in the guest-house near the beach, 
 where he had lain the whole time since his departure. 
 He became so ill that he allowed himself to be carried
 
 68 History of Northumberland. 
 
 back to his oratory, and eventually permitted Herefrid to 
 enter. Lying in a corner facing the altar, Cuthbert urged 
 him to impress on the brotherhood of Lindisfarne the 
 necessity of holding no communion with those who 
 strayed from the unity of Catholic peace, either with 
 respect to the date of Easter or monastic discipline. ' I 
 would much rather have you take up my bones from the 
 grave,' he concluded, ' and carry them with you wherever 
 God shall appoint, than that you should on any con- 
 sideration consent to the wickedness of schismatics and 
 place their yoke upon your necks.' At the hour of 
 nocturns, on March 20, A.D. 687, he received the sacra- 
 ment, and then passed heavenwards. One of the 
 brethren, waiting without, took a torch in each hand, 
 and, ascending to a higher spot, signalled the news of 
 Cuthbert's death across the sea to the watchman on the 
 tower of Lindisfarne. The saint's body was placed on a 
 ship, and, after being received at Lindisfarne with choirs 
 of singers, was laid in a stone sarcophagus to the right of 
 the altar in the cathedral which, built by Finan of sawn 
 oaks in the Scottish fashion, with a roof of reed thatch, 
 had been consecrated to St. Peter by Archbishop Theo- 
 dore. 
 
 Wilfrid, who during his second exile had effected the 
 conversion of Sussex, had been recalled by Aldfrid and 
 reinstated in his monastery of Hexham. He was now 
 entrusted for a year with the diocese of Lindisfarne, and 
 appears to have consented to the consecration of John, 
 generally styled of Beverley, from the monastery he 
 afterwards founded, as Bishop of Hexham, on August 24, 
 687. This saintly Bishop was in the habit of withdrawing 
 to a certain retired ' wick ' surrounded by a wall and a 
 few scattered trees, about a mile and a half from Hexham 
 Church, on the opposite bank of the Tyne, where there 
 was a cemetery dedicated to St. Michael. One Lent he 
 had a dumb youth with a sore head brought to stay in 
 a cottage built on purpose within the enclosure, and on 
 the second Sunday, making the sign of the cross on his
 
 The Kingdom: Bamburgh. 69 
 
 tongue, caused him to say first, ' Gae,' the vernacular for 
 ' Yes,' then A, B, and the rest of the alphabet, and finally 
 syllables, words, and sentences. The youth, whose head 
 was also cured by the Bishop's physician, ungratefully 
 insisted on returning home, in spite of the saint's wish 
 to keep him in his household. The scene of this miracle 
 is laid at Erneshaw, near St. John Lee, which, however, 
 derives its name from the dedication of its church to St. 
 John Baptist, and in contradistinction to another Lee in 
 Hexhamshire. 
 
 His administration of Lindisfarne brought Wilfrid into 
 conflict with the monks, whose Catholicity was still 
 Celtic rather than Latin. Peace was only restored by 
 the appointment of the pious Edbert to the see in place 
 of Wilfrid, who now appears again as Bishop of York. 
 In 692 King Aldfrid and a synod of bishops once more 
 deprived the great Northumbrian of all his ecclesiastical 
 dignities except the abbey of Ripon. 
 
 Six years later the body of St. Cuthbert was found un- 
 corrupted at Lindisfarne, and placed in a raised shrine. 
 Bishop Edbert, who was in retreat on Thrush Island at 
 the time of the discovery, died soon after, and was buried 
 in the original grave at his own request. The miraculous 
 virtues of St. Cuthbert were again attested by the re- 
 covery of Bethwegen, the hosteller, who had been seized 
 with illness as he was washing the garments and mantles 
 of the guest-house in the sea. The island of Fame had 
 been occupied since Cuthbert 's death by a recluse named 
 Ethelwald. In returning from visiting him one day, 
 Guthfrid, afterwards Abbot of Lindisfarne, was nearly 
 lost in a storm with two other brethren, when they saw 
 Ethelwald praying for them at the mouth of his cave, and 
 during a lull they were able to gain the mainland and 
 beach their boat. On Ethelwald's death, in 699, Edfrid, 
 then Bishop of Lindisfarne, restored the hermitage for the 
 anchorite Felgeld. 
 
 We should have a very false notion of the high civiliza- 
 tion to which Northumberland attained in the Golden
 
 7O History of Northumberland. 
 
 Age of English Christianity if it were not for the splendid 
 manuscript of the Gospels written by Edfrid. It seems 
 incredible at the present day that a work exhibiting such 
 high proof of living art could have been produced on the 
 weird, waste island of Lindisfarne. The illuminations 
 excel anything ever done by miniature painters, and must 
 rather be classed among the masterpieces of the jeweller's 
 craft ; but the most striking feature of all is the extra- 
 ordinary power of using quaint grotesques, without 
 exciting the least feeling of comic incongruity ; each of a 
 string of birds, with blue necks and red tails, catches hold 
 of the leg of the one above it with its beak, or two giraffes 
 in red-dotted outlines get their long necks inextricably 
 knotted together, without there being anything to provoke 
 an irreverent smile. Each Gospel is prefaced by a cross 
 set in a maze of microscopic ornament on one page, and a 
 representation of an Evangelist on another. The figures 
 of the Evangelists are intensely interesting, as conveying 
 the illuminator's idea of the height of regal splendour. 
 We have before us no Syrian tax-gatherer nor fisherman 
 of Galilee, but an Egfrid or a Keolwulf, only the crowns 
 replaced by aureoles, the sceptres by pens ; while the 
 articles of furniture enable us to conjure up some sort of 
 picture of the interior of the great palace of Bamburgh. 
 The Evangelists wear state dresses, the mantles always 
 of royal purple, the tunics blue or pink or green. Their 
 thrones are severally : a plain red stool, with a pattern of 
 circles and triangles incised round the edge, and cross- 
 pieces to the legs, that are painted blue on the inner 
 side ; two simple chairs in green and yellow, one with a 
 plain blue cushion, the other with a pink one embroidered 
 with gold ; and an extraordinary settle that seems to have 
 no bottom except a blue cushion. We are also shown a 
 brilliant red curtain with six iron rings on a rod, a small 
 round table, and a footstool inlaid with oblong designs. 
 The florid full face of St. John is very striking, with his 
 brown hair curled like a flowing wig. The angel of St. 
 Matthew and the lion of St. Mark are blowing long horns.
 
 The Kingdom : Bambiirgh, 7 1 
 
 St. Luke's ox, of a light cream colour, seems to belong to 
 the breed still preserved at Chillingham. All four Evan- 
 gelists have bare feet ; even this may be part of their regal 
 state. The calendar attached to these Gospels is said to 
 be the ancient Neapolitan one, a fact that would connect 
 it with Archbishop Theodore's companion, the Abbot 
 Adrian of Naples. 
 
 Meanwhile King Aldfrid had contracted an unhappy 
 marriage with Cuthburg, sister of Ina of Wessex. A 
 separation resulted, and, in spite of Cuthburg's subse- 
 quent foundation of the abbey of Wimborne, Boniface, 
 the Apostle of Germany, beheld her in his Vision of Pur- 
 gatory, the head and shoulders radiant, but the rest of 
 the body bespeckled and sunk in a flaming pit. In 705, 
 when Aldfrid died at Driffield, his son Osred was a child 
 of eight. A certain Edwulf, possibly the husband of a 
 daughter of Egfrid, was raised to the throne. Wilfrid 
 advanced from Ripon to meet the new King, but was 
 roughly ordered to leave the kingdom within six days, 
 under pain of death to his followers. The Ealdorman 
 Bertfrid now declared in favour of the child Osred, and, 
 on being closely besieged on the rock of Bamburgh, vowed, 
 in case of victory, to attend to the behests of the Holy 
 See and procure the re-instatement of Wilfrid. A sudden 
 change of feeling caused Edwulf to be deserted by his 
 adherents ; the gates of Bamburgh were thrown open, 
 and he was chased from the kingdom. With the consent 
 of the young King, the three Northumbrian bishops and 
 the rest of the Witan, Wilfrid was now restored to his 
 abbeys of Hexham and Ripon ; and when Bosa of York 
 died soon afterwards, John was translated to that see, 
 and succeeded at Hexham by Wilfrid. 
 
 During his last journey from Rome, Wilfrid had nearly 
 died at Meaux, when he had a vision, in which the arch- 
 angel Michael promised him four more years of life, and 
 enjoined him to build a church in honour of .the Blessed 
 Virgin. This he accordingly did to the south-east of his 
 great church at Hexham, choosing an almost circular
 
 72 History of Northumberland. 
 
 plan, for what was probably used both as a baptistery 
 and a chapter-house. 
 
 A great victory won over the Picts by the Ealdorman 
 Bertfrid in 710 conferred a certain lustre on Osred's 
 reign ; but the young King proved to be cruel and dissi- 
 pated. Many of the nobles were put to death or forced 
 to turn monks. Among the latter was Enmund, the 
 founder of a monastery of St. Peter, which seems to have 
 been situated at Heversham, in Westmorland, and the 
 history of which was to form the subject of a Latin poem, 
 by Ethelwulf, a monk of Lindisfarne, in the beginning of 
 the ninth century. At last, in 717, Os'red was igno- 
 miniously slain on the southern border of Northumber- 
 land near the coast, in his nineteenth year. 
 
 Kenred, a descendant of Occa, one of Ida's natural 
 sons, filled the throne for two years, and was followed 
 by Osric, possibly a younger brother of Osred. Osric 
 was slain in 729. His successor, Keolwulf, brother of 
 Kenred, in the double character of patron and censor, 
 requested the Venerable Bede to send him his ' Eccle- 
 siastical History of the English Nation ' on its first 
 appearance, and to ' Keolwulf the Most Glorious ' Bede 
 subsequently addressed the preface, extolling the King's 
 own love of history and his desire of spreading the know- 
 ledge of it among his subjects. The troubled state of 
 politics caused the great work to be very meagre in 
 contemporary detail. In 731 Bede ventured to say that 
 civil disorder was so rife that it was impossible to predict 
 the turn events would take. Keolwulf was seized, shorn, and 
 forced into a monastery, to be, however, speedily restored. 
 Acca, the saintly successor of Wilfrid at Hexham, appears 
 to have allowed himself to be implicated in this con- 
 spiracy, and fled the realm, while the leaders, Alric and 
 Esc, were executed. Frithbert, a stanch friend of the 
 reigning dynasty, was appointed to the deserted see. The 
 good relations of the Northumbrian kingdom with the 
 neighbouring states made Keolwulf's subjects unaccus- 
 tomed to military service, while internal dissensions led
 
 The Kingdom : Bamburgh. 73 
 
 them to seek safety for themselves and their children in 
 the numerous monasteries. With the political insight of 
 a true historian, Bede foresaw the dangers likely to arise 
 from this neglect of the profession of arms. ' What will 
 be the result,' he adds prophetically, * the next age will 
 show.' It is apparently to the monastery of Tynemouth, 
 where Herebald was Abbot, that we owe the earliest 
 portion of Symeon of Durham's ' History of the Kings.' 
 
 After the aspirations of St. Wilfrid had been realized, and 
 the independence of the Northumbrian Church secured 
 from the pretensions of Canterbury, by the bestowal of 
 the archiepiscopal pallium on Egbert of York, the King's 
 cousin, Keolwulf voluntarily resigned the crown in 737, 
 and, becoming a monk at Lindisfarne, bestowed on that 
 house not only the district of Warkworth, where he had 
 built a church, and ' Bregesne ' (probably Brainshaugh, 
 near Acklington), but Woodchester (at the mouth of the 
 Aln), Whittingham, Edlingham, and Eglingham. His 
 fellow-monks are said to have now obtained a relaxation of 
 the rule of St. Aidan that had restricted them to milk and 
 water, and were permitted to drink wine and beer. 
 
 The prosperous reign of Edbert, brother of the great 
 Northumbrian Primate, was not altogether free from 
 dynastic troubles. St. Acca, the old enemy of the house 
 of the Ocgings, died in 740, and was buried between two 
 elaborate crosses at the east end of his former cathedral 
 at Hexham ; but that same year Arwine, son of Edwulf 
 apparently of Edwulf, the two-months king of 709 was 
 killed, after having, it seems, attempted to seize the throne 
 during Edbert's absence on a Pictish campaign. Ten 
 years later, after a second expedition of Edbert which 
 added Kyle, in Ayrshire, to his dominions, another un- 
 successful pretender named OfTa took sanctuary on Lin- 
 disfarne. Bishop Kynewulf refused to surrender him, 
 whereupon Edbert, after laying formal siege to the 
 basilica, slew Offa and dragged Kynewulf a prisoner to 
 Bamburgh. The administration of the Northern diocese 
 was entrusted to the politic St. Frithbert, of Hexham,
 
 74 History of Northumberland. 
 
 until the King's wrath was appeased and Kynewulf re- 
 instated. The fame of Edbert was now so firmly estab- 
 lished that the kings of all the nations round, English, 
 Picts, Britons, and Scots, not only kept peace with him, 
 but delighted to do him service ; even Pepin le Bref of 
 France concluded an alliance with him, and sent him 
 many and diverse royal gifts. The zenith of his glory 
 and that of Northumberland was reached when, on 
 August i, 756, in company with Angus, King of the Picts, 
 he scaled in triumph the ancient British capital of Dum- 
 barton, on the Clyde.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE KINGDOM : CORBRIDGE. 
 
 ONLY ten days after the fall of Dumbarton had 
 given the Northumbrian realm the widest expan- 
 sion that it was destined to attain, the victorious host of 
 Edbert was almost annihilated by a sudden onslaught of 
 the Britons. The King, indeed, escaped, but this cata- 
 strophe in the heyday of triumph was fraught with conse- 
 quences infinitely more disastrous for the future of 
 Northumberland than those that, in the previous century, 
 had resulted from the defeat and death of Egfrid at 
 Nechtansmere. With all the success that had hitherto 
 attended his arms, the Imperial sway of Edbert rested on 
 a moral rather than a material foundation. His attack 
 on the capital of Strathclyde weakened that confidence in 
 his integrity and unselfishness which had led every nation 
 in the island to delight in doing him honour. Neither 
 the Britons, nor the Scots, nor even his own allies, the 
 Picts, paid further deference to the royal fugitive. It was 
 in vain that the other English kings promised to make 
 good his losses in the North by cessions of their territories 
 if only he would be persuaded to remain at the helm of 
 State at Bamburgh. Struck down by the terrible blow 
 that, at the end of a reign of twenty fortunate years, de- 
 prived him both of his moral prestige and his military 
 fame, Edbert resolved upon abdication. 
 
 The Northumbrian crown, as has been said, seems to 
 have been elective among the descendants of Ida, prefer-
 
 76 History of Northumberland. 
 
 ence being customarily given to the nearest capable 
 relative of the last monarch. In order to guard against 
 the dangers that a disputed election might occasion when 
 the State was left without a head, it became the practice 
 for the reigning King and the Witan to agree upon his 
 successor. To this official candidate, this selected heir- 
 presumptive, the title of Patrician was given in imitation 
 of the style assumed by Prankish princes, a title rendered 
 in English by the word Etheling. Unfortunately, like so 
 many other ingenious constitutional contrivances, this 
 preliminary solution served only to increase the very evils 
 it was intended to remove. A Patrician who saw himself 
 in danger of being set aside at the final election, if the King 
 should leave a son of sufficient age and popularity, was 
 tempted to possess himself at once, by open rebellion or 
 secret assassination, of what he had been led to look upon 
 as his absolute heritage. 
 
 Edbert had acknowledged as Patrician a certain Ethel- 
 wald Moll, probably resident at Catterick in Deira, and a 
 descendant of Ethelwald, son of Oswald, though by a 
 Celtic mother. Now, however, that his son Oswulf had 
 come to man's estate, Edbert deemed himself strong 
 enough, in abdicating, to secure that prince's succession. 
 In order to conciliate Ethelwald, he bestowed on him the 
 possessions of three monasteries in Deira, and incurred 
 in consequence the censures of Pope Paul. Then, as 
 nothing but the tonsure could, in those days, relieve an 
 anointed king of the burden of sovereignty, he became 
 a canon in his brother Egbert's metropolitan church of 
 York. 
 
 How far the actual border of Northumberland receded 
 southwards after the disaster that overwhelmed the host 
 of Edbert on the Clyde, it is difficult to determine. That 
 it did recede, and very considerably, is patent from the 
 fact that at this critical juncture the capital was removed 
 from the sea-washed rock of Bamburgh to the old Roman 
 city of Corbridge, in the golden valley of the Tyne. With 
 the loss of territory in the North, it became necessary to
 
 The Kingdom : Corbridge. 77 
 
 seek a more central seat of government. Corbridge was 
 the chief town of the middle province represented ecclesi- 
 astically by the diocese of Hexham, just as Bamburgh, 
 while the capital of the whole monarchy, was also the 
 chief town of the province represented ecclesiastically by 
 the diocese of Lindisfarne. 
 
 As the Court was now largely affected by the classical 
 renaissance brought about by Alcuin, the Northumbrian 
 secretary of Charles the Great, there was something 
 characteristic in its being held in a city which, under the 
 Empire, had been the most northern centre of culture and 
 civilization. It is from Corbridge that the history of 
 Northumberland, during the two blood-stained centuries 
 that precede the final extinction of the kingdom, must be 
 viewed. 
 
 The young King Oswulf had not reigned a whole year, 
 when he was assassinated by the officers of his household 
 at ' Mechil Wongton,' or Great (Muckle) Whittington, 
 a village about seven miles to the north-east of Cor- 
 bridge, on July 24, 759. The voice of the people placed 
 Ethelwald Moll on the vacant throne, but the Patrician 
 Oswin, possibly a brother of Oswulf, took up arms against 
 the new government. He probably relied on assistance 
 from the Picts, as the pitched battle in which he was 
 mortally wounded was fought, it seems, at Lilliesclive, 
 near Melrose. Party spirit continued to run so high that 
 a national assembly was convoked at Finchale on the 
 Wear, with a view to securing internal peace. The choice 
 of Finchale, south even of the Tyne, as the place of meet- 
 ing, shows how the centre of gravity of the monarchy was 
 ever shifting southwards. In this national council, repre- 
 senting all Northumberland, and probably of a character 
 largely ecclesiastical, Moll was deposed, and Alcred, who 
 claimed descent from Edric, son of Ida, and was, there- 
 fore, clearly a Bernician, was proclaimed King in his 
 stead. The idea seems to have been to choose an indepen- 
 dent prince, instead of the candidate of either of two con- 
 tending factions ; but this policy, however sagacious in
 
 78 History of Northumberland. 
 
 itself, was destined to make confusion worse confounded 
 by giving a third rival dynasty to Northumberland. To 
 fortify his title, Alcred took to wife Osgeofu, daughter of 
 the murdered Oswulf. 
 
 Writing to their friend Lullus, Bishop of Mayence, for 
 the purpose of providing for mutual intercession in their 
 prayers, King Alcred and Queen Osgeofu did not scruple 
 to admit the critical condition of affairs, both in Church 
 and State, but they were content to regard it as a Divine 
 dispensation. In addition to a gold ring, they sent the 
 Bishop twelve of those hooded cloaks called sagcz, that 
 we see worn by the native peasantry on the Roman 
 monuments at Treves, and which still form the charac- 
 teristic garb of the Capuchin fathers. It says much 
 for the skill and taste displayed in their manufacture 
 that Northumbrian cloaks were so appreciated on the 
 Continent. 
 
 At Easter, 774, the blow they had long calmly awaited fell 
 on the royal fatalists. As the result of an understanding 
 arrived at between his household and the ealdormen, the 
 national Witan deprived Alcred of the throne, in virtue of 
 the same power that had raised him to it. Archbishop 
 Egbert, his wife's great uncle, was no longer alive, and 
 Alcred had lost another of his chief supporters by the 
 death of the High-Reeve Edwulf. After the removal of the 
 court to Corbridge, Bamburgh appears to have been the 
 seat of a line of High-Reeves, who claimed descent from a 
 daughter of King Egfrid and were themselves the direct 
 ancestors of most of the great Earls who were to rule 
 Northumberland from the tenth far into the twelfth cen- 
 tury. Contrary to the usage then obtaining in English 
 families, each generation of these High-Reeves seems to 
 have clung tenaciously to the name of Edwulf. The 
 cradle of their race was probably the village of Edlingham 
 (Eadwulfingham), which remained long after the Conquest 
 a centre of English influence in the hands of their 
 descendants. The abortive seizure of the crown by 
 Edwulf on the death of Aldfrid in 709 does not seem to
 
 The Kingdom : Corbridge. 79 
 
 have checked the more slow and steady elevation of his 
 house. 
 
 It was to Bamburgh that Alcred fled after his deposition. 
 The ancient capital was so soon nearly forgotten, that the 
 chronicler who relates this deemed it necessary to add a 
 description of it by way of gloss. ' Bebba,' he says, ' is a 
 most strongly fortified city, not very large, being of the 
 size of two or three fields, having one entrance hollowed 
 out of the rock and raised in steps after a marvellous 
 fashion. On the top of the hill, it has a church of extremely 
 beautiful workmanship, in which is a shrine, rich and 
 costly, that contains, wrapt in a pall, the right hand of 
 St. Oswald the King, still incorrupt, as is related by Bede, 
 the historian of this nation. To the west, on the highest 
 point of the city itself, there is a spring of water, sweet 
 to the taste and most pure to the sight, that has been ex- 
 cavated with astonishing labour.' From this, we gather 
 that the fortress of Bamburgh was then, as now, divided 
 into three wards ; the entry was by a flight of steps near 
 the west end of the rock, and from this you ascended 
 through the two lower wards, occupied by the ' city,' to 
 the deep well, now enclosed in the Norman keep, and to 
 the inner ward beyond it, which contained a small basilica 
 with a monastery attached. This church, according to 
 St. Aired of Rievaulx, had at the time of King Alcred 
 seeking shelter there been recently despoiled of one of 
 its chief treasures, the head of St. Oswald. An old man 
 praying before the shrine of St. Cuthbert on Lindisfarne, 
 imagined he received that saint's commission to bring 
 back there this head, which had been removed to Bam- 
 burgh, probably by Edbert. He proceeded to the basilica 
 on the castle-rock on St. Oswald's Day, and found the 
 head of the royal martyr exposed above the altar for the 
 veneration of the faithful. The concourse of pilgrims 
 obliged him to delay the execution of his plan's till the 
 following morning, when he lingered behind after Mass 
 till everyone had left the church except the porter of the 
 monastery. Seeing that this official kept a very strict
 
 8o History of Northumberland. 
 
 watch on his movements, he dropped his belt and gloves 
 near the altar and then went off to mount the horse his 
 servant had waiting for him near the cemetery, possibly 
 the cemetery among the sand-hills just east of the castle. 
 Despatching his servant on an errand, he turned to the 
 porter, whose curiosity had brought him out so far, say- 
 ing, ' Just take hold of the horse, my good fellow, and 
 let me get my belt and gloves which I left in the church.' 
 Before the porter could say nay, he was off to the altar, 
 hid St. Oswald's head under his arm, and with the gloves 
 and belt displayed ostentatiously to allay suspicion, rode 
 safely off with his sacred booty to Lindisfarne. He had 
 the satisfaction afterwards to learn that the porter care- 
 fully locked up the church without ever looking inside 
 again. 
 
 Bamburgh proved a sure city of refuge to the dethroned 
 Alcred. Any chance of restoration, however, was, he 
 found, so remote that he betook himself to the court of 
 the Pictish King, Kenneth, whose espousal of his cause 
 became no doubt the pretext for further and further en- 
 croachments on northernmost Northumberland. It was 
 probably in consequence of his harbouring Alcred at 
 Bamburgh that the High-Reeve, another Edwulf, was 
 put to death the following year by order of the new 
 King, Ethelred, the son of Ethelwald Moll. Ethelred en- 
 deavoured to give a special sanction to his election at 
 Finchale by having himself crowned at York with a 
 ceremonial of unprecedented magnificence. 
 
 Notwithstanding his solemn coronation, King Ethelred 
 followed King Alcred into exile in 779, and then for nearly 
 ten years the sceptre of St. Oswald was held by the direct 
 heir of the Ocgings, Alfwald the son of Oswulf, and the 
 grandson of Edbert. Styled for his justice and piety 
 ' the Friend of God,' Alfwald had the honour of receiving 
 in a synod at Finchale, George, Bishop of Ostia, the first 
 legate of the Holy See ever accredited to Northumberland. 
 At the time of the Legate's arrival at York, the King was 
 absent in the Far North. It is worthy of notice that St.
 
 The Kingdom : Corbridge. 8 1 
 
 Tilbert, prelate of the church of Hexham, signs the 
 decrees of this synod immediately after the King, before 
 the Archbishop, probably because Finchale was in the 
 diocese of Hexham. In addition to the bishops, the 
 Patrician Sicgan and the two high-reeves, Alric and 
 Sigwulf, were present at what was more or less of a 
 national Witenagemot. The growth of a considerable 
 Northumbrian colony in the north-west of Ireland was 
 emphasized by the consecration of Aldulf, Bishop of Mayo, 
 in the monastery of Corbridge. 
 
 Neither virtue nor glory was capable of saving a North- 
 umbrian King in the eighth century. On September 23, 
 A.D. 788, Alfwald the Just was cruelly slain at ' Scythles- 
 cester,' near the Wall, by the wicked Sicgan. A long 
 procession of monks and clergy, making the Vale of Tyne 
 resound with their dirges, brought the King's body to 
 Hexham. The monastery there, in which seven years 
 previously the saintly Bishop Alcmund had been laid to 
 rest beside his predecessor, St. Acca, still surpassed all 
 others in England in size and beauty. The frescoes 
 executed by order of Wilfrid were still bright on its walls. 
 After all his travels on the Continent, Alcuin could assure 
 St. Ethelbert, then the Bishop, that he knew no pleasanter 
 place. A hundred more than a thousand years have now 
 rolled by since Alfwald's burial, but his tomb, a thirteenth- 
 century reproduction of an earlier one, is still shown in 
 the priory church. Of the forty sovereigns of North- 
 umberland, the Friend of God is the only one who has 
 been given an enduring shrine. A light from heaven is 
 said to have shone on the scene of his murder ; the church 
 consequently built there, and dedicated to St. Cuthbert 
 and St. Oswald, is probably represented by the ancient 
 chapel of Halton, about three miles to the north-east of 
 Corbridge. 
 
 As Alf and Alfwin, the two sons of Alfwald, were infants 
 at the time of their father's murder, and as popular indig- 
 nation made the succession of Sicgan, whatever were his 
 claims, impossible, Osred, the son of Alcred and Osgeofu, 
 
 6
 
 82 History of Northumberland. 
 
 was called to power. A year later, betrayed by his 
 ealdormen and given the tonsure at York, Osred was glad 
 to make good his escape to the Isle of Man. King 
 Ethelred I. was now brought up from a dungeon to 
 mount the unstable throne he had lost eleven years before. 
 The learned Alcuin, that Northumbrian Erasmus, was at 
 home at the time, and delayed his departure for France 
 in consequence of the revolution, which, it may be sus- 
 pected, he had some hand in bringing about. Queen 
 Ethelhild, the widow of Ethelwald Moll, and now a nun, 
 was his intimate friend and correspondent. Her son's 
 restoration probably furthered the aims of the alliance 
 subsisting between Alcuin's master, Charles, and the 
 powerful Offa of Mercia. Alcuin, however, was not long 
 in discovering that the character of the restored monarch 
 ill accorded with his hopes. He was, it is true, able to 
 effect some good by admonition and remonstrance, and 
 continued to do his utmost to check the spread of a reign 
 of terror. Though assisted by an influential party in the 
 state, he was by no means successful. Ethelred thirsted 
 for blood. The High-Reeve, Erdwulf, was led out for 
 execution before the gate of the monastery of Ripon. 
 The body, entrusted to the monks for burial, was borne 
 into the church, but on assembling for matins, the 
 brethren were surprised to find Erdwulf alive, and 
 willingly accorded him sanctuary. 
 
 Less fortunate than Erdwulf, the young princes, Alf and 
 Alfwin,were beguiled by Ethelred from York Minster, and 
 drowned in Windermere. The horror this crime inspired 
 led Osred to attempt the recovery of his crown. He 
 landed from the Isle of Man on the coast of Cumberland, 
 but was taken prisoner and beheaded by Ethelred's order, 
 at ' Aynburg,' probably Alneburg, the old name of Ellen- 
 borough, near Maryport. His body, however, was buried 
 near that of St. Oswin in the monastery of Tynemouth, 
 the idea being, probably, to prevent any political pil- 
 grimage to his tomb. After this destruction of both 
 branches of the royal house of the Ocgings, Ethelred
 
 The Kingdom : Cor bridge. 83 
 
 celebrated his marriage with Elfled, daughter of Offa, at 
 Catterick. 
 
 The cup of Northumbrian wickedness was now filling 
 rapidly to the brim. Repeated storms of thunder and 
 lightning, accompanied by showers of dragon-like meteors, 
 alarmed the national conscience. The High-reeve Sicgan, 
 who had slain the good King Alfwald, laid violent hands 
 on himself, and his wretched corpse was conveyed to 
 Lindisfarne. Five weeks later a sudden descent of the 
 Scaldings on the desecrated island caused all Christen- 
 dom to tremble. Swarming like hornets and ravenous 
 as wolves, the pagans, led probably by the celebrated 
 viking, Ragnar Lodbrog, or Shaggy-breeks, landed on 
 June 7, 793. They trampled with their unhallowed feet 
 the sanctuary of what had come to be regarded as the 
 mother-church of more than the half of England, and 
 nearly the half of Germany. They dug up the altars and 
 bore away all the treasures, even breaking off the upper 
 limb of the great cross Bishop Ethelwald had set up 
 before the church. Some of the monks they slew, others 
 they dragged off in chains ; many they jeeringly drove 
 away naked ; some they cast into the sea. Fortunate 
 indeed was the priest Cudred, who contrived to slip out of 
 the hands of his captors. 
 
 The fall of Constantinople can have scarcely caused 
 more widespread terror in Christendom. If the power 
 of St. Cuthbert could not preserve his own island, what 
 place was safe ? From the court of Charles the Great, 
 Alcuin wrote to express his patriotic horror at the 
 thought that the most venerable place in all Britain 
 had been given over as a spoil to the heathen. He 
 urged Bishop Higbald and the monks of Lindisfarne to 
 take their chastisement to heart, and addressed similar 
 moral warnings to the abbeys of Jarrow and Wearmouth. 
 He promised to get his master Charles to do all he could 
 to ransom the boys carried away into slavery. More 
 practical still were his endeavours to provide for the 
 national defence of Northumberland, by establishing good
 
 84 History of Northumberland. 
 
 relations between King Ethelred, the Patrician Osbald 
 and a certain Osbert. 
 
 The next year the pagans had already ravaged Jarrow, 
 when their leader was put to a cruel death there by the 
 English. Ragnar Lodbrog had been warned by his wife, 
 Kraka, of the folly of sailing with large ships into a 
 shallow slake like that of Jarrow. He is traditionally said 
 to have been cast into a pit full of snakes, and as they 
 gnawed at his vitals to have composed what (edited by 
 Vigfusson and Powell), with its wild refrain, 
 
 ' We hewed with the brand,' 
 
 is evidently in part the battle-song of Ragnar himself, in 
 part the dirge in which his Queen gave expression to her 
 grief. The fearless heathen, after his fifty-one battles, has 
 no dread of death : 
 
 ' I am willing to depart. They are calling me home, the Fays 
 whom Woden, the Lord of Hosts, has sent from his hall. Merrily 
 shall I drink ale in my high seat with the Anses. My life-days are 
 done. Laughing will I die.' 
 
 The pangs of his torture are alleviated by prophetic confi- 
 dence that 
 
 ' The porklings would grunt 
 If they knew of the old boar's need,' 
 
 and that his death will be avenged by his descendants. 
 
 Many of the viking ships that escaped from the Tyne 
 went ashore during a heavy gale, and the crews were 
 mercilessly despatched by the English. Higbald and his 
 clergy, seeing in all this the interposition of St. Cuthbert, 
 returned to Lindisfarne, where they found that the body 
 of the saint had not been disturbed. 
 
 The lesson of the sack of Lindisfarne, enforced though 
 it was by the letters of Alcuin, failed to restore internal 
 peace to Northumberland. On April 18, 796, the butcher 
 King, Ethelred I., was murdered in his capital at Corbridge 
 by the High-Reeve Aldred. This new crime, which lost 
 him an ally, led Charles the Great to declare that the
 
 The Kingdom : Cor bridge. 85 
 
 Northumbrians were worse than the pagans themselves, 
 and Alcuin had some difficulty in restraining him from 
 giving them practical proof of his indignation. The 
 Patrician Osbald was proclaimed King by the ealdormen 
 of his own family, but, after a reign of twenty-seven days, 
 was deposed by the joint action of the royal household 
 and the other ealdormen. He had at one time taken 
 monastic vows, probably as a condition of his life being 
 spared, and, during the religious revival that the descent 
 of the Northmen at first occasioned, had promised 
 Alcuin that he would act up to his profession. He now 
 escaped to Lindisfarne with a few faithful followers, 
 and, taking with him some of the brethren, made his 
 way to the Pictish court. Alcuin did not fail to remind 
 him of his broken faith, and of the amount of blood of 
 kings, princes, and commons that he and his partisans 
 had shed. 
 
 Erdwulf, the High - Reeve whose life had been so 
 strangely preserved at Ripon, was now solemnly invested 
 with the royal diadem at York. Fresh troubles, however, 
 immediately began, through the new King repudiating his 
 wife and taking a concubine. The death of Ethelred was 
 avenged by the ealdorman Tortmund on its perpetrator, 
 Aldred the High-Reeve, no doubt of Bamburgh ; while St. 
 Alcmund, son of King Alcred, and one of the last scions 
 of the royal house of Ida, was seized by the frontier 
 guards of Erdwulf and put to a cruel death. Complica- 
 tions between Northumberland and Mercia gave the West 
 Saxon Egbert an opportunity for acting as mediator, and 
 so exercising a certain authority over both kingdoms. In 
 806 Erdwulf himself was driven into exile, and humbly 
 sought the Imperial presence at Neumagen on the Rhine; 
 He proceeded to Rome, and having been favourably re- 
 ceived by Pope Leo, returned to Northumberland, accom- 
 panied by the Legate, the deacon Aldulf, and by the Abbots 
 of St. Amand and St. Omer, as envoys of the Emperor. 
 By means of this strange mediation, which, if it had been 
 undertaken by the Pope or the Emperor alone, would
 
 86 History of Northumberland. 
 
 infallibly have been construed . into a donation or a com- 
 mendation of Northumberland, Erdwulf was restored to 
 his throne, which a second Alfwald, who had occupied it 
 for two years, showed little reluctance to surrender. The 
 year following this restoration, death closed Erdwulf ; s 
 career of adventure and vicissitude. 
 
 The thirty-two years' reign of Erdwulf 's son and suc- 
 cessor, Enred, owed its very exceptional length, not to the 
 virtues and talents of the King, but to the utter exhaustion 
 of Northumbrian politics. It was sullied by two events, 
 that have much more in common than their bare mention 
 by the chroniclers at first sight discloses : the extinction 
 of the bishopric of Hexham in about 820, and the sub- 
 mission of the Northumbrians to Egbert, the West Saxon, 
 at Dore, near Sheffield, in 827. 
 
 Tidfrith, the last Bishop of Hexham, was consecrated in 
 814, and about seven years later the splendid Church of 
 St. Wilfrid is said to have fallen to ruin. Hexham was 
 not the only Northumbrian bishopric that disappeared at 
 this period ; Baldwulf, Bishop of Whitherne, consecrated 
 at Harehaugh, on the Coquet, in 790, is last mentioned in 
 803, when he assisted at the consecration of Egbert of 
 Lindisfarne at Bywell. The extinction of both sees, 
 Whitherne and Hexham, appears to have been the result 
 of a great Pictish revival. Galloway was never fully re- 
 covered by the English, and probably at this time the 
 valleys of North and South Tyne re-acquired a Celtic 
 character. We find soon afterwards Carlisle separated 
 from Lindisfarne by a district ominously called The 
 Waste. Along the east coast the Drang nach Suden was 
 also strongly manifested. Angus mac Fergus, King of the 
 Picts, is said to have been encamped in the Merse in 820, 
 when St. Andrew appeared to him in a vision, and it is 
 highly suggestive that at the very time when that apostle 
 ceased, on the destruction of Hexham, to be the patron of 
 Northumberland between the Tees and the Aln, the cele- 
 brated monastery destined to become the seat of the 
 primacy of Scotland was founded in his honour on the
 
 The Kingdom : Corbridge. 87 
 
 coast of Fife. The dedications to St. Andrew of churches 
 at Corbridge, Bywell, Heddon-on-the-Wall, Newcastle, 
 Long Benton, and Bothal, and, with every probability, at 
 Shotley, Ovingham, and Bolam, are interesting memorials 
 of the lost middle bishopric, which seems at first to have 
 been held in commendam by Wulsi, Archbishop of York, 
 and his successor, Wimund. 
 
 The contemptible incapacity of King Enred, which had 
 been manifested in the base surrender of Northumbrian 
 independence to the West Saxon at Dore, left the defence 
 of the Border from the Picts to the Bishops of Lindisfarne, 
 and so laid the foundation of that palatinate jurisdiction 
 that was so long and honourably enjoyed by the successors 
 of St. Cuthbert. The great Bishop Egred, 831-847, founded 
 the two Jedworths as frontier strongholds in Teviotdale, 
 and strengthened Norham, which he gave to St. Cuthbert. 
 There, too, he dedicated a church, probably on the strong 
 position now occupied in part by the Norman castle, in 
 honour of St. Peter, St. Cuthbert, and St. Keolwulf, whose 
 shrine he removed thither. Nor did he forget the spiritual 
 needs of the great tract of territory with which that royal 
 saint is said to have endowed the cathedral monastery, 
 but built churches at Whittingham, Edlingham, Egling- 
 ham, and Woodchester, or Wooden, on the hill at the 
 mouth of the Aln. This seems to show that the forma- 
 tion of definite parishes proceeded very slowly in the 
 North, and is good evidence of the district in question 
 having been the actual property of the monks of Lindis- 
 farne, since Edlingham at an}' rate was then in the united 
 diocese of York and Hexham. A still more southward 
 direction was given to the views of the island brother- 
 hood by Egred's own donation to it of the great territory 
 of Gainford, probably his own family property, which 
 comprised also Cliffe and Wycliffe on the southern side 
 of the Tees, and Billingham, which, though on the north 
 side of that river, belonged in civil matters to York. 
 
 Advantage was taken of the sees of York and Lindis- 
 farne being both vacant in 854 to readjust their bound-
 
 88 History of Northumberland. 
 
 aries. Wulfhere of York received the portions of the 
 diocese of Hexham that lay between the Tees and the 
 Tyne ; Erdwulf of Lindisfarne, that between the Tyne 
 and the Aln, the Picts, no doubt, having lightened his 
 episcopal duties beyond the Tweed. These limits, as 
 will be seen from what has just been said respecting the 
 line of the Tees, must be taken in a general sense as 
 referring more especially to the coast ; the whole of 
 Hexhamshire, including the parish of St. John Lee, north 
 of the Tyne, remained, no doubt, in the spiritual juris- 
 diction of York. 
 
 In these last days of its glory, during the nominal 
 reign of Osbert, who had succeeded the murdered 
 Ethelred II. in 849, the diocese of Lindisfarne comprised 
 not only all the churches between the Tyne and the 
 Tweed those of Melrose and Teviotdale among the rest 
 but also the churches west of The Waste, on the 
 Cumbrian coast to the north of the Derwent ; while the 
 Church of St. Cuthbert reckoned among its possessions 
 Abercorn and Edinburgh, Tyningham and Coldingham, 
 and Culter and Carnwath on the water-parting between 
 the Tweed and the Clyde, all, probably, monasteries that 
 had lapsed to the diocesan, besides the wide district of 
 Kimmerghame lying to the north of the Tweed, between 
 the Leader and the Whiteadder. 
 
 The mysterious substitution of the Scots for the Picts 
 as the northern neighbours of Northumberland did not 
 long delay the continued dismemberment of the dis- 
 tracted kingdom. By 860 the Scottish King, Kenneth 
 mac Alpin, had burnt Dunbar and seized Melrose, thus 
 extending his dominions from the Forth to the Tweed. 
 These territorial losses naturally caused considerable 
 disaffection among the subjects of King Osbert, and 
 when, if ancient tradition is to be trusted, he carried off 
 the wife of the ealdorman Beorn, this disaffection ripened 
 into a revolution which replaced him on the throne by a 
 certain Ella. In the sequel the rival kings came to an 
 arrangement by which Osbert reigned over the country
 
 The Kingdom : Cor bridge. 89 
 
 north of the Tees, where he deprived the monks of Til- 
 mouth and Warkworth, while Ella established himself at 
 York. Both of them were slain near that city during the 
 great Danish invasion of 867, and the same fate met the 
 high-reeves Bertwulf and Denwulf. 
 
 The country north of the Tyne was placed by the 
 Danish conquerors of Yorkshire under the government of 
 a puppet-king named Egbert. He was, however, driven 
 out, restored the next year, and then succeeded by Ricsig. 
 In 875 the fleet of the savage Halfdane entered the Tyne, 
 intending to winter at the mouth of the Team, and then 
 waste the hitherto spared province of Bernicia, and the 
 monks of Lindisfarne, where the sack of 793 was too 
 well remembered, dispersed in a panic. Bishop Erdwulf 
 in this extremity sought the counsel of the Abbot Edred 
 of Carlisle. Recalling the dying injunctions of St. Cuth- 
 bert, Edred recommended that the saint's body should 
 be removed to a place of greater security. The young 
 men who had been receiving their education in the 
 monastery proved of truer metal than their preceptors. 
 Seven of them took on themselves the especial guardian- 
 ship of the shrine, and, accompanied by the whole popu- 
 lation not only of the island, but also of the district of 
 Lindisfarne on the mainland, they set out on their nine 
 years' wanderings, taking with them all their relics and 
 treasures, even the great stone cross of Bishop Ethel- 
 wald. Bishop Erdwulf had already paid great attention 
 to the isolated portion of his diocese on the west coast, 
 and the shrine was no doubt carried in the first instance 
 to Carlisle, where the Abbot carne from. But the Danes 
 followed close behind, and the Bishop and people fled 
 southwards along the coast till they came to the extreme 
 boundary of the diocese of Lindisfarne, at the mouth of 
 the Derwent. Here the shrine was taken on board a 
 ship, with the professed intention of transporting it across 
 the Solway to Whitherne, where it may be supposed there 
 was still an English colony, and whither the faithful might 
 hope to follow on foot. No sooner, however, was the
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 anchor weighed, than the Bishop and the older men who 
 were in his confidence gave the treacherous order to steer 
 straight to Ireland. The despair of the deserted multi- 
 tude on the shore can easily 'be imagined. Then suddenly 
 the wind veered right round to the west, and a violent 
 tempest arose. The magnificent Lindisfarne Gospels, 
 written by Bishop Edfrid, were washed overboard. 
 Erdwulf threw himself on his knees before the shrine, 
 and was thankful to disembark again in safety. The 
 storm having subsided, the Bishop and his company 
 crossed to Whitherne, and great was their joy when they 
 found the precious volume washed up on the sands there. 
 The illuminations seemed to their delighted eyes more 
 beautiful than ever. The slight injury done in three or 
 four places by the sea-water directed their attention to 
 most apposite passages. They must have applied the 
 warnings of the destruction of Jerusalem to the fate of 
 Lindisfarne and their own exile, and have derived singular 
 comfort in reading on the blotched page, ' You shall be 
 hated of all men for My Name's sake, but a hair of your 
 head shall not perish ;' or, again, ' It is impossible that 
 scandals should not come, but woe to him through whom 
 they come.' 
 
 The car on which St. Cuthbert's shrine had been 
 brought from Lindisfarne was no doubt left behind at the 
 mouth of the Derwent, and it became necessary to search 
 for fresh means of conveyance. The seven faithful guar- 
 dians appear now reduced to four, and of these Stithard 
 is said to have found a bridle or rope hanging on a tree in 
 a wood, Edmund to have captured a colt, and Hundred 
 to have come upon a cart. The three youths received in 
 consequence, as sobriquets, the old English names of 
 their respective discoveries Rap, Colte, and Cretel. A 
 yet wilder legend explains how Eilaf (called also, it would 
 seem, Franco), the fourth bearer of the shrine, acquired 
 the name of Tod. The faithful four were wandering by 
 themselves the Bishop and Abbot are lost sight of in 
 the waste territory of the Picts, and all the food they had
 
 The Kingdom : Cor bridge. 9 1 
 
 with them was a horse's head and a cheese. As Stithard, 
 Edmund, and Hundred began to think of dining, they 
 found that the cheese was missing, and considering that 
 it must have been stolen, they besought St. Cuthbert to 
 signally punish the thief. Presently a fox, or ' tod,' came 
 running towards them, trundling the cheese with its 
 paws, and then they remarked that Eilaf was nowhere 
 to be seen. They began to suspect that he was the 
 culprit, and had been turned into the fox by the indignant 
 saint, so they fell on their knees before the shrine and 
 prayed for his pardon and restitution. Accordingly he 
 resumed human form, but the name of Tod stuck to him 
 and his descendants, some of whom became hereditary 
 priests of Bedlington. 
 
 Most of the Lindisfarne exiles now settled down in the 
 mountainous districts of Cumberland and Westmorland, 
 and a fifteenth-century tradition ascribes to this the dedi- 
 cation of many of the churches in the west there to St. 
 Cuthbert. The strange thing is that an English kingdom 
 (with its capital no doubt at Corbridge), continued to 
 survive north of the Tyne, where the population of North- 
 umberland preserved its distinctly English character. 
 King Ricsig was succeeded, in 876, by Egbert II. During 
 the reign of this, the last English King of Northumber- 
 land, St. Cuthbert is said to have appeared to Alfred the 
 Great, in Somersetshire, and to have assured him of a 
 speedy victory over the Danes, whose leaders, Halfdane 
 and Ingvar, were soon afterwards slain in a descent on 
 Devonshire. 
 
 The extinction of the Bernician kingdom in the person 
 of Egbert II. (878-879) coincides exactly with the appear- 
 ance, in Scottish tradition, of the great hero Grig, or 
 Gregory (879-889), who is said to have subdued the whole 
 of Bernicia and nearly all England, the England of the 
 Scots then consisting of the ancient Northumberland. The 
 fact that Bamburgh weathered the storm raging all around, 
 and survived as a stronghold of Northumbrian indepen- 
 dence, is largely due to the diplomacy of the High-Reeve
 
 92 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Aldulf, who played off Scot against Dane, and became 
 rather the ally than the vassal of the West Saxon. It 
 was probably their reluctance to accept the assistance of 
 the Scots, whom they regarded as schismatics, that 
 caused the precipitate flight of Erdwulf and his monks 
 from Lindisfarne. Their departure left Aldulf free in this 
 respect, and the issue proved that the shrine of St. 
 Cuthbert might, like the hand of St. Oswald, have 
 remained safe in Bamburgh all the time. 
 
 As it was, after seven years' wanderings, the shrine was 
 brought to the monastery of Craike, that occupied a 
 strong position about ten miles north of York. The 
 Danes, who were beginning to regularly colonize York- 
 shire, were without any recognised leader. Abbot Edred 
 of Carlisle came and told Bishop Erdwulf that he had had 
 a vision in which St. Cuthbert commanded him to repair 
 to the Danish army, and order them to ransom Guthred, 
 son of Hardicanute, a young Dane of royal descent, from 
 his captivity with a widow at Whittingham, and proclaim 
 him King, clasping a gold bracelet on his right arm, on 
 the hill of Oswi, by which Easington, in the county of 
 Durham, is probably meant. This they accordingly did, 
 in 884, and the shrine was then borne from ' Oswigesdune ' 
 to the old Roman fortress of Cunca-chester, or Chester- 
 le-Street, to which the see of St. Cuthbert was definitely 
 transferred from Lindisfarne. Out of gratitude for his 
 promotion, Guthred bestowed on Bishop Erdwulf and his 
 successors the land between the Wear, the Tyne, and the 
 Derwent the Durham Derwent of course and thus 
 formed an ecclesiastical buffer-state between his own 
 kingdom, with its capital at York, and the country beyond 
 the Tyne, which was more or less under Scottish protec- 
 tion. 
 
 With the consent of Alfred, the southern portion of the 
 ancient diocese of Hexham was now taken from the Arch- 
 bishop of York, and given to the Bishop of Chester-le- 
 Street, whose diocese, though it lineally represented that of 
 Lindisfarne, thus came far more to represent territorially
 
 The Kingdom : Corbridge. 93 
 
 that of Hexham. This transplantation of the bishopric 
 of Lindisfarne southwards is of itself sufficient evidence 
 of the great encroachments of the Scots. In the end 
 Guthred is said to have repulsed the Scots from the hill 
 of ' Mundingedene,' near Norham, when their army was 
 engulfed in one of the morasses that then abounded in that 
 district. 
 
 On the death of King Guthred in 894, the claims of his 
 sons were disregarded by Alfred. The disinherited 
 princes appear to have lapsed into heathendom, and on 
 reaching manhood to have established themselves as 
 roving vikings on the coast of Ireland. They soon 
 crossed over to ravage Cumberland. Erdwulf ' the prince ' 
 had been slain there by Edred, the heir of King Ricsig, 
 who had ridden over the hills from the east and 
 carried off his wife. Pursued by popular execration, 
 Edred sought the protection of St. Cuthbert, and was 
 located by Bishop Cutheard between the Wear and the 
 Derwent. His example was soon followed by Elfred, 
 the heir of the High- Reeve Bertwulf, slain at York in 
 867, who, flying from the Danish pirates, crossed the 
 mountains and settled on the sea-board of Durham. 
 Another fugitive, Tilred, Abbot of Heversham, bought 
 South Yoden (Little Eden, near Hartlepool), and gave 
 half of it to St. Cuthbert that he might be received 
 among the brethren at Chester-le-Street, and half to the 
 cell of Norham to be Abbot there. About the same time, 
 a priest named Berrard gave his estate of Willington, on 
 the north side of the Tyne, to be admitted into St. Cuth- 
 bert's Household, while Bishop Cutheard bought, no doubt 
 from the Danes, the township of Bedlington, between the 
 Blyth and the Wansbeck, with its dependencies of Neder- 
 ton (Netherton), Grubba (Gnbeon), Twisle, Cebbingtun 
 (Choppington), Sliceburne (Sleekburn), and Commes 
 (Cambois). 
 
 Soon after the death of Edwulf of Bamburgh in 912, 
 Reginald, King Guthred's eldest son, came with a great 
 fleet and seized the land of Edwulf s sen, Aldred, who was
 
 94 History of Northumberland. 
 
 as great an ally of Edward as his father had been of 
 Alfred. He marched thence to the royal city of Cor- 
 bridge. Aldred invoked the powerful assistance of Con- 
 stantine of Scotland. In the battle that ensued the Scots 
 were routed, and Aldred and his brother Uctred were the 
 only English leaders who escaped. St. Cuthbert's tenants, 
 Elfred and Edred, were both killed ; but the latter's sons, 
 Esbrid and Elstan, after fighting bravely, submitted to 
 Reginald in consideration of a grant of the lands their 
 father had held of Bishop Cutheard. The victory won by 
 the Scots at ' Tinemore,' possibly Tynemouthshire Moor, 
 in 918, when they displayed the crosier of St. Columba as 
 their standard, appears to have restored the rule of Aldred 
 over the country north of the Tyne. 
 
 Reginald succeeded in surprising York in 923, but on 
 the advan.ce of King Edward to Bakewell in the Peak in 
 the year following, all the combatants who were tearing 
 Northumberland in pieces made their submission to him, 
 Aldred of Bamburgh among the rest. The Northumbrians, 
 it should be noticed, were already divided into English, 
 Danes and Norwegians or Norsemen. Another roving 
 fit soon afterwards seized King Reginald, who perished, 
 with his sons and friends, at Chailles on the Loire in 925, 
 ' taking with him nothing he had robbed St. Cuthbert of, 
 except his sin.' His brother Sitric succeeded him on the 
 throne of York, and received in marriage a sister of King 
 Athelstan, but after a year's reign died mysteriously, 
 * accursed with hunger,' probably starved to death by his 
 brother-in-law. Athelstan at once seized the kingdom 
 for himself, driving out Sitric's sons, Guthfrith and 
 Anlaf. At York, he received from Harold Fairhair, King 
 of Norway, the present of a purple- sailed galley, accom- 
 panied by offers of armed assistance. That same year he 
 took the hitherto inviolate fortress of Bamburgh, ex- 
 pelling Aldred, who was glad, with the other Northern 
 chiefs, to make his peace at Dacre on the Eamont. 
 
 The government of Northumberland, we are told in the 
 invaluable ' Egilsaga ' (which has recently been translated
 
 The Kingdom : Cor bridge. 95 
 
 from the Icelandic by the Rev. W. C. Green), was en- 
 trusted by Athelstan to two earls named Alfgar and 
 Godric, who, on hearing of an invasion by the Scots 
 under the leadership of Anlaf the Red it is difficult to 
 distinguish the many Anlafs of the period advanced to 
 oppose him. Godric was killed ; Alfgar fled. On this, 
 two earls of Bretland (Cumbria), named Hrings and 
 Adils, went over to Anlaf, who encamped his host near a 
 ' burh ' called Vinheide, or Weondune, in all probability 
 the place now called Wendon, or Wandon, between 
 Chatton and Wooler, and accepted Athelstan's challenge 
 to a pitched battle on a field staked out with hazel-rods in 
 the flat between the great ' Vinwood ' (Chillingham Park 
 and Hebburn Wood) on one side, and a river (the Till) on 
 the other, a piece of history that was to be nearly 
 repeated in the case of Flodden. Athelstan's men, who 
 were comparatively few, set up a great array of tents on 
 the high ground where the distance between the wood 
 and the river was least, and staved off the day of battle 
 till the King had reached a 'burh ' (Bewick) at the south 
 end of the heath. At last Hrings and Adils made a 
 sudden dash forwards. Earl Alfgar and the Northumbrians 
 moved along the river bank to oppose Adils, but were 
 repulsed, and Alfgar, dreading a renewal of Athelstan's 
 indignation at his former defeat, fled past the southern 
 ' burh ' to escape by sea from the west coast. Adils 
 returned from the pursuit to attack the two Norse brothers, 
 Egil and Thorolf, who had engaged Hrings on the wood- 
 side. Hrings was, however, slain, and Adils forced to 
 take refuge in the wood at nightfall. The next day 
 Athelstan himself advanced next the river to meet Anlaf, 
 while Thorolf again kept to the higher ground near the 
 wood. Thorolf was pressing forward, hoping to outflank 
 Anlaf, when he was overpowered and slain by Adils and 
 his followers, who sprang suddenly out of the wood. His 
 death was speedily avenged by Egil, who had been lead- 
 ing Athelstan's vanguard. The Scottish earls took to 
 flight, and in the end Anlaf himself was slain. Athel-
 
 96 History of Northumberland. 
 
 stan's presence in Northumberland is best remembered 
 through the rhyming grant he is said to have made of 
 Roddam and Heddon to Paulan, possibly the early 
 possessor of Pallinsburn : 
 
 ' I Kyng Adelstan 
 giffs here to Paulan 
 Oddan and Roddan, 
 als gud and als fair, 
 as evyr thai myne war, 
 and thar to wytnes 
 Maid my Wiffe.' 
 
 Notwithstanding Athelstan's victorious compaign in 
 Scotland, King Constantine allied himself in 937 with 
 Anlaf, son of Sitric, who entered the Humber with six 
 hundred sail. The crushing defeat they experienced at 
 Brunanburh, wherever it was, has often been confused 
 with the battle of Wandon. Forgetful, however, of 
 Brunanburh, and undeterred by Eric Bloodaxe, son of 
 Harold Fairhair, who had been set over them as King, 
 the men of York called in Anlaf of Ireland. Anlaf 
 perished in the sack of the Church of St. Balthere at 
 Tyningham, while his followers on their way back to 
 York ravaged Lindisfarne with the sword. 
 
 After his re-conquest of Mercia, King Edmund received 
 the submission of Anlaf, son of Sitric, whom, on his 
 baptism, he made King of Northern England. In a few 
 months, the restless Northumbrians drove out Anlaf, and 
 Edmund stood sponsor at the confirmation of the young 
 King, Reginald II., son of Guthfrith. The next year, 
 however, Edmund was strong enough to seize the 
 Northumbrian crown for himself. 
 
 On Edmund's assassination, the Northumbrian Witan 
 swore fealty to his brother Edred, but revolting soon 
 afterwards, again raised Eric Bloodaxe to the throne. 
 Edred consequently harried all Northumberland, burning 
 even St. Wilfrid's minster at Ripon, and the Witan, aban- 
 doning Eric, made an entire submission. No sooner, 
 however, was Edred really gone, than Anlaf Cuaran
 
 The Kingdom : Corbridge. 97 
 
 appeared on the scene as a pretender, while Malcolm of 
 Scotland, the son of Donald, raided Teesdale, carrying 
 off the Norwegian settlers and their cattle. Anlaf Cuaran 
 was eventually driven out, and Eric Bloodaxe installed 
 for the third time at York. In 954 this last King of a 
 separate Northumberland perished on the wilds of Stain- 
 moor. The blow, struck by the hand of a son of Anlaf, 
 was directed by the crafty Oswulf, who appears to have 
 been the son and successor of Aldred of Bamburgh.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE E ARLDO M. 
 
 I ^HE Kingdom of Northumberland had become in 
 
 J_ its latter days so much of an alien institution that 
 its final overthrow must have been regarded at the time 
 in the light rather of a restoration than of a revolution. 
 Once again from the royal rock of Hamburgh, a prince of 
 the race, if not of the lineage of St. Oswald, ruled the 
 whole land between Forth and Humber provincial omnes 
 Northanhymbrorum. 
 
 Oswulf, it is true, purchased an increase of actual power 
 by the surrender of his rights as a feudatory prince. 
 He became the Viceroy of Edred, with the title of 
 Ealdorman or Earl, and since this acknowledgment of 
 the West Saxon monarchy took the form of a voluntary 
 commendation, the Earldom of Northumberland, accord- 
 ing to ideas then prevailing, became hereditary in his 
 family. 
 
 It was not long before the loss of Edinburgh threw 
 doubts on the loyalty or the capacity of the new Earl. 
 Still English in 957, the city was evacuated and occupied 
 by the Scots before 963. Three years later, the rule of 
 Oswulf was restricted by Edgar, the successor of Edred, 
 to the territory north of the Tyne. An Earldom of York 
 was bestowed on Oslac, and the sea-board of Deira from 
 the Tees, as far as Birdforth it would seem, or in other 
 words, the district of Cleveland, was entrusted to Edwulf,
 
 The Earldom. 99 
 
 surnamed Evilchild. The Bishop of Chester-le-Street 
 probably claimed jurisdiction between the Tees and the 
 Tyne. As might have been foreseen, this disintegration of 
 the ancient Northumberland, prudent as it may have been 
 in curbing the ambition of Oswulf, placed the whole 
 country at the mercy of the Scots, whose ravages extended 
 to Hartlepool and Cleveland. In their extremity, Bishop 
 Elsig and the two Earls of Deira conceived a scheme 
 that should buy off the Scots and at the same time still 
 further impair the authority of the distrusted Oswulf. 
 This was the cession of Lothian, or whatever was left 
 of Northumberland north of the Tweed. The Scottish 
 King, Kenneth, agreed to hold this of Edgar, and peace 
 was established on the Border for upwards of thirty 
 years. 
 
 The death of King Edgar was followed by a revulsion 
 of Northern policy. Oslac was banished from York, and 
 Northumberland from the Hurnber to the Tweed re- 
 united to form the earldom of Oswulf's successor, 
 Waltheof of Bamburgh. The sack of the old Bernician 
 capital by the Danes, led by Guistin and Guthmund, in 
 993, completely shattered Waltheof's power, which was 
 henceforth restricted to the north of the Tyne. Bishop 
 Aldhun, who removed the see of St. Cuthbert from 
 Chester-le-Street to Durham, app>ears to have taken this 
 opportunity for appointing a bailiff of his own to the rule 
 of Hexhamshire. 
 
 On the invasion of Northumberland by Malcolm, King 
 of Scots, in 1006, the feeble Waltheof, instead of attempt- 
 ing to meet the enemy in the field, shut himself up in 
 Bamburgh. His son Uctred, who had married Bishop 
 Aldhun's daughter, collected a force of Northumbrians 
 and Yorkshiremen, then for the first time clearly distin- 
 guished from each other, and gallantly raised the siege of 
 Durham. On hearing of this exploit, King Ethelred con- 
 ferred on Uctred not only the Northumbrian Earldom of 
 his superannuated father, but also that of York, which 
 had just fallen vacant. Upon this advancement, the
 
 ioo History of Northumberland. 
 
 young Earl repudiated Ecgive, the Bishop's daughter, 
 and took to wife Sigen, whose father Styr, a rich noble, 
 bargained that his son-in-law was to slay Thurbrand the 
 Hold, his mortal enemy. 
 
 Uctred followed up his rout of the Scots from before 
 Durham with other successes. There is every reason to 
 believe that he recovered the greater part of Lothian, as, 
 like his predecessor Oswulf, he held, we are told, the 
 Earldom of all the provinces of the Northumbrians 
 comitatum omnium Northanhymbrorum provinciarum. His 
 glory attained its zenith when, the Countess Sigen dead 
 or not, he received for third wife Elgeve, the daughter of 
 his sovereign Ethelred. 
 
 Returning from a foray into Cumberland in 1013, 
 Uctred was overtaken at Brough-under-Stainmoor and 
 eased of his booty by the Scots. Three years later, with 
 the connivance of King Canute, he was treacherously 
 murdered by Thurbrand, the very man he had bound him- 
 self to kill by the weird settlement made on his second 
 marriage. 
 
 Uctred's brother Edwulf Cudel, the next Earl, placed in 
 jeopardy between Canute on the one side and the Scots 
 on the other, deemed it prudent to come to terms with 
 the latter by giving them back the whole of Lothian. 
 The church of Durham seemed likely to lose its vast 
 estates beyond the Tweed ; and in September, 1018, the 
 people of St. Cuthbert living between that river and the 
 Tees were led north by the clergy for the vindication of 
 their rights. At Carham they were encountered by 
 Malcolm and his vassal, Owen the Bald, the ruler of 
 Lothian. No less than eighteen priests fell with the 
 leading Northumbrians in the panic that ensued a 
 panic heightened by the fears inspired by the appearance 
 of a comet for thirty nights previously. 
 
 The news of this disaster broke the heart of Bishop 
 Aldhun. Earl Edwulf did not long survive him. The 
 latter's nephew, Aldred, son of Uctred, inherited the 
 Earldom of Northumberland only solius Northumbrice
 
 The Earldom. 101 
 
 comitatum. This is perhaps the earliest instance in which 
 the name of the ancient monarchy that stretched north- 
 wards from the Humber is restricted to the area, more 
 or less, of the modern county of Northumberland. 
 
 Earl Aldred avenged the murder of his father Uctred 
 by slaying Thurbrand the Hold, who therefore probably 
 dwelt to the north of the Tyne. The blood-feud was 
 taken up by Thurbrand's son Carl. He and Aldred laid 
 wait for one another, Carl possibly supported by Siward 
 the Dane, who seems to have been invested by Canute 
 with the Earldom of York, if not of all Northumberland, 
 in about 1023. The wandering minstrel Othere the 
 Black apostrophized Canute in the lines (translated by 
 Vigfusson and Powell) : 
 
 ' Young King, thou madest the English fall near the Tees ; 
 The dyke of the Northumbrians flowed deep over the bodies of the 
 dead.' 
 
 It was not, however, until his return from a pilgrimage to 
 Rome, in 1031, that Canute gave his full attention to the 
 affairs of the Far North. He advanced in the first in- 
 stance against Cumberland, then held by Duncan, grand- 
 son of King Malcolm through his daughter Beatrice. 
 Duncan, like Earl Uctred, had refused to do homage to 
 a Danish usurper. The mediation of certain bishops 
 and elders led him to give way. It is probable that it 
 was at this time that he received in marriage the sister 
 or other near relation of Siward, whose dowry consisted 
 of twelve towns in England. These may reasonably be 
 identified with the Twelve Towns of South Tindale : Kirk- 
 haugh, Knaresdale, Thirlwall, Wall Town, Haltwhistle, 
 Plenmellor, Melkridge, Ridley, Thorngrafton, Whitfield, 
 Ouston, and Elrington. It is curious to notice that the 
 towns of Blenkinsop, Wyden, Featherston, and Lambley 
 were not included in this grant, while Elrington formed 
 an enclave separated from the rest by the territory of 
 Langley. 
 
 This extension of the sphere of Scottish influence to
 
 IO2 History of Northumberland. 
 
 within a few miles of Hexham was followed there by a 
 great revival of English national feeling, that found 
 expression in the cult paid to the local saints. The 
 church of Hexham had been given by Bishop Edmund 
 to Alured, sacrist of Durham, and was served by two 
 vicars named Gamel. A ' dregn/ or one of the lesser 
 nobles of Hexhamshire, declared that St. Alcmund, the 
 Bishop who died in 781, had appeared and bidden him 
 tell Alured that he was to translate his body, which lay 
 buried near the cross of St. Acca against the east wall of 
 the church, to a worthy shrine in the interior. The relics 
 were found at three o'clock in the afternoon of July 31, 
 and, as it was then too late to celebrate Mass, they were 
 deposited for the night in St. Peter's porch. Alured, 
 a keen relic-hunter, took this opportunity to abstract a 
 portion of a finger to carry back to Durham. All the 
 next day it was found impossible to lift the chest con- 
 taining the sacred bones. * What ? Would ye bear me 
 into the church with my limbs mangled,' demanded St. 
 Alcmund of the dregn that night, ' that, thus mutilated, 
 I should wait on St. Andrew and his altar, which I served 
 so long with a whole body and a sound mind ?' On the 
 third day Alured humbly restored the missing fragment ; 
 the chest was then easily raised, and borne solemnly into 
 the basilica. 
 
 Perhaps it was this wild religious revival that led 
 Aldred and Carl to lay aside their animosities and start 
 together on a pilgrimage to Rome. A great storm pre- 
 vented them embarking, and, taking this as a warning to 
 defer their journey, they returned to Carl's house, possibly 
 to Charlton, on North Tyne. The Earl was honourably 
 entertained, and Carl made a point of ' setting ' his guest 
 on the way to Bamburgh. As they were passing through 
 Risewood, perhaps the wooded valley of the Riseburn in 
 Redesdale, the old hate seized Carl, who turned and slew 
 Aldred at a spot still marked in the twelfth century by a 
 small stone cross. 
 
 The pride of Aldred's brother and successor, Earl
 
 The Earldom. 10; 
 
 Edwulf, is said to have caused him to terribly spoil the 
 ' Britons,' possibly the Celtic population of North Tyne, 
 as the words scarcely imply an invasion of Cumberland, 
 or other Scottish district. It was in revenge for this per- 
 secution, no doubt, that Duncan, King of Scots, marched 
 into Northumberland in 1040. He laid siege to Durham, 
 but was signally repulsed. 
 
 In 1041, desirous of being reconciled to Hardicanute, 
 Earl Edwulf presented himself at his court. In spite 
 of the safe-conduct he had received, he was betrayed 
 into the hands of Siward, who slew him as Thurbrand 
 slew his father, Uctred. Siward now expected to enjoy 
 undisputed sway in the Earldom of the whole province of 
 the Northumbrians, from the Humber to the Tweed 
 totius provincia N orthanhymbrorum comitatuin ab Humbra 
 usque Tuedam; but two years later he was compelled to 
 assert his authority by force, laying waste the province 
 in his charge. Again, in 1054, when he invaded Scotland 
 by sea and land, and had succeeded in putting Duncan's 
 grandson, Malcolm, in possession of Cumberland and 
 Lothian, he was recalled from Dundee by the news of a 
 Northumbrian insurrection, and the massacre of his 
 son, Osbern Bullaxe, with his house-carls. The degrada- 
 tion of Bamburgh was now completed by the theft of the 
 right arm of St. Oswald by Winegot, an enterprising monk 
 of Peterborough, who, having mastered the ins and outs 
 of the ruined church, found a favourable opportunity for 
 abstracting the royal relic from its shrine. 
 
 In recounting this pious theft, Reginald of Durham 
 breaks out into a patriotic lament over the fallen fortunes 
 of the Northern capital, translated probably from some 
 ancient poem. * The city,' he says, ' renowned for the 
 splendour of her high estate, is in these latter days 
 burdened with tribute, and reduced to the condition 
 of a handmaiden. She, who was once the mistress of 
 the cities of Britain, domino, civitatum Britonensium, has 
 exchanged the glories of her sabbaths for shame and 
 desolation. The crowds that flocked to her festivals are
 
 IO4 History of Northumberland. 
 
 represented by a few herdsmen. The pleasures her 
 dignity afforded are turned to naught.' 
 
 Siward endeavoured to render his rule popular in 
 Northumberland by marrying the daughter of Earl 
 Aldred. In 1055, he died on his bed at York, clad in 
 the armour he insisted on resuming. His son Waltheof 
 was a child of six or seven, so the Earldom was conferred 
 by Edward the Confessor on Tostig, son of Earl Godwin, 
 and brother of Harold. 
 
 Malcolm, King of Scots, took advantage of Tostig's 
 absence on a pilgrimage to Rome, in 1061, to ravage 
 Lindisfarne. The Earl's rule was very unpopular. In 
 1065 a monk named Edward had a vision, in which St. 
 Oswin, the royal martyr of Deira, bade him raise his 
 body that was buried at Tynemouth, and place it in a 
 shrine in the church. Tostig refused to lend his assist- 
 ance; but his countess, Judith, daughter of Baldwin of 
 Flanders, begged Bishop Egelwin, who was going to the 
 translation, to bring her one of the saint's hairs. The 
 body was found with some difficulty, and the Countess 
 of Northumberland satisfied herself of its authenticity by 
 testing the incombustible nature of the hair brought her 
 on the great hearth of the palace. Tostig had a residence 
 at ' Tynemutheham,' which was the scene of many of 
 those drunken bouts that the English delighted in. < 
 Returning intoxicated from one of them, the Earl's 
 favourite chaplain did not scruple to prolong his debauch 
 within the walls of the very church. 
 
 The anger of St. Oswin was kindled against Tostig, 
 and the anger of a popular saint was a dangerous force in 
 politics. In the autumn came the crisis : three Northum- 
 brian thanes, Gamelbearn, Dunstan, son of Ethelnoth, 
 and Glonicorn, son of Erdwulf, surprised York, and 
 butchered Tostig's Danish house-carls. They declared 
 the Earl outlawed for his oppressive laws, and obtained 
 the Confessor's consent to the appointment of Morkere, 
 brother of Edwin of Mercia, in his stead. It was agreed 
 or implied that Oswulf of Bamburgh, the son of Earl
 
 The Earldom. 105 
 
 Edwulf, should be the actual ruler of the country north 
 of the Tyne. 
 
 Alone among all the great nobles of the North, Oswulf 
 of Bamburgh bowed not the knee to the Norman Con- 
 queror. His Earldom was consequently given to Copsig, 
 who had acted for a time as Tostig's lieutenant. Oswulf 
 fled to the hills and woods, gathering round him a band 
 of followers reduced to the same extremities as himself. 
 A great feast was spread at Newburn on March 12, 1067, 
 to welcome Earl Copsig across the Tyne. Suddenly the 
 house of the revellers was surrounded by Oswulf and his 
 friends. Copsig escaped to the church, but this was set 
 on fire, and on his making to the door, Oswulf struck off 
 his head. A few months later, Oswulf himself was killed 
 by a robber whom he was pursuing, and in this obscure 
 encounter the male line of the great House of Bamburgh 
 came to an end. 
 
 According to the strict principles of hereditary suc- 
 cession, Waltheof, son of Siward by Elfleda, grand- 
 daughter of Uctred by his first wife, should have now 
 been Earl ; but Gospatric, son of Maldred by Algitha, 
 daughter of Uctred by his third wife, purchased the rule 
 of Northumberland from the Conqueror for a large sum 
 of money. The next year, however, Gospatric took the 
 lead in a general movement against the Normans in the 
 North, and on its collapse withdrew with Edgar Etheling 
 into Scotland. William entered York in triumph, and 
 received from Ethelwin, Bishop of Durham, the sub- 
 mission of Malcolm of Scotland. He now thought 
 himself strong enough to confer the Earldom of North- 
 umberland north of the Tyne on one of his own followers, 
 Robert de Comines. The new Earl and his Norman 
 knights were, however, massacred in passing through 
 Durham. 
 
 In the autumn of 1069, a great Danish fleet arrived 
 in the Humber, and Edgar Etheling, Earl Gospatric, 
 Waltheof, son of Siward, and the leading men of North- 
 umberland, hastened to join the invaders in carrying
 
 io6 History of Northumberland. 
 
 York by storm. This revolt, however, also collapsed in 
 the usual way of English attempts at resistance. The 
 Conqueror retook York, and marched north, devastating 
 the whole country. By the advice of Gospatric, Bishop 
 Ethelwin and his canons fled from Durham, taking with 
 them the body of St. Cuthbert. The first night of their 
 flight they spent at Jarrow, the second at Bedlington. 
 On December 13 they reached Tughall, the property of 
 a rich man named Gillomichael, who had boasted to 
 one of the Tods, the hereditary priests of Bedlington, 
 how he would worthily receive the saint in his hall hung 
 round with golden shields. Instead of this, as Tod had 
 half expected, the Family of St. Cuthbert with the 
 shrine were relegated by Gillomichael to his barn, while 
 he himself passed the night drinking with his friends out 
 of jewelled cups of gold. On their way to Lindisfarne 
 the next morning, the Bishop and clergy had the satis- 
 faction to see the inhospitable homestead consumed by 
 fire, with the exception of a portion of the barn. 
 
 Gospatric had taken advantage of the desertion of the 
 cathedral to carry off the treasures of Durham. A terrible 
 vision, related to him at Bamburgh, by the monk Ernan, 
 described the torments which Gillomichael, just dead, 
 suffered already, and which were in store for him, should 
 he not repent. He accordingly set out on a pilgrimage 
 barefoot over the sands to Holy Island. 
 
 Meanwhile William, having burnt the church of 
 Jarrow, marched up the Tyne to Hexham, laying every- 
 thing waste before him. Alarmed at his approach, the 
 English broke up their camp on Lindisfarne, and fled 
 across the Tweed by night. William pursued them to 
 the banks of that river, and spent a fortnight in negotia- 
 tions on the very Border. Having received the submis- 
 sion of Gospatric, who, however, did not venture in 
 person into his presence, he returned to Hexham by a 
 still wilder route, which no army had yet been known to 
 traverse. From Hexham he marched back to York. 
 The whole country from the Humber to the Tweed was
 
 The Earldom. 107 
 
 turned by this terrible harrying into a desert, given over to 
 wolves and robbers. York, Durham, and Bamburgh were 
 the only inhabited towns left. For nine years all culti- 
 vation ceased. 
 
 In April, 1070, the shrine of St. Cuthbert was taken back 
 to Durham; but sentence of outlawry was passed on Bishop 
 Ethelwin, who escaped to Scotland with all the treasures 
 of the church that he could readily seize. Soon after 
 this, Malcolm, issuing from Cumberland, advanced down 
 Teesdale into Cleveland, destroying everything that had 
 escaped the Normans. As if to prove the sincerity of 
 his renewed allegiance to William, Earl Gospatric pro- 
 fited by Malcolm's expedition to lead a foray into 
 Cumberland, and returned in triumph with much booty 
 to Bamburgh. On hearing of this, Malcolm swore that 
 henceforth death or slavery should be the only choice left 
 to the English. The most frightful outrages were com- 
 mitted, and Scotland was filled with English captives. 
 One youth, immured by Malcolm in the Black Hole of 
 Berwick, attributed his escape to Norham to the inter- 
 vention of St. Cuthbert. Fortunately, the marriage of 
 Malcolm to Margaret, sister of Edgar Etheling, entirely 
 changed the position of the English in Scotland. 
 
 In August, Thomas of Bayeux was consecrated Arch- 
 bishop of York, and as the whole of Hexhamshire lay 
 waste without a husbandman, the bailiff, Uctred, son of 
 Ulfkill, came to him and represented that he might easily 
 take possession of it, especially during the vacancy of the 
 see of Durham, as the successor of St. Wilfrid, the founder 
 of the lapsed monastery. This the Archbishop accord- 
 ingly did. The church of Hexham was restored about 
 the same time by Eilaf, the hereditary priest. 
 
 A new Bishop of Durham was appointed in 1071 in 
 the person of Walcher of Lorraine. The Conqueror 
 assembled a great fleet and army to avenge the cruelties 
 of the Scots. Crossing the Tweed, and advancing unop- 
 posed through Lothian and Calatria, he compelled Mal- 
 colm to do homage to him as feudal lord of Scotland at
 
 io8 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Abernethy on the Tay. On his march south he found the 
 Tyne so high that it was impossible to ford it, and there 
 was no bridge. He pitched his tents near ' Monec- 
 cestre,' as the old Roman fort of Pons ^Elius, now New- 
 castle, was then called, and waited for the water to fall. 
 Provisions ran short ; fodder was urgently required for 
 the horses. A band of scouts was sent to pillage the 
 monastery of Tynemouth, to which all the stores of the 
 district had been removed. By the time, however, their 
 leader, a distinguished knight named Robert, caught sight 
 of the church-tower, he had acquainted himself with the 
 terrible fate of those who violated St. Oswin's peace, and 
 forbade any further advance. Nevertheless, some of his 
 soldiery helped themselves to the forbidden forage. The 
 horses, on eating it, were seized with a kind of madness. 
 Robert's favourite charger was among those affected, but 
 on his offering his best cloak at St. Oswin's shrine, it at 
 once recovered. 
 
 For some reason William now determined to remove 
 Gospatric from the Earldom. He had been pardoned for 
 the part he took in the storm of York, so an older charge 
 of connivance in the murder of Cumin at Durham was 
 raked up against him. He thought it prudent to with- 
 draw to Scotland, where Malcolm granted him the lands 
 of Dunbar. Northumberland was now confided to 
 Siward's son Waltheof. The old blood-feud with the 
 race of Thurbrand the Hold proved too strong even for 
 the saintly character of the young Earl, and he had the 
 sons of Carl, his recent comrades in arms, put to the 
 sword as they were feasting at Settrington, near York. 
 
 The closest friendship subsisted between Waltheof and 
 Walcher. The Earl sat in the synod, with his three 
 knights, Alwin, Wulstan, and Kenulf, and carried out in 
 his county whatever the Bishop deemed good for the 
 advancement of Christianity. In 1073 Aldwin of Winch- 
 combe and two Benedictines from Evesham came to 
 York, and obtained from Waltheof's sheriff, Hugh, son 
 of Baldric, a guide to ' Munechecester ' (Newcastle),
 
 The Earldom. 109 
 
 but finding no traces of monks there, yielded to Bishop 
 Walcher's wish that they should settle in his own terri- 
 tory at Jarrow. As ' Earl of all Northumberland,' 
 Waltheof gave to Prior Aldwin and the brotherhood of 
 Jarrow the church of Tynemouth, with the body of St. 
 Oswin. He entrusted them also with the monastic 
 education of his young cousin, Morkere, who was taken 
 by boat to Tynemouth. In an unguarded moment Wal- 
 theof joined the conspiracy formed against the Conqueror 
 at the bride-ale of Exning, in Cambridgeshire, and, in 
 spite of his instant confession and apparent pardon, was 
 beheaded near Winchester on May 31, 1076. 
 
 The experiment of governing Northumberland through 
 native princes having failed, it was next attempted to rule 
 it under the sanction of the Church, and Bishop Walcher 
 was advanced to the Earldom ; while the franchise of 
 Redesdale, that had belonged to Maldred, son of Akman, 
 was given to Robert de Umfraville, with the charge to free 
 it from the wolves and robbers who had infested Northum- 
 berland since the harrying of 1070. With Umfraville, 
 better known as Robert-with-the-Beard, came Gilbert de 
 Batail, who received from him a grant of Fawdon and 
 Netherton, and Robert de Montnytt, who built a manor- 
 house at Reveley and founded the church of St. Mary 
 at Ingram. The English element continued, however, 
 to predominate over the Norman in the councils of the 
 Earl- Bishop, his chief adviser being Liulf, who had married 
 Waltheof's aunt. 
 
 A third invasion of Northumberland by Malcolm, in 
 the summer of 1079, appears to have been a mere raid, 
 devoid of political significance. The inhabitants of Hex- 
 ham, trembling at the approach of the Scots, were com- 
 forted by the report that St. Wilfrid had hastened on 
 horseback from his tomb to their assistance, and that 
 in passing Durham he had been joined in this aerial ride 
 by St. Cuthbert The Tyne suddenly rose in the night, 
 and the Scots, losing their way in one of their own mists, 
 left Hexham unmolested. The murder of Liulf, through
 
 no History of Northumberland. 
 
 Norman jealousy, led to the massacre of Walcher and 
 his followers at a tumultuous assembly of men from 
 beyond the Tyne, held at Gateshead in May, 1080. 
 
 A prelate of very different mould, Odo of Bayeux, the 
 Conqueror's brother, was commissioned to avenge the 
 death of Walcher. This he did in the most relentless 
 manner, laying the whole land again desolate. Nor were 
 the offences of Malcolm overlooked ; but the expedition 
 that William's eldest son, Robert, led as far north as 
 Falkirk was destined to be principally memorable from 
 the fact of his founding the New Castle upon the Tyne 
 during his homeward march. 
 
 The real conquest of Northumberland by the Normans 
 now began. Gilbert Tison, said to have been William's 
 standard-bearer at Hastings, acquired the vast estates 
 that centuries of history had grouped into the barony of 
 Alnwick. William de Merlay, said to have been also at 
 Hastings, under the banner of Geoffrey, Bishop of Cou- 
 tances, received Morpeth and Morwick, which latter he 
 gave to St. Cuthbert ; Hugh de Laval settled at Calverdon 
 (Callerton) ; a Bertram obtained Mitford, and a Burum, 
 Bolam. The small fiefs of Dilston and Chevington were 
 held by knights of English origin, while the thanes of 
 Halton, Callaley, Hepple and Roddam retained those 
 manors and their dependencies by a less honorable tenure. 
 Throckley, Whittingham, Eslington, Beadnel, Mousen, 
 Roddam and the three Middletons, remained in the hands 
 of smaller native proprietors. At Bamburgh, the gate- 
 keeper, Canute, had his office made hereditary, while the 
 tenants of Callaley and Yetlington were to cart thither 
 the trunk of a tree for the King's hearth, every other 
 day, between Whitsuntide and Lammas. 
 
 A certain Alberic, perhaps an Aubrey de Vere, was 
 made Earl of Northumberland. He confirmed the monks 
 of Jarrow in their possession of Tynemouth, and aided 
 in transferring them to Durham. The activity of these 
 Benedictines was exhibited in the foundation of a new 
 church on Holy Island in 1082. Three years later
 
 The Earldom. 1 1 1 
 
 Alberic fell into disgrace, probably on account of diffi- 
 culties with Scotland. Setting out for the East, with 
 the wild idea of becoming lord of Greece, he was glad on 
 his return to Normandy to gain the hand of a rich lady 
 named Graecia. 
 
 On Alberic's disgrace, the government of Northumber- 
 land was entrusted to Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances. 
 Geoffrey and his nephew, Robert de Mowbray, joined 
 William of St. Carilef, Bishop of Durham, in supporting 
 Robert of Normandy against William Rufus. A local 
 dispute subsequently arose between the two bishops. 
 William de Merlay appeared before the council of the 
 Red King, complaining that the men of the Bishop of 
 Durham, in his castle, had taken from his lord of Cou- 
 tances two hundred cattle that were under the King's safe- 
 conduct, and refused to restore them. 
 
 Bishop Geoffrey appears to have resigned the Earldom 
 in favour of his nephew Robert, who, mindful no doubt of 
 the cattle-lifting feud with St. Carilef, sent his servants, 
 Gumer and Robert Taca, to drive Prior Turchil and the 
 monks of Durham from Tynemouth, and to replace them 
 with Benedictines from St. Albans. The vast extent of 
 the estates still vested in the Earldom in Mowbray's time 
 appears from his grants to Tynemouth of Amble, Wylam, 
 and Coquet Island, together with the tithes of Newburn, 
 Ovingham, Bywell St. Peter, Bothal, and Woodhorn. 
 After a time Mowbray and St. Carilef became good friends, 
 possibly in consequence of their common antipathy to 
 Rufus, and agreed to an amicable partition of the manor 
 of Ros, claimed both by Bamburgh and Lindisfarne. 
 
 In May, 1091, Malcolm, King of Scots, invaded North- 
 umberland for the fourth time. Intending to advance 
 into the heart of England, he pitched his camp at Chester- 
 le-Street, while the ravages of his followers extended up 
 to the city of Durham, which, with the Norman camp 
 immediately south of it, was reduced to the extremes 
 of want. Led by Nigel de Albini, the good men to whom 
 the keeping of the land was entrusted succeeded at last
 
 H2 History of Northumberland. 
 
 in dislodging the Scots and driving them over the Border. 
 The dearth of provisions at Newcastle was keenly felt by 
 the victors, and they were constrained to turn aside to 
 Tynemouth, which, enjoying the Peace of St. Oswin, was 
 the great storehouse of the whole country. At their 
 approach the monks came out to meet them in the gate- 
 way, bearing the shrine of St. Oswin, and charging them 
 to respect his patrimony. Nigel de Wast, a near rela- 
 tion and great friend of Albini, paid the saint military 
 honours, and, turning his horse round, was in the act of 
 audibly vowing that he would not eat of the plunder till he 
 was assured of his forgiveness, when a less scrupulous 
 knight cannoned into his horse, and sent both it and its 
 rider over the steep cliff. In miraculous fashion both 
 escaped unhurt. 
 
 The following autumn. Rufus himself, accompanied by 
 his brother Robert, set out on an expedition to Scotland. 
 Fifty of his corn-ships from the South of England put 
 into the Tyne about Michaelmas. Their crews were 
 accused of plundering the neighbourhood, and the ven- 
 geance of St. Oswin was discerned when most of the 
 vessels were lost with all hands in a sudden squall off 
 Coquet Island. Malcolm had defiantly advanced out of 
 Scotland into Lothian to meet William, but the 'Scotte 
 Watra,' a great river (probably the Tweed) was in flood, 
 and the two armies were drawn up on the opposite banks. 
 Through the strange mediation of Edgar Etheling and 
 Robert of Normandy, a peace was concluded, the chief 
 conditions being that Malcolm should do homage for 
 Lothian, and that he should receive twelve towns in 
 England, no doubt the Twelve Towns of South Tyndale 
 which his grandfather Duncan had received as the dowry 
 of his Danish bride. 
 
 The next thing, however, was for Rufus to seize on 
 Cumberland, driving out Dolfin, and rebuilding Carlisle. 
 Malcolm, who assisted in laying the foundation of the 
 present cathedral of Durham on August n, 1093, pro- 
 ceeded, in company with the bishop, William of St.
 
 The Earldom. 113 
 
 Carilef, to the English court at Gloucester. Rufus wished 
 to refer the matters in dispute to his own council in 
 England, whereas Malcolm's contention, that they could 
 only be determined by men of both kingdoms on the 
 marches, is evidence that the Border Laws were already 
 in existence. In angry mood, the Scottish King re- 
 turned home, and invading Northumberland for the fifth 
 time, was met on the banks of the Aln by Morel of 
 Bamburgh and Gilbert de Gulevant. In a battle, fought 
 on St. Brice's Day, November 13, Malcolm himself was 
 slain with 3,000 of his lieges. His eldest son, Edward, 
 died of his wounds in the forest of Jedburgh, and both 
 their bodies were conveyed to Tynemouth for burial. 
 
 Morel, who was the nephew of Earl Robert de Mowbray, 
 and Sheriff of Northumberland, soon afterwards seized on 
 the cargoes of four Norwegian vessels and refused to 
 restore them ; while the Earl, his uncle, elated with the 
 defeat of Malcolm, paid no regard to a thrice-repeated 
 summons to the Red King's court in the spring of 1095. 
 William marched north to chastise the rebel. The castle 
 of Tynemouth, then the strongest on the Tyne, was taken 
 after a siege of two months, and apparently dismantled. 
 The fortress of Newcastle and the Merlay stronghold at 
 Morpeth were secured without much difficulty. William 
 did much to strengthen the former, and is even said to 
 have enclosed the town that had grown up around it with 
 a wall. Earl Robert himself had taken refuge in impreg- 
 nable Bamburgh, with his young bride, Matilda de Laigle. 
 Finding it impossible to carry the castle by storm, William 
 began building in front of it a wooden fort, called a Mal- 
 voisin, or ' Bad Neighbour.' He compelled the leaders of 
 his army to assist the rank and file in pushing on the work. 
 Dismayed at the progress it made, Mowbray called loudly 
 from the ramparts of Bamburgh to the noble labourers 
 who had sworn to join his rising, addressing each by 
 name, and bidding him not be forgetful of his oath. 
 These taunts of despair, and the fear and shame they en- 
 gendered, contributed greatly to the amusement of Rufus 
 
 8
 
 H4 History of Northumberland. 
 
 and those really loyal to him. At length, weary of the 
 protracted siege, the King returned to the South of 
 England, leaving Bamburgh to be watched by the 
 garrison of the Malvoisin. 
 
 Provisions were beginning to run short in the castle, 
 and Mowbray's spirits were depressed by the close 
 blockade, when a secret message reached him from the 
 warders of Newcastle, promising to throw open the gates 
 if he appeared suddenly before it. Only too delighted 
 with this prospect of retrieving his fortunes, the Earl 
 slipped out of the postern one night, and, going on board 
 a small ship, was carried by a favourable wind down the 
 coast to Tynemouth, the monks of which were still 
 grateful for the favours he had bestowed on their house. 
 The garrison of the Malvoisin, hearing of his escape, set 
 out in pursuit, and warned the captains of Newcastle. 
 Mowbray made his attempt on Newcastle on a Sunday, 
 but the treacherous warders had been replaced, and he 
 was fortunate in being able to make his way back to 
 Tynemouth. After a gallant defence of the monastery, 
 inside the castle there, for two days, he was taken prisoner 
 and conveyed to Durham. Bamburgh continued to hold 
 out, under the brave Countess of Northumberland and 
 Morel, the Sheriff, until the King, having returned from 
 Wales in November, ordered Mowbray to be led before 
 the castle, with the menace that both his eyes should be 
 gouged out unless it instantly submitted. A wife and a 
 nephew chose the latter alternative, but the preservation 
 of his eye-sight could have been of little use to the Earl 
 in the lifelong imprisonment to which he was con- 
 demned. 
 
 The Earldom of Northumberland was now suppressed. 
 Liulf of Bamburgh, an Englishman, was made Sheriff in 
 the room of Morel. The estates of the Earldom were 
 taken for the King's use, and many of them granted to 
 the barons who had assisted in Mowbray's overthrow. 
 The barony of Bywell, comprising St. Peter's parish there, 
 was conferred on the Balliols, as also probably the manor
 
 T/ie Earldom. 1 1 5 
 
 of Bothal, which seems to have passed from them by 
 marriage to the Bertrams. By the scheme formulated by 
 Rufus for the defence of his castle of Newcastle, the Balliols 
 were to furnish thirty men for its ward, and eleven other 
 barons, the grantees of Carham, Bolam, Callerton, 
 Whalton, Ellingham, Hadston, Bothal, Dilston, Gosforth, 
 Styford, and Morpeth, twenty-six. Besides this, these 
 same barons, with the exception of those of Morpeth and 
 Bolam, were bound to each keep up a house in the castle, 
 the reason for these exceptions probably being that the 
 barons of Morpeth and Bolam had already small castles 
 of their own. The cornage, to the payment of which 
 they were all subject, and which has begotten a whole 
 tribe of wild theories, ancient and modern, was probably 
 nothing more than an old crown-rent. 
 
 Scotland, after the death of Malcolm Canmore on the 
 Aln, had been rent with civil wars, but in 1098 Edgar 
 Etheling, marching under the banner of St. Cuthbert, 
 and aided by the brave English captain, Robert, son of 
 Godwin, succeeded in placing his nephew, Malcolm's son 
 Edgar, on the throne. Grateful for the assistance of the 
 church of Durham, Edgar founded Coldingham as a cell 
 of the monastery, and gave Berwick to the bishop. In 
 1099, however, Ralph Flambard, who had succeeded 
 William of St. Carilef in the see, sallied out and destroyed 
 a castle that Robert, son of Godwin, was building near 
 Berwick, whereupon Edgar resumed possession of the 
 town. Flambard's grant of Allerden and Haliwarstell to 
 the monks of Durham is a curious specimen of the 
 English then spoken : 
 
 ' Ralf biscop greteth well alle his theines and drenges 
 of Ealondscire and of Norhamscire. Wite ye that ice 
 habbe getythed (given) Ste. Cuhtberht that lond in 
 Elredene. and all that thaerto belimpeth (belongeth) 
 claene and clacles (strifeless) and Haliwarestelle. ic habbe 
 getythed Ste. Cuhtberht his agen (own) into his cyrce. 
 and hua soa braues (whoso spoils) thisses breve (brief).
 
 1 1 6 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Crist hine (Christ him spoil) thisses lives hele (health) 
 and heofne rices mirde (mirth).' 
 
 Henry I.'s alienations of the crown lands in Northum- 
 berland were very extensive. Gospatric, Earl of Dunbar, 
 received the barony of Beanley, to be held by the grand- 
 serjeantry of being, as it were, hereditary mediator 
 between the Kings of England and Scotland ; Nicholas 
 de Grainvill obtained the barony of Ellingham ; Robert 
 de Muschamps, that of Wooler ; Hugh de Bolbec, Styford ; 
 Avenel de Bradford, Bradford ; Robert de Umfraville, 
 Prudhoe ; Ralph of Worcester, Hadston ; Walter Espec, 
 the justiciary, Carham ; Siward, Gosforth ; ' Odard, son 
 and successor of Liulf in the shrievalty, Embleton ; and 
 Eustace-fitz-John, lord of Alnwick, Budle and Spindles- 
 ton. The priory of Tynemouth had a grant of Graffard's 
 land and services, which comprised Monk's Seaton, 
 Whitley and Shields, and a confirmation of the two halves 
 of Eglingham that had been given to it by Winuth the 
 Fisher. During the early part of the reign (1100-1118), 
 and probably before Henry's grants of Carham and 
 Beanley, his queen, Matilda, as Regent of England 
 during his absence in Normandy, had bestowed the 
 church of Carham on Durham, and Archimill's estate 
 of Bewick on Tynemouth. Nigel de Albini was com- 
 manded by her to demand the restitution to Bishop 
 Flambard of the lands Robert de Muschamps had 
 occupied in contravention of the partition of Ros made 
 by Robert de Mowbray and William of St. Carilef. 
 
 In 1120 Lothian was definitely taken away from the 
 spiritual rule of Durham, and made subject to the see of 
 Glasgow. As if in dread of losing also his temporal 
 possessions in the North, Bishop Flambard founded the 
 castle of Norham in the following year. The same dis- 
 trust of the Scots probably led Henry I. to undertake 
 a personal survey of Northumberland in 1122. Two old 
 monks of St. Evroud, in Normandy, who followed him to 
 present their newly-chosen Abbot, found the roads of 
 Northumberland in their normal state of wretched repair.
 
 The Earldom. 117 
 
 Henry proceeded to Carlisle, and apparently built there 
 the first Norman keep on the Border. Various improve- 
 ments were carried out at Hamburgh about 1130, under 
 the direction of the master-mason Osbert. In his Honour 
 of Carham, Walter Espec built a castle of great strength 
 on a steep ridge, or kaim, some 60 feet above the Tweed. 
 This received from the country-people the name of Werch, 
 or Wark, it having been the great work at which they 
 were compelled to assist. If Espec's fellow justice- 
 itinerant, Eustace-fitz-John, who married Beatrice de 
 Vesci, the heiress of Alnwick, did not actually found the 
 castle there, he may reasonably be credited with building 
 the earliest portions of it now remaining. 
 
 The pillage of the villages of Errington and Dissington, 
 connected with the new Augustinian priory of Hexham, 
 by Robert and Uctred, sons of Meldred, in 1133, seems a 
 last echo of English resistance, and the first instance of 
 the raids of the wild spirits of Tyndale and Redesdale 
 that were to work such havoc in the more settled parts 
 of Northumberland. The Austin canons of Nostell had 
 been granted the churches of St. Oswald and St. Aidan at 
 Bamburgh by King Henry, 1121-1129, and he now pro- 
 ceeded to strike a further blow at the authority of Bishop 
 Flambard, by erecting the see of Carlisle and appointing 
 thereto their prior, Alfwald. Signs were not wanting that 
 Northumberland itself might be added to the new diocese. 
 The churches of Warkworth, Corbridge, Whittingham, 
 and Rothbury had been given to the King's chaplain, 
 Richard de Aurea Valle for his life ; the reversion of 
 them, together with the churches of Newburn and St. 
 Nicholas at Newcastle, was now bestowed on the canons 
 of Carlisle. 
 
 Henry I. died in December, 1135. David of Scotland, 
 who had married Matilda, the only child of Earl Wal- 
 theof, refused to recognise Stephen, and entered North- 
 umberland as the champion of his own niece, the Empress 
 Matilda. He took Wark, Norham, Alnwick, and New- 
 castle, but failed to reduce Bamburgh. His march on
 
 i T 8 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Durham was checked by the arrival of Stephen. An 
 agreement was come to at Newcastle by which David 
 received Waltheof s Earldom of Huntingdon in right of 
 his wife, and his son Henry the land of Carlisle as part 
 of Cumberland, the old appanage of the Scottish heir- 
 apparent. The castles of Northumberland were given up 
 to Stephen, but it was understood that if ever he should 
 determine to revive the Earldom, the claims of David and 
 his son were to be carefully borne in mind. Nothing 
 came of this vague promise, and during Stephen's absence 
 in Normandy, in the spring of 1137, David again crossed 
 the Border. The English earls and barons assembled 
 at Newcastle to resist him, but an armistice was arranged 
 at Roxburgh by Thurstan, Archbishop of York. The 
 question of the Earldom was again mooted on Stephen's 
 return in November, but David met with a decided 
 refusal. Indeed, Stephen went so far as to bestow the 
 coveted Earldom on David's stepson, Simon de St. Liz, 
 the eldest grandson of Waltheof, whose only record in 
 Northumberland is his grant of a salt-pan at Warkworth 
 to the newly-founded Cistercian abbey of Newminster. 
 
 On the dark winter's morning of January 10, 1138, 
 William, son of Duncan, once King of Scots, attempted 
 to seize Wark by a coup de main. The castle had been 
 greatly strengthened, and Espec's nephew, Jordan de 
 Bussei offered a stout resistance. King David and his son 
 appeared with reinforcements, and for three weeks the 
 siege was vigorously prosecuted with balista and other 
 engines of war. The defence was equally spirited, and after 
 his standard-bearer had been slain in his sight, and many 
 others killed and wounded, David broke up his camp. 
 William - fitz - Duncan conducted a reconnaissance to 
 Warden, where two of his soldiers broke into the church 
 of St. Michael, while the King and his son, after wasting 
 Northumberland and burning among other places the 
 abbey of Newminster, fixed their head-quarters at Cor- 
 bridge. Hearing that Stephen had outflanked them, and 
 was on his road to Scotland, they beat a hasty retreat to
 
 The Earldom. 119 
 
 Roxburgh. Stephen's raid over the Border from Wark 
 was brought to a sudden termination owing to his dis- 
 trust of his own followers, especially of Eustace-fitz-John. 
 After Easter, David again harried Northumberland, and 
 was in the act of entering the city of Durham, when a 
 mutiny among the wilder portion of his troops compelled 
 him to return to the Tweed, where he took and dismantled 
 the castle of Norham. He then again invested Wark, 
 the garrison of which had several times cut off his 
 supplies, and had fallen on his son's escort, but again he 
 was baffled. Eustace-fitz-John now openly joined David. 
 As they were marching together past Bamburgh, which 
 they had not intended to attack, the young men of the 
 place began to jeer at the Scots from behind a wall 
 erected in front of the castle, but the Scots broke in and 
 slew nearly a hundred of them. Having destroyed the 
 crops at Mitford and other places, whose owners sided 
 with Stephen, David crossed the Tees and was utterly 
 routed at the Battle of the Standard, near Northallerton, 
 on September 22, 1138. He had left Wark blockaded by 
 two of his barons, and he now returned to direct the 
 siege in person with all the forces he could rally. His 
 engines of war were often destroyed with similar appli- 
 ances by the besiegers, only one knight of whom was 
 killed, and that during an imprudent sally. At last, about 
 Martinmas, the castle stores were exhausted ; a live 
 horse and a salted one was all that there was left to 
 eat, when the Abbot of Rievaulx brought a message 
 from Walter Espec, directing the garrison to capitulate. 
 David allowed them to march out with the honours of 
 war, and presented them with twenty-four horses. He 
 then razed Wark to the ground. 
 
 By the mediation of the Papal Legate, Alberic, Bishop 
 of Ostia, and Matilda, the queen of Stephen and niece of 
 David, a treaty was concluded at Durham in April, 1139, 
 by which the Earldom of Northumberland was made 
 over to Henry-fitz- David. The castles of Newcastle and 
 Bamburgh were excepted from this grant, but David
 
 1 20 History of Northumberland. 
 
 afterwards took possession of them by force. At Bam- 
 burgh, in the presence of Alfwald, Bishop of Carlisle, and 
 Adam the Sheriff, Earl Henry conferred a charter on the 
 monks of Tynemouth, freeing the peasants of their 
 demesnes from the obligation of aiding in the building of 
 Newcastle, or any of his other castles. At Newcastle 
 at Michaelmas, 1147, he further relieved them from all 
 military service unless an army should attack him in 
 * Northumberland between the Tyne and the Tweed,' a 
 limitation implying that his Earldom of Northumberland 
 stretched beyond those rivers, and especially over Lothian, 
 where the same sheriff Adam attested his benefactions to 
 Coldingham. Earl Henry gave the fishery of Bradyare 
 in the Tyne to the monks of Durham, besides confirming 
 to them the grant of lands at Cramlington made by a 
 certain Nicole. He gave a salt-pan at Warkworth to 
 the priory of Brinkburn, and confirmed William, son 
 of Aluric of Corbridge, in his possession of Dilston. 
 He appears to have had mints both at Bamburgh and 
 Corbridge. His seal represents him as a tall young man 
 on horseback. 
 
 King David's occupation of Newcastle was destined to 
 be of great importance in municipal history, as he adopted 
 its customs in the organization of the burghs he founded 
 beyond the Tweed. Newcastle thus became an authority 
 in civic matters for Scotland, such as Magdeburg was for 
 Poland. David had himself been in possession of North 
 Tyndale, where he granted Thornton, Staincroft, Walwick, 
 and Hethingeshalch (Henshaw) to Richard Cumin and 
 his wife, Hextold, a grand-daughter of King Duncan. 
 Hextold afterwards married Malcolm-fitz-Malcolm, Earl 
 of Athol, and, as Countess of Athol, bestowed some of 
 these lands on the monks of Durham. A man named 
 Sproich, who lived at Bellingham, was employed by the 
 almoner of Durham to repair the bridges on North 
 Tyne. His daughter Eda, a brunette, would work at her 
 fine dress instead of going to church on St. Lawrence's 
 Day. Her fingers suddenly became contracted, and were
 
 The Earldom. 121 
 
 only restored after a draught of water from St. Cuthbert's 
 well and a whole night spent in prayer in his church 
 there. When Eda was to be married, Eilaf, Earl Henry's 
 bailiff, demanded a heavy fine from her parents, and, on 
 their refusing to pay, drove off their cow to the stable of 
 Elsi of Wark. Sproich again invoked the aid of St. 
 Cuthbert ; Elsi's house was struck by lightning and burnt 
 to the ground, while the cow escaped and ran home to 
 Bellingham. 
 
 The thirteen years of Earl Henry's rule must have long 
 been regretted in Northumberland as an era of unex- 
 ampled peace and prosperity. The cloister was at that 
 time the great civilizing agency, and the foundation of the 
 Austin houses of Alnwick Abbey and Brinkburn Priory 
 must have exercised a very beneficent influence. 
 
 Earl Henry died on June 12, 1152, leaving by his wife 
 Ada, daughter and heiress of William de Warren, three 
 sons, Malcolm, William, and David. Rousing himself 
 with difficulty from his grief, King David took Henry's 
 second son, a boy of ten, to Newcastle, and caused the 
 barons of Northumberland to do him homage as their 
 Earl. Under the style of ' William de Warren, Earl of 
 Northumberland,' the young Earl confirmed the Brinkburn 
 canons in the possession of their salt-pans at Warkworth. 
 The death of Eustace-fitz-John, the aged lord of Alnwick, 
 in an ambuscade laid by the Welsh in the defile of 
 Coleshill, in 1157, deprived the Scottish princes of one 
 of their chief supporters in Northumberland. Henry II. 
 marched on to Rhuddlan, and there confirmed Eustace's 
 son, William de Vesci, in his father's estates. 
 
 William de Vesci obtained from the young Earl William 
 the privilege of a market at Newbiggen, near the burgh of 
 St. Valery. It should not be forgotten that as the breeze 
 that at last wafted the Conqueror's fleet across the 
 Channel was ascribed to the intercession of St. Valery, 
 the Norman lords of Alnwick may have evinced their 
 gratitude by dedicating to him the cruciform church that 
 crowned the mound at the mouth of the Aln, which
 
 122 History of Northumberland. 
 
 appears to have been known in earlier times under the 
 varying names of Twyford, Woodford, Woodchester, and 
 Wooden. 
 
 On Henry Plantagenet's return to Chester, the young 
 King, Malcolm IV., did homage, and gave up to him 
 the land of Carlisle, the county of Lancaster, and the 
 castles of Newcastle and Bamburgh, all which he had 
 received as the heir of his grandfather, David. He 
 obtained as compensation the Earldom of Huntingdon. 
 The two kings met again at Carlisle in the following year, 
 but quarrelled so much that Malcolm returned home 
 without receiving knighthood at Henry's hands. The 
 ground of their quarrel lay, no doubt, in Henry's high- 
 handed resumption of the Earldom of Northumberland, 
 which was an easy matter when once he had gained 
 possession of Newcastle and Bamburgh. Earl William's 
 title was not very clear, and he was, at any rate, Henry's 
 ward during his minority. The Earldom at its origin had 
 saved Northumberland from the Danes and Norwegians ; 
 its extinction was now a political necessity, if Northumber- 
 land was not to become part and parcel of Scotland.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TYNDALE. 
 
 NO sooner had Henry of Acijou resumed possession 
 of Northumberland, than he began to fortify it 
 against Scotland. By a rare exercise of the royal pre- 
 rogative, he erected two castles on ground belonging to 
 private subjects ; with the aid q>f the whole county of 
 Northumberland and the bishopric of Durham he built 
 the castle of Harbottle at the hey-d of Coquetdale, while 
 William de Vesci, now Sheriff of Northumberland, began 
 by his orders to restore in 1158, the castle of Wark-on- 
 Tweed, which had been destroyed by David of Scotland 
 twenty years previously. The site of Harbottle was 
 owned by Odinel de Umfraville, that of Wark by the 
 family of Ros. The donjons of both castles, placed on 
 ancient mounds, were probably octagonal in outline, with 
 open courtyards in the middle. 
 
 Intending, in 1159, to undertake an expedition against 
 Toulouse, Henry considered it prudent to compromise 
 matters by restoring North and South Tyndale to the 
 dispossessed Earl William of Northumberland, to be held 
 as a regality by homage only, an ( arrangement that was 
 to be successful, on the whole, in keeping peace between 
 England and Scotland for upwards of a century, and in 
 ensuring the welfare of Northumbjerland during that long 
 period. Ada, the widowed Countess of Northumber- 
 land, continued to hold her dower-lands in Tyndale, and
 
 124 History dj Northumberland. 
 
 granted the manor of Whitfield, which had been reclaimed 
 from the waste there, to her chaplain Robert. Both 
 King Malcolm and his brother William accompanied 
 Henry to France, and in 1163 Malcolm did homage at 
 Woodstock. The firm peace established by this act was 
 rendered precarious by Malcolm's delicate health, and 
 the distrust felt by the English for William, his heir-pre- 
 sumptive. It was at tJhis juncture that the square keep 
 of Bamburgh was built. 
 
 Hugh Pudsey, the Bishop of Durham, was also fully 
 alive to the desirability of strengthening his castle of 
 Norham on the Tweed, if Northumberland was to be 
 retained by England. !He found Norham in a weak state 
 of defence, and employed an engineer, named Richard, to 
 erect the massive square keep, turris validissima. Richard 
 had been given a piece 1 of St. Cuthbert's winding-sheet by 
 a monk of Durham, and carried it and other relics about 
 with him in a richly-embroidered silk bag. Having one 
 day to go to Berwick, he left this bag behind him at 
 Norham. It was found by a French clerk, who, consider- 
 ing it ridiculous that such a wretched rag should be kept 
 in so beautiful a case}, threw it into a fire at which a 
 drinking party were warming themselves. To his amaze- 
 ment, the flames, it is ;aid, did the rag no harm, and after 
 it had been subjected to them for nearly two hours, he 
 pulled it out, and restored it to Richard on his return. 
 
 The re-construction of Prudhoe Castle by Odinel de 
 Umfraville about this time also included the erection of a 
 square keep. All OdintePs neighbours, either through love 
 or fear, lent him their 'assistance in the work, except the 
 men of Wylam, a villa.ge which, although it was within 
 the barony of Prudhoe; belonged to the monastery of St. 
 Oswin at Tynemoutb, freed from all contributions to 
 castle-building by sevetal royal charters. Neither threats 
 nor persuasions had any effect on the Wylam peasantry. 
 Odinel was so enraged that he sent for one of the King's 
 officers who lived * witthout fear of God in the city of 
 Corbridge,' and bade !him, on his allegiance, seize their
 
 Tyndale 125 
 
 property and bring it to the castle. According to the law 
 of the land, a fine for neglecting to perform a customary 
 service like that of repairing a castle was to be levied in 
 the first instance on the private property of the serfs, and 
 only in the case of this proving insufficient was recourse 
 to be had to the lord's demesne. The Corbridge official, 
 however, in proceeding towards Wylam, announced his 
 intention of laying hands on whatever first came in his 
 way. In vain did his companions, Richard and Nicholas, 
 caution him not to interfere with the herd of St. Oswin. 
 He went straight to the pasture where the demesne oxen 
 were grazing, but, by the miraculous interposition of the 
 saint, these, together with the ruddy youth herding them, 
 and his barking dog, were made invisible and inaudible to 
 him, though Richard and Nicholas had actually to drive 
 the oxen out of his road. 
 
 On the death of King Malcolm the Maiden in 1165, it 
 seems to have been a question whether his Earldom of 
 Huntingdon should not pass to his successor, William 
 the Lion, and William's Franchise of Tyndale to their 
 younger brother, David. As a matter of fact, William 
 retained Tyndale, and held Huntingdon also, until it was 
 finally settled that the latter was to be given up to David. 
 Henry appears to have attempted to infringe the privileges 
 of Tyndale during this state of uncertainty. Adam of 
 Nunwick, Kiochher of Wall, and a certain Turchil Cadiol, 
 men of the King of Scotland, were summoned before the 
 English justices at Newcastle. They refused to appear, 
 and the consequent fines were afterwards remitted. 
 
 William's claim to Northumberland was met by specious 
 promises on the part of Henry, whom he attended on an 
 expedition to Brittany. There was little idea of any out- 
 break of hostilities between the two kingdoms. A colony 
 of Norbertian canons from the abbey of Blanchland, in 
 Normandy, established themselves, by favour of Walter 
 de Bolbec, in the green valley of the upper Derwent, and 
 gave the name of their parent house to the spot previously 
 known as Wulwardshope. Northumberland, it is said,
 
 126 History of Northumberland. 
 
 was then so renowned that right down to the Pyrenees 
 there was no country so well provided with the neces- 
 saries of life nor inhabited by a race more universally 
 respected. 
 
 In an evil hour, William received overtures from Henry's 
 rebellious eldest son, promising, in return for his support, 
 to restore him the Borderland that his ancestors had held. 
 With great moderation, the Scottish King sent the friar 
 William Dolapene to Henry, in Normandy, and offered to 
 remain true to him if he received Northumberland, which 
 formed only a portion of his rightful inheritance. Dolapene 
 demanded to have William's claim there and then sub- 
 mitted to ordeal of battle, or he would renounce the 
 homage William had done; but Henry was not to be 
 frightened. Waltheof, Earl of Dunbar, tried in vain to 
 exercise the good offices of peacemaker between England 
 and Scotland, as he was bound to do by his curious tenure 
 of the barony of Beanley. 
 
 William collected a great host at Caldenlea, in Selkirk- 
 shire, containing a large element of naked savages from 
 Galloway, who were armed with small knives, dreaded by 
 knights in close combat, and with javelins which they 
 could hurl to a great distance. In August, 1173, he sum- 
 moned Wark to surrender. Roger de Stuteville, Sheriff 
 of Northumberland, who was in command, entreated the 
 King to spare him the disgrace of capitulating, and to 
 grant him a truce of forty days, that he might cross the 
 Channel to receive Henry's instructions, or effect the 
 same purpose by sealed letters. William agreed to these 
 terms. Two days later a messenger arrived from Bishop 
 Pudsey to say that he wished to be at peace with the 
 Scots, and would not attack them. Leaving, therefore, 
 Norham unchallenged, the host passed on to Alnwick, 
 where William de Vesci, the brave natural son of the lord 
 of the castle, obtained for it the same terms as had been 
 accorded to Wark, subject to the additional proviso that 
 he was not to increase the garrison nor strengthen the 
 defences. Warkworth, which Henry had given to Roger-
 
 Tyndale. 127 
 
 fitz- Richard, the younger son of Eustace-fitz-John, and 
 ancestor of the Clavering family, was singled out by 
 William as a special object for destruction. The castle 
 was weak, both in walls and earthworks ; no attempt was 
 made to defend it, nor did the Scots think it worth while 
 to fix their headquarters there. 
 
 Roger-fitz-Richard himself was in charge of Newcastle, 
 assisted by the barons who owed it castle-ward. The 
 Scots, they knew, would not leave them an ox for the 
 plough in all their lands ; still, they scorned to parley, and 
 although the process of re-modelling the castle had not 
 been completed, the square keep founded the previous 
 year behig still in the hands of the masons, William saw 
 that it was useless to attempt its reduction by fair means. 
 
 The conduct of Odinel de Umfraville, who had been 
 brought up at his father's court, and had been one of the 
 members of his own Northumbrian household to the last, 
 in now declaring against him, was regarded by William 
 as the basest ingratitude. ' May I,' he cried, ' be cursed 
 and excommunicated, if I grant term or respite to the 
 castle of Odinel !' Accordingly, marching up the Tyne, 
 he bade his earls and barons pitch their pavilions before 
 the slopes of Prudhoe. ' As long as Prudhoe stands,' he 
 declared, ' never shall there be peace.' 
 
 His camp, however, fell a prey to divided counsels. 
 The Flemish mercenaries swore they would destroy the 
 castle, or forego all claim to pay or rations ; the Scottish 
 lords refused to hear of the delay incident to a formal 
 siege, and successfully urged the King to push on to the 
 conquest of Cumberland. The advance of Richard de 
 Lucy caused William to abandon the siege of Carlisle and 
 retreat to Roxburgh. Lucy and his levies laid Berwick in 
 ashes, and wasted Lothian ; but, on hearing of the landing 
 of a Flemish force in Suffolk, they were glad to accept 
 the truce till the Feast of St. Hilary, which the barons 
 of Northumberland purchased for three hundred marks of 
 silver. Before the expiry of this truce on January 13, 
 1174, Bishop Pudsey came himself to Ridingburn on the
 
 128 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Border, and obtained a prolongation of it till Easter. 
 As soon as that festival was past, William, remember- 
 ing Stuteville's defiance, resolved to carry Wark by 
 storm. His Flemings rushed bravely to the moats, and 
 tried to force their way through the portcullis. They 
 were beaten back, many of them being rendered incapable 
 of ever again raising their war-cry of ' Arras ! Arras !' 
 Stuteville cautioned his men not to waste their arrows, 
 but to reserve their strength for real emergencies. 
 
 ' Bring up the periere /' roared the Lion-king, seeing 
 his men falling on all sides ; ' unless our engineer is a liar, 
 the stones hurled from it will soon break through the 
 gate, and we shall gain the bailey without more delay.' 
 
 The machine was moved into action, but the first stone, 
 instead of shattering the castle gate, brought one of the 
 Scottish knights to the ground, and would have finished 
 him had it not been for his shield and armour. William 
 in a frenzy swore that he would rather have been taken 
 alive before Toulouse than witness such a discomfiture. 
 He gave orders to try and set the castle on fire, but the 
 wind suddenly shifting prevented the execution of this 
 design. Thoroughly disheartened, he broke up his camp 
 the next day, and again retreated to Roxburgh. Stuteville, 
 like a true knight, ordered the men in his garrison not to 
 rail at the discomfited Scots, but to give expression to 
 their joy, each in his own fashion. Wark soon resounded 
 with trumpet and horn, but there was no abuse nor rough 
 language, only songs and ballads wishing the Scots fare- 
 well. The irritation of the Lion - king can easily be 
 imagined. He swore by St. Andrew and St. James that 
 he would never end the war in such disgrace ; no, not if 
 it should cost him his kingdom. 
 
 Having arranged a truce with the governor of Carlisle, 
 William made a sudden dash for Prudhoe, in the hope of 
 surprising the castle. Reaching it on the evening of 
 Monday, July 8, his disappointment was great at finding 
 that Odinel had put it into an excellent state of defence. 
 The garrison knew that if it were taken scant mercy
 
 Tyndale. 129 
 
 would be shown to Odinel, so they persuaded him to 
 mount his rough-haired, dapple-bay steed, and spur night 
 and day to the Archbishop of York. Enraged at his 
 escape, the whole host of Scotland attacked the castle 
 with a great shout. The garrison defended themselves 
 manfully against the Flemings, and received no injuries, 
 while many of the assailants were mortally wounded. 
 Not content with destroying the corn-fields and wasting 
 the gardens, the Scots, in a spirit of petty spite, stripped 
 the bark off the apple-trees. Finding it impossible to 
 reduce Prudhoe with his spears and arrows, and hearing 
 from Roger de Mowbray that the whole force of Yorkshire 
 was advancing against him, the Lion-king raised the siege 
 on the Friday morning. 
 
 Duncan of Fife, with the Scots, was now ordered to 
 ravage the sea-coast, and not to leave a house or church 
 standing; while the men of Galloway were to kill Odinel's 
 vassals in Redesdale. The King himself, with a small 
 company of Frenchmen and Flemings, rode off to Alnwick, 
 where the others were to rejoin him. That same evening, 
 Odinel, with other northern barons, and sixty of the Arch- 
 bishop of York's knights, accompanied by the garrisons of 
 Prudhoe and Newcastle, set out on a night-march from 
 Newcastle to Alnwick. They concealed themselves in a 
 coppice, and sent a spy to report on William's movements. 
 
 The King of Scots was in full armour that Saturday 
 morning. His five hundred knights bade him be of good 
 courage, as Northumberland was his. As the July sun 
 rose high, the heat became intense, and the King laid 
 aside his helmet in order to dine in front of the castle. 
 Suddenly cries of ' Glanvile, chevaliers!' and 'Baliol!' 
 broke from the coppice, and Odinel and his companions 
 were bearing down on the disarmed monarch. William 
 quickly mounted his gray charger, and unhorsed the first 
 knight he encountered. Indeed, the English were on 
 the point of being repulsed, when a foot-soldier stabbed 
 the King's horse with his lance, and brought it and the rider 
 to the ground. Lying helplessly, with his horse on top 
 
 9
 
 1 30 History of Northumberland. 
 
 of him, while the battle was fiercely raging, the King was 
 at once rescued and captured by Ralph de Glanvile. Roger 
 de Mowbray and Adam de Port, two of William's English 
 confederates, were glad to escape early from the field. 
 Alan de Lascelles, an old Scottish knight, who had not 
 jousted for thirty years, made nevertheless a good fight of 
 it on his gray war-horse. William de Mortimer, raging 
 like a wild boar, was laid low by Bernard de Baliol ; Raoul 
 le Rus could not withstand the hundred who set upon him 
 at once, and Richard Maluvel, after a glorious struggle, 
 was reluctantly forced to surrender. Besides the prisoners 
 taken away by Odinel and his companions, nearly a 
 hundred Scottish knights were left to settle their ransoms 
 with William de Vesci. The Lion-king himself was 
 mounted on a palfrey, and led to Newcastle by Ralph 
 de Glanvile. 
 
 At the very time of this conflict before Alnwick, Duncan 
 of Fife, literally carrying out the orders he had received, 
 was burning the town of Warkworth and putting the 
 inhabitants to the sword, not sparing even those who 
 had taken refuge in the ' minster ' of St. Lawrence. The 
 men of Galloway, after wasting Redesdale, appear to 
 have captured the castle of Harbottle, but the booty 
 they collected before it fell into the hands of Ralph 
 de Glanvile. Two Northumbrians, Edgar Unnithing of 
 Edlingham, the uncle of Waltheof, Earl of Dunbar, and 
 Thomas de Muschamps, had openly joined the Scots. 
 The former lost his lands in consequence, while Richard 
 Cumin was heavily mulcted for not appearing before the 
 English justices, and Walter Corbet judged it prudent 
 to avoid being put on his trial by compounding. Bishop 
 Pudsey, too, made his peace for a large sum, giving 
 Norham, among other castles, into the King's custody. 
 
 By a convention and fine made between the captive 
 King of Scots and his lord, Henry of England, at Falaise 
 in Normandy, the bishops, clergy, earls and barons of 
 Scotland became the liegemen of Henry, and the three 
 castles of Roxburgh, Edinburgh, and Berwick were
 
 Tyndale. 131 
 
 delivered up to him. William was then allowed to return 
 to Scotland, where he founded the abbey of Arbroath, in 
 honour of St. Thomas of Canterbury, who had been his 
 personal friend, and at whose shrine Henry was kneeling 
 in penitence at the very time of the fight at Alnwick. 
 On Arbroath, William bestowed the church of Halt- 
 whistle, in Tyndale. 
 
 In order to raise money for the Crusades, Richard Lion- 
 heart, for the consideration of ten thousand marks, freed 
 William from all bargains that had been extorted from 
 him during his captivity in Normandy, and gave up also 
 the castles of Roxburgh and Berwick. William, how- 
 ever, was completely to perform whatever his brother 
 Malcolm had done, or ought to have done, in the way 
 of homage. 
 
 Richard, moreover, sold the earldom of Northumber- 
 land to Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, for 11,000. 
 ' See what a clever craftsman I am,' he remarked, ' to make 
 a young earl out of an old bishop !' One of the few 
 documents left relating to the rule of Hugh, Earl of North- 
 umberland is an agreement made before his justiciary, 
 Henry Pudsey, in the court of Eustace de Baliol at Wood- 
 horn, between Gilbert Delaval and Edwulf, son of Robert. 
 For half the township of Halliwell, Edwulf, besides other 
 feudal services, was to pay ten shillings a year rent. He 
 was to find Gilbert twenty-six men for reaping two days 
 in autumn, and to do one day's ploughing with his men. 
 Gilbert was to feed them once a day. Edwulf's men were 
 also to do a quarter of the work of maintaining the mill 
 of Halliwell, and to give every thirteenth bowl as multure, 
 besides feeding the miller the days they ground there. If 
 in summer there was not water enough to turn the mill 
 of Halliwell, then they were to take their corn to the mill 
 of Seaton Delaval. 
 
 On Richard's return from his captivity, William of 
 Scotland bore the sword of state at the coronation at 
 Winchester which was to efface that disgrace. On the 
 occasion of this journey the Scottish King received a con-
 
 132 History of Northumberland. 
 
 firmation of the curious rights that had been attached to 
 the homage for Lothian. He was to be paid five pounds 
 a day on his road to and from the English Court. 
 While there he was to receive every day thirty shillings, 
 a dozen of the King's own wafers and cracknels, a liberal 
 supply of wine, forty candles of the King's own sort, eighty 
 of the sort used by the royal household, two pounds of 
 pepper and four of cinnamon. The Bishop of Durham 
 and the sheriff and barons of Northumberland were to 
 receive him on the Marches and conduct him to the Tees. 
 Pudsey, having good reason to dread Richard's resent- 
 ment, voluntarily surrendered the Earldom of North- 
 umberland with the castles of Newcastle and Bamburgh 
 into the King's hands. The King of Scots made Richard 
 an offer of fifteen thousand marks for it. To this Richard 
 consented, provided the castles were reserved. On this 
 point the negotiations broke off. Pudsey, anxious to 
 outbid William, sent a messenger after Richard to Nor- 
 mandy, offering twenty thousand marks for the county 
 and castles, and put off the restitution of them to Hugh 
 Bardolf, the King's Sheriff, until the messenger should 
 return. Richard directed Bardolf to re-deliver them on 
 receiving sufficient surety for the twenty thousand marks. 
 Bardolf insisted that he must have possession of them 
 before he could re-deliver them. Pudsey contended that, 
 if he was to receive them back, there was no need to give 
 them up. Richard took Bardolf s part, and ordered him 
 to resume possession of the county and castles, which he 
 did on July i, 1194. The final incorporation of North- 
 umberland in the realm of England was thus the con- 
 sequence of the most paltry hair-splitting. 
 
 At the beginning of King John's reign a great flood 
 carried away the bridge of Berwick. Philip of Poictou, 
 then Bishop of Durham, objected to the Scots rebuilding 
 the south abutment on his land. He went so far as to 
 build a Malvoisin at Tweedmouth, to protect that port 
 against the castle of Berwick. On Philip's death, John 
 kept the bishopric vacant for eight years. In 1208 he
 
 Tyndale. 133 
 
 met William of Scotland at Bolton, near Alnwick, and 
 concluded a convention at Norham, whereby the Scots 
 were empowered to destroy the Malvoisin at Tweedmouth, 
 and the monopoly of the Tweed was secured to Berwick. 
 A dispute between the Prior of Kirkham and the Abbot of 
 Kelso respecting the church of Kirknewton was destined 
 to find an echo, ages after, in the extraordinary plea set up 
 by the churchwardens against the Archdeacon of North- 
 umberland, that their parish was in Scotland. In 1211 
 another conference of the Kings took place at Norham, a 
 galley with fifty boatmen being kept for their use on the 
 Tweed. The soft words of Queen Ermengarde of Scot- 
 land ensured the maintenance of peace. 
 
 During his visits to Northumberland, John had stayed 
 at Alnwick at his own cost. Its inhospitable lord, Eustace 
 de Vesci, now refused to give his son as a hostage for his 
 loyalty, and John ordered his property to be confiscated 
 and his castle destroyed. William of Scotland had never 
 forgotten the rough lesson he received at the siege of 
 Alnwick, but his young son and successor, Alexander II., 
 claiming Northumberland in its fullest extent in 1215, 
 received the homage of the barons of Northumberland 
 at Felton, and that of those of Yorkshire at Melrose. 
 His forty days' siege of Norham proved, however, a 
 fiasco. Having made his peace with Rome, King John 
 resolved to chastise his rebellious baronage. In un- 
 governable rage he burnt the castles that the barons had 
 deserted, and the villages and crops that had not already 
 been fired to retard his advance, so that all Northumber- 
 land was one conflagration. Mitford and Morpeth, 
 Alnwick and Wark, were all in flames. Taking the town 
 and castle of Berwick, John handed over the inhabitants 
 to his German mercenaries, who strung them up by their 
 hands and feet, being assisted in this by the Jews. After 
 ravaging Lothian, he returned to Berwick, and com- 
 menced the destruction of the town by himself setting on 
 fire the house in which he had been entertained. On the 
 death of this royal incendiary, King Alexander besieged
 
 134 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Mitford for a week in vain. Peace was soon afterwards 
 established by the Papal Legate. 
 
 Richard de Umfraville complained in 1218 that Philip 
 de Ulcotes, who had been a powerful favourite of King 
 John, was building a castle at Nafferton, where no castle 
 had previously existed, to the detriment of his castle and 
 lands of Prudhoe. A writ, in the name of Henry III., 
 commanded Ulcotes to stay the work. Thereupon he 
 revenged himself by obtaining royal letters ordering the 
 destruction of Umfraville's castle at Harbottle. It 
 needed the protection of Hubert de Burgh to prove that 
 Harbottle was not an adulterine stronghold. The great 
 bretesche, or projecting wooden story on top of the tower 
 at Nafferton, was cast down by the Sheriff of Northumber- 
 land, and taken with the rest of the building timber to 
 Newcastle. The extensive earthworks and ruined walls 
 of Ulcotes' intended castle on the tangled bank of Whittle- 
 dene still remind us of this neighbourly episode. 
 
 The marriage of Alexander II. to the sister of Henry III. 
 in 1221 tended to cement the good relations subsisting 
 between the two kingdoms. On the occasion of this cere- 
 mony the privilege of holding a market on Thursdays at 
 Thornton in Tyndale was granted to William Cumin, the 
 Scottish justiciary. The next year, Robert de Ros and the 
 Prior of Kirkham complained that the Scots had made an 
 encroachment at Whitelaw, near Carham, and the Sheriff 
 of Northumberland was instructed to proceed there, with 
 the Bishop of Durham or his officials, and settle the 
 boundary as it had been in the time of King John. So 
 profound, however, was the tranquillity of the Border, 
 that an entail of the barony of Wark, made with the con- 
 sent of Henry III., stipulated that it was to be held by 
 the annual delivery of a soar-hawk at Roxburgh Fair. 
 
 Alexander II. granted Tyndale to his youngest sister, 
 Margery, reserving only the feudal services of William 
 Cumin at Tarset, and of William de Ros at Haltwhistle, 
 together with the patronage of the church of Simundburn. 
 Margery gave Chirden, on North Tyne, to David de
 
 Tyndale. 135 
 
 Lindsay. If she married any but a Scotsman, she was 
 to receive other lands in Scotland in lieu of Tyndale, and 
 in 1235 sne did marry the Earl of Pembroke. 
 
 An appeal made to the Pope by the Archbishop of York 
 against the coronation of Alexander II. as an infringe- 
 ment of the rights of his metropolitan see and of the 
 royal dignity of England, was ratified by Henry III. This 
 nettled the Scottish King into demanding, under threat of 
 war, the restitution of the three Northern counties as his 
 rightful inheritance. There was a real war scare in 1237. 
 Hugh de Bolbec, the Keeper of Northumberland, wrote 
 in all haste to Henry to say that David de Lindsay was 
 building a tower in Tyndale with remarkably thick walls. 
 It was already finished up to the lines of the battlements, 
 and Lindsay intended to crenellate it and surround it 
 with a moat, all with the approbation of the King of 
 Scotland. If the fortifications were completed and stores 
 laid in, Bolbec considered that the tower Dally Castle, 
 no doubt would become an admirable trysting-place for 
 the King's enemies. On the English side, Bolbec received 
 orders to execute repairs at Newcastle and Bamburgh, 
 where the curtain-wall was to be raised in places, a new 
 turret to be built, and a half-finished one completed. 
 The Legate Ottobuoni contrived to arrange a definite 
 pacification, by the terms of which Alexander eventually 
 received certain manors in Cumberland. Bolbec was 
 then instructed to spend as little as possible on the castles 
 in his charge. It was during this lull that the Carmelite 
 priory of Hulne was founded, in a romantic situation 
 near Alnwick, by one of the Vescis. He had returned 
 from the Holy Land with a Freburn of Cartington, who 
 became the first Prior. In journeying through the royal 
 forest in Northumberland, the Scottish barons were at 
 this time allowed to take an occasional deer. If any 
 knight was ill, or any lady in a state of expectancy, and 
 had a longing for venison, it was customary for the Chief 
 Justice of the Forest to present it. 
 
 In 1242, Walter Bisset, having been foiled by the young
 
 136 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Earl of Athol in a tournament at Haddington, was ac- 
 cused of roasting him alive with his companions in the 
 barn where they slept. Under the circumstances, a 
 regular trial was impossible in Scotland, and Bisset, 
 escaping to England, appealed to Henry as suzerain. 
 Alexander retorted by declaring that he neither did nor 
 would hold even the smallest part of his kingdom of the 
 King of England. There were other differences, such as 
 the erection of a castle on the East March and another 
 on the West by Walter Cumin and other Scottish nobles, 
 in violation of old-standing agreements, and Henry, worked 
 on by the wiles of Bisset, resolved to invade Scotland. 
 The King of Tyrconnel and other Irish chiefs were sum- 
 moned to assist him. Cross-bow bolts and other munitions 
 of war were to be sent to Newcastle. Henry assembled 
 there 5,000 horsemen, in fine armour. Alexander ad- 
 vanced as far as Ponteland with only 1,000 horsemen 
 (mounted on good enough chargers, ' though not Spanish, 
 Italian, or others of great price,' and sufficiently well 
 provided with armour of iron or chain-work), but, then, he 
 had 100,000 foot. Richard of Cornwall, Henry's brother, 
 took upon him the character of mediator ; and a ' Parlia- 
 ment ' was held in the standing corn of the nuns of New- 
 castle. Alexander bound himself to keep the peace 
 towards his liege-lord, and not to enter into any treaty 
 of war against England or Ireland, except in requital of 
 injuries. As a minor point, Henry restored to Nicholas 
 de Soules and Annora his wife their lands at Stamfordham 
 and Stocksfield, which had been taken into the King's 
 hands as possessions of Normans. The building of the 
 Black Gate as the main entrance to the castle of New- 
 castle shows that too much confidence was not placed in 
 the peace thus concluded. 
 
 An attempt was made the next year to settle the old- 
 standing boundary dispute between the canons of Carham 
 and Bernard de Hawden. Hugh Bolbec, the sheriff, 
 accompanied by the knights of Northumberland, met 
 David de Lindsay, justiciary of Lothian, Patrick, Earl of
 
 Tyndale. 
 
 37 
 
 Dunbar, and other knights sent by the King of Scots, at 
 Ridingburn (Revedeneburne). Six knights were chosen 
 from Scotland and six from England to make a true per- 
 ambulation at this debatable point. Like a modern 
 Conciliation Board, the six English knights, with one 
 consent, proceeded by what they declared to be the right 
 and ancient marches, the six Scottish knights wholly 
 dissenting. Bolbec and the justiciary and the earl then 
 agreed to add six more knights on each side, but the result 
 was the same. Choosing to consider that the Scottish 
 knights stood in the way of business, Bolbec, as directed 
 by his King, caused twenty-four knights of Northumber- 
 land to be sworn. These declared the true and ancient 
 marches to be from the Tweed by Ridingburn southwards 
 to the Three Carrs, thence in a straight line to Hoperig- 
 law, and so to Whitelaw. They were prevented from 
 making a perambulation by the threats of the justiciary 
 and the earl, so they signed, sealed, and delivered a 
 document containing their verdict. At the end of the 
 following year, the perambulation was effected by twelve 
 English knights, in the presence of four English justices 
 and of the Scottish justiciary, Nicholas de Soules, then 
 sheriff of Roxburgh, and others, with the slight variation 
 that the line, instead of crossing the Three Carrs them- 
 selves, made for a certain spring on the south side of 
 them. 
 
 A little later, Nicholas de Soules was impleaded before 
 the King of England for transgressions his men of Scot- 
 land, dwelling in Scotland, had committed in England. 
 The King of Scots complained ; and this time a panel of 
 six English and six Scottish knights, convened at the 
 march on the Tweed, did agree authoritatively to lay down 
 that, according to march law and custom, no one of either 
 kingdom, although holding land in both, was liable to be 
 impleaded anywhere but at the march for any deed done 
 in one kingdom by men dwelling in the other. 
 
 The principles of Border jurisprudence were still more 
 clearly enunciate d in the code drawn up by twelve knights
 
 138 History of Northumberland. 
 
 of each country at Ridingburn, on the feast of SS. 
 Tiburtius and Valerian, April 14, 1249. As a general 
 rule, those living on the East March were to answer at 
 Ridingburn, those on the West March at Lamyford, the 
 division between the Marches at the time being at ' Dedy,' 
 probably Deadwater, at the head of North Tyne ; but the 
 men of Redesdale and Coquetdale were to answer at 
 Gamelspeth, and those of the shires of Carlisle and Dum- 
 fries at the Solway. This mention of the shire of Carlisle 
 instead of Cumberland, and that, too, in a rider, points 
 to this code being only a digest of much more ancient 
 ones. Bondsmen escaping across the, Border might be 
 seized and brought back within forty days by their lord 
 or his bailiff. After that time it became necessary for the 
 lord to obtain a brief from the sovereign of the country 
 in which they had taken refuge and to substantiate his 
 own oath by that of six others before he could recover 
 them. A similar septima manus on the Marches was re- 
 quired to defend a debt alleged to be owing to an in- 
 habitant of the other country. If the debt was admitted, 
 and bankruptcy pleaded, then the debtor had to swear 
 that he did not possess goods worth more than five 
 shillings and fourpence, and, further, that he would pay 
 as soon as possible, reserving only his own sustenance. 
 Stolen goods were to be sued for by means of a septima 
 manus in the court of the lord on whose land they were 
 found, but if the possessor claimed them, then the 
 question had to be decided by a combat on the Marches. 
 A malefactor fleeing across the Border might obtain peace 
 at the first church by ringing the bells, and was then not 
 liable to be brought back. A combat respecting a horse, 
 ox, cow, or hog, might be avoided by the possessor inform- 
 ing the claimant that upon inquiry he found the claim 
 just, and then driving the animal in question safely through 
 the mid-stream of the Tweed or the Esk. 
 
 At his marriage with Margaret, daughter of Henry III., 
 at York, in 1251, Alexander III., a boy of eleven, did 
 homage for Lothian and the other lands he held of the King
 
 Tyndale. 139 
 
 of England in the kingdom of England. Through the in- 
 fluence of Henry, Alan Durward, the chief minister of the 
 young King, was replaced by Walter Cumin. Durward, 
 however, regained Henry's favour by the courage he dis- 
 played when with him in Guienne, and the young Queen 
 of Scots complained bitterly of the treatment she received 
 at the hands of Cumin. Henry was especially enraged 
 against Robert de Ros and John Baliol, whom he had 
 particularly favoured in Northumberland. In 1255 Dur- 
 ward arranged to surprise Edinburgh. He obtained 
 possession of the young couple, and conveyed them to 
 Roxburgh. Henry resolved to take up his residence with 
 his Queen at Wark. There had been a long dispute over 
 the actual ownership of the castle, and the King promised 
 Robert de Ros that his occupation of it should be without 
 prejudice. From Chillingham Henry granted a safe con- 
 duct to Alexander and his Queen to come to him at Wark. 
 They were to return when they liked, and were not to 
 tarry in England, except at the will of the magnates 
 of Scotland. Alexander returned to Roxburgh the even- 
 ing of his visit, but Margaret remained at Wark in conse- 
 quence of her mother's illness. The Scots viewed this 
 with suspicion, so Henry gave a solemn bond that she 
 should be restored when Queen Eleanor was sufficiently 
 recovered to leave. The Durward party were restored 
 to power in Scotland, and Henry imposed heavy fines 
 on Baliol and Ros for their alleged transgressions against 
 his daughter. Ros, indeed, who was the most powerful 
 baron in the North, was absolutely ruined, and Robert de 
 Cargou, his servant, sustained the greatest damages by 
 the work-oxen and other cattle being distrained. Cumin 
 contrived to possess himself of Alexander's person in 
 1257, and drove the Durward party from Scotland. Wark 
 and Norham were entrusted by Henry to Robert de 
 Neville, with orders to prepare an expedition intended 
 to rescue the young King. Neville was to receive 
 William de Moray, one of Henry's partizans, into Wark, 
 but was to prudently keep the inner bailey and the
 
 140 History of Northumberland. 
 
 donjon in his own hands. An agreement, however, was 
 brought about between the two Scottish factions, and in 
 the general peace that ensued the charges against Ros 
 were withdrawn, his huge fine remitted, and all claim 
 on Wark renounced by the Crown. 
 
 This change of policy with regard to Scotland was 
 largely caused by the dissensions which had arisen between 
 Henry and his barons with Simon de Montfort at their 
 head. In the civil war that broke out, William Cumin, 
 Robert de Ros, William de Vesci, Roger Bertram, and 
 Robert de Hilton took Montfort's side. At the Battle of 
 Lewes, where Henry, his eldest son Edward, and his 
 brother Richard were taken prisoners, John Baliol, 
 Robert Bruce, and John Cumin also fell into Montfort's 
 hands. One of the results of this was the issue of a 
 writ against Henry Spring, the constable of Bamburgh, 
 to answer the complaint of the men of Bamburgh and 
 Shorston, that he exacted certain unwonted services 
 from them. It would almost seem that Spring thought it 
 better to declare against Montfort in consequence. Two 
 months later, the men of Bamburgh complained of the 
 losses they suffered from certain rebels in the castle, and 
 the Sheriff was ordered to proceed there with the posse 
 comitatus and prevent any further sallies of these ultra- 
 royalists. From Evesham, where the fortunes of war 
 were reversed, John de Vesci escaped to the North, 
 carrying with him the foot of Simon de Montfort, which, 
 encased in a silver shoe, was treasured as a relic in Alnwick 
 Abbey till the Reformation. Vesci re-seized the castle of 
 Alnwick, but the Lord Edward coming against him, he 
 was obliged to surrender. The cost of defending Bam- 
 burgh for a year during this revival of the rebellion in the 
 North amounted to over twelve hundred pounds. 
 
 At the siege of Alnwick, Gilbert de Umfraville (who 
 had already obtained the grant of a weekly market and 
 a fair at Whelpington for his services), denounced William 
 de Douglas to the Lord Edward as having been con- 
 cerned in the rebellion, and obtained a grant of the manor
 
 Tyndale. 141 
 
 of Fawdon conditionally on the charge being true. On 
 inquiry, it proved to be false, and Douglas was reinstated. 
 Thereupon Gilbert sent a hundred of the King's army, 
 some of them outlaws from Redesdale, to Fawdon, 
 July 19, 1267, and set Douglas's house on fire in three 
 places. They wounded his son William, who was to 
 become so famous in Scottish history, very severely in 
 the neck, nearly cutting off his head. Douglas himself 
 and others they led prisoners to Harbottle, and carried 
 off silver spoons, cups, mazers, clothing, arms, and jewels, 
 such as gold rings and gold 'fermails/ to the value of 
 ;ioo. Our sympathy with Douglas is somewhat abated 
 on learning that, having bought some property at Fawdon 
 in 1264, he had summarily ejected Gilemin de Wooler, 
 who had just taken a six years' lease of it, and it was 
 not till five years later that Gilemin obtained tardy 
 and scanty compensation. 
 
 In the wild state the country was in, a license to 
 crenellate must have had an especial value. John Cumyn 
 was allowed to fortify his ' camera ' in the manor of 
 Tarset with a ditch and wall of stone and lime, and to 
 embattle it, without let or hindrance from the King and 
 his heirs, provided it were enclosed and embattled like 
 the ' camera ' of Adam de Gesemuth at Heaton. The 
 latter was, no doubt, the ruin in Heaton Park, at the 
 east end of Newcastle, popularly called King John's 
 Palace. 
 
 The assize-rolls of the English justices at Newcastle, 
 and of those of the King of Scotland at Wark, in Tyn- 
 dale, are full of incidents that throw strong side-lights on 
 Northumbrian life in the latter half of the thirteenth 
 century. It is a pity that we have no similar rolls for 
 Redesdale, the lord of which held his own court, though 
 a knight of the Northumbrian comitatus was appointed by 
 the justices at Newcastle to see that right was done. 
 Fugitive serfs were constantly being claimed by their 
 lords, but sometimes the verdict was in their favour. 
 Ralph le Lorimer, who had run away from Roger
 
 142 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Mauduit in 1262, was able to prove that his grandfather 
 was a freeman from Normandy. Adam Wyther and his 
 brother, whom it was attempted to keep in bondage at 
 Mousen, established the fact of their father having come 
 with their grandfather from Flanders. Others were not 
 so fortunate ; William of Killingworth was delivered, with 
 all his goods and offspring, to his master at Weteslade. 
 Others again, like Ralph of Fishwick at Lucker, pur- 
 chased their liberty. 
 
 The manorial lords had begun to enclose the common 
 lands, but did not always have their own way. Roger- 
 fitz-Roger shut the free sokemen out of a portion of the 
 wood of Rothbury, where they had been accustomed to 
 graze their stock, and bought off the parson's opposition 
 by presenting him with six acres of the common pasture. 
 The tenants of the Lees in Langley barony complained 
 that Nicholas de Boltby had imparked the wood by which 
 they went to Haydon church and Corbridge market. He 
 replied that he had left them a road on either side of it. 
 The importance of Corbridge as a market-town appears 
 also from the presentments that the road to it from 
 Newcastle had been rendered dangerous by pitfalls, and 
 that the bailiffs of By well and Newbrough had begun to 
 levy unjust tolls on the market-folk. The King's officers 
 at Corbridge fair tried to put down cattle-lifting. They 
 asked Uctred of Butterby for a surety that he had honestly 
 acquired two oxen and a cow he was trying to sell. 
 Thereupon, as he had stolen them, he fled to the church 
 for sanctuary. The churches of St. John, St. Nicholas 
 and St. Mary Magdalen at Newcastle were the habitual 
 refuges of the numerous prisoners who escaped from the 
 county gaol. Ralph ' le Messir de Pleden ' is recorded 
 to have jumped over the castle wall and gained the church 
 of Gateshead. Two notorious highwaymen lay loaded 
 with fetters and secured with double doors and great 
 bolts in the strong prison in the basement of the keep. 
 They made, it is said, a practice of fasting on bread and 
 water every Saturday, and saying three hundred ' Ave
 
 Tyndale. 143 
 
 Marias ' every day. On the night of the Assumption, 
 A.D. 1265, Our Lady appeared to them, asking, ' Why lie 
 ye idle ? Wherefore go ye not forth ?' Immediately 
 their fetters became as wax, the doors flew back on their 
 hinges, and the great dogs in the courtyard were struck 
 dumb. Making a rope of their clothes, they let them- 
 selves down over the curtain-wall. Notwithstanding this 
 legend, the keeper of the gaol was found guilty of con- 
 nivance at their escape. At Alnwick, a Scot named 
 Simon, who had been confined in the castle for stealing 
 a mare, broke out of the prison. Killing the porter and 
 another man, he took the keys, opened the gate, and 
 escaped to the church. There he abjured the country 
 before the coroner. 
 
 The difficulty of keeping malefactors in prison was, 
 perhaps, one reason for executing summary justice upon 
 them. William Yrrumpers was beheaded at Wooler for 
 stealing seven skins. Stephen Slingsby, a Lincolnshire 
 man, who had stolen a horse from a dyer there, was over- 
 taken and beheaded at Mitford. Two sailors from Dun- 
 wich were hanged at Tynemouth for stealing clothes. 
 Malcolm of Thirlwall, an outlaw, who came with a band 
 of thieves to Redpeth and killed Robert, son of Thurkil 
 of Blenkinsop, with a sword, had his head cut off on the 
 spot. As in the case of Emma of Wauchope, near Kielder, 
 who was decapitated for theft at Bellingham, time was not 
 always allowed for the arrival of the coroner, who, it must 
 be remembered, acted as a sort of juge ^instruction in 
 prosecutions of all sorts. The most extraordinary case of 
 all was certainly that of Gilbert of Nithsdale, a Scot who 
 had associated himself with a hermit named Seman from 
 Bottisham. In consequence of a dispute in going over 
 the moors, Gilbert beat the poor hermit and left him 
 half dead, after robbing him of his clothes and one penny. 
 He had not gone far before he met Ralph of Belford, a 
 King's officer, who arrested him as a rogue and took him 
 to Alnwick. Thither also came Seman. The bailiff and 
 men of the town heard the case, and according to the
 
 144 History of Northumberland. 
 
 custom of the country, that the injured person was to 
 himself act as executioner, the hermit beheaded Gilbert 
 and received his clothes for so doing. A stranger who 
 stole four geese at Newbrough must have considered 
 himself fortunate in only having one ear cut off. On 
 the miller of Bellingham being found guilty of appro- 
 priating a boll of his lord's meal, the justices of Tyndale 
 thought it wrong to mulct him in life or limb for so small 
 an offence, and so fined him a mark. 
 
 Few criminals were left for the judges of assize to 
 dispose of. William Coleman was drawn and hanged by 
 their sentence for the murder of Henry de Ilderton ; 
 William Fisher of Kestern was hanged for killing Gilbert of 
 Farnley, and Stephen of Coniscliff for a murder at Stanton. 
 
 Suicides were of comparatively rare occurrence. There 
 were so many opportunities of losing your life that it was 
 not worth while to take it yourself. Richard de Newton, 
 Master of the hospital of St. Margaret in the Westgate of 
 Newcastle, and Beatrice de Roddam, who hanged herself 
 in a small tower at Newton-on-the-Moor, were the most 
 noted cases offelo de se. 
 
 The instrument that was the immediate cause of 
 death was forfeited as a deodand. The parson's man 
 at Rothbury was returning with a cask of wine in a 
 waggon, when, having imbibed too freely, he fell under 
 the wheel and was killed. Oxen, waggon and wine all 
 escheated to the Church, and had to be redeemed. 
 Adam Aydrunken there were at least two persons with 
 that festive surname at the time was drowned in a boat 
 on the Tyne at Newbrough, in the franchise of Tyndale. 
 The question of the seizure of the boat as a deodand was 
 complicated by the fact of its having first touched the 
 shore within the county of Northumberland. 
 
 Fishing regulations were sufficiently stringent. Those 
 who had gurgites or salmon-traps on the Tyne might re- 
 move them to mid-stream, that is to say, as far as their 
 land went, if they got filled up with sand ; but when John 
 de Ridel removed his in A.D. 1252, Robert de Nevill, the
 
 Tyndale. 145 
 
 Sheriff and Constable of Newcastle, came with men armed 
 with bows and arrows and hatchets, and destroyed it. 
 At the assizes of A.D. 1269 it was unanimously agreed 
 by the twelve jurors taken both from the north and the 
 south of the Coquet, with the consent of the whole comi- 
 tatus (as well of the knights as of the other freemen), that 
 during October and November there was to be no fishing 
 in the Tyne, Wansbeck, Coquet, Blyth, Aln, Till, and 
 Glen, while during May and June no net was to be placed 
 in the pools or mill-sluices unless the mesh were sufficiently 
 large to let the small salmon pass. In Tyndale the millers 
 of Wark and Edingham got into trouble for fishing in 
 close time, while the terrarius of Hexham was charged with 
 sending men to fish in Grindon Lough without leave. 
 
 The fishing rights of the Constable of Newcastle gave 
 rise to constant disputes, and his arbitrary conduct was 
 freely denounced. A sailor of Norway swore that he 
 would never come to Newcastle again nor advise anyone 
 else to do so during William Heron's tenure of office. 
 This protest was supported by a merchant named Punce, 
 whose wine Heron had seized at a fixed price and then 
 resold at a profit. 
 
 The abduction of Denise de Bechefield from Milburn 
 Moor, on Monday, August 22, 1271, probably had little 
 romance about it. The daughter of John de Witton, 
 Denise, had married Gilbert de Ba, a farmer of four 
 bovates at Bechefield near Belsay, which she purchased 
 after his death, and so acquired the local surname. She 
 was thus a well-to-do widow when Walter de Swetehope 
 carried her off to Roxburgh, as she was returning from 
 Newcastle in the company of her uncle, and in vain en- 
 deavoured to force her to marry his son. After this 
 escapade, Walter had little right to complain when, a 
 few years later, Gilbert de Umfraville pulled down his 
 house at Doctrees and carried off the timber, taking at 
 the same time two of Swetehope's heifers and their calves 
 to his forest of Redesdale, where he marked them with his 
 own iron brand. 
 
 10
 
 1 46 History of Northumberland. 
 
 The Bishop of Durham continued to complain of 
 Scottish encroachments at Tweedmouth, but the three 
 carucates of land at Carham which had been such a 
 fruitful subject of international arbitration would, it 
 seems, have been recovered by the canons of Kirkham, 
 under an award of twelve English and twelve Scottish 
 knights made in Lent, A.D. 1286, had it not been for the 
 untimely death of Alexander III. This, followed as it 
 was by that of the King's only grandchild, ' The Maid 
 of Norway,' entirely altered the relations between the two 
 kingdoms. 
 
 The last days of Scottish rule in Tyndale were disgraced 
 by a serious outrage. The Rector of Whitfield was seized 
 by the servants of Sir Simon Fraser, and hurried off to 
 Scotland with his feet tied under a sumpter-horse. At the 
 end of a week he was left for dead in the forest of Selkirk 
 at midnight. Imagining that they had got rid of him, Sir 
 Simon's cousins, Beatrice de Whitfield and her son, took 
 possession of his property. As William Fraser, another 
 cousin, was the Scottish Chancellor, the Rector de- 
 clared that there was no hope of his obtaining justice in 
 Tyndale.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE GREAT WARS. 
 
 EDWARD LONGSHANKS betrayed no undue 
 haste to interfere in the affairs of Scotland. It 
 was not until May, 1290, that, in the solemn Norman nave 
 of the church of Norham, he explicitly declared that he was 
 come in the character of supreme and direct lord, to 
 maintain the tranquillity of that kingdom, and to mete 
 impartial justice to the numerous claimants of its crown. 
 In a conference held on the greensward of Holywell 
 Haugh, immediately opposite the castle of Norham, these 
 claimants unanimously recognised Edward's suzerainty, 
 and agreed to abide by his decision. Judgment was 
 solemnly pronounced at Berwick in favour of John 
 Baliol, who, among other great estates in England, owned 
 the barony of Bywell. The new King swore fealty to 
 Edward at Norham, and, having dined with him at New- 
 castle on Christmas Day, did homage on the morrow in 
 the Moot Hall. 
 
 The franchise of Tyndale was also delivered to Baliol 
 as the heir of Alexander III., but in order to settle the 
 appeal of Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham, to Edward, 
 claiming the towns of Berwick and Haddington, he 
 granted it to that rapacious prelate, to be held in free 
 alms by himself and his successors a grant afterwards 
 repudiated by the English kings, on the ground that 
 Baliol was in covert rebellion at the time. Acting as
 
 148 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Rufus did to Malcolm at Gloucester, Edward refused to 
 allow the disputed boundary between England and Scot- 
 land at Carham and Brigham to be settled on the spot 
 according to the practices of march law, reserving it for 
 his own supreme court. Other instances soon occurred 
 to prove to the Scots that the Lord Paramount they 
 had spontaneously given themselves was no King Log, 
 and they entered into a secret treaty with France in order 
 to rid themselves of him. 
 
 Still, there were no certain signs of the coming storm. 
 So late as the Michaelmas of 1295, Ellen de Prenderlath, 
 a Scottish lady who had been for eight years a damsel of 
 the late Queen of Norway, and had on that account re- 
 ceived a considerable legacy under the will of Alex- 
 ander III., did not hesitate to invest the whole of it in a 
 mortgage secured by a lease of Moneylaws in Northum- 
 berland. 
 
 Matters were precipitated by the Scottish garrison of 
 Berwick all at once burning some English ships that had 
 entered that harbour, and slaughtering the crews. Baliol, 
 summoned to Newcastle, refused to appear. Edward 
 collected there an army of 4,000 heavy-armed horse and 
 30,000 foot, and receiving word from William de Ros that 
 his brother Robert, lord of the great Border castle of 
 Wark-on-Tweed, and also of that of Sanquhar in Scot- 
 land, had elected to side with the Scots, owing to his love 
 for the unworthy Christiane de Mowbray, he despatched 
 a thousand men to occupy Wark. These were suddenly 
 roused in their night-quarters at Pressen by the cry, 
 ' Death to the English !' Robert de Ros and the Scots 
 had surrounded the village, and anyone who did not 
 answer the password, ' Tabard,' with ' Over the tunic,' 
 was immediately butchered. The English leader barely 
 escaped with the loss of his horse and arms. Edward 
 thanked God that up to that time his hands were innocent 
 of blood, and that his enemies, by invading England, had 
 taken the responsibility of the war on their own heads. 
 
 He marched to Wark himself, and immediately after
 
 The Great Wars. 149 
 
 Easter invested Berwick from the Scottish side. Three 
 of his ships going aground in the river distracted the 
 attention of the garrison, and the young English knights, 
 putting their horses at the low fortifications then sur- 
 rounding the town, effected a victorious entry. Seven 
 thousand citizens of this Alexandria of the North are said 
 to have been put to the sword before Edward, noticing a 
 woman slain with a child at her side, gave orders for the 
 massacre to cease. Thirty Flemish merchants held out 
 in their tower, called the Red Hall, till the evening, when 
 they perished in its flames. The castle was forced to 
 surrender, but the soldiers in it were released on parole. 
 The King did not disdain to follow the advice, 
 
 ' Waune thou havest Berwick, pike thee ; 
 Waune thou havest geten, dike thee,' 
 
 which the Scots defiantly cast in his teeth. He himself 
 set to work with a shovel and barrow in making the great 
 ditch which was to defend the town from the north. 
 
 Robert de Ros and the Earls of Athol and Menteith, 
 who, with a horde of 40,000, were afraid to attack Edward 
 at Berwick, plundered the monastery of Carham, and 
 besieged the castle of Harbottle for two days in vain, 
 killing the deer in the park. They then ravaged Redes- 
 dale and Coquetdale, and reduced Tyndale to cinders 
 and charcoal. They burnt the town of Corbridge, roast- 
 ing alive 200 boys in the school. On Wednesday, 
 April n, accompanied by Adam de Swinburn, they 
 reached Hexham, from which the canons had fled. The 
 next morning, having sacked the priory, they set fire to it 
 as well as to the church and the whole town, outdoing 
 the horrors of Berwick in the atrocities they committed 
 on women and children. The great church, with what- 
 ever was left of Wilfrid's work, was soon in a blaze, and 
 the relics of the local saints were pitched from their 
 shrines into the flames. So far from St. Andrew, the 
 national saint of Scotland, proving this time any protec- 
 tion for his house, the ribald Scots cut off the head of his
 
 150 History of NortJmmberland. 
 
 image, saying that it was a lesson for him not to leave his 
 own country. Popular sentiment was especially shocked 
 at not even the sacred rood being spared : 
 
 ' Voillez penser des arsons 
 
 Du temple Deu omnipotent 
 A Hexelesham, ou eel host 
 De la croice faisaint rost 
 Figure de humayn salvement.' 
 
 Proceeding up South Tyne, the horde burnt all the small 
 nunnery of Lambley, except the church, and then made 
 off home with their booty. 
 
 The victory of Dunbar, followed by the resignation of 
 Baliol, established the rule of Edward in Scotland. On 
 his return to Northumberland he delivered at the abbey 
 of Newminster a great seal of his own to the Earl of 
 Warren, whom he had appointed guardian of Scotland, 
 declaring at the same time, in the coarse language of the 
 day, that necessity alone led him to do so dirty an action. 
 The security of the Border seemed assured ; the park of 
 Harbottle was restocked with bucks and does from Tyn- 
 dale, and forty oak-trees from Baliol's forfeited woods of 
 Bywell were given to the burgesses of Corbridge to aid in 
 the rebuilding of their town. 
 
 The appearance of William Wallace completely changed 
 the aspect of affairs. Warren fled from his defeat at 
 Stirling Bridge in such hot haste to Berwick that his 
 horse, when put into the stable of the Franciscans, re- 
 fused to touch food again. In the panic that ensued there, 
 Roger Heron, Rector of Ford, who kept the custom-house, 
 sent a large sum of money in leathern bags and pouches 
 to Warkworth Castle, in the charge of Hugh of Rothbury. 
 The Constable of Warkworth remarked their great weight 
 as his son carried them from the great chamber to an 
 adjacent closet. Part of the money was returned to Heron 
 at Durham, and properly accounted for, but a considerable 
 balance was missing. This, whatever it was, Rothbury 
 declared he had secreted in a sack of wool at Warkworth,
 
 The Great Wars. 151 
 
 with some jewels of his own, but never saw anything 
 more of it, since Robert-fitz- Roger, the lord of the castle, 
 arriving there, sold the wool and took possession of the 
 valuables. 
 
 Robert-fitz- Roger was certainly not the man to be over- 
 scrupulous in dealing with aught he found in his own 
 castle. The hermit Martin, on Coquet Island, had the 
 strange fancy to build a windmill out at sea there. 
 Robert-fitz- Roger waxed furious, thinking the trade of his 
 own mills would suffer. Accustomed to act as if he were 
 prince of the whole country, he sent thirty men with 
 mattocks and axes to destroy the objectionable mill. 
 Martin was too frightened to say anything ; the protests 
 of his Gehazi nearly cost him his life. After all, the 
 chronicler adds, many people thought that it was not 
 quite the right thing for a professed hermit to speculate 
 in a windmill, as mills, like shows, were apt to harbour 
 promiscuous society. 
 
 On Wallace's approach, the garrison of Berwick retired 
 into the castle, the town being unable to stand a siege, 
 through the avarice of the English officials having delayed 
 the completion of the fortifications. The terrified Northum- 
 brians sent their wives and children with their cattle and 
 goods to Newcastle ; but when, after a certain time, they 
 found the Scots did not cross the Tweed, they brought 
 them all home again. This was just what the Scots were 
 waiting for. Choosing the forest of Rothbury as a centre, 
 they issued from it to gather in their plunder all around, 
 meeting with little or no interference. The Prior of 
 Alnwick, in jingling Latin couplets, rightly likened 
 Northumberland to a widow bereft of her sons, the great 
 families of Vescy, Merlay, Somerville, and Bertram being 
 extinct or ruined. Alnwick itself was burnt by ' William 
 Wallace that Robin Hood,' as the Prior calls him. The 
 Cistercians of Newminster promised the Scots a goodly 
 sum if they would spare their abbey, but they did not 
 pay in time, so the Prior, being caught there, was carried 
 away captive.
 
 152 History of Northumberland. 
 
 For fear of the Scots, divine service ceased in every 
 church and monastery between Newcastle and Carlisle. 
 The canons of Hexham, however, opened negotiations 
 with the enemy, and obtained letters of protection from 
 Andrew Murray and William Wallace, ' leaders of the 
 army of the kingdom of Scotland.' On the faith of 
 these, three canons returned soon after the departure of 
 the horde for Carlisle. Having laid Cumberland waste 
 as far as Cockermouth, the Scots unexpectedly came back 
 to Hexham. The three canons, seeing them approaching, 
 took refuge in the oratory which they had rebuilt, with 
 the intention of celebrating Mass. Presently some of the 
 soldiery entered, brandishing their spears, and shouting, 
 * Show us the treasures of your church, or ye shall die.' 
 One of the canons replied that it was not long ago that 
 they or their countrymen had carried everything off to 
 Scotland, so they ought to know best where the treasures 
 were. At this moment Wallace himself entered, and, 
 ordering the ruffians to leave, requested a canon to pro- 
 ceed with the holy office. After the elevation Wallace 
 retired to put off his armour. As the priest was about to 
 communicate, the Scots closed in round him to snatch 
 away the chalice, and on his returning to the altar from 
 washing his hands, not only was the chalice gone, but 
 all the other ornaments ; even the missal itself was miss- 
 ing. Wallace ordered the thieves to be caught and their 
 heads cut off, but there was only a pretence made of 
 apprehending them. 
 
 The Scots swept on towards Newcastle, following the 
 north bank of the Tyne. The men of Ryton jeered at 
 them across the river, which was then in flood ; but their 
 confidence in its protection was misplaced, for Wallace's 
 followers crossed and burnt the village. The castle of 
 Newcastle had been put in a good state of defence by 
 John de Kirkby, the Sheriff of Northumberland. In con- 
 sequence, though the small garrison dared not advance 
 far beyond the walls to meet the Scots, Wallace was 
 afraid to enter the town. The same applied to Tyne-
 
 The Great Wars. 153 
 
 mouth, where the Prior and convent had obtained a royal 
 license for the fortification of their monastery. 
 
 At last a large English army, mustered at Newcastle, 
 succeeded in relieving the castle of Berwick, and occupy- 
 ing the town which the Scots evacuated. Peter of 
 Kirkoswald one of the soldiers in the castle swam to 
 Norham and back with letters in his hair, in order to 
 open communications with the relieving force. Further 
 operations were deferred until Edward's return from 
 Flanders. Wallace was then completely routed at Fal- 
 kirk, though, on the rumour of fresh trouble in Scotland, 
 the King prudently lingered at Tynemouth during the 
 autumn. His marriage with Margaret of France delayed 
 his return to Northumberland for nearly a year. On St. 
 Nicholas' Day, 1299, he witnessed the revel of the Boy 
 Bishop in the chapel of Heaton, near Newcastle. The 
 fractious conduct of his nobles compelled him to turn 
 back from Berwick, leaving Stirling Castle to its fate. 
 
 His subsequent expeditions to Scotland were restrained 
 by the influence of the Pope and the French Court, so 
 that it was not until May, 1303, that, having massed his 
 troops at Berwick, he reduced almost the whole country 
 to his obedience. Among the vessels employed in con- 
 veying stores for the recovery of Stirling was the Saint- 
 mari-ship of Alnmouth ; the Mayor and bailiffs of 
 Newcastle fitted out a large barge for the same purpose. 
 During her husband's absence, Queen Margaret spent 
 several months at Tynemouth. The erection of the two 
 fortified manor-houses of Aydon Hall and Shortflat Tower 
 by Robert de Raymes at this time cannot have been 
 necessitated by the requirements of national defence. 
 Aydon, with its fine hall and quaintly-carved fireplaces, 
 might seem architecturally to belong to an earlier period, 
 if many of its features were not duplicated at Shortflat. 
 
 The insurrection of Robert Bruce in 1306 was followed 
 by summary executions of Scottish prisoners at New- 
 castle. One of these, John de Somerville, owned certain 
 property at Hedgeley. Edward himself was journeying
 
 1 54 History of Northumberland. 
 
 by slow stages from Lanchester and Stocksfield towards 
 Lanercost and Carlisle, when he was taken ill at New- 
 brough. He proceeded, however, along the line of the 
 Wall, halting at Bradley. From Blenkinsop he directed 
 Sir John Swinburn to take twelve stags in Tyndale 
 Chace, and to send the venison in all haste for his table. 
 His health improved, and when at Thirlwall, a few days 
 later, he seemed strong and hearty enough, considering 
 his age. He spent the winter at Lanercost, and, as 
 some compensation for the expenses his long illness 
 entailed on that house, he bestowed upon it the church 
 of Mitford. 
 
 Edward II. set his father's dying counsels at naught. 
 Bruce soon said that he feared a dead king's bones more 
 than a live king. Bamburgh was granted to Isabel de 
 Beaumont, the widow of John de Vesci of Alnwick ; 
 Anthony Bek, the Bishop of Durham, was restored to 
 all his 'temporalities. This greedy prelate made the 
 ' warm words ' addressed to him by William of Kildare, 
 the natural son of William de Vesci, an excuse for sell- 
 ing the great barony of Alnwick, which he held in trust 
 for him, to Henry de Percy. The Scots soon began to 
 carry the war over the Border. The oats and barley 
 grown on the lands belonging to the suppressed Order 
 of Templars, at Temple Thornton, were hastily sold in 
 the autumn of 1308, lest they should fall into their 
 hands. 
 
 Edward's expedition to Scotland in 1310 produced no 
 permanent results. His residence at Berwick during the 
 following spring is chiefly remarkable for the length of 
 his fish-bill. As the result of much negotiation, he 
 received the homage of his ambitious cousin, Thomas 
 of Lancaster, for the earldom of Lincoln, at Haggerston ; 
 Lancaster refused to kiss Piers Gaveston, which bitterly 
 mortified that favourite. Scarcely had Edward gone 
 south, than Bruce burnt Haltwhistle, and harried the 
 Valley of South Tyne. A month later he came down 
 on Corbridge by Harbottle and Holystone, and made a
 
 The Great Wars. 155 
 
 clean sweep of everything still left in Tyndale, including 
 Robert Pykewell, the Vicar of Haltwhistle. 
 
 Edward returned to the North to protect the country 
 from similar depredations. He and Gaveston had only 
 just sufficient time to escape from Newcastle to Tyne- 
 mouth, when the town was betrayed to Lancaster, who 
 seized the treasury and ninety-seven war-horses, keep- 
 ing the royal household under arrest for three days. In 
 order to save Gaveston's life and satisfy his rebellious 
 barons, Edward consigned him to pretended captivity 
 in Bamburgh Castle. Under such circumstances any 
 organized defence against the Scots was out of the 
 question. Aymer de Valence, the English guardian of 
 Scotland, was chased by Bruce as far as Corbridge, 
 which was burnt, together with Hexham. Bruce quietly 
 established himself at Corbridge, like another King 
 Reginald, while his men fired the city of Durham, and 
 exacted tribute from the four northern counties. His 
 attempt to surprise the castle of Berwick by an escalade 
 with well-contrived rope-ladders was frustrated by the 
 barking of a dog. 
 
 Thomas of Lancaster, who had treacherously decapit- 
 ated Gaveston, was in almost open rebellion, when by his 
 orders the first stones of Dunstanburgh Castle were 
 quarried on May 7, 1313. For the lord of Kenilworth 
 and Pontefract to raise illegally a vast stronghold on the 
 wild coast of Northumberland was not calculated to allay 
 suspicion as to his ultimate intentions. The colossal pro- 
 portions of the Great Gatehouse conjure up a vision 
 of what the rest of the castle would have been, if 
 Lancaster, whose foible it was to assume the character of 
 King Arthur in the pageants of the Court, had completed 
 the construction of this new Tintagel. 
 
 After the fatal rout of Bannockburn, Edward was glad 
 to escape from Dunbar to Bamburgh with seventeen men 
 in a boat. On his arrival, on account of the imminence of 
 the danger, he appointed Roger Horsley constable of the 
 castle by word of mouth. The consternation at Berwick
 
 156 History of Northumberland. 
 
 can readily be imagined. Three little boys had gone out to 
 play in the Magdalen fields, and were returning to the 
 town-gate, when one of them found he had lost his song- 
 book, and went back to look for it. They were at once 
 arrested on the charge of trafficking with the Scots, but 
 were acquitted. Three Northumbrians, however, who 
 really attempted to sell the town to the enemy were tried 
 before Colle of Derby, and two other justices in eyre, and 
 executed forthwith. As Colle was returning through Aln- 
 wick, he was set upon by Sir John Lilburn, the brothers 
 Roddam, and other friends of the traitors, and only 
 rescued by the exertions of Sir John Felton, the Constable 
 of the castle. Sir John Wischard of Moneylaws, and 
 others, openly rejoined the Scots, who extended their 
 raids right into Richmondshire. 
 
 The condition of Northumberland was terrible in the 
 extreme. For fifteen years after 1316 the whole country 
 remained waste, no one daring to live in it except under 
 the shadow of a castle or walled town. The poor people 
 of Bamburgh Ward were not allowed by the Constable of 
 the castle to purchase a truce from the Scots unless they 
 paid him a similar amount of blackmail. He also mulcted 
 them severely for the privilege of storing their goods and 
 chattels in the castle, while the porters would neither let 
 them in nor out without heavy fees. In addition, John 
 the Irishman and his fellows in the garrison robbed them 
 of provisions, with no pretence of payment. The Twelve 
 Towns of Tyndale (Kirkhaugh, Knaresdale, Thirlwall, 
 Walltown, Haltwhistle, Thorngrafton, Elrington, Melk- 
 ridge, Ridley, Whitfield, Ulmston (Ouston), and Plen- 
 mellor), found themselves equally between the upper and 
 nether millstone. They had given the sum of 35 to 
 William de Soules, to whom Bruce had granted the manor 
 of Wark, in order, as they declared, to defer acknowledging 
 him as their lord ; but the people of Cumberland and 
 Westmorland regarded them as traitors, and not only 
 refused to allow them to take refuge in those counties, 
 but came by night and plundered their homesteads.
 
 The Great Wars. 157 
 
 The national defence had completely broken down. 
 Aymer de Valence, in engaging Sir John Eure to keep his 
 castle of Mitford, was obliged to pay him in that ' time of 
 war ' twice as much as in the ' time of peace,' when the 
 King was on the Border with his army. Sir Maurice 
 Berkeley and the garrison of Berwick found themselves 
 left to their fate. The soldiers sallied out in quest of 
 provisions against his orders, declaring it was better to 
 die fighting than to starve. If a horse died in the town, 
 the men-at-arms carried it off to boil, and would not let 
 the foot-soldiers touch it till they had appeased their own 
 hunger. Even if a brave Northumbrian did occasionally 
 get the better of the Scots, he was more often than not 
 defrauded of the fruits of his valour. Roger Mauduit 
 attacked a great multitude of them pillaging and burning 
 at Redpeth, near Haltwhistle ; but when he had made 
 Richard Middleton and four others prisoners, Thomas 
 Fishburn and his crew took them from him, sold Middle- 
 ton to the King for 100, and let the others go 
 their way. So, too, when Mauduit had seized Simon 
 Locard and two more Scots at Mitford, and lodged them 
 in the castle, Sir John Lilburn let them out and pocketed 
 their ransom. 
 
 Mitford Castle was soon afterwards stealthily seized by 
 Gilbert de Middleton, a warden of the marches, said to 
 have been driven into rebellion by the conduct of Edward 
 in arresting his kinsman, Adam de Swinburn, for speak- 
 ing rudely to him on the desperate state of Northumber- 
 land. In company with Walter de Selby and a party of 
 Scots, Middleton waylaid and robbed, near Durham, 
 Gaucelin d'Euse, Cardinal of SS. Marcelin and Peter, and 
 Ludovico Fieschi, Cardinal of S. Maria in Via Lata, who 
 were on their way to negotiate a truce with Scotland. At 
 the same time he carried off prisoner Louis de Beaumont, 
 Bishop-elect of Durham, to the castle of Morpeth, and his 
 brother Henry to that of Mitford. 
 
 Middleton, no doubt, was in secret understanding with 
 Lancaster, with whom he had a meeting in Durham
 
 158 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Cathedral, much to the horror of the despoiled cardinals. 
 His ravages extended from Newham, near Bamburgh, 
 where he wasted the lands of Edmund Cumin's widow, as 
 far south as Cleveland, the priory of Tynemouth being an 
 especial sufferer. Bamburgh, Alnwick, and Norham were 
 the only castles that stood out against him in North- 
 umberland. Bamburgh gave hostages for its surrender, 
 and Alnwick was about to be delivered to him by his 
 kinsmen. The dungeons of Mitford were filled with his 
 neighbours, whom he kept in durance for the purpose of 
 extorting heavy ransoms. 
 
 At last, William de Felton, Thomas de Heton, and 
 Robert de Horncliff, pitying the captives, and fearing their 
 own turn might come next, came under a safe-conduct to 
 Middleton. After much bargaining, they settled the terms 
 on which some prisoners were to be set at liberty at once, 
 and others detained as hostages till the whole of the stipu- 
 lated sum was paid. The Prior and convent of Durham 
 ransomed Bishop Beaumont, at whose abduction they 
 were suspected of conniving, while Peter de Salso Marisco 
 was accepted as a hostage for Henry de Beaumont. 
 
 On the day appointed for the final payment, while 
 Middleton's band of outlaws were absent on their work of 
 rapine, Felton and his friends returned to Mitford, and, 
 telling Middleton that they had left the money in the 
 village, they obtained his leave to pass and repass the gates 
 to fetch it. Then of a sudden they cut the throats of the 
 porters, and let in a number of armed men they had lurk- 
 ing outside. Middleton, never expecting anything of the 
 sort, was speedily overpowered and put in irons. His 
 men, returning too late with the prisoners and cattle taken 
 in their raid, betook themselves to the pele of Horton- 
 next-the-Sea. Here Walter de Selby appears to have suc- 
 cessfully held out, notwithstanding the considerable debt 
 incurred by Richard de Emeldon, of Newcastle, in supply- 
 ing provisions for the siege of the little fortress. 
 
 Middleton, with his brother, was led bound to New- 
 castle, where the inhabitants gave him an ignominious
 
 The Great Wars. 159 
 
 reception. He was detained several days on board ship 
 in the Tyne, waiting for a north wind to carry him to 
 Grimsby, and when it came, it blew such a gale that his 
 life was almost lost on the voyage. From Grimsby he 
 was taken on horseback, with his feet tied together under 
 the girth, to be hung, drawn and quartered at London. 
 His execution and that of his brothers put an end to the 
 claim which they had preferred to the Earldom of North- 
 umberland, and which was supported by actual possession. 
 The rebellion had been widespread : Roger Purvis and 
 others were taken resisting the King in the peles of Bolton 
 and Whittingham ; John Maitland of Howick, John Wid- 
 drington of Denton, John Hazelrig of Akeld, and Walter 
 Corbet of Lanton, were among those whose estates were 
 forfeited. 
 
 In consequence of the alleged malversations of his 
 officials at Berwick, the King had entrusted the keeping 
 of the town to the Mayor, bailiffs, and community. 
 Through their carelessness, Peter Spalding, one of the 
 burgesses, was enabled to treacherously admit the Scots 
 under Murray and Douglas on March 28, 1318. They 
 came at midnight to the town-wall at the Cow Gate, and, 
 climbing over it unperceived, lay concealed within the 
 town until daybreak, when they issued from their hiding- 
 place and drove any of the English who opposed them 
 into the castle. This made a brave defence for eleven 
 weeks longer, Roger Horsley, the Constable, losing an 
 eye, and Robert de Blakeburn crossing the Tweed at great 
 risk to himself with twenty-one horses and letters for the 
 King. It only capitulated for want of provisions. The 
 whole of Scotland, 
 
 ' Fra the Red Swyre unto Orkney,' 
 
 now acknowledged the sovereignty of Robert Bruce. 
 
 Soon after the capture of the town of Berwick, the 
 castles of Wark and Harbottle, not being relieved within 
 a certain fixed time, were forced to surrender. The 
 Scots even surprised the castle of Mitford, and intrusted
 
 1 60 History of Northumberland. 
 
 it to their old ally, Walter de Selby. He, however, on 
 promise of a full pardon from Edward, delivered it up to 
 Robert Umfraville, Earl of Angus. Notwithstanding 
 this, his manor of Seghill, held by the service of acting as 
 steward in the hall of Tynemouth on St. Oswin's Day, 
 continued to be confiscated. 
 
 During the whole of this troublous time, Sir Thomas 
 Gray and his friends were holding out in Norham Castle. 
 At a great feast of lords and ladies made in Lincolnshire, a 
 ' damsel faye ' brought to Sir William Marmion a helm of 
 war with a golden crest, accompanied by a letter from her 
 lady bidding him go into the most perilous place in Great 
 Britain, and there make this helm famous. The knights 
 present decided accordingly that he should go to Norham. 
 Within four days of his arrival, Alexander, brother of 
 Philip de Mowbray, the Scotch Warden of Berwick, came 
 before the castle at noon with more than eight -score 
 men-at-arms, the boldest horsemen of the Scottish 
 march. Rising from dinner, Sir Thomas Gray brought 
 his garrison in front of the barriers; then seeing that 
 Marmion, richly arrayed and glittering in gold and silver, 
 the helm on his head, was following them on foot, 
 he shouted : ' Sir knight, ye be come hither as a knight- 
 errant to fame your helm, and since deeds of chivalry 
 should rather be done on horseback than on foot, mount 
 up on your horse and spur him into the midst of your 
 enemies yonder. I forswear God if I rescue not thy 
 body dead or alive, or I myself will die for it.' Marmion, 
 thus put to the test, could do no otherwise. The Scots 
 slashed his face and dragged him from the saddle. There- 
 upon Gray, with the whole garrison, their lances couched, 
 charged in among the Scots, and so pricked their horses 
 that many threw their riders, while the rest galloped 
 away. Marmion was rescued and set on his horse again. 
 The enemy were pursued, the first-comers of them slain, 
 and fifty ' horses of price ' taken. The women of the castle 
 led these horses to their husbands, who mounted and 
 followed the chase, laying low the Scots they overtook.
 
 The Great Wars. 161 
 
 A Fleming named Cryn, who was a pirate admiral in the 
 good graces of Robert Bruce, was slain by Gray's orders 
 at the Yarrowford; the pursuit of the other Scots was con- 
 tinued to the nunnery of Halidon, just outside Berwick. 
 
 Another day Adam de Gordon, a Scottish baron, came 
 before Norham with 160 men-at-arms, thinking to sur- 
 prise the cattle grazing outside the castle. The young 
 men ran out to the other end of the village, then all in 
 ruins, and began skirmishing. Surrounded there by the 
 Scots, they took refuge behind some old walls, and 
 made a bold defence. Then Sir Thomas Gray, issuing 
 from the castle with his garrison, and perceiving the 
 jeopardy they were in, said to his under-constable : ' I 
 pledge thee this castle, which I ought to guard for the 
 King's use, that I will drink out of the same cup as my 
 men there.' He advanced so rapidly that, although he 
 had no more than sixty men with him, including common 
 soldiers, the Scots, seeing him coming in this bold 
 fashion, left the skirmishers and took to the open. The 
 young men who had been surrounded then sprang out 
 of the ditches and, charging the enemy, forced them to 
 turn their horses round so suddenly that many stumbled 
 and their riders were killed by the footmen. The whole 
 English force, now being united under Sir Thomas Gray, 
 drove the Scots over the Tweed, taking and killing many. 
 If they had only been better horsed, scarcely a Scotsman 
 would have escaped. 
 
 In September, 1319, Edward made a great attempt 
 to recover Berwick. Although the walls were still very 
 low, the Scots offered a stubborn resistance. A general 
 attack was made with scaling-ladders, while a ship with 
 a boatful of soldiers half-mast high was towed close to 
 the walls on the river-side. Unable, however, to approach 
 sufficiently near these to let fall a drawbridge from the 
 boat, owing to the hailstorm of stones discharged from 
 the battlements, the vessel eventually ran aground at 
 the ebb of the tide, and was burnt in a sortie of the 
 garrison. A week later, a great machine called a Sow, 
 
 ii
 
 1 62 History of Northumberland. 
 
 sheltering a number of sappers and miners, was moved up 
 to the walls. With the enforced assistance of an English 
 engineer, who had been seized on the grounded ship, the 
 Scots hurled a huge stone high in the air. This 
 descended with such force on the Sow as to split it in 
 two, causing the men in it to rush out amid jeers to the 
 effect 
 
 'That thair sow ferryit was thair.' 
 
 A crane on wheels, constructed by the Flemish engineer, 
 Sir John Crab, completed the destruction of the Sow by 
 lowering on to it a bale of flaming faggots. The Mary 
 Gate, however, was almost burnt by the English, when a 
 descent of Sir Walter Stuart from the castle forced them 
 to retire. A renewed attack from the Tweed was not 
 more successful ; the ships had their top-castles filled with 
 armed men and boats hauled high up the masts, but a 
 stone from the walls hit one of these boats with such fatal 
 consequences that the crews lost what little courage they 
 had left. 
 
 The Earl of Lancaster had now withdrawn from 
 Edward's camp with his friends and their forces, and 
 Douglas and Murray had defeated the Archbishop of York 
 at Mitton-on-the-Swale, so the King found himself obliged 
 to abandon the siege. He waited at Newminster expect- 
 ing to intercept the plunder of Yorkshire, but Douglas and 
 Murray marched home by Stainmoor and Gilsland. Dis- 
 heartened by so much ill-success and treachery, Edward 
 consented to a two years' truce. One of the conditions 
 was that Harbottle Castle, then held by the Scots, should 
 be delivered to Edward's commissioners in their private 
 capacity. If a final peace were not concluded, it was either 
 to be restored to Bruce, or to be completely dismantled 
 before the expiration of the truce. When the time came, 
 all hope of peace being at an end, John de Penrith, the 
 Constable, was ordered to demolish it with as little ado as 
 possible. Sir Thomas Gray had taken advantage of the 
 truce to go to the south of England. It had still a month
 
 The Great Wars. 163 
 
 or so to run when, on St. Catherine's Eve (November 24), 
 one of the garrison of Norham killed the porter, and let in 
 a mixed band of miscreants who lay in ambush in a house 
 before the gate. These made themselves masters of the 
 outer ward, and, after failing to mine the inner ward and 
 donjon, burnt it for fear of Gray's return. 
 
 Thomas of Lancaster had all this time maintained very 
 questionable relations with the Scots. They were said to 
 have intentionally spared his estates in the course of their 
 ravages ; even after Bannockburn they contented them- 
 selves with only lifting one horse from the ' garniture ' of 
 Dunstanburgh. Messengers bearing ' secret news ' and 
 ' rumours from northern parts ' were sent by the bailiff of 
 Embleton to the Earl at Donnington and Pontefract. 
 The address on some of Lancaster's Scottish correspond- 
 ence, which fell into Edward's hands, referred to him 
 as ' King Arthur.' The air was full of popular ballads on 
 the subject of Merlin's prophecies, like that beginning 
 
 ' As I went on a Monday 
 
 Between Whittington and Wall, 
 Me alone on the broad way, 
 
 A little man I met withal, 
 The least saw ever I, sooth to say, 
 
 Either in bower, either in hall. 
 His robe was neither green nor gray, 
 
 But all it was of rich pall.' 
 
 The little man, the minstrel went on to say, had come, 
 he knew, from the parkside at Lanchester, and he 
 exhibited his marvellous strength in taking up a great 
 stone and casting it strides three. He then conducted 
 him to his mysterious habitation close by, where he 
 beheld lords feasting and ladies singing. Then follow the 
 prophecies, with dark allusions to T and L, and promises 
 of a good time in store, when wrong works should cease 
 and husbandmen have rest. This rigmarole may have 
 been the production of William de Hexham, a canon 
 whom Lancaster interested himself in having preferred 
 from the priory of Hexham to that of Leicester. The
 
 164 History of Northumberland. 
 
 canons of Hexham were not above composing ballads 
 in derision of the mendicant orders. The traditions of 
 Arthur's Court entranced in the basalt caverns of Dun- 
 stanburgh and Sewinshields are evidently referred to in 
 the political literature of Lancaster's conspiracy. Re- 
 fusing to follow the advice of his friends and place him- 
 self in safety at Dunstanburgh, the Earl was defeated 
 at Boroughbridge, and shortly afterwards beheaded at 
 Pontefract. 
 
 Relieved of the opposition of his barons, Edward 
 determined to march on Edinburgh. In passing through 
 Newcastle, his common soldiers were in such high spirits 
 that they fell upon the commonalty of the town, and in 
 endeavouring to quell the riot, Sir John de Penrith and 
 certain esquires of the Marshal and Constable lost their 
 lives on Tyne Bridge. The King was compelled to re- 
 cross the Border, owing to the scarcity of stores and a 
 consequent outbreak of the plague. The Scots followed 
 close upon his heels. Henry de Beaumont, brother of 
 the Bishop of Durham, and the Constable of Norham 
 refused to allow him to victual the castle and increase the 
 garrison at his own cost. Edward addressed a sharp re- 
 monstrance to the Bishop from Newbiggen. The matter 
 was arranged by Sir Thomas Gray, the Constable, under- 
 taking to find twenty knights and fifty light horsemen, in 
 addition to the episcopal garrison. His dame received a 
 month's pay for these in advance at Newcastle, but before 
 she could return to Norham it was already invested. The 
 King expressed his confidence in Gray's great loyalty for 
 the defence of this Castle Dangerous, and begged him to 
 send daily reports of the Scots' movements, accompanied 
 by his counsels how to act. 
 
 It turned out that the Scots, entrenched probably at 
 Upsetlington, did not muster more than a hundred knights 
 and a hundred light-horse, while in Berwick there were 
 only forty Scottish knights in addition to the burgesses. 
 Edward was naturally enraged that the Constables of 
 Bamburgh, Warkworth, Dunstanburgh, and Alnwick, who
 
 The Great Wars. 165 
 
 had much superior forces, did nothing to secure the 
 safety of the March, which he had spent so much in 
 strengthening. The unfortunate inhabitants rightly 
 represented that it was useless for him to pay away 
 large sums to the Wardens, and that nothing but his 
 return with the whole power of England could save them 
 from annihilation. He was exerting himself to raise a 
 fresh army, when he was nearly captured at Byland in the 
 heart of Yorkshire by a band of Scots, whom the treachery 
 of Andrew de Harcla had allowed to slip past Carlisle. 
 This new proof of perfidy, where it might least have 
 been expected, led the unfortunate King to consent to 
 the Truce of Bishopsthorpe in 1323. This was to be 
 prolonged for thirteen years. One article stipulated 
 that the English were not to build or repair any fortress 
 north of the line of the Tyne and South Tyne, except 
 those already existing or in course of construction. A 
 final peace failed to be concluded in consequence of the 
 extraordinary claim advanced by the Scots to all the 
 country up to the gates of York. This seems to have 
 been based rather on the right of conquest than on any 
 remembrance of the heritage of Waltheof. The poor 
 people who had taken refuge in Bamburgh were now 
 emboldened to remove their wooden shanties and goods 
 and chattels from the castle and the ditch and moat. 
 Some of them obtained leave to send coals from New- 
 castle to Scotland as their sons' ransoms. All trouble, 
 however, was not at an end ; by the King's order a pele- 
 yard was constructed outside the gates of Prudhoe 
 Castle for the protection of the peasants and their 
 property. 
 
 On the night of the coronation of Edward III. a large 
 band of Scots, expecting to profit by the festivities of the 
 garrison of Norham, attempted to surprise the castle. 
 Sixteen of them had already mounted the battlements, 
 when Robert de Maners, the Constable, who had been 
 forewarned by a Scotsman in his service, fell upon them. 
 One only escaped, and the incident was considered a
 
 1 66 History of Northumberland. 
 
 good omen for the Scottish wars of the opening reign. 
 Negotiations for a final peace were nevertheless carried 
 on until the Scots entered England in the middle of 
 June, destroying everything with fire and sword to within 
 four miles of Newcastle, the garrison of which remained 
 inactive, though it included 1,000 men-at-arms. A 
 month later, 4,000 Scottish knights and squires, under 
 Douglas and Murray, crossed the South Tyne by a ford 
 near Haydon Bridge, and commenced ravaging the west 
 part of the bishopric of Durham. They were followed 
 by 20,000 bold and hardy men on little cobs that were 
 never tied up nor groomed after their day's march, but 
 were immediately turned out to graze at will. No 
 baggage-waggons accompanied the Scots, on account 
 of the mountains they had to pass in Northumberland. 
 The river-water served them for wine, and they required 
 neither pots nor pans, since they dressed the flesh of the 
 cattle they caught in kettles made of the hides. Bread 
 they had none ; each man carried a small iron ' girdle ' 
 under the flaps of his saddle, on which to bake a ' bannock ' 
 from the small bag of oatmeal at his back. 
 
 With a great army of over 60,000 men the young King 
 Edward set out from Durham to attack these marauders, 
 who were encamped at Stanhope. He had not gone far 
 before the spies of his vanguard brought word that the 
 Scots had broken up their camp at his approach, and by 
 the advice of the Borderers he accomplished a forced 
 march of twenty- six miles through Allendale that hot 
 summer's day, thinking to cut the Scots off from their 
 own country. He crossed the Tyne near Bardon Mill, 
 and drew up his host at Haydon Bridge, expecting the 
 Scots to return by the same route as they had advanced. 
 Rain fell day after day ; the very leather of the English- 
 men's accoutrements rotted. They were reduced to 
 starvation for want of supplies, though they scoured all 
 the country round, especially the estates of Hexham 
 Priory. Still, they comforted themselves with the con- 
 viction that they had foreclosed the Scots. At last,
 
 The Great Wars. 167 
 
 after a week of mire and misery, the poor young King 
 went in despair to Haltwhistle. Then, after much recon- 
 noitring, Sir Thomas Rokeby discovered that the Scots 
 had never left Stanhope at all. The main body of them 
 gave the English the slip, and got safely back to Scotland 
 by a roundabout road. 
 
 Soon after this extraordinary affair, Robert Bruce laid 
 siege to Norham. The Constable, Robert de Maners, by 
 a successful sortie discomfited the watch the enemy set 
 before the gates. Sir William de Monthaut, a Scottish 
 banneret, and others, were slain through their own negli- 
 gence ; the captain of the watch, a miserable coward, 
 would not allow anyone from the village to attempt their 
 rescue. Murray and Douglas, meanwhile, appeared be- 
 fore the castle of Alnwick, where there were ' great jousts 
 of war by covenant taille.' Henry Percy, however, main- 
 tained so resolute a defence for a fortnight or more that 
 the Scots left for Warkworth. Foiled here again, they 
 returned to Bruce at Norham. Percy thereupon started 
 on a raid into Teviotdale, but had scarcely gone five miles 
 before Douglas, apprised of this, got between him and 
 Alnwick. The English had at that time so little courage 
 in the open that Percy was glad to escape to Newcastle 
 by night. 
 
 The desultory nature of these campaigns brought both 
 sides to yearn for a definite peace, and the First Great 
 Scottish War, after having lasted more than thirty years, 
 was brought to a conclusion by the Treaty of Northamp- 
 ton in April, 1328. The King of England renounced all 
 claim to sovereignty over Scotland, the boundaries of 
 which were to be restored as they had existed in the reign 
 of Alexander III. 
 
 The general restitution of confiscated lands in both 
 kingdoms, which was provided for by this treaty, was on 
 the whole loyally carried out. A difficulty arose at West 
 Upsetlington, near Norham, which, although on the 
 north side of the Tweed, had been from time immemorial 
 the property of the Bishops of Durham and parcel of
 
 1 68 History of Northumberland. 
 
 England ; at least, no Bishop of Durham had ever done 
 homage or service for it to a King of Scots. Bruce now 
 insolently summoned Bishop Beaumont to attend his 
 Parliament at Scone. The ferry between Tweedmouth 
 and Berwick was also another bone of contention ; the 
 Scots claimed the whole of the Tweed as parcel of Scot- 
 land, and would allow no English boat to touch the north 
 bank. To clear up these and other doubtful questions of 
 frontier, a new perambulation of the Border was ordered 
 to be made by the English justices. 
 
 It proved in the end impossible to reinstate all the 
 English lords in their hereditary estates in Scotland. 
 Consequently Henry de Beaumont and others fitted out 
 a private expedition which, invading Scotland by sea, 
 proved so unexpectedly successful as to place Edward 
 Baliol on the throne. The excitement on the Border, 
 where Edward III. had endeavoured to keep faith with 
 David Bruce, naturally became intense. Thomas Gray 
 the Younger and his men pounced down like true banditti 
 on John de Reynton, a rich burgess of Berwick, at Hoi- 
 burn, and carried him off to unknown places till he had 
 paid a considerable part of the ransom demanded, and 
 had left his sons prisoners at Norham as hostages for the 
 rest. The English, however, felt equally insecure ; the 
 burgesses of Bamburgh obtained a royal license for the 
 fortification of their town. Reprisal followed reprisal, 
 and the two countries drifted into a regular war. 
 
 Berwick was invested by sea and land by Sir William 
 Montagu at the end of February, 1333. The King, having 
 at Newcastle on St. George's Day besought the prayers 
 of the nation for his success, arrived before Berwick in 
 the second week of May. His first assault failed, but the 
 Scots gave their sons as hostages that they would sur- 
 render the town by a certain day if not previously re- 
 lieved. Before that day came the whole power of Scot- 
 land crossed the Tweed by the Yarrowford at dawn, and 
 * showed themselves at the Sayning-side,' in full view of 
 Edward and his army. Having passed Sir William Keith
 
 The Great Wars. 169 
 
 with a supply of men and victuals into the town across 
 the Tweed, Archibald Douglas proceeded to attack Bam- 
 burgh. Queen Philippa of Hainault was in the castle at 
 the time, and her presence no doubt encouraged its gallant 
 defenders ; the Scots were effectually repulsed. 
 
 Meanwhile the day stipulated for the surrender of Ber- 
 wick had arrived, and Edward called on the garrison to 
 carry out the arrangement. They, on the other hand, de- 
 clared it was no longer binding, since they had been re- 
 lieved ; and in proof of this they appointed Sir William 
 Keith Governor of the town. The English thereupon 
 hanged Alexander Seton, the son of the former Governor, 
 and one of the hostages, in the sight of his father and 
 mother. The parents of the other hostages were of softer 
 mould, and, fearing for the lives of their sons, they brought 
 about a fresh and more explicit capitulation. Fifteen 
 days were allowed within which the Scots were either to 
 pass 200 men-at-arms into the town by dry land between 
 the English camp and the sea, or to give battle in the 
 open ; if they did neither, then the town was to yield. 
 Three fresh hostages were given to ensure the fulfilment 
 of these conditions. Sir William Keith and other knights 
 set out under a safe-conduct to bring back the Scottish 
 army, which they overtook at Witton Underwood. 
 
 In their over-confidence, engendered by the successes of 
 
 ' Mitton, Bannockburn, and Byland, 3 
 
 the Scots made light of the strong position taken up by the 
 English on Halidon Hill, to the west of Berwick. They 
 descended into a great sike, and began climbing the steep 
 brae on the other side, fighting bravely all on foot. They 
 were, however, completely blinded by showers of English 
 arrows, and on the advance of the English spearmen 
 and men-at-arms, followed by the death of their leader 
 Douglas, were routed with immense slaughter. Edward 
 at the commencement of the battle made a vow that, in 
 case of victory, he would found a Benedictine house for 
 a prior and twelve monks. He afterwards granted the
 
 1 70 History of Northumberland. 
 
 rich church of Simundburn, in dispute between himself 
 and the Bishop of Durham (in consequence of John 
 Baliol's grant of Tyndale to Anthony Bek, and the royal 
 contention that Baliol was a rebel at the time), for the 
 purpose of endowing such a house at Oxford in honour 
 of St. Margaret, on whose vigil the battle was won. It 
 was, however, the chapel of St. George at Windsor that 
 eventually obtained the benefaction. 
 
 In gratitude for the English King's assistance, Edward 
 Baliol ceded to him Berwick and all Lothian, to be an- 
 nexed for ever to the southern crown. But the tide of 
 war ebbed rapidly. Already in 1336, 200 Scottish horse, 
 led by Thomas Pringle, entered Redesdale. They were, 
 however, cut off at a ford on their way home by the Earl 
 of Cornwall and the Lords Percy and Neville. The next 
 year Coquetdale and Redesdale were again harried; but 
 the inhabitants, having received timely warning, had re- 
 moved their cattle. In 1338 Sir Alexander Ramsay, 
 raiding at Pressen, was nearly surrounded by the English 
 marchers. He feigned flight; the Northumbrians, quarrel- 
 ling among themselves, became scattered in the pursuit, 
 and were easily vanquished. Sir Robert Maners was 
 taken prisoner. The scar received by the builder of 
 Ford Castle was scornfully recorded in the distich : 
 
 ' Schyr Willame Heron wyth a strake 
 In to the cheke his way can take.' 
 
 In 1342 the young King David Bruce, having returned 
 to Scotland from France, rode over the Border with the 
 new knights he had made a right sturdy company. 
 They fell in with Sir Robert Ogle, who retreated across 
 a morass. Only fifty Scots succeeded in crossing after 
 him ; then Ogle turned, and easily captured five knights 
 and others. At the end of August David Bruce was 
 encamped on Heddon Law. A vision of St. Cuthbert 
 dissuaded him from entering the Bishopric at Ryton. 
 Two months later, after an ineffectual attack on Rox- 
 burgh, ,he marched past Berwick into Northumberland.
 
 The Great Wars. 171 
 
 The town of Alnwick was given to the flames ; the castle 
 offered a successful resistance. Discomfited before New- 
 castle by a sudden sortie, in which the Earl of Murray, 
 who had just been exchanged for the Earl of Salisbury 
 at the siege of Tournay, was again taken prisoner, the 
 Scots crossed the Tyne higher up, and extended their 
 ravages to Auckland. 
 
 The news of this invasion reached King Edward at 
 Stamford. In four days he was at Newcastle. The 
 army of David Bruce, in full retreat, passed under the 
 battlements of Wark, where the fair Catherine de Grandi- 
 son, Countess of Salisbury, was living in retirement 
 during her husband's absence. The sight of the rich 
 booty being carried off to Scotland proved too much for 
 Salisbury's nephew. Falling on the Scottish rear-guard, 
 he drove off more than a hundred pack-horses to the 
 castle. Bruce and his whole force turned back, and 
 commenced a formal siege. Encouraged by the beautiful 
 Countess, the garrison repelled their assaults for two days. 
 Hearing from some Scottish prisoners that Edward had 
 reached Alnwick, Salisbury's nephew profited by the 
 heavy rain to steal out of the castle before daybreak and 
 to ride away to implore the King's immediate assistance. 
 
 Edward reached Wark at noon, to find the enemy de- 
 camped. He at once disarmed, and, accompanied by Sir 
 Reginald Cobham, Sir Richard Stafford, and a few other 
 knights, proceeded towards the castle to inquire for the 
 safety of the fair chatelaine. The gates were thrown 
 open, and the Countess of Salisbury, in her richest attire, 
 advanced to meet him. With a low reverence she 
 tendered her thanks for the relief of her castle, and then, 
 hand-in-hand, the two passed up the hall into the chamber. 
 The King was so struck by Catherine's beauty that he 
 never took his eyes off her until she retired to give direc- 
 tions for dinner ; then, leaning on a window-sill, he fell 
 into a long day-dream. From this he was aroused by 
 the return of the Countess, who, however, cut short the 
 declaration of his passion with the very practical rebuff:
 
 172 History of Northumberland. 
 
 ' Come, sir, to the hall ; your knights are waiting for you, 
 to wash their hands, for they, as well as you, have fasted 
 too long.' 
 
 After dinner, when the trestle-tables were removed, 
 Edward ordered his main force to follow the Scots, pro- 
 mising to rejoin them in the evening. He then called for 
 a chess-board, and, persuading the Countess to play with 
 him, staked the very beautiful ruby ring he wore on his 
 finger against a little gold ring of hers. The Countess 
 was so confused by the King's marked attentions that, do 
 all she could, she played very badly ; he, however, played 
 worse intentionally, and in the end was checkmated. 
 Spices and wines were brought in ; the King would par- 
 take of nothing before the Countess, nor the Countess 
 before the King, so in the end they helped themselves 
 simultaneously. It being now time for the King to leave, 
 his palfrey was led into the hall. He refused to mount 
 in the Countess's presence, so she retired to her bower. 
 As his foot was in the stirrup, a damsel fell on her knees 
 before him and tendered the ruby ring, which Catherine 
 had been forced to accept through politeness, though she 
 thought it a breach of hospitality to have won it from a 
 guest, especially a guest who had just effected her deliver- 
 ance. Edward determined that his ring should remain 
 as a souvenir at Wark, and what the Countess would not 
 keep he presented to her damsel. 
 
 The romantic relief of Wark became a favourite topic 
 of Court gossip. Though the character of the Countess 
 of Salisbury was never called in question by writers 
 most hostile to that of the King, it seems that in 
 adopting the device HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE in 
 the tournaments he subsequently gave in Catherine's 
 honour, and to which the origin of the Order of the 
 Garter is referred, it was this adventure that Edward had 
 in mind. 
 
 Edward's wars in France caused the knights and 
 squires of Northumberland to rely more on their own 
 resources for protection. A great impulse was given to
 
 The Great Wars. 173 
 
 the building of castles and towers. On the very eve of 
 sailing for Antwerp, in 1338, the King at Ipswich had 
 granted Sir William Heron a license for the crenellation 
 of Ford. Bothal Castle, licensed in 1343, still retains 
 among the carved shields that adorn the battlements of 
 its massive gate-house the rare blazon of Edward on first 
 adopting the style of King of France, with the quarter of 
 leopards before the quarter of lilies, and that of the Black 
 Prince with a bordure bezanty of Cornwall, which seems 
 absolutely unique. Ford and Etal and Chillingham, which 
 also date from this period, were all castles enclosed by a 
 curtain-wall with towers at the four corners. At Etal one 
 of these corner towers is a fine donjon, with small traceried 
 windows; and another a gate -house, with the barred 
 shield and peacock-crest of Maners over the entry. Blen- 
 kinsop (1340) and Crawley (1343) belonged, probably, to 
 the type of solitary tower, which was splendidly developed 
 in Widdrington, with its lofty battlements and corner 
 bartizans, built in 1341, and ruthlessly levelled in 1777, and 
 in Belsay and Chipchase, which still survive. The Lucy 
 stronghold of Langley, with its profusion of window- 
 tracery and massive corner towers and the less elaborate 
 home of the Widdringtons at Haughton on North Tyne, 
 are fourteenth-century tower-houses on a larger scale, 
 which ranked as castles from the very first. 
 
 In 1346, David Bruce, confident that, all the English, 
 except ' sutlers, skinners, and merchants,' being engaged 
 in France, he could march unimpeded on London, entered 
 Northumberland at Redpeth, and ravaged the lands of 
 the barony of Langley. No more than 2,000 men-at- 
 arms answered his roll-call in the abbey of Hexham, 
 which he burnt, but he had probably 30,000 irregular 
 troops besides. The towns of Hexham and Corbridge 
 were arrogantly spared for winter-quarters. The fortalice 
 of Aydon Hall surrendered on conditions. Having 
 destroyed the town of Slaley, the Scots wasted the lands 
 of Sir Robert de Herle and his tenants at Styford, 
 Broomhaugh, Riding, Merchenley, Shildford, Newbiggen-
 
 1 74 History of Northumberland. 
 
 by-Blanchland, and Shotley, ' riding over them with a 
 great host,' and then crossed the Derwent into the 
 Bishopric at Ebchester. The havoc wrought in St. 
 Cuthbert's patrimony was fully avenged by the battle of 
 Neville's Cross. David Bruce, taken prisoner by Sir 
 John Coupland, was conducted first to Prudhoe Castle, 
 and then to Bamburgh, where two barber -surgeons 
 from York extracted the arrow from his wound. 
 Malcolm Fleming, Earl of Wigton, another prisoner, was 
 deemed so important a prize that strict injunctions were 
 given Robert Bertram, Sheriff of Northumberland, to 
 guard him in the castle of Newcastle, and not admit him 
 to ransom. As, however, Fleming was too ill to be sent 
 to London with the King and others, Bertram transferred 
 him to his own castle of Bothal, in the custody of Robert 
 Delaval of Newsham. Prisoner and keeper escaped to 
 Scotland together, and Bertram, though one of the 
 twelve knights who received the royal thanks for their 
 bravery at Neville's Cross, was arrested and sent to the 
 Tower for contempt. 
 
 A truce of eight years brought some tranquillity to the 
 Borders. Trollope in the Cheviots was restored to the 
 monks of Melrose. Permission was given to go into 
 Scotland to buy cattle and horses ; but the great plague 
 of 1348 added to the general desolation, and no truce 
 could stem the disorders in Northumberland itself. 
 William Heron and Roger Widdrington, with William 
 Swinburn and two Silvertops, carried off the goods of 
 Gilbert Umfraville from Birtley. Thomas Hatfield, the 
 Bishop of Durham, was seized at Morpeth by Robert 
 Usher and others, and his servants so wounded that the 
 lives of many were despaired of. 
 
 On the expiry of the truce in 1355, Sir William Ramsay 
 of Dalhousie plundered the town of Norham, and drew 
 Sir Thomas Gray and his son out of the castle into an 
 ambush laid for them at Nesbit in the Merse. The 
 young Sir Thomas Gray employed his comparatively 
 short captivity in Edinburgh Castle in writing the
 
 The Great Wars. 175 
 
 ' Scalacronica,' a valuable French chronicle, named 
 after the scala, stair-ladder or gre, a canting badge 
 of his house. In the quaint allegorical preface he says 
 that one night, after he had been thinking on the subject, 
 he dreamt that a Sibyl led him into an orchard, where 
 placed against a wall was a ladder of five rounds. This 
 was supported by Thomas de Otterburn, a gray friar, and 
 a master of divinity, on whose works he was generally to 
 rely. Ascending the ladder, Gray and the Sibyl found at 
 each round the historian who treated of the period 
 typified. At the fourth, in a chamber in a village before a 
 strong castle, a chaplain was writing on a lectern. This 
 was John de Tynmouth, Vicar of Tilmouth, who wrote the 
 ' Historia Aurea,' from the Conquest downwards. The 
 fifth round they did not mount ; that was not History, 
 but Prophecy. 
 
 Soon after the capture of the Grays at Nesbit, the 
 Scots, aided by Sir Eugene de Garencieres and other 
 French knights, came on a dark night in ships up the 
 Tweed, and disembarked unperceived beneath the walls of 
 Berwick. In the early dawn, scaling the Cow Gate, they 
 soon made themselves masters of the town, Sir Robert 
 Ogle, the Captain, being slain. The burgesses escaped 
 from their beds through the other gates or over the walls. 
 Some of them got into the castle through the Douglas 
 Tower. Edward marched north and entered the castle, 
 intending to let down the drawbridge and sally into the 
 town, while his army and navy, assisted by miners from 
 the forest of Dean, assaulted the walls. The Scots, 
 alarmed at these formidable preparations, abandoned the 
 town. Baliol, tired of the long contest, and having no 
 heirs, confirmed a formal surrender of his rights in 
 Scotland and his English estates, including Bywell, to 
 Edward at Bamburgh. The truce between England and 
 France after the battle of Poictiers included Scotland, 
 and Edward renouncing his demand of homage, and 
 receiving guarantees for the payment of David Bruce's 
 ransom, the King of Scots was set at liberty, and a ten
 
 176 History of Northumberland. 
 
 years' truce concluded at Berwick in 1357 ; nor was 
 there any more open war between the two kingdoms for 
 the remaining twenty years of Edward's reign. Roxburgh 
 and a considerable territory remained English. In 1363, 
 Sir John Coupland, then Warden of the Marches and 
 Keeper of Roxburgh, was murdered on Bolton Moor by 
 John de Clifford and others. His widow, who courageously 
 took a lease of Wark Castle, granted her pasture of Colpen- 
 hope in Lanton to the Abbot and convent of Kelso to 
 found a chantry for the souls of her husband and herself, 
 so thoroughly did Kelso seem to have become incorporated 
 in England.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PERCIES. 
 
 HENRY PERCY, as Marshal of England, led the 
 coronation procession of Richard II. He was 
 made a belted earl after the ceremony, by the title of the 
 county in which his great Border castles of Alnwick and 
 Warkworth were situated. The name of Percy, derived 
 from a village in the west of Normandy perhaps origin- 
 ally built in a percee, or forest glade became thus indelibly 
 associated with that of Northumberland. 
 
 The year after Hastings William de Percy had crossed 
 over to England with his neighbour Hugh d'Avranches, 
 the Conqueror's nephew. Through this connection he 
 received grants of large estates in Yorkshire, where the 
 castles of Spofforth and Topcliffe remained the chief seats 
 of the male line of his descendants. The heiress of this 
 line (which had next to nothing to do with anything north 
 of the Tees), married Jocelin, half-brother of Henry Beau- 
 clerc's second Queen, and younger son of Godfrey, Count 
 of Louvain, who had risen to be Duke of Brabant. The 
 Counts of Louvain sprang from Ragnar Long-neck, who, 
 in the ninth century, had established himself on the 
 Hayne at Mons, and who, after attempting to dislodge 
 the celebrated Rollo from the island of Walcheren, was 
 made prisoner by the Norman, and only ransomed through 
 the exertions of his brave wife Alberade. By his marriage 
 with a daughter of the house of Charles the Great, 
 
 12
 
 1 78 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Lambert, the first Count of Louvain, acquired Brussels 
 and other towns ; he gained an unenviable notoriety by 
 hanging his enemies with the bellropes of the churches in 
 which they had taken refuge. Henry, son of Jocelin of 
 Louvain and Agnes de Percy, assumed his mother's sur- 
 name. His descendants continued to bear the five golden 
 spindles of Percy on an azure shield until Henry 
 Percy III. the name of Henry, borne by three Counts of 
 Louvain, became so constant in the Percy family that a 
 royal notation had to be adopted preferred to assume, 
 towards the close of the thirteenth century, an azure lion 
 on a golden shield. 
 
 The traditions of the city of Louvain itself Lovan or 
 Luvanium are concerned with wolves, and not with 
 lions, as its German name of Loewen might lead one to 
 suppose. The lion of Brabant is a golden one on a black 
 shield. Whether Henry Percy III. assumed his lion- 
 coat in remembrance of his ancestry in Brabant, or of 
 his own alliance with the Earls of Arundel (who bore a 
 similar lion in their arms), he remained true to the azure 
 and gold of the ancient Percy coat, which was itself still 
 emblazoned on the lambrequin that flowed from his knightly 
 helm. 
 
 As has been said, Henry Percy III. purchased the 
 barony of Alnwick from Bishop Bek. His son, Henry 
 Percy IV., rebuilt Alnwick castle, and increased his 
 possession in Northumberland by acquiring the Claver- 
 ing baronies of Warkworth, Rothbury, Newburn, and 
 Corbridge. The Yorkshire property of the direct male 
 descendants of Jocelin of Louvain continued, however, 
 to be always of rather more value than the Northumber- 
 land. It might have been supposed that the titular 
 Earldom of Henry Percy VI. had reference to the whole 
 country between the Humber and the Tweed, instead of 
 the modern county, had not its dignity been supported by 
 an annuity of 20 from the revenues of the latter. By a 
 special clause, however, all the Earl's territorial posses- 
 sions, present and future, were to be parcels of his
 
 The Per ties. 179 
 
 Earldom. Not only his Yorkshire estates, but places 
 like Petworth in Sussex and Cockermouth in Cumber- 
 land found themselves in this honorary county of North- 
 umberland. 
 
 In the autumn of 1378, during the progress of negotia- 
 tions with Scotland for a final peace, seven Scottish 
 Borderers surprised the castle of Berwick. The Governor 
 was killed in jumping out of a window. A faithful soldier 
 named Thomelin Friane rode in hot haste to Alnwick 
 to acquaint the new Earl of Northumberland with the 
 disaster, and 7,000 archers and 3,000 horse were soon 
 collected round the castle. This the Scots, forty-seven in 
 all (their exploit being disavowed by their own Govern- 
 ment), had the effrontery to hold for the King of France. 
 It is during this eight days' siege, one of the most extra- 
 ordinary episodes of medieval warfare, that the Earl's son, 
 Henry Percy VII., makes his first appearance in history, 
 thundering at the great gate with that ardour and im- 
 petuosity that gained for him the name of Hotspur, while 
 other successful assaults were delivered by Sir Alan de 
 Heton, Sir Thomas Ilderton, and the whole Heron clan. 
 
 Much to the chagrin of the Percies, no doubt, the 
 young King's uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, 
 and titular King of Castille, proceeded to the North with 
 a great army in 1380, for the purpose of establishing a 
 lasting peace. Dissatisfied with the state of his castle of 
 Dunstanburgh, he engaged John Lewyn, of Durham, the 
 master-mason who built Bolton Castle, in Wensleydale, 
 to raise a lofty stone mantlet round the Great Tower. 
 Receiving private tidings of a great insurrection in the 
 eastern counties, he hastily concluded a long truce with 
 the Scots, and, when the Earl of Northumberland treated 
 him with disrespect, made his escape to Edinburgh, where 
 he was most hospitably received. 
 
 On his return journey the gates of Berwick were closed 
 in his face by the Constable, Sir Matthew Redman, act- 
 ing under the orders of the Earl. Northumberland subse- 
 quently declared that this was nothing more than strict
 
 180 History of Northumberland. 
 
 compliance with the King's injunctions against admitting 
 anyone into the cities, towns, and castles of the county, who 
 had no property in them ; but Lancaster threw down his 
 gauntlet to challenge him in the King's presence, and 
 Richard had difficulty in patching up the quarrel. In 
 virtue of the strange settlement made by Gilbert Umfra- 
 ville, third Earl of Angus, on his marriage with Maud de 
 Lucy, heiress of the honour of Cockermouth and the barony 
 of Langley, Northumberland, on the death of Angus in 
 1381, succeeded to the castle and barony of Prudhoe. Soon 
 afterwards, by marrying the widow, he acquired Cocker- 
 mouth and Langley, on condition that he and his descen- 
 dants by his first wife should always quarter the three 
 pikes of Lucy with the Percy lion. 
 
 Lancaster resumed his negotiations with Scotland, and 
 even obtained an indemnity for the damages done to 
 Wark Castle during the truce. His faith in the ultimate 
 success of his mission cannot have been great. On visit- 
 ing Dunstanburgh he set out a further work of masonry, 
 and ordered the erection of a new gatehouse on the west 
 side of the fortress, measures of defence that were justi- 
 fied by the raids made by the Scots as far as Embleton 
 in 1384. The English were soon afterwards driven out 
 of Teviotdale. Berwick, Roxburgh, and Jedburgh alone 
 remained of all their conquests. Even Berwick itself 
 was betrayed to the Scots during a truce by the Earl 
 of Northumberland's deputy. Accused in consequence 
 of treason, by Lancaster, and condemned by the Parlia- 
 ment, the Earl hastened to the Border, and, assembling 
 a large force, persuaded the Scots to restore Berwick 
 for 2,000 marks. Upon this he received the King's 
 pardon. 
 
 On the truce expiring, the Scots, with a French con- 
 tingent under John de Vienne, are said to have destroyed 
 the castles of Wark, Ford, and Cornhill. Another truce 
 was concluded at Billymire in 1386. Undeterred by this, 
 a band of Scotch freebooters lifted the cattle of William 
 Heron of Ford, killing some of his men in the process.
 
 The Percies. 181 
 
 Heron retorted by a raid across the Tweed, but North- 
 umberland ordered him to restore the cattle and money 
 taken, promising compensation for his previous losses. 
 On his proving refractory, the Earl sent Henry Lilburn 
 and Thomas Roddam to seize Ford, and lodge him in 
 Newcastle gaol. 
 
 The Truce of Billymire having run out, a large Scottish 
 force mustered at Southdean, in the forest of Jed- 
 burgh, in the beginning of August, 1388. The main body 
 proceeded to ravage Cumberland, while 300 chosen 
 spears and 2,000 footmen and archers, led by the Earls 
 of Douglas, March, and Moray, diverted the attention 
 of the English by invading the eastern Border. This 
 latter expedition, the details of which are given with 
 great accuracy in Froissart's contemporary chronicle, has 
 become especially famous in English literature from its 
 connection with the ballads of ' The Battle of Otterburn ' 
 and ' Chevy Chase.' These are really fragments of a 
 great cycle of Percy traditions tacked ignorantly together, 
 without regard to their chronological sequence, by 
 some degenerate south-country minstrel in the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 Rapidly and stealthily the three Scottish earls made 
 their way through the heart of Northumberland. They 
 plundered no house, assaulted no tower, and, traversing 
 the Percy barony of Prudhoe, crossed the Tyne near 
 By well. As soon, however, as they had got into the 
 richer parts of the county of Durham, they began slaying 
 the inhabitants and burning the villages. It was the fire 
 and smoke of these conflagrations that gave the first 
 alarm at Durham and Newcastle. To the latter town 
 the Earl of Northumberland despatched his sons Henry 
 and Ralph, while he himself remained at Alnwick, in the 
 hope of cutting off the Scots' retreat. On Saturday, 
 August 15, the marauders appeared before Newcastle. In 
 the skirmishes that took place at the barriers of the town, 
 the two young Percies were always among the foremost, 
 and at last Hotspur met Douglas in single combat. The
 
 1 82 History of Northumberland. 
 
 encounter ended in Douglas winning the gauntlets each 
 embroidered in pearls with a lion of England and two 
 Percy lions which Hotspur bore as a favour at the end 
 of his lance. 
 
 ' Henry, Henry,' cried the Earl, ' this much of your 
 finery I will carry back with me to Scotland, and set it on 
 the highest point of my castle of Dalkeith, that it may be 
 seen the further.' Hotspur, all rage, replied : ' Par Dieu, 
 Earl of Douglas, never shall you carry it out of North- 
 umberland. Be sure of that !' 
 
 To the Scots' surprise, Hotspur for once allowed his 
 impetuosity to be restrained by his knights, who fancied 
 that Douglas was only the van-guard of a large army, 
 and represented that it were better to lose a pennon than 
 two or three hundred knights and squires, and so put the 
 whole country in jeopardy. The Scots were allowed to 
 quietly break up their camp. On their way home they 
 took the castle of Ponteland, with Sir Aymer de Athol 
 in it. This good knight's arms are still in a window of 
 Ponteland Church, and the great slab which contained 
 his memorial brass one foot of which has alone been 
 saved has been recently rediscovered in the chantry he 
 founded in St. Andrew's Church at Newcastle. 
 
 From Ponteland the Scots proceeded to Otterburn in 
 Redesdale, about thirty miles from Newcastle. There they 
 wasted a whole day in attempting to reduce the castle. 
 Worn out by the unsuccessful attack, most of them were 
 for leaving on the morrow for Carlisle. Douglas, how- 
 ever, remembered Hotspur's threat, and resolved to give 
 him a chance of realizing it by tarrying two or three 
 days longer at Otterburn ; so his men made them bowers 
 of trees and leaves in a strong position, surrounded by 
 great marshes. The entrance to these, on the Newcastle 
 road, was occupied by the ' varlets and foragers,' and the 
 cattle which had been lifted were left to graze between 
 the two camps. 
 
 Some good men of Northumberland, who had followed 
 on the heels of the Scots, now brought word to New-
 
 The Percies. 183 
 
 castle that Douglas would for a certainty rest that night at 
 Otterburn without being joined by the main body of 
 the host ; as for the morrow, they could not answer. 
 'Then, to horse, to horse!' cried Hotspur; 'my duty 
 to God and my father bids me seek my pennon and dis- 
 lodge the Scots this night.' This time he met with 
 little opposition. Walter de Skirlawe, Bishop of Durham, 
 was to have arrived at Newcastle that evening, but 
 Hotspur considered his own force of 600 lances and 
 800 foot sufficient for his purpose. In his immediate 
 following were Ralph Lord Lumley, Sir Matthew Red- 
 man, Sir Robert Ogle, Sir Thomas Gray of Heton, Sir 
 Thomas Gray of Horton, Sir John Felton, Sir John 
 Lilburn, Sir William Wessington, Sir Thomas Abreton 
 (probably a Gascon knight), the Baron of Hilton, Sir 
 John Copeldyke, John Saville Sheriff of Yorkshire, and 
 two young Gascons : John, brother to the Seigneur of 
 Castelnau-de-Tursan, and John de Cantierain. The roll 
 of Otterburn has been as much tampered with by minstrels 
 anxious to flatter their patrons as was that of Hastings by 
 the monks of Battle. 
 
 The Scots were sitting at supper that St. Oswin's Eve, 
 August 19, 1388, when suddenly the cry of ' Percy ! 
 Percy!' rang from the camp of their 'varlets,' which the 
 English had mistaken for the camp of the knights. The 
 Scottish lords at once despatched their ' varlets ' and 
 foot-soldiers to take part in the skirmish, while they 
 themselves armed and formed into three companies, led 
 by the respective earls. Night was falling fast, but the 
 moon was up, and the air clear and calm. The Scots 
 had carefully thought out the tactics they were to follow 
 in case of a night attack. Falling silently into line, 
 instead of advancing straight against the English, they 
 skirted the marshes and, making round a hill, fell on the 
 rear of their assailants, who, having sent flying the first 
 batch of ' varlets,' kept meeting fresh relays as they 
 forced their way further into the camp. Taken between 
 two fires, the English kept their ground manfully, and
 
 184 History of Northumberland. 
 
 were on the point of routing the Scots, when Earl 
 James ordered his great silken banner (blazoned with 
 St. Andrew's cross, a white lion, the hearts and stars 
 of Douglas, and the proud motto ' Jamais arryere') to 
 be advanced, to the cry of ' Douglas ! Douglas !' The 
 brothers Percy now directed their whole attack on this 
 standard. Sir Patrick Hepburn and his sons were 
 struck down in defending it. Douglas, seeing his men 
 swerve, seized a battle-axe, and cut his way into the 
 midst of the throng. He was armed neither with breast- 
 plate nor bascinet, and in the uncertain light of the after- 
 glow and the moon was recognised neither by friend 
 nor foe. Three lance-thrusts bore him down. His 
 standard-bearer and the faithful Sir Robert Hart fell 
 beside him. His chaplain, William of North Berwick, 
 more warrior than priest, staved back the enemy until 
 Sir James Lindsay came up with Sir John and Sir Walter 
 Sinclair, and vainly endeavoured to raise the wounded 
 Earl. * Cousin, how fare you ?' asked Sir John. ' Poorly, 
 praised be God,' was the reply ; ' for few of my ancestors 
 died in bed or chamber. I count myself dead, for my 
 heart beats slow. Think to avenge me. Raise my 
 banner, and shout " Douglas !" and let neither friend nor 
 foe learn the pass to which I have come.' 
 
 On hearing this new cry of ' Douglas ! ' the Earls of March 
 and Moray threw themselves on the Percies. The battle 
 became a regular hand-to-hand fight ; every knight and 
 squire stood his ground. Sir Ralph Percy allowed his 
 valour to carry him into the midst of the Scots. Hemmed 
 in on all sides, the blood gushing from his hose and grieves, 
 he was compelled to surrender, 'rescue or no rescue,' 
 to John MaxweJl, a new-dubbed knight of Moray's house- 
 hold. Hotspur was engaged in mortal combat with Sir 
 Hugh Montgomery. There is nothing unlikely in the 
 poetical tradition that makes him yield to the ' bracken 
 bush ' in which the dead Douglas lay. More than a 
 hundred English knights shared Hotspur's fate. The 
 ferocity of the Scots and English in the fight was, how-
 
 The Percies. 185 
 
 ever, only equalled by their chivalrous conduct to each 
 other when once it was over. 
 
 Seeing that by himself he could not retrieve the fortunes 
 of the day, Sir Matthew Redman reluctantly mounted his 
 horse, and rode off in the direction of Newcastle. This 
 was noticed by Sir James Lindsay, who gave chase, cry- 
 ing, * Sir knight, turn ye ! It is base and shameful to 
 flee. I am James Lindsay, and if ye turn not, I will run 
 you through with my lance from behind.' But Redman 
 only galloped on the faster. At last, when the pursuit 
 had lasted some twelve miles, his horse stumbled near 
 Shafto, and, rising on foot, he prepared to defend himself 
 with his sword. Parrying Lindsay's lance, which stuck 
 in the ground, he cleft it in two. Thereupon Lindsay 
 also dismounted, and attacked Redman with his axe so 
 fiercely that he yielded, and was allowed to proceed to 
 Newcastle, after promising to present himself as a prisoner 
 in Scotland in a fortnight's time. 
 
 The moon had now gone down. Lindsay, having 
 ridden two or three miles towards Otterburn, as he sup- 
 posed, found himself face to face with a company of 
 horsemen. Thinking they were Scots, he rode in among 
 them. ' Who goes there ?' demanded the leader. ' I am 
 James Lindsay.' ' You are right welcome, sir knight ; 
 and I take you my prisoner. I am Walter de Skirlawe, 
 priest and Bishop of Durham.' The Bishop had reached 
 Newcastle in the evening with the levies of Yorkshire and 
 Durham, and had sat down to supper, when it struck 
 him that it was not quite right to leave the Percies un- 
 supported. Accordingly, at eight o'clock at night the 
 trumpets sounded ' To horse !' and, issuing at the Berwick 
 gate at the head of a thousand followers, the Bishop finally 
 took the Redesdale road. The fugitives from Otterburn 
 whom he met told anything but reassuring tales. His 
 own ranks thinned so rapidly in consequence that he had 
 only 500 men left when he encountered Lindsay near 
 Belsay. There was nothing for it but to turn back. 
 At three in the morning the Bishop re-entered Newcastle,
 
 1 86 History of Northumberland. 
 
 and, fearing a night attack, remained himself at the gate 
 until sunrise. 
 
 On coming to Skirlawe's lodgings that morning, what 
 was Redman's surprise to see Lindsay leaning out of a 
 window. The two prisoners naturally concluded they 
 would now be exchanged, and, in the best of spirits, Red- 
 man took Lindsay to dine with him. Skirlawe was much 
 put out by the ill-success of his night-march, and, taking 
 with him all the available troops, got within four miles 
 of Otterburn, when a furious blowing of horns and 
 beating of drums by the Scots in their fortified camp 
 caused his craven following to retreat. 
 
 A succession of truces secured the peace of the Border 
 for the remainder of the reign of Richard II. At a 
 march-meeting at Hawden-stank in 1397, Hotspur ap- 
 peared in complete armour, whereupon Sir David Lindsay 
 demanded : 
 
 ' " Sir Henry, what makes you to be 
 Sae warlike as you now we see ?" 
 To him then answered the Percy : 
 " I will that you wit, Sir Davy, 
 Of Scottish men I dread nae force, 
 But this I do for English horse." 
 Then said the Lindsay Sir Davy : 
 "Thou kens right well yet, Sir Henry, 
 That oft have Scotsmen with their force 
 Thee sarer grieved than English horse " ' 
 
 a bitter allusion to Otterburn. 
 
 While Sir Thomas Gray of Heton, who had recently 
 acquired the barony of Wark-on-Tweed, was attending 
 the first Parliament of Henry IV., the Scots seized Wark 
 Castle, carrying off his children and many of the tenants. 
 Sir Thomas thought it necessary to obtain the King's 
 pardon for the inefficiency of his garrison. Further 
 ravages of the Scots were checked at Fulhopelaw, in 
 Coquetdale, by Sir Robert Umfraville. Among his many 
 prisoners were Sir William Stewart, John Turnbull 
 (known as ' Out- with -the - Sword ') and Sir Richard
 
 The Per ties. 187 
 
 Rutherford and his five sons. All these, by King Henry's 
 orders, were forbidden to be ransomed. In August, 1400, 
 the King himself led an expedition as far as Edinburgh. 
 The Scots slipped in behind him, and ravaged Bamburgh- 
 shire. It was probably on this occasion that 
 
 1 Over Ottercap hill they came in, 
 And so down by Rothley crag ; 
 Upon Greenleighton they lighted down, 
 Stirring many a stag. 
 
 1 And boldly burnt Northumberland 
 
 And harried many a town ; 
 They did our Englishmen great hurt 
 To battle that were not bound. 
 
 ' Then spake a bairn upon the bent 
 
 Of comfort that was not cold, 
 And said : " We have burnt Northumberland, 
 We have all wealth in hold. 
 
 '" Now we have harried all Bamboroughshire, 
 All the wealth in the world have we " ' 
 
 an opinion as to the richness of Bamburghshire that 
 was endorsed by its inhabitants, who were wont to 
 describe it as ' the finest coonty in a' England.' 
 
 Two years later, in 1402, whether or not in connection 
 with hunting in Cheviot, Archibald Douglas appears to 
 have accepted a challenge from the Percies to meet them 
 in battle about August 15, the Feast of the Assumption. 
 At any rate, King Henry gave orders for raising levies to 
 assist them by that day. The Scottish raid seems to 
 have extended nearly to Newcastle. The Percies re- 
 solved to cut off their retreat. Hotspur was at this time 
 Constable of Bamburgh, and the ballad tells us : 
 
 ' Then the Percy out of Bamburgh 
 
 With him a mighty many, 
 With fifteen hundred archers bold ; 
 
 They were chosen out of shires three.' 
 
 Unfortunately for Northern pride, the retinue-lists and 
 muster-rolls of the period show that these archers, instead
 
 1 88 History of Northumberland. 
 
 of being raised from Bamburghshire, Islandshire, and 
 Norhamshire, must have been mainly Welshmen. 
 
 Riding all night, the Percies posted themselves on the 
 right bank of the Glen at Homildon, a little beyond Wooler, 
 between the river and the Cheviots. The next morning 
 it was probably Monday, August 14, the vigil of the 
 Assumption, for writers who, in the case of Otterburn, 
 mistook St. Oswald's Eve for St. Oswin's, may easily have 
 got confused between the Assumption and the Exaltation 
 they despatched 500 archers in quest of food : 
 
 ' The drivers thorowe the woodes went 
 
 For to reas the deer ; 
 Bomen bickarte upon the bent 
 With their broad arrows clear. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 The begane in Chyviat the hyls above 
 
 Yerly on a monnynday ; 
 Be that it drewe to the oware off none 
 A hondrith fat hartes ded ther lay.' 
 
 It was about noon when the Scots, hurrying homewards 
 and imagining they were pursued by the Earl of North- 
 umberland, suddenly found themselves confronted by 
 the Percy forces. Instead of giving battle, they took up 
 a defensive position on Homildon Hill. Hereupon the 
 English ascended the opposite slope of Harehope. Just 
 then the Percy archers, returning with their quarry, entered 
 the Monday Clough (as it is now called), between the two 
 hills. Catching sight of the resplendent armour of the 
 Scottish knights, which had been two years in making, 
 they let fly their arrows among them : 
 
 ' The Yngglishe men hade their bowys yebent, 
 
 Ther hartes were good yenoughe ; 
 The first of arros that the shote off 
 Seven skore spear men the sloughe.' I'jS 
 
 Notwithstanding this, the Earl of Douglas decided 'to bide 
 upon the bent.' Sir John Swinton denounced in vain the 
 folly of stopping to be shot at like fawns in a park. 
 Adam de Gordon, who had been Swinton's mortal enemy,
 
 The Percies. 189 
 
 was so pleased with his courageous bearing that he 
 begged to be knighted by him, and then the two charged 
 down the hillside together, followed by a hundred others. 
 It was all the Earl of March, now on the English side, 
 could do to restrain Hotspur from assailing the Scottish 
 position, instead of leaving the entire battle to his archers. 
 The showers of arrows at last forced the Scots to come 
 down on to the plain towards the river; but the marksmen 
 successfully followed them up. The traditions of the 
 splendid archery at Homildon, transferred by the ballad- 
 mongers to Otterburn, should be restored to their rightful 
 place : 
 
 ' Ther came an arrow hastily 
 
 Forth of a mighty wane. 
 It hath stricken the earl Douglas 
 
 In at the breast-bane. 
 
 ' An archer of Northumberland 
 
 * * * * 
 
 He bar a bend bow in his hand 
 Was made of a trusty tree, 
 
 ' An arrow that a cloth yard was long 
 
 To th' hard stele halyde he ; 
 A dint that was both sad and soar 
 
 He set on Sir Hugh the Montgomery.' 
 
 The revenge for Otterburn was complete, but it had 
 been fourteen years in coming. Douglas, pierced with five 
 arrow-wounds, and blinded in an eye, was taken prisoner 
 together with Montgomery, Murdack of Fife, the eldest son 
 of the Duke of Albany, and eighty other persons of note. 
 Among these were Sir Walter Stewart of Forest and 
 Thomas Ker, ' another good squire,' who, after being 
 acquitted by a jury of the charge of treason, on account 
 of their having been born English subjects in Teviotdale, 
 were summarily executed by Hotspur. The exposure of 
 Stewart's limbs over the gates of York is said to have 
 shocked even the English, and to have given rise to the 
 prophetic reflection that Hotspur's might soon take their 
 place.
 
 190 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Carrying out the policy initiated in the case of Lindsay 
 after Otterburn, and again adopted after Fulhopelaw, 
 Henry IV. forbade the acceptance of ransoms by private 
 persons for the prisoners they had taken at Homildon, 
 and ordered Douglas and the rest to be sent up to London. 
 It was not intended that the captors should lose their 
 reward, but the Government's possession of the prisoners 
 was felt to be a powerful lever in negotiating a lasting 
 peace. Hotspur, however, refused to give up Douglas, 
 and Northumberland reproached the King that they had 
 spent their all in his service without receiving payment 
 for the custody of the marches. Henry, with his treasury 
 bare, could only reply, * Gold I have none ; gold thou 
 canst not have.' Hotspur, too, required that his brother- 
 in-law, Edmund Mortimer, should be ransomed ; but the 
 King, with good reason, declared that Mortimer's captivity 
 in Wales was a mere feint to cover his treason. ' And 
 thou, too, art a traitor,' he continued, charging Hotspur 
 with letting Glendower slip out of his hands. Hotspur 
 replied that his honour forbade him to violate the safe- 
 conduct he had given Glendower, and when Henry actually 
 drew his dagger on him, muttered the challenge, ' Not 
 here, but in the field.' 
 
 Although Edmund Mortimer now wedded the daughter 
 of Owen Glendower, and openly renounced his allegiance 
 to Henry, the King, anxious to conciliate the Percies as 
 far as was in his power, bestowed on them the greater 
 part of the South of Scotland. This he declared to 
 have been conquered and annexed to England. Hotspur 
 was not content with the fertile tract already subdued, 
 and proceeded to overrun the whole country up to the 
 Forth. On his summoning the little tower of Cocklaw 
 in Upper Teviotdale (just to the north-east of Ormiston, 
 near Hawick), which belonged to James Gledystanes, the 
 captain, John Greenlaw, refused to surrender. After 
 some show of a siege, an armistice was agreed to 
 on condition that the garrison should capitulate on 
 August i, 1403, if not previously relieved by the Scottish
 
 The Percies. 191 
 
 Government. Hotspur declared that his intention was 
 to provoke the Scots to a pitched battle, more disastrous 
 to them than even that of Homildon. He and his father 
 urged the King to send the large sums they claimed in 
 order that they might prepare for the engagement. 
 Henry had no such sums to send, but announced his 
 intention of coming himself to their assistance. This 
 was not what the Percies wanted. If Hotspur's squire, 
 John Hardyng, is to be believed, they had, under the 
 cloak of the exploit of Ormiston, formed a league with all 
 the English lords, except the Earl of Stafford, for asserting 
 their privileges and removing the King's evil counsellors. 
 Hardyng even says that Hotspur intrusted the sealed 
 bonds given by these lords to his keeping at Warkworth, 
 but his own subsequent forgery of Scottish documents 
 throws some doubt on the matter. At any rate, by the time 
 Henry IV. had reached the Trent, Hotspur, with only 
 eightscore horsemen, had ridden off to Chester, and was 
 openly raising the country against the King. His defeat 
 and death at the battle of Shrewsbury, fought on Saturday, 
 July 21, was largely due to that uncurbed spirit of adven- 
 ture effrcenata temeritas which had given him his name. 
 
 On the Monday following, the Earl of Northumberland, 
 cautiously advancing to Hotspur's assistance, was forced 
 back towards Newcastle by the levies of the Earl of 
 Westmorland. The townsmen closed their gates, and, 
 after attempting to storm the place, Northumberland had 
 to be content with permission to enter himself for a 
 night's rest, leaving his armed followers without. The 
 next day, while he was at breakfast, his troops again 
 tried an escalade. At this juncture the tidings of 
 Hotspur's death arrived, and, excusing himself as best 
 he could, the Earl disbanded his army, and withdrew 
 with his household to Warkworth. 
 
 Although the architectural details of the marvellous 
 donjon of Warkworth, with its maze of chambers and 
 passages, may appear to many of slightly later character, 
 it is extremely improbable that Northumberland, pos-
 
 1 92 History of Northumberland. 
 
 sessed of such power and ambition, did nothing to render 
 his favourite home more habitable and magnificent, or 
 better calculated for a refuge in the time of need. Until, 
 then, we are vouchsafed direct documentary evidence on 
 the subject, we may well regard this * worm-eaten hold of 
 ragged stone ' as the work of the first and greatest, but 
 by no means the best, of the eleven Earls of the princely 
 House of Louvain. The neighbouring rock-hewn hermi- 
 tage of the Trinity, so beautifully placed on the brink of 
 the Wansbeck, was probably founded some thirty years 
 earlier as a chantry for the soul of his first wife, Margaret 
 Neville. 
 
 At Warkworth, Northumberland received a letter from 
 Henry IV., promising to receive him into favour if he 
 would repair peaceably to his presence. On doing so 
 he was, however, arrested, and though he agreed to sur- 
 render his castles of Alnwick, Warkworth, Prudhoe, and 
 Langley into the King's hands, was cast into prison at 
 Baginton, near Coventry. William Heron, Lord Say, 
 proceeded to Warkworth to take possession of the castle 
 for the King. Sir Henry Percy of Athol, the Earl's 
 grandson, who could not have been more than eighteen, 
 refused to evacuate it and betake himself to Court, 
 unless he were provided with horses, armour, vessels of 
 silver, and beds suited to his rank. These the chaplain 
 and * wardrober ' of Alnwick Castle refused to let Say 
 have without a warrant from the Earl their master. For 
 the moment Say had to be content with the oaths of Sir 
 Henry Percy and the Constable of Warkworth, that they 
 would keep the castle loyally for both King and Earl. 
 He proceeded, however, to Baginton, and there extorted 
 a promise from Northumberland, in the highly suggestive 
 presence of his seven gaolers, that he would affix the 
 great seal he had left in London * to everything that was 
 pleasing to his Sovereign Lord.' The letters and orders 
 authenticated by this seal proved, however, of little use. 
 Berwick, Alnwick, and Warkworth continued to defy the 
 royal authority, and Sir Henry Percy of Athol and his
 
 The Percies. 193 
 
 brother, advised by Sir William Clifford, began distri- 
 buting the ' livery of the crescent,' the badge of their 
 house, to the large forces they had collected. In 
 February, 1404, the Earl of Northumberland, having 
 been acquitted of treason by his peers, was, with diplo- 
 matic generosity, restored to his estates by the King. 
 
 Writing from Warkworth in January, 1405, Northum- 
 berland excused himself from attending the King's Council 
 in winter-time, on account of the long and bad road, 
 and his great age and feebleness he was really only 
 sixty-three. The following May, tearing off the mask, he 
 put Robert Waterton, the King's messenger, in durance 
 vile at Warkworth, and promised his support to Arch- 
 bishop Scrope. As in the case of Hotspur, however, the 
 insurgents were defeated before he appeared in the 
 field. 
 
 At the head of 37,000 men, Henry Bolingbroke now 
 marched in person into Northumberland, taking with him 
 every conceivable engine of war. The Earl fled into 
 Scotland with his grandson, Henry-fitz-Hotspur. After 
 the fall of Prudhoe, most of the Percy retainers submitted 
 to the King at Widdrington. John de Middleham, Cap- 
 tain of Warkworth, however, determined to hold it for 
 the Earl. The royal cannon, brought into position on 
 July i, wrought such havoc on the walls that, after the 
 seventh discharge, Middleham and his company cried 
 * Mercy !' and were allowed to depart with the honours of 
 war. The small towers of Alnham and Newstead likewise 
 capitulated. Alnwick held out until the King returned in 
 triumph from Berwick, which suffered greatly from the 
 bombardment, and where stern justice was meted out to 
 the principal rebels. Henry now bestowed the forfeited 
 baronies of Alnwick, Prudhoe, and Langley on his third 
 son, John, a boy of sixteen, whom he had already made 
 Warden of the East March. 
 
 John of Lancaster resided principally at Warkworth. 
 Though he had undertaken the custody of the March 
 for considerably less than was allowed to Hotspur, he 
 
 13
 
 194 History of Northumberland. 
 
 received payment with no greater regularity, and was 
 forced to pawn his plate and jewels to provide for the 
 defence of Berwick. The Earl of Northumberland con- 
 tinued to stir up mischief in the North from his retreat 
 in Scotland. John de Middleham was condemned to 
 death for receiving a letter from him in 1407. The letter 
 had been communicated to William de Alnewyk, a canon 
 of Alnwick and Vicar of Chatton. He fled across the 
 Border to the Earl, but was soon pardoned, and became 
 afterwards Bishop, first of Norwich, and then of Lin- 
 coln. Henry Percy VI., now more than sixty-five, had 
 the imprudence to appear in hostile array as far south 
 as Bramham Moor, and was there defeated and slain. 
 
 Just as he was setting sail for Harfleur and Agincourt 
 in 1415, King Henry V. determined on the politic restora- 
 tion of Henry Percy VIII., the son of Hotspur (who 
 counts as Henry Percy VII.), to the Earldom of North- 
 umberland and his settled estates. He accordingly 
 granted an annuity of 3,000 marks as compensation to 
 his own brother John, now Duke of Bedford, who retained 
 the barony of Prudhoe and manor of Shilbottle. About 
 the same time a valuable list of the castles and towers of 
 Northumberland and their owners was drawn up in order 
 to show in whose hands the defence of the Border would 
 be left during the King's absence. The names of thirty- 
 seven castles and seventy-eight towers are given, including 
 the castle of Roxburgh and the tower of Denton-in-Gils- 
 land. Sir Thomas Gray, who appears as the owner of the 
 castles of Heton and Wark-on- Tweed, and the towers 
 of Wark-on-Tyne and Nesbit-in-Glendale, was arrested 
 at Southampton on August i, for conspiring against the 
 King with the Earl of Cambridge, and was executed a 
 week later. 
 
 The negotiations for exchanging Murdack of Fife, who 
 had remained a prisoner in England since Homildon, for 
 the heir of the Percies fell through, and it was not till 
 the spring of 1416 that Henry Percy VIII. was given up 
 by the Scots at Berwick. He married almost immediately
 
 The Percies. 195 
 
 Eleanor Neville, daughter of the Earl of Westmorland, 
 with whom he lived long and happily at their favourite 
 castle of Warkworth. 
 
 In 1453, after a marriage feast at Tattershall in Lincoln- 
 shire, some followers of their son, Thomas Percy, Lord 
 Egremont, came to blows with the retinue of Richard 
 Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and the old feud between 
 Percy and Neville blazed forth anew. The Duke of 
 York, then Protector of England, exerted himself to put 
 down this private war, and the Percies ever after bore 
 him a grudge. The second Earl of Northumberland fell 
 the following year fighting for the Red Rose at St. Albans. 
 York's victory there was due in a great measure to the 
 vigour of his faithful henchman, Sir Robert Ogle. The 
 third Earl, Henry Percy IX., was cut off in his fortieth 
 year, on the disastrous field of Towton, on the ' Evil Palm 
 Sunday' of 1461. 
 
 From Towton Margaret of Anjou fled with her husband 
 and their adherents towards Scotland. They were 
 supposed to have halted at Newcastle,and Edward IV. sent 
 20,000 men to besiege the town. It was necessary for 
 the fugitives to obtain a safe-conduct before crossing the 
 Border. The delay appears to have led to their being over- 
 taken and besieged by Sir Robert Ogle and Sir John 
 Conyers in the castle of Wark near Carham. Certain 
 esquires of the Earl of Northumberland gathered together 
 5,000 or 6,000 Lancastrians, and effected their rescue after 
 3,000 north-country men had fallen in the ' bicker.' 
 
 In consideration of their promised assistance, Henry VI. 
 made over Berwick to the Scots. A little later, accom- 
 panied by Sir John Fortescue and others, ' with standards 
 and gyturons unrolled,' he rode through Ryton as far 
 south as Branspeth. The timely arrival of Lord Montagu 
 saved Carlisle from sharing the fate of Berwick. Before 
 Michaelmas Dunstanburgh, with its constable, Sir Ralph 
 Percy, uncle of the young Earl Henry Percy X., declared 
 for the White Rose. 
 
 Sailing from Kirkcudbright in the spring of 1462, the
 
 196 History of Northumberland. 
 
 intrepid Margaret engaged the services of Pierre de Breze, 
 Seigneur of Varennes and Count Maulevrier, a brave 
 French knight, with a contingent of 800 men. Henry VI. 
 did not remain inactive. He appears to have attempted 
 to recover Dunstanburgh, the cornfields around which 
 were trampled down by his horses. In July, however, 
 Alnwick, which was held for him by William Tailbois, 
 was forced to capitulate to Lord Hastings, and was com- 
 mitted to the custody of Sir Ralph Grey. A month later, 
 the castle and manor of Warkworth were granted by 
 Edward IV. to his brother George of Clarence. Barn- 
 burgh, too, became Yorkist in the hands of Sir William 
 Tunstal. But when Queen Margaret landed near it with 
 her French auxiliaries on October 25, the garrison, in- 
 fluenced by Sir Richard Tunstal, the Governor's brother, 
 threw open the gates to receive her. Still there was 
 no general rising in her favour ; indeed, the peasantry 
 of Rock and Beadnell proved particularly vigilant in 
 the Yorkist interest. Sir Ralph Percy, however, went 
 over to Margaret with the garrison of Dunstanburgh, 
 and Alnwick was obliged to surrender for want of provi- 
 sions. 
 
 The great Earl of Warwick hastened to the North. He 
 fixed his headquarters at Warkworth, and rode round 
 every day to direct the sieges of Alnwick, Dunstanburgh, 
 and Bamburgh, which were all invested on December 10. 
 The operations at Dunstanburgh, which was defended by 
 Sir Richard Tunstal, Dr. Morton (afterwards Archbishop 
 of Canterbury), Sir Philip Wentworth, and 600 or 700 
 men, were carried on under the more immediate com- 
 mand of the Earl of Worcester and Sir Ralph Grey. 
 Worcester subsequently proceeded to the siege of Bam- 
 burgh. His place in the camp before Dunstanburgh 
 was occupied by the lords Fitzhugh, Scrope, Greystoke, 
 and Powys. In their turn Greystoke and Powys marched 
 off to Alnwick, leaving Scrope and Fitzhugh in the 
 company of Wentworth and Hastings, who had come up 
 from the South.
 
 The Percies. 197 
 
 In Bamburgh the Duke of Somerset and Sir Ralph 
 Percy had with them no more than 300 Lancastrians. 
 Margaret herself had taken advantage of the presence of 
 a French fleet, to effect her escape from the be- 
 leaguered fortress on board a ' carvyle.' A violent storm 
 arose ; some of the French ships went ashore. The 
 blockade of Bamburgh was so close that the 400 soldiers 
 who were saved considered their best chance lay in 
 occupying Holy Island. Margaret, forced to abandon 
 the ' carvyle,' which had foundered with all her treasure, 
 was now with them. A force of 200 Yorkists who 
 happened to be on Holy Island allowed themselves to 
 be surprised. No sooner, however, did the news of this 
 exploit reach the Earl of Warwick, than he determined 
 to dislodge the Frenchmen. It was in vain that they 
 tried to bar his passage across the sands at low water. 
 Margaret fled to Berwick in a fishing-boat. The French 
 took refuge in the priory, where 200 of them were 
 killed or made prisoners. Among the latter were Louis 
 Malet, Seigneur de Graville, and Raoul d'Ally, Seigneur 
 d'Araines. 
 
 Bamburgh capitulated on Christmas Eve ; three days 
 later Dunstanburgh did the same. The garrisons, 
 reduced to eating most of their horses, were glad to 
 have their lives spared, and to be allowed to make for 
 Scotland with white staves in their hands. With the 
 assistance of the Earl of Angus, Breze" was enabled to 
 bring off the greater part of the garrison of Alnwick on 
 January 6, 1463 ; but the Scots were afraid to assume the 
 offensive, and the castle fell at the end of the month. 
 
 Edward IV. sent 100 to the Abbot and convent of 
 Alnwick to compensate them for the losses they sus- 
 tained during the siege of the castle. He evidently 
 never thought of fresh trouble in Northumberland. 
 Suddenly, during Lent, the Scots and French once more 
 seized Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh, with the passive 
 connivance of Sir Ralph Percy, who, on turning Yorkist 
 for the second time, had been appointed Governor of
 
 198 History of Northumberland. 
 
 both fortresses. Margaret, indeed, appears to have pushed 
 forward into the neighbourhood of Hexham, and to have 
 been advancing on April 3, 1463, to attack the strong 
 position occupied by the Yorkists at ' Rel,' or Ryal, on 
 the right bank of the Devilswater, when a panic seizing 
 her Scottish allies, they deserted the braver Frenchmen, 
 and a hopeless rout ensued. The Queen herself was 
 overtaken by a party of the enemy, who made free with 
 her royal jewels. They were quite capable of cutting 
 her throat, but began ' fighting among themselves over 
 the booty. While their attention was thus engrossed, 
 Margaret prevailed on an esquire to let her mount be- 
 hind him, with her little son Edward in front, and all 
 three rode off into the recesses of Dipton Wood. They 
 had not gone far before up came one of the cut-throat 
 robbers who infested it. Margaret boldly bade him 
 approach. ' Man,' she cried, ' thou wast born under a 
 lucky star. After all the wrong thou hast done, a chance 
 is now given thee of doing a good deed that never shall 
 be forgotten. It is to turn thee from thine old way of 
 life that I, the wretched Queen of England, am fallen 
 into thy clutches. If thou hast any knowledge of God 
 and of His Passion, take pity on my misery. Save, at 
 any rate, this youth, thy King's only son. By this deed 
 of mercy, all thy past cruelty shall be forgotten. Hide 
 him in thy woods and thickets ; let him eat roots and 
 acorns with the swine, and pass his nights on the cold 
 ground. On such a royal bed, and in such baronial com- 
 pany, his life will be safer than if he tasted the fitful 
 fortunes of a throne. Save my son ; keep him for me ; 
 and if God grant his restoration, be sure that he will 
 well reward a service such as never yet hath fallen to the 
 lot of a man like thee to perform.' 
 
 The astonished robber threw himself at the Queen's 
 feet, and, swearing to die a thousand deaths rather than 
 abandon the Prince, besought her pardon for his mis- 
 deeds, as though she still bore the sceptre in London. 
 The Prince was intrusted to him, and he honourably
 
 The Percies. 199 
 
 performed his promises. Margaret, consoled with the 
 thought that her son was in safety, got up again behind 
 the esquire, and found her way, without the aid of a 
 guide, to King Henry, near the Border. 
 
 Towards the end of May, Sir Ralph Grey, disgusted at 
 having been made only Captain of Alnwick, delivered Sir 
 John Astley, who had been placed over him as Constable, 
 into the hands of Sir Ralph Percy, and admitted Lord 
 Hungerford and the French into the castle. On hearing 
 of this, Henry and Margaret came to Bamburgh with 
 Breze and 2,000 men. On the other side, Lord Montagu 
 immediately marched North from London, followed on 
 June 4 by his brother Warwick. 
 
 Montagu reached Newcastle just in time to defend it 
 from a sudden attack from Sir Ralph Grey. Several 
 Lancastrians fell in a skirmish under the walls, and the 
 men of Newcastle captured four French vessels. Grey 
 and Breze then engaged on the siege of a castle near 
 Alnwick, probably Warkworth, but they were compelled 
 to abandon this on the advance of Montagu, who had 
 been relieved at Newcastle by the arrival of Warwick's 
 army. 
 
 About Midsummer, Henry and Margaret, with the 
 young James III. of Scotland, laid formal siege to 
 Norham. Warwick and Montagu ' put them in devoir ' 
 to relieve the castle. This they effectually did ; the Scots 
 were put to flight, and Henry and Margaret forced to 
 conceal themselves and the young Prince of Wales, till 
 they could make good their escape to Bamburgh. For 
 five days the royal fugitives had only a single herring 
 among them ; one day they were actually left without 
 bread. On July 20, the festival of her patron St. Margaret, 
 the unfortunate Queen found she had not even a black 
 penny to offer, in alms at the Mass. She therefore begged 
 a Scots archer to lend her something. With scant 
 civility, the man ruefully took a Scots groat out of his 
 purse a touch of national character that brings the scene 
 vividly before us.
 
 2OO History of Northumberland. 
 
 On Warwick and Montagu approaching Bamburgh, 
 Margaret determined to embark while opportunity offered, 
 and place her son in safety. Leaving Henry, with her 
 horses and arms, in the castle, which she knew was 
 capable of resisting any immediate attack, she set sail 
 with the Prince of Wales for Flanders on July 30, accom- 
 panied by Breze and his Frenchmen. One valiant French 
 drummer declined to go on board, and remained ' tabour- 
 ing and piping,' on a hill possibly the sand-hill near the 
 postern till Warwick came up. He was taken into the 
 Earl's service. 
 
 Having no large force at his disposal, and possibly not 
 altogether desirous of entirely crushing the Lancastrian 
 party, Warwick retired to the South of England. For 
 the next nine months Henry VI., in the lone solitude of 
 the old Northumbrian capital, continued to reign over 
 Alnwick and Bamburghshire. His little Court received 
 the envoys of Charles the Bold and Louis XI. About 
 Christmas, 1463, the Duke of Somerset, who had been 
 in high favour with Edward IV., secretly left Wales for 
 Newcastle, which was garrisoned by his retainers, with 
 the intention of betraying it to the Lancastrians. The 
 plot was, however, discovered, and the town placed in 
 the trusty keeping of Lord Scrope of Bolton. Somerset 
 reported to Henry that Wales and the West of England 
 were prepared to support his cause. The Privy Council 
 at Bamburgh thereupon requested Pierre Cousinot, the 
 envoy of Louis XL, to return to France, and arrange 
 with Queen Margaret that Charles the Bold should send 
 artillery and provisions to Bamburgh, and that her father, 
 Rene" of Anjou, the titular King of Sicily, should supply it 
 with cannon and culverins. 
 
 The active measures concerted by Warwick induced 
 Kennedy, the Scottish Regent, to sue for peace. But 
 before the commissioners of both nations could meet, the 
 Lancastrians made themselves masters of the castles of 
 Norham and Skipton. Edward's Parliament was sum- 
 moned to assemble at York on May 5, 1464. As the
 
 The Percies. 201 
 
 Scottish mission expected at it required a strong escort 
 to pass through Northumberland in safety, Lord Montagu 
 set out towards Norham with all the troops at his dis- 
 posal. On April 25, St. Mark's Day, he found his pro- 
 gress barred on Hedgeley Moor by the Duke of Somer- 
 set and 5,000 men, drawn chiefly from Alnwick and 
 Dunstanburgh. Sir Ralph Percy fell, crying, ' I have 
 saved the bird in my bosom,' meaning, it is said, that, 
 after so many tergiversations, he died true to his original 
 liege. The other Lancastrian lords took to flight. The 
 Scottish commissioners were now able to reach York and 
 conclude peace with Edward. ' An the Scots be true, the 
 treaty may continue fifteen years,' says the chronicle ; 
 ' but it is hard to trust Scots : they be ever full of guile 
 and deceit.' 
 
 Somerset and the other lords followed in the wake of 
 the convoy, and took up their quarters at Hexham, in 
 the neighbourhood of which they held the castles of 
 Langley and Bywell. Instead of proceeding to York, 
 Montagu marched up the Tyne from Newcastle, with 
 Greystoke and Willoughby and 4,000 men. The Lan- 
 castrians attempted to dispute the passage of the Devils- 
 water at the Linnels, but Sir Ralph Grey ran away before 
 the battle began, and his cowardice proved contagious. 
 Somerset, with 500 others, made a last stand on a hill a 
 mile out of Hexham. 
 
 Pursued and taken by the servants of Sir John Middle- 
 ton, the Duke was beheaded the next day at Hexham, 
 together with Sir Edmund Fitzhugh and Black Jack, a 
 Border thief, who may have been the faithful protector of 
 Prince Edward after the first battle of Hexham. The 
 lords Ros and Hungerford were discovered hiding in a 
 neighbouring wood, and immediately executed at New- 
 castle. The prompt severity with which this rising was 
 put down contrasted strongly with the mild measures 
 that had accompanied previous successes of the White 
 Rose. 
 
 Langley and Bywell offered no resistance to the
 
 202 History of Northumberland. 
 
 victorious Montagu. In the latter castle were found 
 King Henry's helmet with his ' bycocket,' or cap of state, 
 his sword, and the trappings of his horse. ' How and 
 whither the King himself escaped,' adds the contemporary 
 chronicler, ' God only knows, in whose hands are the 
 hearts of kings.' Events proved that, like Sir Ralph 
 Grey and many others, Henry of Windsor had galloped 
 back to Bamburgh. Warwick, who had now come North, 
 assisted Montagu at the storm of Dunstanburgh. John 
 Gosse, the captain of the castle, who had been carver in 
 Somerset's household, was taken by them in triumph to 
 Edward IV. at York, and there beheaded with a hatchet. 
 As a reward for these signal services, Montagu was 
 created Earl of Northumberland, and received a grant of 
 most of the Percy estates in the county. 
 
 Alarmed at the fall of Dunstanburgh, Henry VI., with 
 the assistance of Sir Henry Bellingham and others, cut 
 his way through the Yorkist levies that were already 
 closing in round Bamburgh. It was not, however, till 
 June 23 that Warwick 'came with his puissance' before 
 Alnwick, which at once surrendered. The Feast of 
 St. John Baptist he kept at Dunstanburgh, and began 
 next day the formal siege of Bamburgh. Two heralds, 
 Chester and Warwick, were sent to Sir Ralph Grey and 
 ' other that kept his rebellious opinion,' commanding them 
 to deliver up the fortress, when all the garrison, except 
 Sir Humphrey Neville and Sir Ralph Grey, who were 
 ' out of the King's grace without any redemption,' would 
 receive the royal pardon. 
 
 Fired with the courage of despair, Sir Ralph replied 
 that he had * clearly determined within himself to live or 
 die in the castle.' Thereupon the heralds laid all guilt of 
 bloodshed to his charge, and one of them delivered the 
 parting defiance : ' My Lords ensure you upon their 
 honour to sustain siege before you these seven years or 
 else to win you. If ye deliver not this jewel the 
 which the King our most dread Sovereign Lord hath so 
 greatly in favour, seeing it marcheth so nigh his ancient
 
 The Per ties. 203 
 
 enemies of Scotland, and specially desireth to have 
 whole, unbroken with ordnance ; if ye suffer one great 
 gun to be laid unto the wall and be shot, to prejudice the 
 wall, it shall cost you the chieftain's head ; and so pro- 
 ceeding for every gun shot, to the last head of any person 
 within the place.' 
 
 Notwithstanding this terrible warning, Sir Ralph Grey 
 ' put him in devoir to make defence,' while Warwick 
 ordered all his great guns to be charged and ' shoot unto 
 the castle.' ' Newcastle,' the King's great gun of iron, 
 and ' London,' his lesser gun, so ' betide ' the place, that 
 the stones flew into the sea. The brass gun ' Dijon * 
 ' smote through Sir Ralph Grey's chamber oftentimes,' 
 and the cannonade was kept up by the bombardels 
 ' Edward ' and * Richard.' A breach having been effected, 
 Warwick won the castle with his archers and men-at- 
 arms. Grey was led prisoner to Edward IV. at Don- 
 caster, where he was executed. One of the chief articles 
 in his indictment was that he had ' withstood and made 
 fences against the King's majesty and his Lieutenant, the 
 worthy Lord of Warwick, as appeareth by the strokes of 
 the great guns in the King's walls of his castle of Bam- 
 burgh.' 
 
 In 1469, after the rising led by Robin of Redesdale, 
 and the capture of his own person by Warwick, King 
 Edward released Henry Percy X., the eldest son of the 
 third Earl of Northumberland, from the Tower. On the 
 open treason of Clarence and Warwick in the following 
 year, he intrusted him with the custody of their Percy 
 estates as well as with the wardenries of the East and Middle 
 March. The more faithful John Neville surrendered the 
 Earldom of Northumberland, and received in exchange 
 the purely honorary Marquisate of Montagu ' with a 
 pye's nest to maintain it,' as he said. Soon afterwards 
 Henry VI. was restored to the throne for six months. 
 During these Sir Henry Percy naturally bore his father's 
 title. The complications of his position with respect to 
 the Marquis of Montagu, who, having now turned Lan-
 
 204 History of Northumberland. 
 
 castrian, was made Warden of the East March, led Percy 
 to acquiesce in the restoration of Edward, by whom he 
 was, however, not finally restored in blood to his father's 
 earldom and estates till the autumn of 1472. 
 
 The Percy whose desertion of Richard III. decided 
 the fortunes of Bosworth Field appears to have been Sir 
 Henry Percy, son of Sir Ralph, and heir of his father's 
 craft and courage. The fourth Earl of Northumberland, 
 far from betraying the White Rose, did not accept 
 Henry VII. till he had been imprisoned and further 
 resistance was out of the question. His loyalty to his 
 new Sovereign cost him his life. The murder of 
 
 'The famous Erie of Northumberlande, 
 
 Of knyghtly prowes the sword, pomel and hylt, 
 The myghty lyon doutted by se and lande,' 
 
 while enforcing the fiscal exactions of Henry Tudor, 
 marks the rise of a strong central monarchy on the ruins 
 of the old provincial nobility. The Earl just before his 
 death had built the strong tower at Hulne Priory, and 
 had ordered a large stone with a lion rampant to be 
 carved there, and placed over the outer gate of Alnwick 
 Castle. The stone has been replaced, but the original 
 cornice and ledge, with the motto 
 
 ' Esperance Ma Comfort ' 
 
 and the initials and badges of the Earl and his Countess, 
 are still preserved in the castle.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE EAST AND MIDDLE MARCHES. 
 
 THANKS to the virtuous diplomacy of Richard Fox, 
 Bishop successively of St. Asaph, Bath and Wells 
 and Durham, peace with Scotland was preserved during 
 the reign of Henry VII., by a succession of truces, until, 
 in 1496, James IV. actively espoused the cause of Perkin 
 Warbeck. The Scots at first demanded from this most 
 chivalrous of pretenders the eventual cession of the seven 
 sheriffdoms north of the Humber as the price of their 
 assistance. Warbeck ultimately agreed with them 
 for Berwick and 50,000. The Border was laid waste, 
 neither sex nor age being spared ; the towers of Twizel, 
 Tilmouth, Duddo, Shoreswood, Brankston, Howtell, and 
 Lanton were destroyed. Warbeck, disgusted at the 
 brutal conduct of the war, withdrew from the siege of 
 Heton. Encouraged by ' drinksilver,' the masons mined 
 all night at the walls of that fortress, which was taken 
 and razed to the ground. An attack on Norham during 
 the following summer, though prefaced by a triumphal 
 procession of ' Mons Meg ' down the Canongate, was less 
 successful. Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, carried the 
 war into Scotland, but prudently declined James's 
 challenge to stake the retention of Berwick on the issue 
 of a single combat between them. Peace was restored 
 in the last year of the century by the Treaty of Stirling. 
 Its maintenance was imperilled by the Captain of Norham
 
 206 History of Northumberland. 
 
 falling upon some young Scotsmen whose idle curiosity 
 led them to inspect too closely the defences of his castle. 
 Bishop Fox not only prevented a rupture in the relations 
 of the two kingdoms, but placed them on a surer footing, 
 by the marriage of James with Henry's eldest daughter. 
 
 The murder of Sir Robert Ker, the Scottish Warden, by 
 John Heron the Bastard of Ford, and others, engendered 
 a feeling hostile to England, which in 1513 found ex- 
 pression in a declaration of war. Lord Hume headed a 
 formidable raid across the Border, but suffered a serious 
 defeat from the archers posted by Sir William Bulmer in 
 the tall broom of Milfield Plain. To avenge this, and to 
 assist the French by causing a diversion of the English 
 from the siege of Terouenne, James IV. passed the 
 Tweed with an army of 80,000. Norham was the 
 only stronghold capable of real resistance, and it fell 
 after a five days' siege. Etal, Ford, and even Chil- 
 lingham, were captured in quick succession. James 
 established a fortified camp on the heights of Flodden, 
 and then quietly awaited Surrey's advance at Ford. 
 There is no reason to attribute this inactivity, largely 
 due to the desertion of 20,000 of his followers, to the 
 charms of Dame Elizabeth Heron, who vainly pleaded 
 for the preservation of her castle. 
 
 The Earl of Surrey had been joined by 14,000 
 tenants of the Stanleys, who brought with them the 
 banner of St. Audrey, Queen of Northumberland and 
 foundress of Ely, where James Stanley was Bishop. On 
 reaching Alnwick, Surrey was further reinforced by 
 the arrival of his son, the Lord Admiral, with 1,000 
 ' merry mariners.' The Scottish lords, desirous of re- 
 treating, were overruled by La Motte, the French envoy. 
 James concluded that if Surrey attempted to carry the 
 camp on Flodden, it must be by forcing a passage over 
 Ford Bridge, but he indignantly scouted the proposal of 
 Robert Borthwick, his master-gunner, to blow this up 
 when only half the English host should have crossed. 
 Dismantling, most ungallantly, the castle of Ford, and
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 207 
 
 planting a battery to openly command the bridge, he re- 
 moved his headquarters to Flodden. 
 
 Surrey pledged himself to give battle by Friday, 
 September 9, at the latest. A formal challenge from 
 his camp on Wooler Haugh, bidding James 'of his noble 
 courage ' descend into Milfield Plain or some other equal 
 ground, was, coming from an earl, regarded by the King 
 as a piece of impudence, and he taunted Surrey with 
 relying on sorcery in wishing to choose their battle-field. 
 For days there had been scarcely an hour of fine weather ; 
 the English, * clemmed' with the cold and wet, threatened 
 to return home, unless at once led into action. Surrey 
 crossed the Till ; but although his whole army descended 
 the right bank in sight of James all that Thursday, the 
 King was not to be tempted down to attack them. After 
 an evening reconnaissance, the Lord Admiral suggested 
 to his father the advisability of recrossing the river 
 further to the north, and sweeping round at the back of 
 the Scots, so as to compel them to fight or suffer their 
 communications to be cut tactics the elaboration of 
 which maybe traced to the local knowledge of the Bastard 
 Heron, who, in spite of outlawry and feigned death, had 
 rallied to Surrey's standard. The English encamped that 
 night at Barmoor Woodside. By noon the next day, 
 while James thought they were in full retreat on Berwick, 
 their vanguard and artillery had accomplished the passage 
 of the Till by Twizel Bridge, the rearguard following 
 through the Mill Ford, a little further up the stream. 
 
 Once safe on the left bank, Surrey continued to ascend 
 it, as if marching straight for Flodden, until he was con- 
 fronted by the great swamp that then stretched for nearly 
 a mile and a half from just north of the village of Brank- 
 ston to the hamlet of Sandyford, where a little brook 
 connected it with the Till. It was about four o'clock in 
 the afternoon when King James saw the English vanguard 
 moving westwards along the northern margin of this 
 morass. Suddenly the right wing, 3,000 strong, and led 
 by Surrey's younger son, Edmund Howard, commenced
 
 208 History of Northumberland. 
 
 wading through the middle of the swamp that the Scots 
 had deemed impassable. It was followed by the main 
 body under the Lord Admiral, consisting, with the left 
 wing, old Sir Marmaduke Constable's, of from 12,000 
 to 14,000 men. James at once rightly conjectured that 
 the English were making for Brankston Hill, their occu- 
 pation of which, rising as it does almost to the same level 
 as Flodden, would have completely severed him from 
 Scotland. He at once ordered the camp refuse on 
 Flodden to be set on fire, and, taking advantage of the 
 clouds of smoke with which a south-easterly wind en- 
 veloped the whole range, transferred his forces and 
 artillery to the summit of Brankston. When the smoke 
 rolled away, the Lord Admiral, who had arrived at 
 its foot, was terrified to find the four battalions of the 
 Scottish vanguard bearing down on him at only a quarter 
 of a mile's distance. In all haste he sent the Agnus Dei at 
 his breast as a signal for his father to instantly advance 
 the English rearguard. 
 
 Surrey had been permitted to pass unchallenged over the 
 
 ' brook of breadth a tailor's yard ' 
 
 at Sandyford with the ordnance that the Lord Admiral had 
 been obliged to leave behind in plunging through Brankston 
 Moss. His right wing, under Lord Dacre, pushed forward 
 at full gallop to support Edmund Howard, whose division, 
 having begun to climb Brankston Hill, at the extreme 
 west of the field, received the full shock of Hume's Border 
 Horse and Huntley's Highlanders. The first boom of 
 the Scottish cannon was followed by a stampede of the 
 men of Tynemouth and Bamburghshire, in Dacre's wing, 
 and Edmund Howard's Cheshire contingent, already half 
 mutinous at not being led by a Stanley, immediately 
 profited by their example. Thrice brought to the ground, 
 Edmund himself was rescued by the timely arrival of the 
 Bastard Heron. Even then, in escaping towards the 
 Admiral, he was nearly cut off by Sir David Hume. 
 At this critical moment a successful charge was delivered 
 by Dacre with the levies of Gilsland and Alston Moor
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 209 
 
 and the light horse from the Esk and Line. The Admiral 
 and Sir Marmaduke Constable having now routed the 
 Earls of Crawford and Errol, turned to Dacre's assistance, 
 and the victorious Earl of Hume was likewise driven from 
 the field. 
 
 On seeing the discomfiture of Edmund Howard's divi- 
 sion, King James could restrain himself no longer. With- 
 out waiting for his rearguard, he charged madly down 
 the hillside with the Scottish centre on the very inferior 
 force being brought up by Surrey. The English artillery 
 had, however, now been got into position, and merci- 
 lessly raked the royal columns, killing Lord Sinclair, 
 Master of the Scottish Ordnance, and silencing its mis- 
 directed fire. James's lance broke, but, undeterred by the 
 entreaties of old Earl Douglas, drawing his sword, the King 
 made on foot towards Surrey's standard, supported by 
 his natural son the Archbishop of St. Andrew's, and the 
 lords Henries and Maxwell. A hand-to-hand fight with 
 Surrey, Latimer, and Conyers followed. The King him- 
 self slew Guischard Harbottle, and then, learning of the 
 defeat of his entire left, gave orders for the advance of 
 Bothwell and the rearguard. Dacre, drawing in from the 
 west, had only just time to form and receive them. The 
 fortunes of the day were anything but decided, when 
 Sir Edward Stanley and the strong left wing of the 
 English rearguard, composed largely of the ' lads of 
 Lancashire,' climbing on their hands and feet the steep 
 hillside on the east of the field, turned the position of the 
 last Scottish battalions (those of Lennox and Argyle), and 
 after sending them flying, in spite of the stubborn resist- 
 ance of the Seigneur d'Aussi's reserve, charged down on 
 the rear of the royal division, while Dacre and the Admiral 
 closed in from the west. The death of King James on 
 Pipard's Hill under the banner of St. Audrey sealed the 
 fate of the battle. 
 
 Lord Dacre found it easier to deal with the Scots in 
 the open field than to stem the turbulence of Tyndale 
 and Redesdale. He received Margaret of Scotland and 
 
 14
 
 2io History of Northumberland. 
 
 her husband Angus at Harbottle in 1515, where their 
 daughter, the mother of Darnley, was born soon after- 
 wards. He also took an active interest in Wolsey's 
 restoration of Wark Castle. In 1521 the garrison there 
 rescued some cattle from a Scottish foray, but that same 
 night 500 masked men from Teviotdale burnt Learmouth. 
 Seton, the Captain of Wark, avenged this in a sally two 
 years later, putting Davy Hume to flight ' with a broken 
 spear in his coat or body.' 
 
 The fifth Earl of Northumberland, Henry Percy XL, 
 accepted and then resigned the office of Warden-General 
 of the Marches conduct possibly explained by the havoc 
 wrought in his finances by a love of display that gained 
 him the title of ' the Magnificent.' The Lion Tower of 
 Warkworth (with the bascule of the Herberts, his mother's 
 family, carved on the cornice), and the foundations of the 
 cruciform chapel, are melancholy memorials of the College 
 he began to found, but lacked the funds to finish. 
 
 In October, 1523, the long-expected army of the Duke 
 of Albany appeared before Wark. For two days the Scots 
 bombarded the castle over the Tweed ; then, as the river 
 was in flood, a storming party of 2,000 French crossed 
 in boats. They occupied the undefended base-court, and 
 some of them forced a passage into the inner ward. Sir 
 William Lisle and the small garrison gave these a too 
 warm reception. The French leader and nine others 
 were cut down ; the rest were so hotly chased out by 
 Lisle that the 1,000 French and 500 Scots in the base- 
 court also took fright and fled pell-mell towards the 
 Tweed, where many of them were drowned in the panic. 
 
 More pillage, however, continued to be done by the 
 thieves of Tyndale than by all the Scots of Scotland. 
 They came down on Ingo and Kirkheaton, and extended 
 their ravages to within eight miles of Newcastle. Wolsey, 
 following Fox's precedent, placed the ' Evil Country ' 
 under an interdict. At Easter, 1524, Hector Charlton, of 
 the Bower, took the Sacrament out of the sepulchre in 
 Bellingham Church, and carried it with a firkin of wine
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 211 
 
 and 800 ' breads ' to Tarset Hall. A Scottish friar gave 
 the thieves their communion ' after his fashion,' and 
 Hector served them all with wine and received the 
 parson's dues. Joining with the Scots in 1525, the 
 Tyndale men burnt Tarset Hall, where Sir Ralph Fen- 
 wick then lay in garrison. 
 
 Better order was kept on the appointment of Henry 
 Percy XII., the sixth Earl of Northumberland, as 
 Warden-General of the Marches in 1528. William 
 Charlton, of Shitlington Hall, ' rode ' into the Bishopric 
 with Harry Noble and seven others, and carried off the 
 parson of Muggleswick. The Bailiff of Hexham led a 
 foray after them, and as Haydon Bridge had been barred 
 and chained by Northumberland's directions, they were 
 obliged to leave their horses and try to escape on foot. 
 Thomas Errington, the Constable of Langley, pursued 
 them with a sleuth-hound. To everyone's surprise, they 
 were captured by the assistance of another William 
 Charlton and his friends in Tyndale. 
 
 The gibbeting of these marauders inspired such 
 terror that 500 of their comrades submitted. Sir 
 William Lisle, the gallant defender of Wark, who had 
 been committed to ward in Newcastle on charges of 
 murder, and outlawed for escaping, accompanied by his 
 son Humphrey and fifteen other rebels, in their shirts, 
 with halters round their necks, met Northumberland 
 coming from Mass, and placed themselves at the King's 
 mercy. The mercy of Henry VIII., interpreted by 
 Wolsey, whom Sir William had threatened to ' pluck by 
 the nose,' sent them all to execution except the boy of 
 thirteen. 
 
 The official reception of the banished Earl of Angus by 
 all the gentlemen of Northumberland at Newcastle did 
 not tend to the peace of the Border. Nicholas Ridley of 
 Willimoteswyke, in attempting to rescue some cattle 
 from the thieves of Liddesdale, was himself carried off 
 prisoner. Negotiations conducted in 1531 for the release 
 of captives in Scotland failed to effect more than the
 
 2 1 2 History of Northumberland. 
 
 return of Beaumont of Charlton with a velvet coat as 
 compensation. The Kers especially refused all redress, 
 and ' ran an open-day foray ' to Felkington. An attack 
 made by them on Haltwhistle, in company with the 
 Rutherfords and Davidsons, cost them sixscore slain 
 outright and a dozen executed the next Sunday. Mark 
 Ker vowed that he would burn a village of Northumber- 
 land's within three miles of Warkworth, so as to give the 
 Earl 'light to put on his clothes at midnight.' Thirty 
 light horsemen sent by him to Whittle on Shilbottle Moor 
 found no fire there, and they had forgotten to bring any 
 with them. They seized a poor woman near her travail, 
 and shouting, ' Where we cannot give the laird light, yet 
 we shall do this in spite of him,' dealt her three mortal 
 wounds on the head. A month later, 3,000 Scots 
 crossed the Border at nightfall and lay in ambush ' on 
 the edge of Cheviot,' while ' forays ' were ' cast off ' 
 to ' take up ' Ross on the coast, Ingram and Fawdon, 
 and Ryle and Prendwick. 
 
 Sir Arthur Darcy, the Captain of Berwick, had disap- 
 proved of a policy of retaliation, by which ' when the 
 Scottish thieves rode, the English thieves rode also.' 
 Henry VIII. now gave direct orders for reprisals. North- 
 umberland's raid to Dunglas in December, 1532, was one 
 the like of which had not been seen in winter for two 
 centuries. By the mediation of Francis I., a truce with 
 Scotland was concluded at Newcastle, which ripened into 
 a formal peace in May, 1534. The Earl of Northumber- 
 land was obliged to advance the money for paying off the 
 Border garrisons. They were nearly all south-country 
 men ; experience had proved that northerners were not 
 amenable to discipline if plunder were in sight. The 
 Marches, still nominally in Northumberland's keeping, 
 had never been in such good state since the time of his 
 grandfather, the fourth Earl, thanks to the vigorous 
 administration of Sir Thomas Clifford. As usual, during 
 such a lull, the Northumbrian gentry fell out among 
 themselves. Although commanded in the King's name
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 2 1 3 
 
 to desist, Sir John Fenwick of Wallington mustered his 
 friends to make a forcible entry into Harterton Hall, 
 while John Fenwick of Stanton prepared to repel him. 
 Ralph Widdrington accused Cuthbert Shafto of pulling 
 down a ' shield ' he had built at Carry Coats, and of 
 coming with forty others to pick a quarrel with him at 
 Stagshawbank Fair. Northumberland had done nothing 
 to carry out the provisions of his father's will until, on 
 his brother Sir Thomas Percy's marriage, he gave him 
 some lands of little value. Sir Thomas was at great 
 labour to defend these from the Scots, and on the Earl 
 now granting the lordship of Corbridge to Sir Reginald 
 Carnaby at a ridiculously reduced rent, he remonstrated 
 with his brother, who thereupon turned him out-of-doors. 
 In the beginning of 1536, Dr. Layton and Dr. Legh 
 completed their hasty visitation of the Northern monas- 
 teries. No charge of laxity could be procured against 
 Newminster, Alnwick, or Blanchland. Among the 
 relics still venerated were the girdle of St. Robert at 
 Newminster, the red Mass-book of Hexham, and the 
 foot of Simon de Montfort and cup of St. Thomas of 
 Canterbury at Alnwick. The suppression of all houses 
 not possessing rents above 200 a year was deter- 
 mined on. The King had promised Northumber- 
 land the preferment of Hexham and Newminster, on 
 paying for them at a valuation, yet the latter was 
 granted to Sir Oswald Wilstropp, whom the Earl ' never 
 took as his friend.' Hexham was, at the Earl's request, 
 destined for Sir Reginald Carnaby, but its revenues 
 proved to slightly exceed 200. The Prior hastened 
 to London to make a suit to the King for the ex- 
 emption of his house. During his journey North he 
 met the barge of the Archbishop of York, who charged 
 him to offer no resistance to the royal commissioners. 
 The canons of Hexham, however, kept their gates closed 
 against the Carnabies for a whole month, and when the 
 commissioners arrived in September, the Master of the 
 cell of Ovingham appeared above the gateway in armour,
 
 214 History of Northumberland. 
 
 with a bow and arrows, saying, ' We be twenty brethren 
 in this house, and we shall die all, ere that ye shall have 
 the house.' The Sub-prior, in canon's dress, displayed a 
 confirmation of the monastery under the King's great 
 seal, and declared that it was not to his honour ' to give 
 forth one seal contrary to another.' After this war- 
 like reception the commissioners ' recoiled ' to Corbridge. 
 
 The Earl of Cumberland had already set out from 
 Skipton to enforce the submission of the Hexham canons, 
 when the outbreak of the Pilgrimage of Grace, on Sunday, 
 October 15, forced him to turn back. That same day, 
 John Heron of Chipchase rode up to Halton Tower, and 
 persuaded Sir Reginald Carnaby's father to use him as 
 an intermediary in receiving the submission of Hexham 
 Priory. He then treacherously told the canons that their 
 only chance lay in continued resistance, and summoned 
 the Tyndale freebooters to their aid under promise of 
 certain annuities. In his alarm, old Carnaby was nearly 
 allured to Chipchase, when a timely whisper caused him 
 to put spurs to his horse and gain the security of Langley 
 Castle. 
 
 As if all were preconcerted, Sir Ingram Percy that same 
 Sunday summoned the gentlemen of Northumberland to 
 a meeting in Alnwick Castle, for the nominal purpose of 
 taking measures to stop the depredations of Tyndale and 
 Redesdale. To complete the arrangements, Sir Ingram 
 met at Doddington Tunstal, Bishop of Durham (who had 
 fled from Auckland at midnight), and Sir Thomas Clifford, 
 the Constable of Berwick. On the other hand, Lionel 
 Grey, the porter of Berwick, his nephew Thomas Grey, of 
 Newstead, and others who were on Coldstream Haugh, 
 seeing Sir Reginald Carnaby safe into Scotland, formed 
 a conspiracy to kill Clifford at Alnwick or on his way 
 home. Clifford received a hint of his danger, and did not 
 attend. A similar plot to kill him at Berwick, and, in case 
 of necessity, deliver the castle to the Scots, was defeated 
 by the ' babbling ' of Odinel Selby. Meanwhile, at the 
 county meeting, Sir Ingram Percy caused a letter to be read
 
 The East and Aliddle Marches. 215 
 
 which John Lumley, Heron's son-in-law, had brought, in 
 the name of ' Captain Poverty,' from the Commons of the 
 Bishopric. Everyone present was called on to swear to 
 the articles of the Pilgrimage of Grace ; and in spite of 
 protestations, ' being enclosed in the castle of Alnwick, 
 will they or not, sworn they were.' 
 
 Sir Thomas Percy, who had been led to join the rising 
 in Yorkshire, hastened back to Prudhoe after the first truce 
 concluded at Doncaster. He was there joined by Heron and 
 his friends, the Charltons and Robsons. His priest was 
 sent to take possession of Halton Tower, and certain stuff 
 and apparel the Carnabies had deposited at Capheaton 
 was brought in triumph to Prudhoe. Sir Reginald 
 Carnaby now came out of Scotland to Edderston. Sir 
 Ingram Percy was about to formally besiege that house, 
 when Thomas Forster allowed him to enter. Not finding 
 Sir Reginald, Sir Ingram swore, nevertheless, to be 
 revenged on him ' for being the destruction of all our 
 blood, for by his means the King shall be my lord's heir.' 
 He was with difficulty restrained from casting down 
 Thomas Grey's house at Newstead. Word then came 
 that Sir Reginald was at Chillingham. Sir Ingram sent 
 to Berwick for great ordnance to bombard the castle ; 
 while, on the other hand, Sir Robert Ellerker, who was 
 living there, was disappointed of any assistance from 
 Clifford. Sir Thomas Percy assured Sir Ingram in the 
 chapel of Alnwick Castle that the leaders of the Pilgrim- 
 age would not submit without informing him, and obtain- 
 ing a general pardon for all offences, ' wherefore let us 
 do what we think to do whilst we may, and that betimes.' 
 The Friars Observant returned for a short time to New- 
 castle ; otherwise the Pilgrimage in Northumberland was 
 devoid of all religious, or even political, significance, being 
 a mere struggle between a party thirsting for revenge on 
 Sir Reginald Carnaby and a party plotting the assassi- 
 nation of Sir Thomas Clifford. 
 
 The arrangement effected by Norfolk with the Com- 
 mons at Doncaster on November 30 did not clearly state
 
 216 History of Northumberland. 
 
 whether the monks who had been reinstated in their con- 
 vents by them were to remain in possession till the promised 
 Parliament was assembled. A month later, George Shuttle- 
 worth, a servant of the Abbot of Salley, came to Prudhoe 
 with a letter for Sir Thomas Percy. He was accom- 
 panied by William Leach, a desperate ruffian, who had 
 been specially exempted from the general pardon, and 
 who, after provoking a fresh rising in Westmorland, 
 escaped into Scotland, where he assassinated Somerset 
 Herald in 1542. The Abbot, told by Aske that he ought 
 to surrender his house again, appealed to Percy for advice 
 as being of his ancestors' foundation. The whole country 
 round Salley was ready to support the monks and 'extend' 
 the Pilgrimage. Percy is said to have counselled submis- 
 sion, but the Abbot did not submit, and, in passing 
 through Durham, Leach and Shuttleworth nearly mur- 
 dered Lancaster Herald, who was proclaiming the 
 pardon. Ninian Stavely and other bravados, sent by the 
 Abbot of Jervaux, left Prudhoe with the impression that 
 Sir Thomas was coming into Yorkshire to take part in the 
 new movement. The two Percies did cause a ' cry of the 
 whole county ' to be made at Morpeth ; but this was met 
 by a counter-proclamation of Lord Ogle, and the news of 
 Hallam's failure to surprise Hull put an end to any further 
 disturbance on their part. Orders were sent to arrest 
 them. They voluntarily yielded themselves to Norfolk 
 at Doncaster, and were sent up to London, encouraged 
 by a letter to the Council to say that they would be found 
 of better sort than represented by the Earl their brother. 
 Popular sentiment was appeased by the refounding of 
 the abbeys of Alnwick and Blanchland. The Duke of 
 Norfolk dissolved the priory of Hexham ' with very good 
 exhortations to the inhabitants.' Sir Reginald Carnaby 
 vouched for the good conduct of the canons, since the 
 conclusion of the Pilgrimage of Grace, and although only 
 their Prior received a pension, none of them suffered 
 either death or imprisonment. The pacification of the 
 whole county seemed nearly complete, when Roger
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 21 
 
 Fenwick, Keeper of Tyndale, was cruelly murdered near 
 Bellingham. 
 
 Sir Thomas Percy pleaded guilty to the charge of con- 
 spiracy subsequent to the general pardon of the Pilgrims 
 of Grace, and was executed at Tyburn. Sir Ingram, who 
 had been more active during the Pilgrimage, but was far 
 less implicated in subsequent matters, was set at liberty. 
 The sixth Earl of Northumberland soon afterwards ended 
 his miserable life at Hackney. Renouncing his power of 
 appointing an heir of his own name, he made over his 
 estates to the King, lest any portion should fall to his 
 widow. Never had a finer inheritance been wasted by the 
 folly of the owner and the untruthfulness of his servants. 
 
 The Tyndale men refused to restore even a third of 
 the plunder they seized during the troubles of the 
 Pilgrimage, and entered into an alliance with the thieves 
 of Liddesdale, who had just run a foray to Haydon 
 Bridge and captured two of the Carnabies. The gaol at 
 Hexham was broken open and all the prisoners in it 
 carried off to Scotland. Sir Reginald Carnaby allowed 
 himself to be surrounded in Tyndale, and was rescued 
 with some difficulty. It was proposed to order all the 
 inhabitants to evacuate the district by a certain day. A 
 change of policy supervened, and John Heron was ap- 
 pointed keeper of both it and Redesdale. The Liddesdale 
 thieves, however, continued their ravages. They ' broke ' 
 Haughton Castle, scaling it with ladders, and during a 
 greater raid slew seven Fenwicks who rallied to the 
 rescue of their goods. Henry VIII., losing patience, 
 ordered Sir William Eure ' to let slip as many under his 
 rule as should do the Scots three hurts for one.' 
 
 The Border Survey, undertaken by Sir Ralph Ellerker 
 and Sir Robert Bowes in 1541, gives a valuable account 
 of twelve castles and more than a hundred lesser 
 holds on the frontier. It describes the strong houses 
 of the headsmen of Tyndale as built of great square 
 oak-trees strongly bound together and covered with 
 great roofs of turves and earth, very difficult to break
 
 2 1 8 History of Northumberland. 
 
 into or set on fire. The habitations of the Redesdale 
 chiefs, although these were richer, were not so strong. 
 The two valleys had a superabundant population, and could 
 put 500 men into the field. ' If a man sat on a holding of 
 not 6s. rent, and had ten sons, every one must have a 
 piece of it.' The young men were reduced to 'thieving' for 
 a livelihood. They were so attached to their birthplace 
 that a forcible transportation of them to a distance was re- 
 commended as the only effectual remedy. Watches were 
 set at night along the confines of both dales in order to 
 protect the more peaceful inhabitants of Northumberland, 
 among whom the men of Coquetdale were in best repute. 
 
 As Bowes and Ellerker were resting at Hexham, the 
 light horse of Liddesdale, who had recently burnt 
 William Carnaby's village of Little Whittington, had the 
 effrontery to return and set on fire his stacks and farm- 
 buildings at Halton. John Heron's connivance was so very 
 evident that he was shamed into solemnly renouncing his 
 old-standing feud with the Carnabies. At Haddon Rigg, 
 the following year, he could not restrain his Redesdale men 
 from breaking ranks and galloping after the cattle they 
 had taken, thus causing the rout of the English forces. 
 The Duke of Norfolk, appointed to the chief command 
 against Scotland, found Northumberland never more out 
 of order, the countrymen looking ' through the fingers ' 
 at raids and robberies. The Scots carried off the horses 
 and carts engaged in taking the stones of Carham Church 
 to Wark Castle, under the very noses of the garrison. The 
 Earl of Hertford's chaplain was ' lifted ' from Belford ; 
 his master had a narrow escape, which is to be regretted, 
 as it might have prevented his abominable expedition to 
 burn the nunnery of Coldstream. 
 
 In 1543 the outlawed Charltons of Tyndale led the 
 Eylwhites, Nixons, and Crosiers of Liddesdale to burn 
 Capheaton. A widow from Tyndale, who chanced to be 
 living there, sent home to her kinsmen, who rescued her 
 goods in a tussle that left ugly marks on both sides, and was 
 important in destroying the good understanding between
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 219 
 
 the Scottish and English thieves. Jack Pringle, while 
 raiding with 200 men from Teviotdale, was taken prisoner 
 ' bloody-handed ' by Henry Collingwood, Constable of 
 Etal. Lord Parr intended to have had him summarily 
 executed ; but Cuthbert Ogle, the parson of Ford, who 
 had been Pringle's prisoner after Haddon Rigg, inter- 
 ceded for him on account of the gentle treatment he had 
 received. In May, 1544, Hertford sailed from the Tyne 
 with a large fleet, and, after sacking Edinburgh, marched 
 back to Berwick. Soon after this 1,000 Scots, engaged 
 in burning Twizel, Tilmouth, and Heton, were sur- 
 prised by Sir Ralph Eure, who was returning from a raid 
 to Jedburgh. Sir Ralph's successes led him to forget 
 that ' Fortune is not always one woman '; he was defeated 
 and slain on Ancrum Moor. 
 
 On hearing of this victory of the Scots, Francis I. 
 despatched about 4,000 Frenchmen to their assistance, 
 under the command of the Seigneur de Lorges. These had 
 taken the outworks of Wark, when a flood in the Tweed 
 caused them to abandon the siege. Hertford mercilessly 
 ravaged the whole Scottish Border with an army of Ger- 
 mans, Albanians, Spaniards, Burgundians, and Italians, 
 recalling the heterogeneous garrisons of Roman times. 
 Having been created Duke of Somerset and Lord Pro- 
 tector during the minority of his nephew, Edward VI., he 
 led a large army to Leith. 
 
 In June, 1548, the Sieur d'Esse arrived in Scotland with 
 a reinforcement of 6,000 French. The Border, intrusted 
 to the care of the too-lenient Lord Grey of Wilton, was 
 in no state to withstand them. There was no money to 
 pay the regular garrisons. The gentlemen of Northum- 
 berland who held commands in them lay at home hawk- 
 ing, hunting, and going to weddings. Better order 
 prevailed among the Tartars than in Berwick, where 
 the sick and wounded were shut out in the streets, and 
 left to perish from want. D'Esse took the castle of 
 Cornhill by force of arms, and Etal appears to have pru- 
 dently surrendered. The Seigneur de la Chapelle de Biron
 
 2 2O History of Northiimberland. 
 
 \vas sent to burn and plunder all the villages as far as 
 Newcastle. During this expedition, the success of which 
 gained him the character of ' excellent and stainless cheva- 
 lier,' he regarded with curiosity Coldmartin Lough, one 
 half frozen over, the other at summer temperature. 
 
 D'Esse burnt the greater part of Ford Castle, but left un- 
 reduced a tower defended by Thomas Carr, whose bravery 
 seems to have won him the hand of the young heiress 
 Elizabeth Heron. The French proceeded to set on fire 
 the Ten Towns of Glendale, the richest and best built 
 villages on the whole Border. They caught the savage- 
 looking priest of one of these, who told them that they had 
 come to see the fields where they would soon be yoked to 
 the plough, for before three years were out the English 
 would be masters of Scotland, and, requiring all their horses 
 for the subjugation of France, would replace them at home 
 with French prisoners. Bidden to turn from his visions of 
 the future to the smoking villages and troops of captives of 
 the present, he buried his face in the ground and died of 
 patriotic starvation. It was not till June, 1551, that a 
 treaty of peace was concluded in the church of Norham. 
 
 Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, the Warden-General, 
 requested Sir Robert Bowes to draw up a report on the 
 state of the frontier. His successor, John Dudley, Earl of 
 Warwick, shortly afterwards created Duke of Northumber- 
 land, energetically inaugurated a great scheme of Border 
 reform, which he left Lord Wharton to complete. 
 Regular watches were to be established through the 
 country; all cultivated land was to be hedged and ditched, 
 and all superfluous fords were to be deepened and stopped. 
 The Northumbrians, however, proved recalcitrant. They 
 almost ceased to attend the musters, or, if they came, 
 were badly armed. As usual, the enclosure of wastes, the 
 rebuilding of houses, and the increase of small hold- 
 ings at fair rents, were the remedies propounded. 
 
 The reign of Mary Tudor opened with honest en- 
 deavours on both sides to maintain justice on the Border. 
 Her marriage with Philip of Spain was, however, regarded
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 221 
 
 as a menace by the French and Scots. In 1555 the Eng- 
 lish Parliament passed an Act appointing commissioners 
 for rebuilding castles and forts and promoting tillage within 
 twenty miles of Scotland. The French general d'Oysel 
 began to fortify Eyemouth, and war broke out. In July, 
 1557, Lord Hume attempted to win Ford and burn the 
 Ten Towns of Glendale, but fled from Fenton on the 
 approach of Sir Henry Percy. The main army of the 
 Scots declined to assume the offensive ; the French 
 threatened Wark, but were sent flying across the Tweed 
 by a sudden sally of the garrison. Sir Thomas Percy's 
 elder son Thomas, whom Mary had created Earl of North- 
 umberland, set out on an expedition to Scotland. He 
 was repulsed near the Cheviots by Sir Andrew Ker, but 
 the English successfully rallied, and took Ker prisoner. 
 Thomas Bates of Prudhoe received a letter from the 
 Queen thanking him for his valour. The following 
 summer 1,000 horsemen, led by French officers, were 
 overtaken at Grindon by Sir Henry Percy, and forced 
 first over the Till, then over the Tweed. Soon afterwards 
 a body of Scottish horse set Fenton in a blaze. Sir 
 Henry chased them as far as Haltwellswire, when the 
 Earl of Bothwell opened fire from an ambush, and utterly 
 routed Percy's following. Northumberland was de- 
 nounced to the Council for suppressing bad news. He 
 regarded the Earl of Westmorland as the informer. 
 
 At the accession of Elizabeth the state of the county 
 was terrible indeed. The Scots rode as far as Morpeth, 
 driving home the cattle as from a fair in Teviotdale. 
 They would steal horses and oxen for ploughing and 
 harrowing, and then, by private agreement, restore 
 them exhausted to their owners. The Northumbrian 
 peasant roused in the night demanded who was there. 
 ' Dost thou not know me by my tongue ?' was the cool 
 reply. ' I am Jock of the Hare Well ; rise quickly, the 
 great host of Scotland is coming ; all your town shall be 
 burnt. If thou wilt be my prisoner, I will save thy house, 
 cattle, and corn.' The simple countryman, thinking this
 
 222 History of Northumberland. 
 
 all true, would give his hand out of the window, and 
 promise to pay the necessary blackmail. Did any refuse, 
 like the Bailiff of Ross and the Laird of Buckton, two very 
 rich men, they were spoiled and burnt, and left without a 
 groat. Instead of attending the musters themselves, the 
 Northumbrian landowners sent their ' plough slaves ' 
 their Cuddie Headriggs at a crown a head. Albany 
 Featherstonhaugh laughed to scorn Northumberland's 
 letter ordering him to restore a rich chain taken from 
 Ninian Menvill. Captains of horse put pay for thirty 
 or forty men into their purses without even having 
 stirrups to their own saddles. The garrison of Berwick 
 had been long unpaid ; the roads were so deep that 
 the men of Felton resisted their small oxen being taken 
 to transport the treasure ultimately sent down. There 
 was no bedding in Berwick; a mattress-maker was 
 urgently demanded. The men working on the fortifica- 
 tions were 'sore decayed,' having been fed chiefly on 
 herrings. To add to all this, the Scots had again stormed 
 Cornhill, burnt Ord within cannon-shot of Berwick, and 
 carried off many prisoners in spite of the combined 
 attack made on them at Fenton by the two Percies. 
 Their overtures for peace were very welcome, and the 
 Treaty of Upsetlington ended the war. 
 
 Northumberland demanded an impartial inquiry into 
 the charges of misgovernment brought against him. Sir 
 Ralph Sadler was sent down. Continuing the old blood- 
 feud of his father, the Earl sought to turn Sir Reginald 
 Carnaby's widow out of her house of Hexham Abbey, on 
 the plea that it was required for the official residence of 
 the Keeper of Tyndale. Sadler reported that it was ill 
 suited for the purpose, that it was a shame to wrest their 
 home from Lady Carnaby and her widowed daughter, 
 and that Northumberland was very ' unmeet ' for the 
 charge he held, especially owing to his animosity against 
 Protestants, at a time when the Government were 
 intriguing with John Knox. The wrecks on the coast of 
 the Bonaventure and the Mary, ships laden with the costly
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 22 
 
 wares of Scottish merchants, were destined to give rise 
 to long diplomatic negotiations and legal proceedings. 
 
 Most of the inhabitants of Tyndale having submitted to 
 Sir John Forster, their new keeper, at Chipchase, he 
 entrusted the charge of their wild country to George 
 Heron. A month later, however, the prisoners in 
 Hexham Gaol escaped with their gaoler, leaving the doors 
 wide open ; while Liddesdale was permitted to ' take up ' 
 Sweethope. As a party of these Scots were slumbering 
 round a fire at Cottonhope, certain thieves of Tyndale, on 
 their way to steal in Scotland, relieved them of the cattle 
 they had driven off. 
 
 The spring of 1560 was occupied by the ' Journey of 
 Leith.' The English had been ignominiously repulsed by 
 the French, when the death of the Queen- Regent, Mary 
 of Lorraine, brought about the Treaty of Edinburgh. 
 
 Preaching, it is said, at this time was more needed at 
 Berwick than in any other town in Europe. It was doubted 
 whether the Vicar could say the ' Paternoster ' in either 
 English or Latin. ' The Mass,' the people declared, ' was 
 never half so dear as the free Gospel.' Bernard Gilpin 
 delivered a few sermons, but could not be prevailed on to 
 remain, and the work was handed over to a Scotsman. 
 
 A fray between Robert Forster and Muschamps of 
 Barmoor again divided the gentry of Northumberland 
 into two camps. In church, market, and field, arms 
 and armour were daily used as in war-time. Lord Grey 
 of Wilton, the Warden, exerted himself to change them 
 all into loving neighbours. At the end of the year 
 a ' brabbling variance ' between the Revelys and Swin- 
 hoes was the only thing left to disturb internal peace, 
 while a bill for eight geese was the only Scottish claim 
 that remained unsettled. A new survey of the Border 
 was undertaken : the little closes and crooked lanes round 
 the villages were to be enclosed with quick hedges from 
 sets sold in the churches ; the fords of the Tweed were to 
 be planted up with willows, and a ' dyke of force ' cut 
 from Ridingburn to Harbottle.
 
 224 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Unfortunately, Lord Grey allowed himself to be involved 
 in disputes about the fisheries on the Tweed, especially 
 with the men of Norham. He attempted to seize Thomas 
 Clavering, the Captain of Norham, in connection with the 
 plunder of the Bonaventure. Wark, too, caused him much 
 uneasiness; the young men of the company of the Lord of 
 the May Games there took prisoner the Lord of the May 
 Games of Cornhill, who was rescued by his followers. 
 * Undone before he came to Berwick,' Lord Grey found 
 himself ' a very beggar, every day the longer the worse,' 
 and resigned in despair. Many of the Berwick garrison 
 were withdrawn to Havre de Grace, and the construction 
 of the new fortifications was abandoned. The Earl of Bed- 
 ford found Berwick a thing of such little strength that a 
 man might soon make as much in the open. The other 
 castles were in their chronic state of ruin. An attempt 
 was made to repair that of Harbottle. Some Redesdale 
 men, whom Sir John Forster had summoned there, made a 
 sudden rush on his servants, and were with difficulty over- 
 powered. Thirteen were tried at Morpeth ; Clement Hall 
 and five others were beheaded. To avenge his brother's 
 death, John Hall, with the aid of Liddesdale, burnt 
 Barrow and the Peels with Forster's corn, and urove off 
 his sheep. The gaol at Morpeth was soon choke-full of 
 Redesdale prisoners. If it had not been for Sir William 
 Drury, the whole East March would have been laid waste. 
 Cessford, the Scottish Warden, allowed Drury to be openly 
 insulted at a Border meeting, but the latter had come 
 ' not slenderly accompanied,' and retired in good order. 
 
 The defeat of Mary Stuart at Langside in 1568, and 
 her flight into Cumberland, made her partisans still more 
 anxious to provoke a quarrel with England. A foray to 
 Hethpool was pursued by the English regulars as far as 
 Yetholm. Eight hundred Scots collected and charged the 
 English four times as they fell back at nightfall on 
 Pawston, throwing stones and piercing the drum-head 
 with an arrow. Lord Hunsdon, the cousin of Elizabeth, 
 was appointed Governor of Berwick and Warden of the
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 225 
 
 East March. He had scarcely gone to bed for the first 
 time in Berwick, before the town was in alarm, owing to 
 Dan Ker of Shylstock having killed one of the sentries. 
 On his way to church, six poor men presented themselves, 
 saying they had come to live on him, as the Scots had gone 
 with all their substance. At last English patience was once 
 more exhausted ; Tyndale and Redesdale were let slip 
 over the Border, and Buccleugh overthrown. 
 
 Meanwhile, contrary to the counsels of his confessor, 
 the Earl of Northumberland had been drawn into a 
 dangerous conspiracy with the intention of re-establishing 
 the ancient faith. A false alarm, alluded to in the ballad, 
 
 1 Earl Percy into his garden is gone, 
 
 And after him walks his fair ladie: 
 I hear a Bird sing in mine ear 
 That I must either fight or flee,' 
 
 caused him to ride by night from Topcliff to Branspeth, 
 on November 9, 1569. He had almost escaped to Alnwick 
 when the Earl of Westmorland took him to Durham. 
 There the two Earls threw down the Communion-board 
 and tore the Bible in pieces. Their hopes of assistance 
 from Leonard Dacre of Naworth and Captain Read of Ber- 
 wick proved misplaced. Instead of Sir Cuthbert Colling- 
 wood, the Sheriff, and 600 horse, barely a hundred 
 of the Percy tenantry, and sixty of the Neville from 
 Bywell, came to join them. Captain Carvell organized 
 the defence of Newcastle, while Sir John Forster affixed 
 an energetic proclamation to the gates of Alnwick Castle. 
 Having received the submission of it and Warkworth, 
 Forster raised a large body of horse at Hexham, and, 
 sallying from Newcastle with Sir Henry Percy, forced the 
 insurgents to fall back on Durham. Deserted by all their 
 foot, the Earls fled with their horse through the wastes 
 to Hexham. Two days later they crossed the Tyne and 
 marched six miles in the direction of Alnwick, but were 
 ' so impeached by the hot pricking and skirmishing ' of 
 Forster's scouts that they turned back. The number of 
 their followers having increased to fifteen hundred, they 
 
 15
 
 226 History of Northumberland. 
 
 set out the next morning for Naworth. The Countess 
 of Northumberland, who was supposed to be the heart 
 and soul of the Rising ' the gray mare, the better horse ' 
 concealed the Percy plate near Hexham. Disappointed 
 in the reception they met with from Leonard Dacre, the 
 Earls made off the same night to Liddesdale. Sussex 
 arrived the following day at Hexham from Newcastle 
 with a force nowise superior ; his horses were sore beaten 
 with the frost and snow. He sent Forster with a strong 
 reconnaisance to Fetherstonhaugh and posted his foot 
 soldiers at Haydon Bridge, but preferred himself to await 
 the course of events at Hexham. On Christmas Eve 
 Northumberland was betrayed by Hector Armstrong to 
 the Regent Murray. In his distress, the Earl sent a 
 letter to his brother, which, being intercepted, compro- 
 mised Leonard Dacre. Joined by Forster at Belford, 
 Hunsdon reached Hexham with difficulty, owing to 
 the ' deep waters and ways.' Passing Naworth after 
 a forced night-march, they defeated Dacre, who pursued 
 them, at Celt's Bridge. The Earl of Westmorland 
 adopted the state of a prince in Teviotdale, and was 
 never merrier in his life. He appeared with 2,000 horse 
 in the neighbourhood of Harbottle. Whole townships 
 in Glendale were wasted by him and Buccleugh. They 
 went the length of preparing ladders for the escalade 
 of Wark and Newcastle. The names of Tristram Fen- 
 wick of Brinkburn, Cuthbert Armorer of Belford, George 
 Horsley of Acklington Park, and two Robert Colling- 
 woods (of Abberwick and Etal) were inserted in a bill 
 of attainder for participation in the Rising. Among 
 those indicted were Robert Carr of Ford, John Carnaby 
 of Langley, William Welton of Welton, Thomas 
 Errington of Walwick Grange, and Thomas Bates of 
 Prudhoe. Most of these were eventually pardoned ; 
 none appear to have suffered more than a year or 
 two's detention in the Tower. Hall and Humberton 
 were charged to make a survey of the forfeited lands. 
 It was a 'happy rebellion' for Sir John Forster, who
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 227 
 
 obtained "4,000 in plunder, and an additional 500 a 
 year in grants. No man, howsoever oppressed, dared 
 complain of him. He gutted Hulne for his own house 
 at Alnwick Abbey, and began dismantling the castles of 
 Alnwick and Warkworth. In August, 1572, having none 
 of Lord Hunsdon's high-minded scruples, he dragged 
 the unfortunate Earl of Northumberland, who had been 
 basely sold to Elizabeth by the Scots, to his martyrdom at 
 York. 
 
 That same year the Fenwicks, bearing in mind how 
 one of their clan had been murdered some thirty years 
 before by the Crosiers, rode by night into Liddesdale and 
 slew many of them in their beds. Carmichael, the up- 
 right Deputy-Keeper of Liddesdale, obtained the surrender 
 of their guide from Sir George Heron, the Keeper of 
 Redesdale. Thereupon Forster not only suspended Heron, 
 but outraged all Border etiquette by agreeing to hold a 
 court, himself Warden of the Middle Marches, with Car- 
 michael, a simple keeper, on July 7, 1575. He came with 
 an unusually large following to the Redeswire. All went 
 well for nearly three hours, till, after he and Carmichael 
 had ' courteously drunk together,' Forster refused to 
 order the surrender of an Englishman condemned for 
 non-appearance. 'You cloke justice,' cried Carmichael, 
 ' and are not willing that it should proceed, so long as 
 your nowt and the keepers do go quietly on the Borders.' 
 This Forster denied, and declared he was ready to settle 
 all causes within his office. ' I am as able to answer 
 mine office as you are yours, and am of as good a house 
 as yours,' replied Carmichael. ' You are not so able as 
 I,' bragged Forster, 'for I am the Queen's Majesty's 
 Warden of the Marches, and you are but a keeper/ 
 Then, if the Scottish ballad is to be trusted, 
 
 ' He raise and raxed him where he stood, 
 
 And bade him match him with his marrows, 
 Then Tyndale heard these reasons rude, 
 And they lute off a flight of arrows ;' 
 
 while, according to the English, shouts of ' I say ! I say!
 
 228 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Comparison ! Comparison !' cut short this odious alterca- 
 tion. 
 
 Martin Crosier let fly an arrow that wounded William 
 Fenwick of Wallington. * A Tyndale ! a Tyndale !' cried 
 the North Tyne men, falling on the pedlars of Jedburgh. 
 These, gathering round their drum and pennons, replied 
 with, ' A Jedworth ! a Jedworth !' The Scots were 
 driven back. Forster, by ' stroke and hasty proclama- 
 tion,' calmed his own men, and allowed Carmichael to 
 leave his side to quiet his. Hardly, however, was Car- 
 michael out of sight before the whole Scottish force 
 reappeared, charging down on the English Warden and 
 his gentlemen, who were without armour. Sir George 
 Heron and others were killed ; Forster and others were 
 taken prisoners ; the rest 
 
 ' No put the bussing on thair theis, 
 
 And so they fled with all their main 
 Down owre the brae lyke clogged beis,' 
 
 the chase lasting three miles into England. 
 
 An outrage similar to that of the Redeswire was per- 
 petrated at Hexpethgatehead, in July, 1585. Sir John 
 Forster on dismounting found himself practically sur- 
 rounded by more than 2,000 armed followers of his 
 Scottish colleague, Sir Thomas Ker of Fernyhurst. On 
 being shown a letter from King James, bidding him give 
 satisfaction to the complaints of Henry Collingwood, 
 Fernyhurst haughtily replied : * I will answer the King.' 
 A disturbance presently arose owing to the alleged theft 
 of a pair of spurs by an English boy. Forster offered 
 to have him instantly hung, and he and Fernyhurst pro- 
 ceeded quietly with their business. Suddenly, as if by 
 premeditation, the Scots' drums and fifes struck up, 
 and their foot musketeers came charging down on the 
 English. Ker of Ancrum called on Forster's son-in-law, 
 Lord Francis Russell, to surrender, but in another moment 
 a volley had laid the young nobleman low. Fernyhurst 
 did nothing to stop the Scots as they charged past 
 within forty yards of him, and allowed Forster and a
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 229 
 
 hundred of his horses and men to be carried off into 
 Scotland. 
 
 The immense number of Scots settled in Northumber- 
 land had long been a subject of complaint. The English 
 Government seemed powerless to prevent this Drang 
 nach Suden. The wife of Robert Roddam, after forcibly 
 turning one of her English tenants at Ilderton out of his 
 house, and imprisoning his children in the tower, planted 
 four Scottish households there in one year. In Moneylaws 
 there was not an Englishman left. Generally speaking, 
 every third man along the Border was a Scot in the 
 service of a Northumbrian master. Lord Hunsdon de- 
 clared he could rid the country of nearly 3,000 Scots, 
 and yet leave sufficient as colliers, fishers, herds, and 
 shepherds. 
 
 Through the labours of Father Sheppard, who had said 
 Mass at Warkworth Castle, and other Jesuits who were 
 concealed at Cartington, Langshaws, Ryle, and Ford, 
 the country suddenly became almost entirely Catholic. 
 Not three Protestant gentlemen were left in the East 
 Marches. Although some of the Catholics would con- 
 form by coming to church once a quarter, yet their wives 
 were notorious recusants. 
 
 At the head of this large Catholic party was Sir Cuth- 
 bert Collingwood, who, by his vehement denunciations of 
 Forster's misrule, became at last Keeper of Redesdale. 
 The 'beggarly Border,' as Collingwood termed it, was 
 indeed in a ' ruinous state.' On all the Percy estates 
 there were not a hundred able men, horse or foot. 
 Three day-forays were run by the Scots to Harbottle, 
 Ilderton, and Clennell. Five hundred Liddesdale men 
 wasted Ryle, Prendwick, and Revely, and tore twelve 
 webs of lead off Ingram church. Thomas Errington's 
 house at Haughton was broken into. Fifty houses 
 were burnt in Redpeth, Wyden, and Bellister, and 1,000 
 worth of household stuff carried off. A raid of the Laird 
 of Mangerton on Haydon Bridge and Rattenraw secured 
 loot of equal value and twenty-four prisoners. Cattle were
 
 230 History of Northumberland. 
 
 even ' reived ' from a place so far off the Border as 
 Ulgham Grange. 
 
 In revenge for all this Sir Cuthbert Collingwood under- 
 took a bootless expedition to Teviotdale. On his return, 
 Buccleugh and young Cessford came down on Eslington. 
 Sir Cuthbert, with his son and a few servants, sallied out 
 to the hill above his house. Attacked by a whole army of 
 Scots, more fortunate than his sons, he got back through 
 the orchard gate. Captain Bellasis took refuge behind 
 the walls of an old house on the hill, and after most of his 
 men had been massacred was carried away prisoner. 
 
 So helpless were the Northumbrians, that it was actu- 
 ally proposed to build an ' insconce,' in imitation of the 
 Roman Wall, along the whole Scottish Border. Inhabited 
 ' sconces ' were to be planted on this Elizabethan Wall at 
 about a mile apart, fortified towards Scotland to resist 
 artillery, but next England merely with a thin wall to re- 
 sist assaults made without cannon. The Queen was to 
 assign 1,000 acres near each * sconce ' at a penny an acre, 
 as preferment to the gentlemen appointed to defend it ; 
 the only paid men in each were to be ten gunners. 
 
 In 1595, alleging that the North Tyne men had ' long 
 since in a war time ' taken away his grandfather's sword 
 and refused to restore it, Buccleugh burnt a widow's 
 house at Greenhaugh, and slew four Charltons at the 
 Bowght Hill. The previous summer some of Cessford's 
 men had stolen a few sheep from the parson of Wooler. 
 To recoup himself, the parson and his friends went and 
 took ' one sheep hogg ' from Cessford's shepherd. Cess- 
 ford's honour was so highly touched that he vowed to kill 
 the parson, who left his all and fled to Berwick. On this, 
 Cessford rode with eighty horse and trumpet sounded to 
 Wooler, and killed two of the parson's men, and also the 
 Laird Baggott, in a village near, hacking them all in pieces. 
 Two Storeys, Baggott's brothers-in-law, thereupon ' got to 
 horseback,' and, going to Scotland, cut up Cessford's 
 shepherd. Cessford lay in wait for them on their way 
 to the Whitsun Fair near Weetwood. Though they
 
 The East and Middle Marches. 231 
 
 escaped him then, he subsequently slaughtered William 
 Storey. 
 
 Lord Hunsdon now appointed his third son, Robert 
 Carey, his deputy in the East Marches. The young 
 man sent to Cessford to express his hopes that they 
 would be good friends as colleagues. Cessford put the 
 messenger to bed drunk, and took the opportunity of 
 going to kill an Englishman against whom he had a spite. 
 Carey requited this breach of courtesy by summarily 
 executing Cessford's particular favourite, a ruffian called 
 Geordie Bourne. In 1598 Carey became Warden of the 
 Middle Marches, in succession to Lord Eure, whose five 
 years' tenure had been disastrous to the country, owing 
 to his misplaced confidence in his officers. Carey obtained 
 King James's permission to take revenge on Liddesdale 
 for a raid on Haltwhistle. During this expedition a 
 Ridley from that town slew Sim of the Cat Hill. This 
 brought the whole of the thieves down on it again, when 
 a Ridley shot one of the sons of Sim of Whitram in the 
 street. By passing the whole summer in a fort he built 
 at the foot of Liddesdale, Carey reduced all the thieves 
 to submission. 
 
 Owing to Sir John Forster's imbecility, Hume and 
 other Scottish lords had been suffered to come and 
 hunt in Northumberland. Carey had a dozen of them 
 brought prisoners to Widdrington. Not long afterwards 
 he proclaimed James King of England there, during 
 his hasty ride to carry the tidings of Elizabeth's death 
 to Edinburgh. He had left London after nine in the 
 morning and reached Widdrington the next night. One 
 of the last exploits of the Scots before the Union was 
 kidnapping William Wicliffe, the Earl of Northumber- 
 land's commissioner, in October, 1602. Wicliffe lost his 
 apparel, three horses and their furniture, and a consider- 
 able sum of gold and silver. His enlargement was only 
 accomplished by a heavy ransom.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE RADCLIFFES. 
 
 Y ma saul, they are enough to spoil a gude King,' 
 is said to have been the comment of James I. on 
 the frantic demonstrations with which the people of New- 
 castle greeted his entry into their town as the first 
 Sovereign of Great Britain. The weary story of Border 
 warfare appeared to have been closed for ever by the 
 dynastic union of the two crowns. No one could have 
 foreseen the decadence of the monarchy and the Scottish 
 invasions that were soon to follow. 
 
 Final articles for the pacification and disarmament of 
 the ' Middle Shires of Britain ' were agreed upon by 
 English and Scottish commissioners in 1605. Noblemen 
 and gentlemen unsuspected of felony were allowed to 
 retain their arms, but the commonalty were ordered to 
 put away all weapons and warlike accoutrements. An 
 attempt was made to draft the young men of Tyndale 
 and Redesdale into the army in Ireland. But, in spite of 
 all King James's endeavours, old Border habits were not 
 easily laid aside. So late as 1611, Robert Elliot of the 
 Redheugh, with fifty Scottish horse and twenty foot, all 
 furnished with ' long pieces, pistollets, or lances,' came to 
 Leaplish in the upper valley of North Tyne, and ' cut 
 down ' Lionel Robson's dwelling-house with their axes. 
 Lionel himself was shot through the heart with a bullet, 
 and many other men and women were killed and wounded.
 
 The Radcliffes. 233 
 
 The gentry of Northumberland transferred their family 
 feuds to the field of politics. John Clavering, the 
 Sheriff, opened the poll only half an hour before the time 
 fixed for the election of a Knight of the Shire in 1614. 
 Then, finding he had not got twenty-four votes for his 
 candidate, Sir George Selby, he had the clock put back 
 till they came, taking no notice of any votes given for 
 Sir Ralph Grey. As Selby, after all, was ineligible, being 
 Sheriff of Durham, a Serjeant's officer was sent down by 
 the House of Commons to attach Clavering. Without 
 even offering the officer a drink, Clavering rode post-haste 
 to Westminster, and appeared at the bar of the House, 
 by whom he was committed to custody. 
 
 The influence of the House of Percy, weakened by the 
 long absence of the eighth and ninth Earls of Northum- 
 berland in the South, sustained a severe shock through 
 Thomas Percy's participation in the Gunpowder Con- 
 spiracy. He had in hand at the time the rents of the 
 Northern estates of the Earl his kinsman, with whom he 
 actually dined at Sion on the eve of Fawkes's apprehen- 
 sion. Northumberland was committed to the Tower on 
 suspicion, and Sir Henry Widdrington was instructed to 
 take possession of the castles of Alnwick, Tynemouth, 
 and Prudhoe. The Earl was eventually released on the 
 payment of a heavy fine, but was forbidden to visit 
 the North. The value of land in Northumberland had 
 been enormously enhanced by the Union. This led 
 to a certain disintegration of society : as long as the 
 Scottish ravages lasted, all the peasants were much on 
 the same level of poverty ; the sudden prosperity caused 
 by their cessation led to extravagance and excess, and 
 gradually the richer farmers in a village ate up the smaller 
 ones a result favoured by the demand for wool, and the 
 general dislike of land-agents for small holdings. 
 
 The eclipse of the Percy crescent left the first place in 
 Northumberland to the Radcliffes, who, quitting their 
 home on Derwentwater, had acquired Dilston and Cart- 
 ington by marriage at the end of the fifteenth century.
 
 234 History of Northumberland. 
 
 They now purchased the manor of Alston, with its rich 
 lead-mines, and the extensive barony of Langley. Their 
 devoted attachment to the Stuarts in sunshine and storm 
 gives a special interest to the history of their family. 
 
 King James spent ten days in Newcastle in 1617, stay- 
 ing at the house of Sir George Selby. Henry Babbington, 
 whom he visited at Heaton Hall, ' endured knighthood * 
 in company with Peter Riddell and John Delaval. 
 
 The thieves and outlaws of the Northumbrian High- 
 lands proved a great terror to Newcastle during the French 
 war of 1627. Many of them were tried and punished during 
 the shrievalty of Sir Thomas Swinburne in the follow- 
 ing year. Sir Thomas has left most curious details of 
 his official expenditure : how he gave a dinner to the 
 200 gentlemen and their servants who rode with him to 
 meet the judges at Sheriff Hill ; how he provided blue 
 coats for the twenty-four bailiffs, Lancelot Allgood the 
 county clerk, the two gaolers, and the Under-Sheriff s men, 
 as well as for ten men of his own ; and how he gave the 
 judges a pound each at their parting on Benwell Hills. 
 Sir Robert Branding, of Alnwick Abbey, who had already 
 once been Sheriff, was pricked again for 1629. He re- 
 fused to serve, and fled to Scotland, so Swinburne had to- 
 continue in office ; he had learnt by this time how to 
 cut down the expenses. Sir Robert Brandling consented 
 to serve the year after, but his many offences against 
 morality and his violent vagaries at Alnwick Church 
 beating the minister before the sermon, laying his staff 
 about his wife, locking the Percy servants out and the 
 Archdeacon's official in led to his being fined 3,000 in 
 the Court of High Commission. 
 
 Amid the persecutions to which Catholics were con- 
 stantly subjected, the widowed Dorothy Lawson enjoyed 
 singular quietness, owing to her acknowledged piety and 
 goodness. She built a house at St. Anthony's, below 
 Newcastle, where a picture of the saint had formerly 
 been ' decently placed ' in a tree near the Tyne ' for the 
 comfort of seamen.' At the end of her house towards
 
 The Radcliffes. 235 
 
 the river she ' caused to be made the sacred Name of 
 Jesus,' and each room inside was known by the name of 
 some particular saint. On her death, in 1632, her body 
 was brought on a barge to Newcastle, where in the even- 
 ing the streets were illuminated with tapers, ' as light as 
 if it had been noon.' The magistrates and aldermen 
 received the coffin at the landing-stage, and, after accom- 
 panying it to the church-door, adjourned to the funeral 
 feast. 
 
 Charles I. visited Newcastle on his way to his Scottish 
 coronation in 1633. Soon afterwards three Norwich 
 soldiers on their travels arrived in the town, the captain 
 and ensign ' clad in green like young foresters.' They 
 found the people and the streets much alike, neither 
 sweet nor clean. The quay was fair and long, but there 
 were few ships in the river. Mr. Cole, the Mayor, 
 was fat and rich, vested in a sack of satin. The Nag's 
 Head, 'the princely inn of freestone' on the Sand-hill, 
 excited their admiration more than the seven gates or 
 four churches. They marched away, with pretty 
 murmuring music, along the banks of the Tyne, which 
 kept them from straying on the left, as the Picts' Wall 
 did on the right. The road, especially in one place, was 
 so steep, narrow, and intricate, that they expected their 
 nags to fall upon them. When they thought all dangers 
 past, they had to cross the rough ford at Hexham, in 'the 
 vale of night.' Fortunately, they were rewarded in find- 
 ing in the ' Heart of all England ' that rarest of rarities, 
 an inn ' with cheap and good fare, sweet lodging, and 
 kind usage, a traveller's desire.' 
 
 The Puritans were gaining ground considerably in 
 Newcastle and the neighbourhood. Dr. Jenison, Vicar of 
 All Saints', who wrote ' Newcastle's Call, to take Warn- 
 ing by her Sins and Sorrowes,' during the plague of 1636, 
 which carried off a third of the inhabitants, greatly 
 favoured them, while continuing to profess conformity. 
 Alvey, the Vicar of Newcastle, on the contrary, was, a 
 zealous High-Churchman, and took proceedings against a
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 mercer named John Blakiston, the son of a prebendary of 
 Durham, for refusing to kneel in St. Nicholas'. John 
 Fenwick and Bittleston, a tanner, went into Scotland to 
 observe the manner of keeping the day of humiliation, 
 and were believed to have subscribed to the Covenant. 
 Many of the party gathered in Henry Dawson's house 
 on Sunday nights, to hear unauthorized prayers and 
 repetitions of sermons. 
 
 In consequence of the grave aspect of affairs in Scotland, 
 energetic measures were taken for the defence of New- 
 castle in 1638. The following spring King Charles re- 
 solved to lead in person an army to the Border. He was 
 magnificently entertained in Newcastle ; the whole town 
 seemed as one man against the Scots. His artillery 
 and five regiments of foot, which on May 21 were en- 
 camped on Bockenfield Moor, were joined next day by 
 the Guards on Rock Moor. After encamping again near 
 Detchant Wood, and on Goswick Moor, they marched on 
 to the ' Grand Leaguer' on the Tweed at the Birks near 
 Ord. Charles himself, who went straight to Berwick, 
 sleeping on the road at Alnwick Abbey, arrived in camp 
 on the 3Oth. A contemporary plan shows the position 
 of the royal tents with 
 
 ' The Glorious Standard of our Gratious King, 
 whence streams of peace to Loyall Subjects spring. 
 But seas of Ruine and sterne war to them 
 perturbe that Peace, moleste his Diadem.' 
 
 Charles's untrained levies were so eager to fight that ' they 
 cast up their caps with caprioles, shouts, and signs of joy ' 
 on the first news of the Scots' approach ; but although his 
 forces were slightly superior in number, the King did not 
 dare to attack Leslie at Dunglas. A great want of 
 discipline prevailed ; the men fired off their guns at 
 random in the camp. Many of them were compelled to 
 lie all night on the ground, sheltered only by walls of 
 turf and branches of furze. When Leslie advanced to 
 Dunse Law, Charles was content to examine his forces 
 through a telescope, and to calmly observe, ' Let us go to
 
 The Radcliffes. 237 
 
 supper ; the number is not considerable.' The Pacifica- 
 tion of Berwick was concluded on June 22, and both 
 armies fled homewards ' like a broken-up school.' 
 
 Disaffection became more and more rife in Newcastle. 
 At Michaelmas two Puritans, Robert Bewick and John 
 Emerson, were chosen to be Mayor and Sheriff. The 
 people began to give up coming to church till the singing 
 of the psalm before the sermon. Two leading Cove- 
 nanters, Sir Walter Riddell and Sir John Buchanan, came 
 to Newcastle, and were accompanied on their suspicious 
 walks round the town walls by Mr. Middleton, at whose 
 private chapel at Belsay all comers were allowed to 
 preach to the factious spirits who flocked from Newcastle. 
 Pressed by Sir John Marley as to why he let these 
 strangers view the town, the Mayor replied it was because 
 Mass was suspected to be said in it. 
 
 The Pacification of the previous year failing to produce 
 any good effect in Scotland, Lord Conway arrived to 
 undertake the defence of Newcastle in the spring of 1640. 
 He found the walls for the most part difficult to scale, but 
 the cannon on them of little use. In addition to a port- 
 cullis, each of the principal gates was provided with great 
 bars fitting into the walls to stop horsemen, an iron gate 
 of broad bars, and great gates of wood. Hundreds of 
 Scottish families had settled in Northumberland, particu- 
 larly on Lord Grey's estates; there were about 300 of them 
 employed in the coal-mines, and many in Newcastle, all 
 Covenanters, and as devoted to the Scottish party as if 
 they lived in Edinburgh. Conway could only persuade the 
 Corporation to arm all their companies with muskets and 
 a certain number of keelmen and colliers with pikes. Sir 
 John Marley considered that, as the King received 50,000 
 a year from the town, he ought with that money to pay 
 soldiers for its defence. Twopence was deducted from 
 each soldier on the pay-day to cover the cost of his 
 wretched accoutrements. A mutiny took place in conse- 
 quence, and one of the malcontents, chosen by dice- 
 throwing, was shot. Rumours of the intended advance
 
 238 History of Northumberland. 
 
 of the Scots in June were discredited by Conway, and the 
 King refused to provide for the defence of the town by a 
 slight duty on coal. It was, however, an open secret that 
 the Scots intended to seize the Tyne and Wear, and so, 
 by stopping the coal trade, exact extreme terms from 
 England. Conway selected a site for a citadel, both to 
 defend and overawe the town. He refused to send for 
 more foot, dreading unpaid soldiers more than the Scots. 
 Finally, on August 20, Leslie did cross the Tweed with 
 about 30,000 men. A week later a drummer brought two 
 sealed letters to Sir Jacob Astley. One of them was ad- 
 dressed ' For him that commands in chief in Newcastle,' 
 the other ' To the Mayor of Newcastle.' Astley stopped 
 the Scotsman beating his drum, and, pretending he him- 
 self was the Mayor, refused to receive the letters. 
 
 The blue-bonneted host the Highlanders still armed 
 with bows and arrows pitched their camp on Heddon 
 Law, about three miles to the north of Newburn. The 
 great fires they made with coal worked on the spot made 
 their army appear more numerous than it was. They 
 had had no meat with them the whole day before crossing 
 the Tweed, but they assured the people of Northumber- 
 land that they would not take a chicken or a pot of ale 
 without paying for it. They met therefore with no 
 resistance, and were even entertained and feasted by 
 some of the country gentry. 
 
 Conway considered that Newcastle was untenable 
 if the Scots crossed the Tyne and attacked it from 
 Gateshead. Compelled to leave the greater part of 
 the garrison in the town to prevent its betrayal, he pro- 
 ceeded with 2,000 foot and 1,000 horse to Stella Haugh, 
 in order to guard the ford at Newburn. He threw up two 
 ' sconces,' or breast works, one close to the river, the other 
 a. little in the rear, placing in each 400 musketeers and four 
 guns. His horse he drew up in squadrons on the haugh, 
 some distance further east. As the soldiers were moving 
 into these hastily constructed earthworks, they perceived 
 the Scots marching down the hill into the village, where
 
 The Radcliffes. 239 
 
 they planted some of their guns on the church tower, and 
 lined the houses, lanes and hedges with musketeers. Both 
 parties continued watering their horses at the river all the 
 morning of that 28th of August. At last a Scottish officer, 
 well mounted, with a black feather in his hat, came out 
 for this purpose from one of the thatched cottages. An 
 English officer seeing him regarding the * sconces,' took 
 aim and brought him from the saddle. The Scots imme- 
 diately opened fire on their side. The duel, commenced 
 with musketry, was continued by artillery. Between 
 three and four in the afternoon, when the tide was low, 
 the Scots, thanks to the immense superiority of their 
 position, made a breach in the ' sconce ' commanded by 
 Colonel Lunsford, 'bowling their great shot' into it. 
 Several officers and many of the men were killed ; the 
 rest threw down their arms and fled from the colours. 
 Thereupon twenty-six of the College of Justice troop 
 crossed the Tyne to reconnoitre. At the same time 
 the English foot were driven by the guns from the other 
 ' sconce.' At about four o'clock, Colonel Blair passed 
 the river with 1,000 musketeers, and Colonel Leslie's 
 and Sir Thomas Hope's troops of horse, but was forced 
 to fall back on the advance of twelve of the English 
 squadrons. A Scottish battery of nine guns placed on 
 the hill to the east of Newburn now opened fire on 
 the Royal horse, and threw them into disorder. The 
 foot brigades of Loudoun and Montgomery, each 1,800 
 strong, ran boldly down to the ford. The English 
 sounded a retreat, Lunsford drawing off his cannon. 
 In protecting the flight of the foot up Ryton and 
 Stella banks, Commissary Wilmot, Sir John Digby, and 
 Daniel O'Neill, were made prisoners by the Scottish 
 horse. The Royal standard was taken, Charles Porter 
 the bearer being killed. A rally made in a wood by 
 Sir Jacob Astley proved unsuccessful. Fugitives crying 
 ' Fly for your lives ; naked devils have destroyed us !' 
 caused a panic in Newcastle. Vicar Alvey jumped up 
 on horseback behind a countryman, ' without waiting
 
 240 History of Northumberland. 
 
 for a cushion.' The next day the town was abandoned 
 by Conway. Sir William Douglas, Sheriff of Teviot- 
 dale, with a company of horse, demanded the surrender 
 of Newcastle from the Mayor on Tyne Bridge. Leslie 
 and his guards, entering the town on the Sunday, went 
 in solemn state to the great church, where the ' organs, 
 sackbuts, and cornets ' were silenced. The Scots con- 
 tinued their ' destruction of idolatry ' by defacing the 
 ' spoons ' or canopies of the church fonts. The col- 
 lieries and shipping, which then employed 10,000 people, 
 were all laid idle. It was not until August, 1641, that 
 the invaders, having been paid "60,000, agreed to re- 
 cross the Tweed. That same month King Charles 
 passed through Northumberland on his way to Edinburgh, 
 returning in November. 
 
 William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle, was appointed 
 Governor of the town by King Charles in June, 1642, and 
 at once began to put it in better trim for resistance. At 
 the end of the year, Colonel Goring landed with a great 
 supply of arms and ammunition from the Low Countries. 
 He brought with him the standard of Queen Henrietta 
 Maria to be displayed at the head of the Earl's army. 
 Cavendish united the four Northern counties in a league 
 for the King and was rewarded with the Marquisate of 
 Newcastle. Sir George Muschamps of Barmoor, his 
 commissioner for raising a regiment of foot, was re- 
 fused permission to have his drum beat by the Berwick 
 Corporation. Soon afterwards he received instructions 
 to arrest Thomas Armorer of Belford, Richard Forster 
 of Newham, and Robert Carr of Howick, all suspected 
 of treasonable practices. Cavendish, however, lacked the 
 chief sinew of war ; * a little barrel of ducatoons' .from 
 Henrietta Maria had not done much to replenish his 
 military chest. Robert Rugg, the bottlenosed Governor 
 of Holy Island, an extraordinary character who had 
 dubbed Tom Coryat ' first English Knight of Troy ' on 
 the banks of the Simois, was left without pay for more 
 than sixteen months. Finding all prose remonstrances
 
 The Radcliffes. 241 
 
 unavailing, he sought inspiration in a cup of canary, and 
 addressed the paymasters in verses headed: 
 
 ' The Great Commander of the Cormorants, 
 The Geese and Ganders of these Hallowed Lands, 
 Where Lindisfarne and Holy Island stands, 
 These worthless lines sends to your worthie hands.' 
 
 The Parliament, which at first had forbidden all ships 
 to trade with Newcastle, now found that London and the 
 greater part of the kingdom were likely to suffer very 
 deeply for want of coal, ' that commodity so absolutely 
 necessary to the maintenance and support of life.' Ac- 
 cordingly it hit on the more practical expedient of 
 levying on each chaldron an import duty, to be applied 
 in raising forces to reduce the town. For the same 
 end it entered into a close alliance with the Scottish 
 Covenanters. On January 19, 1644, three regiments of 
 Scottish foot and thirteen troops of horse crossed Ber- 
 wick bridge and advanced to Haggerston ; while Colonel 
 Welden's regiment took up its quarters at Pressen, 
 Learmouth, Wark, and Mindrum. The Royalist Colonel, 
 Francis Anderson, drew back his men to Wooler. The 
 Marquis of Argyle sent his trumpeter to Sir Thomas 
 Glenham and Colonel Grey at Alnwick, but received a 
 loyal answer of defiance. On the 23rd, Lieutenant- 
 General Bayly marched from Kelso to Wooler, over the 
 two nights' ice of the Tweed, and General Leslie re- 
 moved his headquarters to Edderston. On the 25th, 
 though the thaw had so swelled the waters that their 
 infantry were often up to their waists, sometimes to their 
 armpits, Leslie and Bayly effected a junction at Alnwick, 
 where the Royalists had made a pretence of defending the 
 bridge with the guns of a Dutch flee-boat. Sir Thomas 
 Glenham collected masons and workmen to cut Felton 
 Bridge, but, frightened by the execrations of the country- 
 women, while he went into a house to refresh himself they 
 all ran away. Warkworth Castle surrendered at the first 
 shot, though it had, it would seem, a garrison of seventy 
 soldiers, seven pieces of brass ordnance, and a year's 
 
 16
 
 242 History of Northumberland. 
 
 provisions. The Scottish leader told Bemerton, the 
 Governor, that if he had fought as well as he danced, it 
 would never have been taken. Leslie remained four days 
 at Morpeth, and though the castle was ' a ruinous hole, 
 not tenable by nature and far less by art,' he left 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Somerville with 500 men in it to 
 deter the garrison of Newcastle from plundering the 
 country. On February 3 the Scottish army appeared 
 before Newcastle. The Marquis of Argyle's trumpeter 
 was sent with a letter to the Mayor, explaining that, 
 though their ' appearance in that posture, through mis- 
 informations and misunderstandings, might occasion 
 strange thoughts,' they were ready to treat for ' the 
 preservation of Religion, the King's true Honour and 
 Happinesse, and the publick Peace and Liberty of his 
 Dominions.' Sir John Marley and the Common Council 
 replied that they would not ' betray the trust reposed in 
 them, or forfeit their allegiance to His Majesty, for 
 whose honour and preservation, together with the 
 Religion and Lawes of the Kingdome, they intended to 
 hazard their Lives and Fortunes.' Meanwhile the Scottish 
 musketeers drove the English out of a small sconce about 
 a quarter of a mile from the town, near the stone bridge 
 leading into the Shieldfield. A stronger fort near a wind- 
 mill, within half a musket-shot of the walls, is said also 
 to have been taken after a severe struggle. A sortie of 
 horse proved ineffective, the number of coal-pits making 
 charging difficult work. The Sandgate, a straggling 
 suburb by the river-side, was set on fire by the Scots, 
 and burnt for two days. 
 
 No serious attack could be made on the town till the 
 arrival of the ' murthering pieces,' which were brought 
 by sea to Blyth's Nook. Even then nearly a fortnight 
 was passed in inaction, the Scots being fully persuaded 
 that the town would surrender. Perceiving that the 
 Marquis of Newcastle and Sir John Marley were made 
 of different metal than Lord Conway and Robert Bewick, 
 they determined to approach it from the south. The
 
 The Radcliffes. 243 
 
 ford at Newburn was now fortified not only by the river- 
 side, but above, near the hilltop ; so they despatched some 
 regiments of horse to secure the fords higher up the Tyne. 
 On February 19 Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Colonel 
 Fenwick of Hexham attempted to surprise those quartered 
 at Corbridge, under Leslie's son Lord Balgoney, and 
 Lord Kirkcudbright, but a timely warning had drawn 
 them out into the field. Colonel Ballantine charged the 
 Royalists twice with his lancers, and had taken 100 
 prisoners, when, charging a third time, he approached 
 too near their musketeers. Sir Marmaduke rallied his 
 men and routed the Scots, who had 'a very narrow retreat 
 through a gap.' Balgoney was shot through the shoulder, 
 and among the many prisoners was Major Agnew, danger- 
 ously hurt. In their flight the Scots found themselves 
 face to face with Colonel Dudley's dragoons, who had 
 crossed the river from Prudhoe that morning and sur- 
 prised several of their quarters. Colonel Brandling, who 
 had the chief command, rode out impetuously before his 
 troops, and exchanged pistol-shots with a Scottish lieuten- 
 ant named Elliot. Both wheeled to draw their swords, 
 but Brandling's horse stumbled, and Elliot pulled him out 
 of the saddle. His misadventure threw the English into 
 disorder. Dudley, conceiving himself outnumbered, re- 
 treated across the river, losing those of his dragoons 
 whose horses were too weak to follow. The fortunes 
 of the day were thus equally divided. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, a snowstorm having abated, General 
 Leslie, leaving six regiments under Sir James Lums- 
 dale before Newcastle, led his main army to Heddon- 
 on-the-Wall for the night, and then into quarters along 
 the river between Ovingham and Corbridge. The Eng- 
 lish horse fell back in front of them, and abandoned 
 Hexham at midnight, leaving Major Agnew there to pro- 
 tect the house of Colonel Fenwick, who had used him 
 courteously. After another drifting storm, the Scots 
 passed the Tyne on February 28 at Ovingham, Eltring- 
 ham, and Bywell, the foot wading very deep ; indeed, the
 
 244 History of Northumberland. 
 
 flood had so risen in the Derwent by the time they 
 reached it, that they had to march single file over a tree- 
 bridge near Ebchester. They successfully occupied 
 Sunderland, and stormed a fort at South Shields. In 
 April the Marquis of Newcastle marched South to York, 
 where he was besieged by Leslie and Fairfax. 
 
 On May 10, 1644, Montrose, and the Scottish noblemen 
 and gentry with him in Newcastle, resolved * to ferret out 
 their rebellious countrymen, who had nested themselves 
 in the castle of Morpeth.' Having himself effected a 
 reconnaissance of the Royalist advance, Somerville, the 
 Governor, backed the castle-gate with earth and sods, 
 to prevent its being blown in by a petard. As his 
 garrison was more numerous than his arms, he divided 
 it into three eight-hour companies. At dawn the next 
 morning Montrose delivered a furious assault ; this, 
 however, was repulsed, so he pitched his camp, and in- 
 vested the castle with a trench. He was soon disturbed 
 by the news of fresh troops advancing from Scotland ; 
 these he drove back, though he was unable to overtake 
 them. Somerville devoted this interlude of five days to 
 destroying Montrose's breastwork and the houses near the 
 castle, but spared a great barn which had been just built by 
 the Lord of the Manor. Montrose, on his return, placed 
 his cannon in this barn, and battered down the battlements 
 of the castle, without, however, making much impression 
 on the walls. A successful sally set on fire the rye-straw 
 thatch of the barn, so Montrose raised two batteries 
 nearer the castle. These began to play at daybreak, 
 and by four in the afternoon a breach was effected. 
 Somerville closed this with feather beds; but in the 
 general bombardment that followed a musket-ball entered 
 his neckcloth and went out at the crown of his hat, ' taking 
 off some of the hide and hair of his head.' After some 
 deliberations a white flag was displayed, and an honour- 
 able capitulation agreed upon. The garrison marched 
 out at ten o'clock on the morning of May 29 ; they had 
 lost only about twenty men, the besiegers two hundred.
 
 The Radcliffes. -245 
 
 At Marston Moor Newcastle's 1,000 Whitecoats, raised 
 chiefly among his Ogle tenantry, scorned to yield or flee. 
 All, except thirty, were ' slain in rank and file as they 
 stood.' The coats which they had begged the Marquis, 
 in his want of scarlet cloth, to give them undyed as they 
 were, promising to dye them in the enemy's blood, were 
 now all red with their own. The surrender of York to 
 the Parliamentary forces followed. After this the Earl 
 of Callendar, who had entered England with a reserve of 
 10,000 Scots and had taken Hartlepool and Stockton, 
 made himself master of Gateshead, and; so threatened 
 Newcastle from the south. The Mayor, Sir John Marley, 
 now proved himself no ' carpet-knight from a tap-house.' 
 Although he had with him only 800 train-band soldiers, 
 and about an equal number of volunteers and pressed 
 men, he conducted the defence with extraordinary spirit. 
 In order to leave no foothold for scaling-ladders, the 
 ditch round the town was dug deeper close into the walls, 
 which were underpinned with clay. The embrasures of 
 the battlements were closed with stone and lime, only 
 narrow slits being left for sharp-shooters ; the cap-stones 
 of the merlons were lifted and balanced on little stones, 
 so as to fall with any of the enemy who should attempt 
 to mount them. In the castle, with a view to securing 
 the river and the Quayside, heavy guns were laid on the 
 Half Moon (the round tower at the south end of the old 
 Moot Hall), while great ordnance planted on the keep 
 essayed to silence the five batteries established by the 
 Scots on Gateshead Banks. At the north-east corner of 
 the town, the Shieldfield fort and its four bastions, with 
 shipmasts laid alongthe outworks, 'commanded champion- 
 like the fields.' 
 
 During the second week of August, Leslie returned 
 from York with the main Scottish army. Passing the 
 Tyne on a bridge of keels above Newcastle, he sat down 
 on the north side of the town. His common soldiers 
 constructed huts of turf, clay, straw, and wattles ; the 
 officers were provided with round tents. Three thousand
 
 246 History of Northumberland. 
 
 countrymen were ordered to bring mattocks, spades, and 
 shovels, and labour in the trenches. The Earl of Callendar 
 crossed the Tyne, also by a bridge of boats, to the east of 
 Newcastle, and completed the ring of investment which 
 had hitherto been broken by the Shieldfield fort. No 
 provisions could now enter the devoted town. At great 
 jeopardy the loyal burghers issued from the posterns, and 
 engaged the Scots in the flanking trenches. The siege 
 grew daily hotter and hotter. A Scottish battery in the 
 Sandgate beat down the upper part of the Carpenters' 
 Tower. Undistracted by the bombardment, the garrison 
 discovered a mine that was being driven at the time 
 between this tower and the river. Lord Callendar him- 
 self, who was directing the excavation, thrust a pick into 
 the countermine. To prevent his own mine being 
 drowned, he had it sprung the next morning. The 
 explosion overthrew a strong horn-work, which now 
 became a shelter for the attacking force. 
 
 Imagining that Sir John Marley was buoying up his 
 people with false hopes, the Scots threw letters over the 
 walls, giving their version of the state of affairs. On 
 Michaelmas Day, General Bayly's batteries ' brashed 
 down ' part of the town wall near St. Andrew's church, to 
 within two feet of the ground. Ten men might have 
 marched in abreast at this breach, but the royalists, under 
 cover of canvas, speedily barricaded it with timber and 
 rubbish. St. Andrew's church suffered considerably from 
 the cannonade ; the beautiful spire of St. Nicholas might, 
 it is said, have been demolished, if Scottish prisoners 
 had not been purposely confined under the lantern. The 
 church bells rang all one night to celebrate the discovery 
 and destruction of three Scottish mines. 
 
 Montrose's rising in the Highlands made Leslie anxious 
 to bring matters to an issue. Negotiations for a capitula- 
 tion were begun, but Marley imagined he knew enough of 
 the Scots' character to buy them off with a good sum of 
 money, while Leslie did not allow sufficient time for de- 
 liberation. Marley at last pretended that Leslie must be
 
 The Radcliffes. 247 
 
 dead, as he had not been seen for some time before the 
 town. Accordingly he sent a letter to be delivered 
 personally to him by a drummer, charged to see if he 
 were really alive. This ' base derision ' made a peaceful 
 solution impossible. On the morning of October 19 
 Leslie determined to storm the town. By ten o'clock his 
 different regiments were under arms in their positions 
 round the walls. They were subjected to the taunts of 
 the guards on the ramparts, who kept calling ' Come on, 
 you cowardly rogues, if you dare.' Yet it was not till 
 three o'clock in the afternoon, when the besieged had 
 nearly succeeded in blowing up with their countermines 
 the chambers in which the Scots kept their mining powder, 
 that the general assault was actually delivered. Under 
 the direction of John Osborn, ' a false Scot/ the colliers 
 of Elswick and Benwell successfully sprang one mine near 
 the White Friar Tower, and another at the Sandgate. 
 The batteries effected four great breaches. These, how- 
 ever, were very steep and difficult to mount, and the 
 townsmen did great execution on the Scots who entered 
 them with the iron spikes of their hand grenades. The 
 death of Colonel Hume at the breach near the Andrew 
 Tower was ' involved ' in the quaint epitaph : 
 
 ' Woe to that breach beside Black Bessie's Towre, 
 Woe to itselfe, that bloudy butchering bowre ! 
 Where valiant Home, that sterne Bellonaes blade 
 And brave commander fell : for there he stay'd 
 Arraign'd by death.' 
 
 Nothing was left undone by Marley and his garrison 
 that might repel the fury of the assault. A desperate fire 
 poured from the castle on the breaches, while volley on 
 volley of scattered shot was discharged from the flanking 
 towers of the walls. For a long hour the thunder of the 
 opposing artillery continued to peal amid a driving hail- 
 storm of musket-balls, drowning, except at rare intervals, 
 the clang of the swords and the * brangling ' of the pikes. 
 The attack had lasted two hours, when Loudoun and 
 Buccleugh's regiments poured in at a breach near the
 
 248 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Close Gate. Even after their entry they were thrice 
 charged in the narrow street by Marley's horse. In their 
 rage they set a house on fire, while Captain Andrew 
 Abernethy launched a whaler's boat, all in flame, with 
 the intention of burning the vessels which lay along the 
 Quay. Lord Callendar had now passed over the breach 
 made by the mine in Sandgate. Marching rapidly to the 
 Sandhill, with colours flying and drums beating, he gave 
 orders to check any further conflagration. He despatched 
 Lords Livingston and Kellhead with their two regiments 
 to clear the royalists off the walls on the east side of the 
 town. Pilgrim Street Gate, with its long barbican, was 
 bravely defended by Captain George Errington and nine- 
 score tradesmen. They would hold no parley with the 
 enemy without ; but finding themselves attacked in the 
 rear, they surrendered to Colonel Sinclair, by whom they 
 were honourably treated. The Bigg Market was soon 
 choked with fugitives from the walls, crying for quarter, 
 and throwing down their arms. All noise and tumult 
 suddenly ceased. The soldiers of the garrison vanished 
 behind the closed doors of the houses ; the more crafty 
 ' sat down by their fathers' firesides ' as though they had 
 never had a musket or pike in their hands. The Scottish 
 regiments patrolled the streets unmolested, and refrained 
 for the time being from pillage and rapine. Sir John 
 Marley and the three loyal Scottish lords, Crawford, 
 Reay, and Maxwell, took refuge in the castle with 500 
 men, and held out for three days longer. The plague 
 having broken out in Tynemouth Castle, it, too, yielded at 
 the end of the month. 
 
 In an age of indiscriminate massacres like those of 
 Magdeburg and Drogheda, the mercy shown by the 
 Scots to a town taken by storm, with the loss of 1,000 on 
 their own side, was, as far as human life was concerned, 
 absolutely without parallel. Against this must be set 
 their complete sack of Newcastle. At their first entry, a 
 dozen of them burst into a house where a christening party 
 were drinking ' Confusion to the Scots rebels,' rifled their
 
 The Radcliffes. 249 
 
 pockets, and stripped off their clothes. The town was now 
 deliberately given over to be plundered by the whole army 
 for twenty-four hours. Bedclothes, table-linen, skins and 
 leather, coats and dresses, pots, plates, and pans, all found 
 their way across the Tweed. With singular lack of the 
 power to see themselves as others saw them, the Scots 
 subsequently bewailed the ' ignorant negligence and care- 
 less omission ' they had shown on this occasion, ' as illus- 
 trating their own old proverb ' it must indeed have 
 been an extremely old one that ' Scottish men are aye 
 wise behind the hand.' 
 
 In memory of the heroic resistance she offered to 
 Leslie, Newcastle adopted at the Restoration the proud 
 motto : 
 
 . FORTITER DEFENDENDO TRIUMPHAT. 
 
 This ' She glories in her brave defence ' being con- 
 sidered too loyal, has been altered by the Corporation to 
 the meaningless 
 
 FORTITER DEFENDIT TRIUMPHANS. 
 
 King Charles, who had fled from Oxford to the Scottish 
 camp at Newark-on-Trent, was brought to Newcastle in 
 the beginning of May, 1646. It was here that, soon after, 
 a Scottish minister, preaching insolently before him, gave 
 out the fifty-second psalm : 
 
 ' Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself, 
 Thy wicked works to praise ?' 
 
 The King stood up, and called instead for the fifty-sixth, 
 
 1 Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray, 
 For men would me devour/ 
 
 which the people accordingly sang. Charles appears to 
 have been lodged in the Elizabethan mansion called Ander- 
 son Place. He attempted to escape in disguise by the 
 passage of the Lortburn, and is said to have got as far as 
 a grate in the middle of the Side, when hewas apprehended. 
 After this he was deprived of the liberty of playing golf on
 
 250 History of Northumberland. 
 
 the Shieldfield, and strictly watched by a guard of 
 soldiers, who annoyed him by continually smoking. The 
 English Parliament, who had sent Captain Robert Batten 
 to occupy Holy Island, ultimately agreed to pay the Scots 
 "200,000 for the costs of their campaign. Subsequent 
 negotiations stipulated that the King should be handed 
 over to his English enemies. Having completed this 
 ignominious transaction on January 28, 1647, the Scots 
 marched off home. 
 
 In the spring of 1648, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, com- 
 missioned by the Prince of Wales, seized Berwick. In 
 June, leaving Colonel Grey there, he advanced into Cum- 
 berland to await the arrival of the Duke of Hamilton's 
 army, but was driven into Carlisle by General Lambert. 
 From Carlisle he sent 700 horse under Colonel Tempest 
 to meet Colonel Grey near Alnwick, a move that forced 
 the Northumberland horse of the Parliament and Major 
 Sanderson's troops, who had been watching Berwick, to 
 draw towards Sir Arthur Haselrig at Newcastle. They 
 were joined at Newburn by Colonel Wren's newly-raised 
 Bishopric regiment of horse, and advanced to Chollerton 
 Edge to prevent the Cavaliers encamping there on their 
 march west. At Capheaton they were reinforced by fifty 
 dragoons from Newcastle, but although Grey and Tempest 
 were afraid to attack them, they judged it prudent tactics 
 to fall back on Hexham. Colonel Lilburn now reached 
 Haydon Bridge with three troops from the west. At eleven 
 o'clock at night, on June 30, the Roundheads all marched 
 from their rendezvous at Chollerford to Harterton, where 
 they baited their horses for two hours. AtTosson a Royalist 
 lieutenant and his six dragoons were surprised in bed by 
 Major Sanderson and the 'forlorn hope.' Colonels Grey 
 and Salkeld were seized at Callaley. Of all the Royalist 
 quarters, Cartington Castle, where Sir Richard Tempest 
 and Sir Francis Radcliffe were in command, was the only 
 place that offered resistance, and that only for two hours. 
 Three hundred^prisoners, mostly officers and gentlemen, 
 were driven on foot to Morpeth, their horses having been
 
 The Radcliffes. 251 
 
 promptly sent off for sale at Newcastle. Sir Richard 
 Tempest contrived to escape the next morning. 
 
 On August 10, a week before Cromwell's defeat of 
 Hamilton at Preston, Colonel Henry Lilburn, who had 
 been a devoted Parliamentarian, suddenly pulled up the 
 drawbridge of Tynemouth Castle, where he was Deputy- 
 Governor. Setting the prisoners, many of them taken at 
 Cartington, at liberty, he declared he would pistol every 
 soldier that would not be for him and King Charles. A 
 corporal who refused to give up his arms he ran through 
 the body. Many seamen from Shields flocked to his 
 assistance. Sir Arthur Haselrig, the Governor of New- 
 castle, immediately despatched Colonel Ashfield with a 
 large force of infantry and 100 dragoons to recover the 
 castle. Between one and two in the morning Major 
 Cobbet led the ' forlorn hope ' to the storm. Lilburn 
 welcomed them with four cannon. As they mounted by 
 their ladders, they were pushed down with pikes and 
 ' gunners' ladles.' Forced to expose themselves, however, 
 on the battlements, the garrison were picked off by the 
 soldiers underneath. Lilburn was among those shot 
 dead ; the escalade proved at last successful, and the 
 castle was won. 
 
 Sir George Munro, in his retreat through Alnwick with 
 the remnants of Langdale's force, swept everything out of 
 the country. Berwick surrendered to Cromwell on 
 September 30. Although the Earl of Northumberland 
 took the Parliamentary side, Warkworth Castle was 
 ordered to be ' sleighted,' a word to which Pye, the 
 Governor, gave the widest interpretation, not restricting 
 himself to destroying the military works and removing 
 the doors. 
 
 The officers and men in garrison at Newcastle, Tyne- 
 mouth, and Holy Island were especially eager for Charles's 
 execution. Nothing else, they urged, could be ' an accept- 
 able sacrifice to the justice of God while Agag was spared.' 
 Colonel Hewson's regiment deplored, in addition, the great 
 increase of lawyers as being ' a Pathognomonical Symp-
 
 252 History of Northumberland. 
 
 torn of a Cachectic Commonwealth.' The fanatical 
 misuse of the Old Testament gave rise to a great cam- 
 paign against witchcraft at Newcastle. Those whose skin 
 was insensible to the pin of the witch-trier were con- 
 demned forthwith ; a wizard and fifteen witches were 
 executed on one day on the Town Moor. A far more 
 terrible episode in the ' Reign of the Saints ' followed. 
 Six thousand of Cromwell's prisoners from Dunbar were 
 penned in the inner ward of Alnwick Castle. After 
 eight days' starvation, 3,000 survived. These were turned 
 into a large walled garden at Morpeth. The raw 
 cabbages they devoured, leaves and roots, brought on a 
 plague, from which scores died by the roadside on their 
 march to Newcastle and in the church of St. Nicholas, 
 into which they were huddled for the night Out of 
 the 6,000 brought to Alnwick, not more than 1,000 
 escaped alive from their final privations at Durham. 
 
 On the whole, religious matters were kept fairly quiet 
 at Newcastle, through the eloquent ministrations of Silver- 
 tongue Sydenham, an ejected prebendary of Wells. The 
 more extreme sectaries at Hexham allowed themselves 
 to be thoroughly imposed upon by a Scotsman named 
 Ramsay, who variously pretended to be a Benedictine 
 emissary of the Pope, and a Mantuan Jew of the tribe of 
 Judah. 
 
 When at length the hour struck for the comparative 
 restoration of civil and religious liberty, General Monk, 
 who had secured Berwick in the autumn, crossed the 
 Tweed with his army at Coldstream on the New Year's 
 Day of 1660. His first night's quarters were at Wooler. 
 Lambert, who was suspected of being a Roman Catholic, 
 and of wishing to make himself King, immediately aban- 
 doned Newcastle. His soldiers, though superior in 
 number to Monk's, were a pampered and delicate com- 
 pany, weary of being quartered among a coarse and 
 hardy people. Their pay was in arrear, and they were 
 driven to desperate courses ; some of the dragoons 
 actually surprised Chillingham Castle, in the hope of
 
 The Radcliffes. 253 
 
 seizing Lord Grey's rents. No wonder, then, that the 
 church bells everywhere welcomed Monk's advance. The 
 snow lay too deep to permit of his march from Wooler to 
 Morpeth in one day. He broke the journey at a vicar's 
 house, probably at Edlingham, where he met with only 
 cold entertainment. Next day he fared better, for in 
 passing Long Horsley Tower the honest old knight, Sir 
 Thomas Horsley, though he made no secret of his sym- 
 pathies being with Lambert, received the General and his 
 train very kindly and nobly. At Morpeth the High Sheriff 
 and principal gentry of Northumberland waited on his 
 Excellency, in company with the sword-bearers of London 
 and Newcastle. Tynemouth Castle alone had the effron- 
 tery to declare against him. 
 
 The impending Restoration of Charles Stuart was not 
 altogether in harmony with the old Border feeling still 
 latent in Newcastle. ' What !' exclaimed Margaret 
 Dixon, ' can they find no other man to bring in than a 
 Scotsman ? What ! is there not some Englishman more 
 fit to make King than a Scot ?' Nor did the extravagant 
 expenditure of the King tend to allay this incipient dis- 
 content. ' What can have become of all the money 
 collected in the country ?' asked Thomas Busby, as he 
 was walking near Alnwick with Henry Elder. ' What 
 should become of it ?' rejoined Elder; 'there is none to 
 destroy it but a company of ranting fellows; and as for his 
 Majesty, he has taken up the bones of an honester man 
 than himself, and there will be no quietness till he goes 
 the way his father went.' There were constant rumours 
 of plots against the new Government ; on one alarm, Sir 
 James Clavering, the Mayor of Newcastle, caused the 
 trained bands to be called out into the market-place ; 
 on another, a lantern was ordered to be hung out of every 
 house till the morning. The 'drum ecclesiastic' continued 
 to be a potent factor in politics. Standing at the stair- 
 head, outside a secret prayer-meeting at Newcastle one 
 night, Thomas Story, the Quaker, was disgusted to hear 
 no word of Christian doctrine from the famous Presby-
 
 254 History of Northumberland. 
 
 terian preacher, but only suggestions of jealousy and 
 dislike of the Government, delivered in a highly objection- 
 able strain. For holding weekly meetings of this kind 
 under the cloak of mutual assistance and improvement in 
 religion, some young men were denounced to Judge 
 Jeffreys at the Newcastle Assizes of 1684. ' Can you read, 
 sirrah?' he contemptuously demanded of one of them 
 named Verner, who had but a mean aspect at the best. 
 ' Yes, my lord,' was the reply. ' Reach him the book.' 
 The clerk of assize handed his Latin testament to Verner, 
 who began at the first place that struck his eye. This 
 was Matt. viii. i. ' Construe it, sirrah!' roared Jeffreys. 
 Verner did construe it : ' Judge not, lest ye be judged ; 
 for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.' 
 Jeffreys took this text so much, for him, to heart, that, 
 after Verner and his companions had remained in prison 
 for a year, he dismissed them at the next assizes with the 
 Scriptural caution, ' Go, and sin no more, lest a worse 
 thing come unto you.' 
 
 Ambrose Barnes, a Puritan alderman of Newcastle, found 
 the blind side of James II., and attained to considerable 
 influence at Court. The cause of religious liberty brought 
 about strange acquaintances ; Barnes had one day two 
 Jesuits and a Capuchin at his table in the Close. It is not 
 to be wondered at that many looked on the Alderman him- 
 self as a Jesuit in disguise. Harry Wallis, a master- 
 shipwright, who had taken more beer than was good for 
 him, indulged in open abuse of Barnes, and for this was 
 confined in the tower on the Tyne Bridge. A quantity of 
 malt happened to be stored there ; Wallis amused him- 
 self by shovelling it into the river, to the tune, 
 
 ' O base mault, 
 Thou didst this fault, 
 And into Tyne thou shalt.' 
 
 Sir Francis Radcliffe, the third baronet of Dilston, 
 used to call Barnes his ' honest Whig.' He actually con- 
 veyed his estates to him in secret trust, when he himself
 
 The Radcliffes. 255 
 
 was in danger of being involved in the Popish Plot. 
 Notwithstanding the losses of his family under the 
 Commonwealth, when their estates were ordered to be 
 sold for the use of the Navy, and only saved in conse- 
 quence of the heavy settlements upon them, Sir Francis 
 had been able to buy out his wife's sisters, the other 
 co-heiresses of the Fenwicks of Meldon. The retired 
 life he led at Dilston, owing to his having been received 
 into the Latin Church, increased both his wealth and 
 local popularity. Frequent doles to the poor, and visits 
 from the neighbouring gentry, were the chief events in 
 his household. Sir Cuthbert Heron of Chipchase would 
 send his keeper with a fallow deer, and Mr. Errington's 
 man bring great rolls of brawn and ' other civilities ' 
 from Walwick Grange. In winter, players from about 
 Blaydon and Stella came and acted the comedy of 
 ' Mucedorus, the King's Son of Valentia.' The tuner 
 of the virginals and a poet who came out of Scotland 
 also received their guerdons. There were few postal 
 facilities : Tom the footman had to go all the way to 
 Newcastle on the Saturday night, to put in the letters 
 and wait till the Monday morning for the down mail. 
 Sir Francis kept in touch with the yeomen and farmers 
 through having a large amount of land in his own 
 hands : one winter an express arrived from Alston Moor 
 to say that the snow lay deep, and that the hay for 
 the cattle at Tyne Head would not last another week ; 
 during another long storm, the steward at Spindleston 
 lamented that the sheep had all to be hand-fed. In 1688 
 Sir Francis married his eldest son to Lady Mary Tudor, a 
 natural daughter of Charles II., and attained the goal of 
 his ambition in being created an Earl. The Radcliffes were 
 not an old Catholic family. Sir Francis had the mal- 
 address to ask James II. for a revival of the Earldom of 
 Sussex, a dignity borne by Thomas Radcliffe, who sup- 
 pressed the Catholic Rising of 1569. He had to be content 
 with the romantic title of Derwentwater. The pleasure 
 his elevation to the peerage afforded was soon damped by
 
 256 History of Northumberland. 
 
 the landing of William of Orange. A troop of 250 horse, 
 raised by the new Earl, was refused admission to Berwick, 
 and Derwentwater himself thought it prudent to ride 
 away to the seclusion of Whitton Shield. Declaring 'for 
 the Protestant religion and a free Parliament,' Newcastle 
 threw open its gates to Lord Lumley, while Colonel Bill- 
 ingsley seized Berwick and made prisoner the Lieuten- 
 ant-Governor, Sir Thomas Haggerston. At Newcastle 
 Colonel Heyford took upon himself to attach Sir John Fen- 
 wick of Wallington, on suspicion of being in communica- 
 tion with King James, and sent his soldiers with a hired 
 rabble to pull down the equestrian statue of the unfortunate 
 monarch which had been erected on the Sandhill. 
 
 Sir John Fenwick's loyalty to James II. led him to 
 enter into conspiracies for his restoration. Finding that 
 these had been betrayed to the existing Government, he 
 endeavoured to escape to France, but was arrested and 
 beheaded on Tower Hill, January 27, 1697, by virtue of a 
 special Act of attainder which made the evidence of one 
 informer sufficient proof of his guilt. This unconstitu- 
 tional proceeding roused an intense feeling of indignation 
 throughout Northumberland, and embittered the relations 
 of political parties. During the assizes at Newcastle in 
 1701, the greater part of the grand jury of Northum- 
 berland were dining together in convivial fashion at the 
 Black Horse. John Fenwick of Rock came in singing the 
 popular ballad, ' Sir John Fenwick's the flower among 
 them/ This gave umbrage to Ferdinando Forster of 
 Bamburgh, one of the knights of the shire. A violent 
 altercation took place, which was appeased by some of 
 the company. Next morning, however, Fenwick and 
 Forster happening to meet near the White Cross, drew 
 their swords on each other, and Forster fell. Fen- 
 wick was immediately indicted for murder. In spite of 
 the popular feeling in his behalf, which found expression 
 in the doggerel, 
 
 ' Noble squire Fenwick, he must be put down, 
 For killing squire Forster of Bamburgh town,'
 
 The Radcliffes. 257 
 
 he was hung during the following month. The gates of 
 the town were shut for fear of a rescue by the miners in 
 his employment at the Kenton collieries. 
 
 The accession of George I. extinguished all hope of 
 the Jacobites in a Restoration by constitutional means. 
 In August, 1715, Captain John Shafto, a half-pay 
 officer, and Captain John Hunter of North Tyne, who 
 had received a commission from Queen Anne for raising 
 an independent company, but was better known as a 
 smuggler, came down to Newcastle to prepare an armed 
 rising in the North. About the end of September, the 
 young James Radcliffe, third Earl of Derwentwater, who 
 had been brought up at the Court of St. Germain's, and 
 had just lived long enough at Dilston to make himself 
 universally beloved, received warning from an upholsterer 
 at Newcastle that the Secretary of State had issued a 
 warrant for his apprehension. The three messengers 
 who brought this down took with them four of the 
 trustiest bailiffs of John Johnson of Bebside, the Sheriff 
 of Northumberland, and watched Lord Derwentwater 
 enter Dilston Hall at seven o'clock in the evening. 
 When they searched it at six the next morning, the 
 Earl was nowhere to be found. He had escaped to the 
 house of his neighbour, Mr. Bacon of Styford, who, 
 though a justice of the peace, did nothing to persuade 
 him to surrender. From Styford he proceeded to quarters 
 more secluded and less suspected, at Mr. Lambert's of 
 Newbrough. His horses at Dilston were seized by the 
 bailiffs and messengers, and committed to the custody of 
 Mr. Coatsforth, a rigid Whig magistrate. 
 
 Thomas Forster of Edderston, the younger, one of the 
 county members and a Protestant, was also in danger of 
 being attached. The Government described him as ' of 
 middle stature, inclining to be fat, fair-complexioned, 
 his mouth wide, his nose pretty large, speaking the 
 Northern dialect.' He had taken refuge with Mr. Fen- 
 wick at Bywell. The State messenger stopped at a 
 village half a mile off to call a constable to his aid, and 
 
 17
 
 258 History of Northumberland. 
 
 when he reached Bywell, Forster was flown. Fearful of 
 being all taken up to London, and doubtful as to what 
 the result of an inquiry there might be, Derwentwater, 
 Forster, and the rest resolved, at a conference held at 
 Nafferton, to openly declare for James III., and to meet 
 in arms the next morning at Greenrig, on Watling Street, 
 between Reedsmouth and Sweethope Lough. Fenwick, 
 Tate, Green, Allgood, and other of their Tory neigh- 
 bours, urged this course, and promised to join them. 
 Acting, as he said, on Cromwell's maxim, that he could 
 gain his ends anywhere with an assload of gold, Lord 
 Derwentwater got back his horses from Coatsforth, and 
 early on October 6 rode out from Dilston with the whole 
 of his servants and a few friends, all armed to the 
 teeth. After marching through Corbridge with drawn 
 swords, the party halted at Beaufront. Mr. Errington, 
 who had served with credit in the French army, was in- 
 duced to join them, through his many obligations to Lord 
 Derwentwater. Several other gentlemen followed his 
 example. At the top of a hill near the Waterfalls, a little 
 to the south of Greenrig, Forster and twenty more were 
 waiting for them, bringing the whole number of insurgents 
 up to sixty. After a hasty council of war, they decided 
 to proceed to Plainfield Moor, on the north bank of the 
 Coquet, near Sharperton. Here they were met by Lord 
 Widdrington, who had come away at short notice accom- 
 panied by a few of his family armed with ordinary fowling- 
 pieces. Mad Jack Hall of Otterburn, as he was called, 
 presently rode up. He had been sitting on the bench at 
 the Alnwick Quarter Sessions when he first heard of the 
 rising, and set off in such haste as in the first instance 
 to forget his hat. He endeavoured to persuade the 
 insurgents to swoop down on his brother justices and 
 the county clerk and his books. Instead of this they 
 marched to Rothbury for the night. On reaching Wark- 
 worth the next morning, their chaplain, Mr. Buxton, 
 took possession of the church, and prayed for King 
 James, Mary the Queen-mother, and all the dutiful
 
 The Radcliffes. 259 
 
 branches of the Royal Family. Forster, disguised as a 
 trumpeter, proclaimed King James III. at the market- 
 cross. Having received considerable reinforcements at 
 Alnwick and Felton Bridge, the Jacobites entered Mor- 
 peth 300 strong, all on horseback, as they refused for the 
 present to enlist any foot, though large numbers proffered 
 their services. Meanwhile, Lancelot Errington and others 
 had surprised the castle on Holy Island, and hoisted the 
 Stuart standard. They were speedily dispossessed by 
 the garrison of Berwick, while Robert Lisle, who went 
 to prepare a rising in Newcastle, found the Whigs on the 
 alert, and had the misfortune to be made prisoner on 
 entering Pandon Gate. 
 
 Disappointed at Newcastle's not opening its gates, the 
 insurgents marched across country to Hexham, and then 
 encamped on a moor near Dilston, expecting every 
 moment that Sir William Blackett would join them 
 with his keelmen and lead-miners. Sir William, how- 
 ever, was being closely watched at Wallington by the 
 Sheriff's officers ; the militia and trained bands were 
 mustered on Killingworth Moor, and the Earl of Scar- 
 burgh, Lord- Lieutenant of Northumberland, had arrived 
 in Newcastle. The Jacobites therefore returned to 
 Hexham. After remaining there three days, hearing 
 that General Carpenter and his troops had reached New- 
 castle, they set out to support their friends from the West 
 of Scotland, who had accomplished a difficult march from 
 Jedburgh to Rothbury. On the eve of their departure 
 from Hexham they again proclaimed King James, Forster 
 careering in the market-place on his fine black horse. The 
 proclamation remained on the cross several days after 
 they had left, a good indication of the popular sentiment. 
 
 Robert Patten, Vicar of Allendale, who acted as 
 Forster's chaplain, lagged behind the main cavalcade. 
 He chanced to overtake a party of keelmen in Rothbury 
 Forest. One brave young fellow among them boldly told 
 him : ' We are Scotsmen going to our homes to join our 
 countrymen, now in arms for King James. I'll drink his
 
 260 History of Northumberland. 
 
 health just now !' And, dipping his bonnet in a runner, 
 he cried, * Here is King James's health !' In this he was 
 followed by his comrades. Patten enlisted them each 
 with a shilling, and they all spent the night in Rothbury, 
 after taking the precaution to secure the head-constable 
 in his own house. Next day they came up with the Eng- 
 lish and Scottish horse at Wooler. The whole little army 
 then moved on to Kelso to effect a junction with the 
 advancing Highlanders. 
 
 During the fatal march southwards, Forster opened at 
 Brampton his commission to act as General of the Stuart 
 forces in England. He had never seen an army in his 
 life, and his appointment was due to the mistaken idea 
 that the selection of a Protestant would rally a multitude 
 of Tories to the Cause. As it was, William Craster and 
 two others were the only recruits brought in through 
 Forster's influence. At Preston the Stuart army was 
 surprised in front by General Wills, while its retreat was 
 cut off by Carpenter's advance from Newcastle. Forster, 
 who, though no soldier, was no coward, allowed himself 
 to be persuaded to a miserable surrender at discretion by 
 Colonel Oxburgh, who was fitter for a priest than a field- 
 officer, and Lord Widdrington, who could not travel, it 
 was said, without strong soup in a bottle. Lord Derwent- 
 water, who had signally distinguished himself, working 
 in the trenches with his coat off, bitterly reflected on the 
 broken promises of his Tory neighbours. Remorselessly 
 chosen to be the scapegoat of the whole movement, he 
 was beheaded on Tower Hill, February 24, 1716, ' for 
 loyalty to his lawful Sovereign.' Baron Bernstoff offered 
 Lady Cowper, the wife of the Lord Chancellor, to let 
 Forster, who was her cousin, escape on his way up to 
 London. Whether or not the Government felt they were 
 under a debt of gratitude to Forster on account of his 
 bad generalship, there is little doubt that his final escape 
 from Newgate was connived at in high quarters. Accord- 
 ing to the genuine traditions of the countryside, his sister 
 Dorothy rode up to London in the company of John
 
 The Radcliffes. 261 
 
 Armstrong (whom, as a matter of fact, she soon after- 
 wards married), and obtaining an impression of the 
 master-key of Newgate, had one made like it, with which 
 she let her brother out. Charles Radcliffe, Lord Derwent- 
 water's youngest brother, also escaped from Newgate. 
 William Sanderson of Highlaws and the brave young 
 John Talbot of Cartington were equally fortunate at 
 Chester. Lady Cowper prevailed on the Government to 
 forego the prosecution of her near relation, John Claver- 
 ing of Callaly ; and Thomas Errington was also set at 
 liberty. The only Northumbrian gentlemen who were 
 executed were George Collingwood of Eslington and 
 John Hall of Otterburn ; but the fate of two young 
 Swinburnes was particularly sad Edward dying in New- 
 gate, and James going melancholy mad. 
 
 In violent contrast to the influence exercised by the '45 
 on Scottish literature, the '15 produced nothing more 
 romantic in Northumberland than Thomas Whittle's 
 ballad of ' The Midford Galloway ' : 
 
 'The routing the Earl of Mar's forces, 
 
 Has given their neighbours supplies ; 
 They've stock'd us with Highlanders' horses, 
 
 Like kileys for madness and size : 
 The whirligig-maker of Midford 
 
 Has gotten one holds such a stear, 
 
 ***** 
 
 The devil ne'er saw such a gelding 
 As this to be foal'd of a mear. 
 
 ' It had been so spoifd in up-bringing, 
 
 It vext his poor heart every day ; 
 Sometimes with biting and flinging, 
 
 And sometimes with running away. 
 ***** 
 
 Perhaps it was brought up a Tory, 
 And knew the poor man for a Whig.' 
 
 The quest of his Jacobite pony gives the whirligig- 
 maker a long lesson in Northumbrian geography. After 
 searching all Rothbury Forest, he accompanies Fortune,
 
 262 History of Northumberland. 
 
 the clothier of Heslyhurst, to Tom Fawdon, the fuller's, 
 at Brinkburn, where they regale themselves heartily, 
 He has the ' galloway ' ' cried ' in Whittingham church- 
 yard after morning service on the Sunday, and ultimately 
 recovers it at Earle, near Wooler. 
 
 A serious riot, occasioned by a pretended scarcity of 
 corn, broke out in Newcastle in 1740. Many of the 
 merchants' apprentices formed themselves into the White 
 Stocking Regiment of volunteer militia The mob was 
 pacified for the moment by the announcement that the 
 corn-factors had agreed to moderate their prices. This 
 they did, but closed their shops. The populace pro- 
 ceeded to plunder the granaries. The militia was for- 
 bidden to assemble, owing to the Mayor's jealousy of 
 their commander, and on a rioter being killed by a shot 
 from the Guildhall, the rabble broke into the building, 
 destroying the glass and pictures and robbing the town's 
 hutch of more than 1,000. They threatened to set fire 
 to the town, when three companies of foot, under 
 the command of Captain Sowle arrived after a forced 
 march from Alnwick, and soon succeeded in restoring 
 order. 
 
 Viscount Radcliffe, the only son of the third Earl of 
 Derwentwater, died in 1731. Dilston and the other 
 estates which had been saved to him under his mother's 
 marriage-settlement reverted to the Crown, and were 
 bestowed by King George on Greenwich Hospital. His 
 surviving uncle, Charles Radcliffe, who was living abroad, 
 assumed the title of Derwentwater. He had the misfor- 
 tune to be taken on board a French privateer during the 
 Stuart rising of 1745, by which Northumberland was little 
 affected, owing to the prompt measures taken for the 
 defence of Berwick and Newcastle. The Government 
 resolved to proceed against him on his previous attainder 
 after the rising of 1715, but had some difficulty in proving 
 his identity. At last two witnesses were procured from 
 Northumberland : Abraham Bunting recognised him as 
 the same brother of Lord Derwentwater who had marched
 
 The Radcliffes. 
 
 263 
 
 out from Hexham in 1715 at the head of 500 of their 
 tenants and other insurgents; Thomas Mozley, living 
 within two miles of Dilston, had often noticed the white 
 scar on the right side of his face that looked like the 
 mark of a scald. A bravado at his trial, a saint on the 
 scaffold, Charles, Earl of Derwentwater, suffered on Tower 
 Hill, December 8, 1746.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. 
 
 FOUGHT like the battle of Mons Grampius in the Far 
 North, Culloden finally accomplished that pacifica- 
 tion of Britain which had been the dream of Julius 
 Agricola. No longer was there any fear of Caledonian 
 ravages, and Northumberland lost the Border character 
 that had distinguished it for so many centuries. Its 
 history, which at the beginning forms an integral part 
 of that of the Roman Empire, and then contributes a 
 most important chapter to the annals of Christendom, 
 becomes henceforward a mere miscellany of declarations 
 of polls, long runs with fox-hounds, failures of turnip- 
 crops, eccentricities of old families, and pretensions of 
 new ones, little differing from that of any of the other 
 thirty-nine counties of England. During the last century 
 and a half, its main feature is the development of the 
 coal-mines in the south-eastern corner of the county, 
 and the consequent growth and expansion of Newcastle- 
 upon-Tyne. 
 
 In the reign of Henry IV., when Newcastle became a 
 county of itself, the population is said to have numbered 
 about 4,000, less than that of Morpeth at the present 
 day. It had increased sevenfold by the beginning of this 
 century, and cannot now be put at much under 200,000. 
 Including the thickly - inhabited district on the north 
 bank of the Tyne down to its mouth, it is considerably
 
 Newcastle-upon- Tyne. 265 
 
 over a quarter of a million. If Gateshead and the whole 
 district which forms with its pall of smoke one continuous 
 town be brought in, that figure may safely be doubled. 
 
 In Northumberland proper, the populations of the 
 towns of Morpeth, Hexham, and Alnwick have long 
 remained almost stationary at 5,000, 6,000, and 7,000 
 respectively. The population of the country districts has 
 been distinctly retrograde, probably being now only half 
 what it was when the century opened. Since 1873 the 
 quantity of land under the plough has decreased by a 
 third, while proportionately fewer hands are employed on 
 that still left under cultivation. After the '45, Newcastle 
 lost its character of a Border fortress, and became more 
 than ever the county town of Northumberland; all North- 
 umberland is now rapidly becoming a suburb of Newcastle. 
 
 The surrender of Carlisle to Prince Charles Edward, in 
 1745, was attributed largely to the inability of General 
 Wade to advance to its relief from Newcastle, owing to 
 the want of a good road. This was remedied by the con- 
 struction of the Military Road between the two towns in 
 1748. The route chosen between Newcastle and Sewin- 
 shields was the line of the Roman Wall, which was for 
 the most part levelled for the purpose. Fortunately, John 
 Horsley, a learned Presbyterian minister of Morpeth, who 
 died in 1731, had left a careful description of the Wall in his 
 ' Britannia Romana.' From a military point of view, the 
 Carlisle road may have been well planned, being probably 
 only a resuscitation of the Roman road that preceded 
 the Wall. It certainly attracted at the time a consider- 
 able amount of trade and traffic to Newcastle, and it has 
 proved of great service to those anxious to visit the por- 
 tions of the Wall and Four Dykes which were spared by 
 the Hanoverians. For ordinary purposes there is not a 
 worse engineered road in the kingdom. 
 
 The fatal news from Culloden broke the heart of 
 Lancelot Errington, the hero of the capture of Holy 
 Island in 1715, but the hopes of the Jacobite party 
 were not entirely crushed. The attachment of the
 
 266 - History of Northumberland. 
 
 working classes to the Stuart cause was much deeper 
 than might now be supposed. General Wade issued 
 warrants to impress all vagrants into his ranks The cele- 
 brated piper, Jimmy Allan, a native of Rothbury Forest, 
 was arrested while playing at a ' widow's merry night,' for 
 the benefit of a poor family at Otterburn, but soon made 
 his escape. During a seven weeks' strike of the keelmen, 
 in 1750, some of them actually proclaimed Charles III. 
 from a stile in Elswick fields. The ' young Gudeman of 
 Ballengeich,' as he was called, still had his emissaries in 
 the district. These the rough squires of North Tyne, 'dis- 
 daining the superficial formalities of the new school of 
 manners,' received with 'the old undisguised gentleman- 
 like welcome.' In other words, they fuddled them with 
 drinking the King's health * over the water' and 'under 
 the rose,' a rose and oak leaf being purposely cut on the 
 bowls of their Venetian glasses. Even after George III. 
 was prayed for in the Catholic Church at Hexham on the 
 relaxation of the penal laws about 1780, Jacobite spinsters 
 would rise and walk out at the first mention of his 
 name. 
 
 Northumbrian society of all ranks was pervaded by a 
 love of feasting and good cheer. Chicken, in his ' Collier's 
 Wedding,' has preserved a somewhat coarse picture of 
 what was the great occasion of merry-making at a time 
 when 
 
 ' The colliers and their wives 
 Liv'd drunken, honest, working lives.' 
 
 The customs he describes are so diametrically opposed 
 to those of the ' miners ' at the present day, who often 
 keep their marriages secret as long as possible, that the 
 story forms a valuable conte de moeurs. Jenny, a collier's 
 daughter, wins the ' smock ' at the Benwell ' hopping ' 
 by dancing to the tune of ' Jockey's lost his fellow-swain.' 
 Tom pays her attentions, and, after a brief but warm 
 courtship, they go to obtain her mother's consent. They 
 find the old woman seated on a ' cracket ' by the fire, the
 
 Newcastle-upon- Tyne. 267 
 
 'rock 'just spun off her wheel, and an earthern pot of 
 ' humming beer ' on a little table beside her. Tom is 
 received with ' Hout, lad, get hame, ye' re nought but 
 fash.' He reveals his passion for Jenny, and her mother 
 comes out with, ' De'il rive their sark gans hame to-night.' 
 Jock and Doll, two old neighbours, are called in ; ' gray- 
 beard ' is washed, and after plenty of strong beer and 
 tobacco, the old lady reels up to Tom with her consent. 
 The wedding-day is fixed, and all prepare to ' mense ' the 
 bride. Jenny determines that the dinner is to be at her 
 mother's house. On the fated morning Tom and a jolly 
 train of collier lads ride into Benwell with whips cracking 
 and bagpipes playing. After a refection of ale, cakes and 
 cheese, all set out for the church at nine o'clock : 
 
 ' Two lusty lads, well dress'd and strong, 
 Step out to lead the bride along ; 
 And two young maids of equal size 
 As soon the bridegroom's hands surprise. 
 The pipers wind and take their post, 
 And go before to clear the coast.' 
 
 The crowd in church 
 
 ' Some perhaps that were threescore 
 Were never in a church before ' 
 
 climb and break the pews in order better to see the cere- 
 mony. The collier lads seize the bride's garters and 
 carry them round the church in triumph. The pipers, as 
 the procession leaves, strike up ' I'll make thee fain to 
 follow me.' At the ' church-stile ' four rustics kiss the 
 bride, and then, mounting their cart-horses, ride as hard 
 as they can to her mother's house in order to secure the 
 * kail,' or broth with currants and raisins in it. After the 
 banquet and dance, the bride is solemnly put to bed with 
 a ' posset ' of currant-cakes swimming in ale. 
 
 No less than 5,000 people, most of them from the 
 country, and mounted on pillions, attended the wedding 
 of William Weatherburn, a miner of Heaton, at All 
 Saints', Newcastle, in 1754. At the marriage of William
 
 268 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Donkin, a Tosson farmer, 500 men and women partook of 
 120 quarters of lamb, 44 quarters of veal, 20 quarters of 
 mutton, and 12 hams, not to mention the poultry and other 
 viands. The punch required four ankers of brandy, and 
 the beer was brewed from ninety bushels of malt. These 
 were supplemented by twelve dozens of cider and a great 
 many gallons of wine. Among the twenty-five fiddlers and 
 pipers were Jimmy Allan and his father, who, on his son's 
 complaining of his playing out of tune, rejoined, * Who 
 learnt ye ? I'll shiver the back-lill' the highest or thumb 
 note on the small pipes ' with you or e'er a piper in 
 Breaton !' The completion of the water-mill at Alnwick 
 in 1768 was celebrated by the consumption of an enormous 
 currant dumpling, eight feet in circumference. To sur- 
 pass this the housekeeper at Howick built a game pie 
 nine feet round the base and twelve stones in weight, 
 which was sent up by sea to Sir Henry Grey in London, pro- 
 vided with a case on wheels for rolling it up to each guest. 
 The ruin of the Radcliffes, whose barrack-like mansion 
 at Dilston was finally pulled down in 1768, was not a greater 
 blow to the Stuart cause in Northumberland than the 
 return of the Percies as friends of the Government in 
 power, after an absence of nearly two hundred years. 
 Algernon Seymour, seventh Duke of Somerset, the grand- 
 son of Joscelin Percy, the eleventh and last Earl of the 
 house of Ragnar Long-neck, and himself created Earl of 
 Northumberland in 1749, died in the following year. 
 He left only a daughter, who, before her brother's death, 
 had insisted on marrying Sir Hugh Smithson, fourth 
 baronet, of Stanwick, in Yorkshire, a country gentleman 
 of good family. This match was not altogether to the 
 fancy of her grandfather, the proud Duke of Somerset. He 
 devised the great Percy estates in Yorkshire, Cumberland, 
 and Sussex to his nephew, Sir Charles Wyndham, so that 
 Sir Hugh and Lady Elizabeth Smithson, on succeeding to 
 her father's Earldom of Northumberland, only received 
 those situated in that county. They very properly took the 
 name of Percy, which owed its chief glory to its previous
 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 269 
 
 assumption by the descendants of Joscelin of Louvain. 
 It was easy for Horace Walpole to sneer at the young 
 Earl and Countess ' living by the etiquette of the ancient 
 peerage.' The Countess, no doubt, had very exalted ideas, 
 but they all tended to the advantage of Northumberland. 
 It is, perhaps, to be regretted that her husband was not 
 content with the time-honoured title of Earl of North- 
 umberland. It is certainly fortunate that when he was 
 made a Duke, it was by the style of Northumberland, and 
 not, as he wished, by that of Brabant, though the bestowal 
 of a title taken from the Austrian dominions might have 
 been justified as a retort for the creation of Essex's son, 
 Robert Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, by the 
 Emperor Ferdinand II. In addition to being 'one of the 
 handsomest men in the kingdom ' and ' most courteous 
 in his demeanour,' the first Percy Duke of Northumber- 
 land was the possessor of exceptionally high intellectual 
 qualities. He was, in fact, in every way superior to 
 the first Percy Earl. The value of the family estates 
 in Northumberland increased enormously under his 
 good management, and to the great contentment of 
 his tenantry. He restored the castle of Alnwick (which 
 was almost as much a ruin as Warkworth or Prudhoe) 
 in the true Strawberry Hill style of Gothic. The 
 plaster decorations of this had at any rate the advan- 
 tage of interfering comparatively little with the medieval 
 work they concealed, and there was no mistaking the 
 one for the other. Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore, 
 acted as the historian of the revived house. His work, 
 though directed mainly to attempting to connect his own 
 family with the race of Hotspur, was well done for those 
 days, and has never received the appreciation it merits. 
 He owes his popular reputation to the ' Hermit of Wark- 
 worth,' a base plagiarized doggerel that fully deserves the 
 severe condemnation passed on it by Dr. Johnson ; the 
 dedicatory lines to the Duchess of Northumberland alone 
 display any of that good taste which rescued for us so 
 much of our ancient minstrelsy.
 
 270 History of Northumberland. 
 
 The Duke's endeavour to raise the character of the 
 peasantry by granting them small portions of land at a 
 reasonable rate won for him a high encomium from 
 Thomas Bewick, who has left us a series of highly- 
 finished verbal vignettes of Northumberland in the 
 eighteenth century. Bewick's skill as an autobiographer is 
 almost more remarkable than that which has gained him 
 world-wide celebrity as a wood-engraver. He was born in 
 1753 at Cherryburn, on the right bank of the Tyne, a 
 little to the west of Prudhoe. The house and byres stood 
 close to a little dene in which grew a number of cherry 
 and plum trees, while nearer the river were some remark- 
 ably tall ashes and an oak, supposed to be one of the 
 tallest and straightest in the kingdom. Indeed, at that 
 time the whole country between Wylam and Bywell pre- 
 sented the appearance of a continuous forest, now long 
 since stubbed up. The obstreperous boy broke the shins 
 of the old schoolmaster at Mickley with his iron-hooped 
 clogs, but made good progress with his less morose suc- 
 cessor. Although he had seen no other paintings than 
 the King's arms in Ovingham Church, and the signs of 
 the village inns the Black Bull, the White Horse, the 
 Salmon, and the Hare and Hounds he began to draw 
 by natural instinct, and as soon as the blank spaces in 
 his books were filled, he betook himself with a piece of 
 chalk to the gravestones and floor of the church porch. 
 A friend gave him some paper and pens and ink; the 
 juice of the brambleberry made a great change, a camel- 
 hair brush and shells of colours a still greater. His love 
 of animal life was encouraged by fox-hunting, coursing, 
 and badger-baiting; by looking after his long-legged, 
 black-faced sheep on the fell, by ' mucking ' the byre and 
 milking the cows, and by watching the rarer birds in the 
 dene. During the hard winter of 1765 he was employed 
 in ' creeing ' the tender shoots of the whin-bushes with a 
 wooden ' mell ' for the horses. After flogging had lost 
 its effect as a punishment for fighting with other boys, he 
 was locked up in Ovingham Church, where he hid himself
 
 Newcastle - upon- Tyne. 271 
 
 by climbing the pillars. * Silky ' and the ' Hedley Cow ' 
 had lost their terrors for him ; but one night, after 
 playing at cards those ' devil's books ' he fled from a 
 man going ' a-guising to a kirn-supper,' whom he mistook 
 for the author. 
 
 The health and happiness of the peasantry who kept 
 a few sheep or a Kyloe cow on the beautiful wild 
 common adjoining Cherryburn were at this time un- 
 bounded, though their daily fare consisted of rye-bread, 
 potatoes, oatmeal-porridge and milk, varied with meat- 
 broth on Sundays. Honest and independent, they still 
 greatly respected the gentry, and were equally respected 
 by them. There were many original characters among 
 them : Will Bewick, who would discourse * largely ' on 
 the stars and planets ; Anthony Liddell, wearing a large 
 curled wig of the seventeenth century, a great reader of 
 Josephus and Bunyan's ' Holy War,' and a poacher on prin- 
 ciple, through his belief in the inalienable rights of man, 
 but so bad a shot that he had always to rest his fowling-piece 
 on a hay-fork ; Thomas Forster, who amassed wealth by 
 keeping a secret stock of bees in a ' whin rush '; and John 
 Cowie, who had been under fire at Minden in the ranks 
 of Napier's grenadiers, and whose shot-riddled uniform 
 did duty at last as a scarecrow on a corn-rigg. Most of 
 these had received or inherited from their Border ancestry 
 sobriquets of the Red Indian order, such as the Hawk, 
 Steed, Falcon, Fox, Wolf, Bloodhound, Raven, or Crow- 
 foot. The farmers were not of so intelligent a cast of mind 
 as their labourers, their minds being exclusively occupied 
 with their farms ; and this has long remained the case 
 in Northumberland. The lairds who lived on their own 
 lands were mostly grossly ignorant and offensively proud, 
 attributes that soon forced them into the oblivion of the 
 towns, while the ' ha' houses,' that had been in their 
 families for generations, gradually mouldered away. 
 
 In the same parish of Ovingham, but on the opposite 
 bank of the Tyne, about three miles lower down, was born, 
 in 1781, the man who did more than all others to destroy
 
 272 History of Northumberland. 
 
 that beautiful old world in which Bewick took such keen 
 delight. George Stephenson, too, derived an early love 
 of birds from the tame robins and blackbirds that flew 
 in and out of the one room in the High Street house in 
 which he was brought up with three or four brothers and 
 sisters ; but, earning only twelve shillings a week, his 
 father could not afford to send him to any school, and the 
 surroundings of his home, with the Wylam waggon-way 
 running close in front, were very different from those of 
 Cherryburn. Horses were at that time employed to draw 
 the chaldron-coal waggons on rails of beechwood to 
 Lemington Staith, a distance of five miles. In 1808 
 Mr. Blackett of Wylam replaced the wooden tramway 
 with iron rails an improvement that doubled or trebled 
 the efficiency of the line. A locomotive, with lots of 
 pumps, cogwheels, and plugs, bought in 1812, proved a 
 failure. The first one constructed at Wylam was not 
 much more successful, but it was now found that sufficient 
 friction could be obtained for an engine to run on a smooth 
 rail, instead of having a toothed driving-wheel working 
 on a rack - rail ; and the second Wylam locomotive 
 answered better. It was not, however, till George 
 Stephenson, then engineer at Killingworth, let the 
 waste steam into the chimney of his locomotives to in- 
 crease the draught, in 1815, instead of letting it blow out 
 to the terror of any horses near, or pass into a special 
 condenser, that the success of steam was assured. Even 
 in 1824 a Newcastle paper scornfully asked : ' What per- 
 son would ever think of paying anything to be conveyed 
 from Hexham to Newcastle in something like a coal- 
 waggon, upon a dreary waggon-way, and to be dragged 
 for the greater part of the distance by a roaring steam- 
 engine ?' It was not until 1835, ten years after the 
 completion of the Stockton and Darlington line, that a 
 railway was opened between Blaydon and Hexham, then 
 lit with gas for the first time. The following year other 
 sections between Hexham and Haydon Bridge, Greenhead 
 and Carlisle, and Blaydon and the Redheugh, were finished ;
 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 273 
 
 but for two years more a coach ran between Haydon 
 Bridge and Greenhead. The journey by steamboat to 
 the Redheugh was only dispensed with in 1846, when the 
 railway actually entered Newcastle for the first time. 
 
 It was considered wonderful that letters could be taken 
 from Newcastle to London by steamer for eightpence in 
 1835 > three years later a mail came round by Carlisle in 
 twenty-six hours, delivering the London morning papers 
 at one o'clock on the day after publication, instead of on 
 the morning of the second day. In 1844 a railway was 
 opened from Darlington to Gateshead, and Newcastle was 
 reached in nine hours and a half, by way of Rugby and 
 Derby. In 1847 the line from Tweedmouth to Newcastle 
 was finished, and temporary wooden viaducts were thrown 
 over the Tyne and the Tweed in the two following years, 
 thus completing the last links in the East Coast route to 
 Scotland. The permanent High Level Bridge at New- 
 castle, with its subway for carriage traffic, was not finished 
 till three or four months before the Queen's visit to 
 Howick in 1849, when the royal train drew up on it for 
 ten minutes. The other principal railways in Northumber- 
 land the North Tyne, Wansbeck Valley, and Alnwick 
 and Cornhill were opened in 1858, 1864, and 1887 
 respectively. 
 
 Mr. Hodgson Hinde, one of the members of Parliament 
 for Newcastle, and the author of a short general history of 
 Northumberland, had from the beginning urged on the 
 Government the necessity of laying down a compre- 
 hensive scheme of railway communication for the whole 
 country, and then granting concessions for the construc- 
 tion and working of the various sections. Northumber- 
 land would have gained immensely if this excellent advice 
 had been followed. 
 
 As if for the express purpose of vaunting modern 
 progress at the expense of the historic past, the East 
 Coast route was carried relentlessly through the castles 
 of Newcastle and Berwick. Quite recently the Norman 
 keep of the former has had a narrow escape of being 
 
 18
 
 274 History of Northumberland. 
 
 practically turned into a signal cabin. After having been 
 advertised as suitable for a mill in the last century, it 
 was fortunately acquired by the Corporation of Newcastle 
 and leased to the Society of Antiquaries, which, founded 
 in 1813, is the oldest provincial institution of the kind in 
 England. By this it was restored, too thoroughly as 
 regards the Norman ornamental work, while its venerable 
 outlines were utterly spoilt by the addition of poor 
 unmeaning battlements. The magnificent collection of 
 Roman altars and other inscribed stones, long immured 
 in its dungeons, was removed in 1884 to the Black Gate, 
 the main entrance to the castle, built in the middle of the 
 thirteenth century, which was acquired by the Society on 
 similar terms with the keep, and repaired more judiciously. 
 The stones can now be seen, but they are in greater 
 danger of fire. It is a matter of much regret that the 
 memory of Mr. John Clayton and Dr. Collingwood Bruce, 
 the two great antiquaries of the Roman North, has not 
 been enshrined in a museum that would allow of a syste- 
 matic arrangement of the treasures of the Wall on the 
 lines so magnificently developed in the Provincial Museum 
 of Treves. 
 
 The Pilgrimage conducted along the Wall by Dr. Bruce 
 in 1849 proved a most powerful incentive to the study 
 of its remains. Three years later the meeting of the 
 Archaeological Institute at Newcastle opened out the 
 numerous other antiquities of Northumberland, especially 
 the medieval castles, towers, and peles. The restoration of 
 Alnwick Castle by Algernon, fourth Duke of Northumber- 
 land, followed. This might have been conducted on 
 more conservative principles, but the architectural adap- 
 tations were clever and the workmanship excellent. 
 Archaeological specialists were to blame if early four- 
 teenth-century windows were inserted in walls built some 
 fifty years later. 
 
 The project of a canal to connect the Tyne and Solway 
 was mooted early in the last century. Formal plans of it 
 were prepared in 1794, but the scheme was abandoned in
 
 Newcastle-upon- Tyne. 275 
 
 consequence of the open opposition of the owners of Close 
 House and Beaufront, and the fear the coal-owners near 
 Newcastle had of competition from mines further inland. 
 The navigation of the Tyne itself has been greatly im- 
 proved by the piers at its mouth, begun in 1853, as well 
 as by the removal of the bar and by dredging operations. 
 The river commissioners lacked courage to cut through 
 the great bend between Newburn and Lemington, a work 
 which would have opened out the upper portion of the 
 tideway and kept the lower portion efficiently scoured. 
 The Albert Edward Dock cut out of the hillside at Coble 
 Dene, near Shields, at an enormous cost, in 1884, has 
 been little needed, except for a few vessels of exceptional 
 size. The question of forming a harbour of refuge on 
 the rock-bound coast of north Northumberland (the scene 
 of the heroic rescue of the survivors of the Forfarshire by 
 Grace Darling and her father in 1838) has ended, after 
 great expenditure, in the construction of a small harbour 
 at North Sunderland by Lord Crewe's trustees. The most 
 remarkable change along the Northumbrian littoral has 
 been that effected by the improvement of Blyth Harbour, 
 thanks to the energy of Sir Matthew White Ridley. This 
 has now diverted a very considerable portion of the 
 Northumberland steam-coal exports from the Tyne. The 
 quantity shipped at Blyth has risen from 146,264 tons in 
 1883 to 2,643,778 tons in 1894, while the growth of the 
 town has also been phenomenal. 
 
 The output of the Northumberland collieries was esti- 
 mated at 1,053,274 tons in 1794. It was 6,463,550 tons 
 in 1874, and 9,541,199 tons in 1894. A much greater 
 number of men are employed, as recourse is had to 
 thinner seams. The system of bonds or yearly agree- 
 ments with a bonus of 5 was established in 1809. 
 Severe riots occurred in 1831, when a body of 1,500 
 miners stopped the pits working in the Bedlington dis- 
 trict, throwing the corves (or baskets in which coals were 
 then drawn to the surface) down the shaft of the Glebe 
 Pit. A great strike occurred again on the expiration of
 
 276 History of Northumberland. 
 
 the bonds in 1844, when the men demanded that they 
 should be assured wages of 155. for every week in the 
 year, but on no account be required to earn more than 
 35. a day. The annual bonds were solemnly burnt in 
 1862, and a simple fortnightly agreement substituted. 
 Although there were long strikes in 1877 and 1887, 
 and arbitrations, sliding scales and conciliation boards 
 have proved futile to satisfactorily regulate wages, the 
 relations between the miners and their employers have 
 been generally good. This has been largely owing to the 
 influence on both sides obtained by Mr. Thomas Burt, 
 M.P. for Morpeth, and Mr. Charles Fenwick, M.P. for 
 the Wansbeck division of Northumberland. 
 
 The most famous contest in the Parliamentary annals 
 of Northumberland was that of 1826, when the poll re- 
 mained open at Alnwick for more than a fortnight, and 
 the Hon. H. T. Liddell and Mr. Matthew Bell were 
 elected knights of the shire, in opposition to Mr. Beau- 
 mont and Lord Howick. The Reform Bill of 1832 split 
 the county into a northern and a southern division, each 
 with two members. It took one of its representatives 
 from Morpeth, and gave a member to Tynemouth. The 
 Reform Bill of 1868 endeavoured to preserve Morpeth 
 as a pocket-borough, by adding to it the district of 
 Bedlingtonshire. The result was that Sir George Grey 
 did not stand again, and Mr. Burt was elected by the 
 mining vote. The by-election held in South Northumber- 
 land in 1878, in consequence of Lord Eslington, the popular 
 Conservative member, succeeding to the Earldom of 
 Ravensworth, ended in a tie between Mr. Edward Ridley 
 and Mr. Albert Grey, but the former was returned on a 
 scrutiny. 
 
 Berwick-upon-Tweed made a vain protest against its 
 Parliamentary absorption in Northumberland under the 
 provisions of the Redistribution Act of 1885, on the ground 
 that it was entitled to separate representation as a distinct 
 member of the United Kingdom. The northernmost 
 division of Northumberland was called after it, to the
 
 Newcastle-upon- Tyne. 277 
 
 disappointment of Alnwick. The western portion of the 
 county was formed into a fairly satisfactory division, 
 with its centre at Hexham. The manufacturing district 
 on both sides of Newcastle made another homogeneous 
 constituency, to which the name of the Tyneside Division 
 was stupidly given, as, except in parliamentary geography, 
 Tyneside includes Hexham. In consequence of the re- 
 tention of the fictitious borough of Morpeth, an irregular 
 nondescript tract was now left stretching from the Coquet 
 right over the Tyne, without any common interest or 
 common centre. For this no name was forthcoming until 
 Sir Charles Trevelyan suggested it should be called the 
 Wansbeck division, after the river flowing past Wallington. 
 The great increase in the population of Newcastle after 
 1745 was naturally accompanied by important changes 
 in the aspect of the town. In making these the authorities 
 showed, perhaps, that the character given them in the 
 local ballad was only too true : 
 
 * Their foolish pride there's none to stop, 
 
 Improvement's all the go ; 
 Unseemly's everything that's old, 
 So all that's old's laid low.' 
 
 The steeple of St. Nicholas' was the only landmark left 
 absolutely untouched. In 1763 the great wall of the town 
 along the quay was removed, and this was followed by the 
 erection of Mozeley Street and Dean Street. The rage for 
 innovation led St. Nicholas' to be made into 'a sort of 
 cathedral,' to the destruction of its ancient monuments. 
 All Saints', one of the most interesting of the churches, 
 was entirely pulled down, and replaced by a circular 
 Doric structure with fine mahogany pews. The Guildhall 
 was shorn of its principal features, and recased with plain 
 stonework. One after another the gates of the town, 
 Pandon Gate, Sand Gate, Pilgrim Street Gate, and West 
 Gate were removed. New Gate, which had served as the 
 prison of Newcastle since it became a separate county, 
 was respited till a new castellated gaol was finished in 1823.
 
 278 History of Northumberland. 
 
 During the wars of the French Revolution the now un- 
 walled town was on several occasions the scene of a panic. 
 In 1793 the sailors at South Shields endeavoured forcibly 
 to release their comrades from the press-gang. The 
 alarm they caused spread to Newcastle ; the Earl of 
 Fauconberg sounded to arms, and marched his North 
 York militia through the town to the house of detention 
 for impressed seamen, when the danger proved to be 
 imaginary : 
 
 ' From Newgate down to the Broad Chare 
 
 They march'd with might and main ; 
 Then gallantly they turn'd them round, 
 And so march'd up again.' 
 
 Soon after some practical joker sent a letter to William 
 Yielder, the Mayor of Newcastle, in the name of two 
 Northumberland magistrates, to say that a party of 
 French had landed near Bamburgh. Once more Lord 
 Fauconberg's drums were futilely beat : 
 
 ' Lo ! scarce were Tuesday's terrors past 
 
 And calm'd our perturbation, 
 When news from Bambro' came post-haste, 
 
 Reviving consternation. 
 For Fauconberg and Yielder too 
 
 Then felt their blood run cool ; 
 And thinking both the tidings true, 
 
 Both chose to play the fool.' 
 
 A yet more serious alarm was occasioned throughout 
 Northumberland in 1804, by some whins burning on 
 Lammermoor being mistaken for a beacon to announce 
 a French invasion. 
 
 The real improvement of Newcastle, and that on a plan 
 which, if it had been adhered to, would have given it the 
 stamp of a true city, began in 1834, with Richard Grainger's 
 purchase of Anderson Place, which still occupied the 
 centre of the town with its gardens. As it is, Grey Street, 
 rising gently in a curve, past the fine fa9ade of the Theatre 
 Royal, to the monument of Earl Grey, who carried the
 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 2/9 
 
 Reform Bill of 1832, is one of the finest streets in the 
 kingdom, in spite of the discordant shop-fronts and the 
 intrusion here and there of impurer styles. The Butcher 
 and Vegetable Markets, opened in 1835, are of excellent 
 design. If the original elevation had been carried out, 
 the Central Station would have possessed a Roman 
 grandeur. Even as it is, the carriage portico is one of 
 the best pieces of architecture in the town. 
 
 In 1836 the reformed Corporation signalized themselves 
 by deciding to abandon the historic Mansion House in the 
 Close, and selling off their furniture, books, pictures, and 
 plate. Since then, her Majesty's judges and other visitors 
 of distinction have been entertained in a very genteel 
 residence in an upper street. There is now no fear of 
 their falling into the Tyne like Baron Graham, the Lord 
 'Size of John Shield's humorous ballad. The keelman 
 describes at the inquest how he found Lord 'Size in the 
 river, and fished him out, dead to all appearance : 
 
 ' "Aw was setten the keel, wi' Dick Stavers an' Mat, 
 An' the Mansion-hoose Stairs we were just alangside, 
 When we a' three see'd sumthing, but didn't ken what, 
 That was splashing and labbering aboot i' the tide. 
 ' It's a fluiker !' ki Dick ; ' No,' ki Mat ; ' it's owre big. 
 It luik'd mair like a skyat when aw furst seed it rise ;' 
 ' Kiv aw' for aw'd getten a gliff o' the wig 
 ' Odd marcy ! Wye, marrows, becrike it's Lord 'Size !'" 
 
 On the conclusion of his evidence, 
 
 ' the Jury, for close consultation, retired. 
 Some " Death accidental" were willing to find ; 
 Some " God's visitation " most eager requir'd ; 
 And some were for " Fell in the river" inclin'd. 
 But ere on their verdict they all were agreed, 
 My lord gave a groan, and wide open'd his eyes ; 
 Then the coach and the trumpeters came with great speed, 
 And back to the Mansion House carried Lord 'Size.' 
 
 The Town Hall, the foundation-stone of which was laid 
 in 1853, is in an awkward situation, and shaped like a 
 grand piano. The corn-market held underneath is, in the 
 present state of agriculture, of quite secondary import-
 
 280 History of Northumberland. 
 
 ance to the cattle market. This is conveniently situated 
 to the west of the Central Station. 
 
 Northumberland, especially Tyneside and Glendale, 
 was long noted for good farming. The cultivation of 
 turnips was introduced at Rock so early as 1727. Mr. 
 Proctor brought there for the purpose one Andrew Willey, 
 who afterwards settled as a gardener at Lesbury, and 
 sowed turnips broadcast on horseback for the farmers in 
 that neighbourhood. In 1770 Mr. Ilderton taught the boys 
 and girls at Hawkhill to hoe turnips, leaving a certain 
 number in each given square. The present system of 
 drill-culture was introduced about twelve years later. The 
 first threshing-machine in the county was one invented by 
 Mr. Gregson, in 1765. He took the idea from a small 
 mill that a Scotsman carted from farmhouse to farmhouse, 
 to ' swingle ' the flax then grown for home use. His 
 machine was worked by a man who had hard work to 
 thresh twelve bushels of wheat in the day. Mr. Oxley, of 
 Flodden, soon afterwards constructed a horse machine. 
 Lime had long been used, even to abuse, on the land 
 in Bamburghshire ; James Hall, of Thornington, in 1757, 
 was the first to cart a load of it west of the Till. The 
 great progress that Northumbrian agriculture made in the 
 latter part of the century was due mainly to the example 
 set by the Culleys of Akeld and Fowberry. Thomas 
 Bates laid the foundation of his celebrated shorthorn herd 
 at Halton Castle and Ridley Hall, and used a primitive 
 form of reaping-machine to cut the thistles in Haughton 
 pastures. 
 
 The commissioners of Greenwich Hospital did much 
 for the improvement of their estates in the early part of the 
 present century. The good which ultimately resulted from 
 their profuse expenditure has been unduly ascribed to John 
 Grey of Dilston by the filial partiality of his biographer. 
 An honest and popular Receiver of the Hospital estates, 
 John Grey destroyed some of the most beautiful scenery 
 on the Tyne through his hatred of hedgerow timber ; he 
 was no friend of small holdings, and paid little attention
 
 Newcastle-upon - Tyne. 281 
 
 to the cottages of the agricultural labourers, who had 
 then no votes. In 1865 an extraordinary character, wear- 
 ing long ostrich feathers, and styling herself ' Amelia, 
 Countess of Darwentwater,' appeared on Tyneside, and 
 laid claim, in spite of all rhyme and reason, to the Rad- 
 cliffe estates. Half monomaniac, half impostor, she 
 contrived to attract considerable public sympathy, especi- 
 ally when, after being ejected from the ruins of Dilston, 
 she encamped for forty days by the roadside, and when, 
 in a fit of romantic exaltation, she drew 'the sword of 
 her ancestors' on the Hospital officials. After a whole 
 series of adventures, she died in 1880, without anyone ever 
 finding out who she really was. It has been surmised 
 that she was a lady's-maid from Dover, of the name of 
 Burke, who had lived in a family at Schwerin, and had 
 had her imagination fired by reading a novel, written 
 about forty years previously, in which Viscount Radcliffe, 
 the son of Lord Derwentwater, instead of dying in 1731, 
 settles in Germany after a mock funeral. Her career 
 served to show the strong affection in which the memory 
 of the Radcliffes was still held, and the little idea most 
 people have of what constitutes historical accuracy and 
 legal proof. It directed the attention of the Government 
 to the cost of administrating the Hospital estates, and the 
 greater portion of them have since been sold by auction. 
 The prices obtained for Dilston and Thornbrough in 1874, 
 during what was a regular land-hunger in Northumberland, 
 amounted to about fifty years' purchase. Quite recently 
 the great national fortress of Bamburgh, the seat of the 
 charities of Lord Crewe and Dr. Sharpe, has been privately 
 sold by the Charity Commissioners to Lord Armstrong. 
 
 The fatal subjection of the country to the town, which 
 has become the ruling feature of modern English life, was 
 emphasized on the partition by Parliament of the ancient 
 diocese of Durham in 1882. Instead of a see of the 
 first rank being established in Northumberland, where 
 the origins of English Christianity still throw a halo round 
 Lindisfarne, and where the priory church of Hexham,
 
 282 History of Northumberland. 
 
 with its nave rebuilt, would form a real cathedral, the 
 ambition of Newcastle to rank as a city was gratified by 
 a bishop's stool being set up in a typical parish church 
 under the patronage of St. Nicholas of Myra, a saint in 
 no way connected with Northumbrian history. 
 
 Agriculture has suffered comparatively less in North- 
 umberland than in many other counties; still, the problem 
 of how to keep any population on the land is none the less 
 pressing. It is harrowing to see in many districts the 
 ruins of what until recently were smiling homesteads, 
 where stalwart families were brought up in health and 
 happiness. What will occur in the not distant future, 
 when the coalfields will be exhausted, it is difficult to fore- 
 see. History is no more concerned with prophecy than 
 it is with geology Sir Thomas Gray and the Sibyl did 
 not mount the fifth round of the ladder but the hope 
 may be expressed that the hard-headed Northumbrian 
 character, formed by centuries of Border vicissitudes, and 
 perhaps in some degree the outcome of strange crosses, 
 introduced by settlers and soldiers of various nations and 
 periods, will prove equal to the crisis, and that the blessing 
 called down by Aidan on the hand of Oswald may rest 
 equally on Bernicia : 
 
 'NUNQUAM INVETERASCAT !' 
 
 ' Length of days be in her right hand, and in her left 
 riches and honour.'
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abalabba, 32, 42 
 Abercorn, 66, 88 
 Aber Lieu, 53 
 Abreton, Sir Thomas, 183 
 Acca, St., 72, 73, 102 
 Acha, Queen, 54, 57 
 Ada, Countess, 121, 123 
 Adam. Sheriff, 120 
 Adda, 52 
 'Ad Gefrtn, 55 
 Adils (Ithel?), 95 
 Ad Murum, 58 
 Adrian of Naples, 71 
 Aedan, 53 
 Aehse, 67 
 ^Eliomenus, 45 
 jlius Vibius, 30 
 ^Esica, 25, 26, 28, 34, 41, 42, 44, 
 
 51,67 
 Agricola, Calpurnius, 29 
 
 Cnaeus Julius, 14, 15, 
 
 1 6, 28, 48, 264 
 Agrippa, 34 
 
 Aidan, St., 56-60, 63, 73, 282 
 Akeld, 159, 280 
 Alauna, 20 
 Alberade, 177 
 Alberic, Earl, no, in 
 Albert Edward Dock, The, 275 
 Albini, Nigel de, in, 112, 116 
 Albinus, Clodius, 30 
 Alcfrid, 58, 60 
 Alcmund, St., Bishop, 81, 102 
 
 Prince, 85 
 Alcred, 77-80 
 Alcuin, 77,81-83, 85 
 Aldfrid, 65, 66, 68, 69, 71 
 Aldhun, Bishop, 99, 100 
 Aldred I., High-Reeve, 84, 85 
 - II., 93, 94, 97 
 
 Earl, 100-102, 104 
 Aldulf, High-Reeve, 92 
 
 Aldwin of Winchcombe, 108, 109 
 Alexander II., King of Scots, 133- 
 
 137 
 III., 138, 146, 148 
 
 Alf, 8 1, 82 
 
 Alfgar, Earl, 95 
 
 Alfred the Great, 91 
 
 Alfwald I., 80, 8 1 
 II., 86 
 
 Alfwin, 8 1, 82 
 
 Alio, 1 8, 33, 41, 42, 46 
 
 Allan, Jimmy, 266, 268 
 
 Allendale, 166 
 
 Allerdean, 115 
 
 Allgood, Mr., 258 
 
 Ally, Raoul d', Seigneur d'Araines, 
 197 
 
 Aln, Battle of the. 113 
 Mouth of the, 121 
 
 Alnmouth, 20, 65, 153 
 
 Alnewyk, William de, Bishop, 194 
 
 Alnwick, 5, no, 117, 126, 129, 
 133, 140, 143, 151, 154, 156, 158, 
 164, 167, 171, 181, 192, 193, 196, 
 197, 199, 201, 202, 204, 214, 215, 
 225, 227, 233, 234, 241, 252, 258, 
 265, 269, 274 
 
 Alnwick Abbey, 121. 140, 197, 
 213, 216, 227, 234, 236 
 
 Alo, 37 
 
 Aired, St., 79 
 
 Alric, 72 
 
 Alric, High-Reeve, 81 
 
 Alvey, Vicar, 235, 239 
 
 Alwin, Knight, loS 
 
 Amble, in 
 
 Amboglanna, 18, 42 
 
 Anderson, Col. Francis, 241 
 Place, 249, 278 
 
 Andrew, St., 86, 148, 150 ; dedica- 
 tions to, 87 ; monastery of, at 
 Rome, 59, 61
 
 284 
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Anlaf Cuaran, 96, 97 
 of Ireland, 96 
 son of Sitric, 94, 96 
 ,, the Red, 95 
 
 Anociticus, 30 
 
 Antenocitus, 30 
 
 Antoninus Pius, 26, 28 
 
 Wall of, 28, 29, 40 
 
 Antonine Itinerary, 36 
 
 A r beta, 41 
 
 Arbroath, Abbey of, 131 
 
 Arcadius, 39 
 
 Archimill of Bewick, 116 
 
 Argoed Llwyfain, Battle of, 53 
 
 Armorer, Cuthbert, 226 
 Thomas, 240 
 
 Armstrong, John, 260, 261 
 
 Arthur, King, 50-52, 163, 164 
 
 Arwine, 73 
 
 Assize Rolls, 141 
 
 Astarte, 27 
 
 Astley, Sir Jacob, 238, 239 
 Sir John, 199 
 
 Athelstan, 94-96 
 
 Athol, Sir Aymer de, 182 
 
 Attacotti, 38, 39 
 
 Auckland (Bishop), 171 
 
 Audrey, St. (see Etheldryd), Ban- 
 ner of, 206, 209 
 
 Aurea Valle, Richard de, 117 
 
 Aurelia Eclectiane, 45 
 Itala, 45 
 Lupilla, 45 
 
 Aussi, Seigneur d', 209 
 
 Avalana, 19 
 
 Axelodunum, 42 
 
 Aydon Hall (or Castle), 153, 
 
 173 
 
 Aydrunken, Adam, 144 
 Aynburg, 82 
 
 Ba, Gilbert de, 145 
 Babbington, Sir Henry, 234 
 Backworth, 34 
 Bacon, Mr., 257 
 Baggott, the Laird, 230 
 Bakewell, Submission of, 94 
 Baliol, family of, 114, 115 
 Bernard de, 129, 130 
 Edward, 168. 170, 175 
 Eustace de, 131 
 John, 139, 147, 148, 150 
 Balthere, St., Church of, 96 
 Bamburgh, 52, 54, 56, 58, 66, 70, 
 7i, 73, 76-8o, 92, 94, 99, 103, 
 106, 107, no, 113, 114, 116, 117, 
 
 119, 122, 132, 135, 140, 154-156, 
 
 158, 164, 168,174,175, 187, 196, 
 
 197, 199, 200, 202, 203, 278, 281 ; 
 keep of, 124 
 
 Bamburghshire, 187 
 
 Bamburgh Ward, 156 
 
 Banna, 18 
 
 Bannockburn, 155 
 
 Bardolf, Hugh, Sheriff, 132 
 
 Bardon Mill, 1 66 
 
 Barmoor Woodside, 207 
 
 Barnes, Ambrose, 254 
 
 Baronies, Norman, no, 115, 116 
 
 Barrow, 224 
 
 Barrows, Sepulchral, 5 
 
 Bassianus. See Caracalla 
 
 Batavians, 42, 43, 48 
 
 Bates, Thomas, of Prudhoe, 221, 
 
 280 
 of Kirklevington, 280 
 
 Batten, Captain Robert, 250 
 
 Bayly, General, 241, 246 
 
 Beadnel, no, 196 
 
 Beanley, Barony of, 116, 126 
 
 Beaufront, 258 
 
 Beaumont, River. See Bowmont 
 
 Beaumont of Charlton, 212 
 
 Henry de, 157, 158, 
 
 164, 1 68 
 
 Isabel de. See Vesci 
 ,, Louis de, Bishop, 157, 
 158, 168, 
 
 Bebba (Bamburgh), 79 
 
 Bebba, Queen, 54, 57 
 
 Bechefield, Denise de, 145 
 
 Beda, Valkyrie, 48 
 King, 51 
 
 Bede, The Venerable, 31, 32, 49, 
 
 72,73 
 
 Bedesfeld) 67 
 Bedford, Duke of. See John of 
 
 Lancaster 
 Bedlington, 93, 275 
 Bek, Anthony, Bishop of Durham, 
 
 147, 154, 178 
 Belford, 218, 226 
 
 Ralph of, 143 
 Bell, Matthew, M.P., 276 
 Bellasis, Captain, 330 
 Bellingham, 50, 120, 121, 143, 
 
 144, 210, 217 
 Sir Henry, 202 
 
 Bellister, 229 
 Belsay, 173, 185, 237 
 Bemerton, 242 
 Benton, Long, 87
 
 Index. 
 
 285 
 
 Ben well, 16, 234, 266, 267 
 
 Beorn, 88 
 
 B ere da, 19 
 
 Berkely, Sir Maurice, 157 
 
 Berneich, 52 
 
 Bernhith, 61 
 
 Bernicia, 49, 51, 52, 56, 6r, 91 
 
 282 
 
 Berrard, 93 
 Bertfrid, 71, 72 
 
 Bertram, of Bothal, family of, 115 
 of Mitford, family of, no, 
 
 ISI 
 
 Robert, 174 
 Roger, 140 
 Bertwulf, 89, 93 
 
 Berwick, 52, 107, 115, 133, 147, 
 148-151, 153-157, 159, 161, 164, 
 168, 169, 175, 179, 1 80, 194, 195, 
 197, 205, 219, 223-225, 250-252, 
 256, 259, 276 ; bridge, 132,241 ; 
 pacification of, 237 ; truce of, 
 176 
 
 Bethwegen, 69 
 Bewick, 5, 116 ; old, 6 
 Robert, 237 
 Thomas, 270 
 Will, 271 
 
 Billymire, Truce of, 180, 181 
 Biscop, 51 
 
 Bishopsthorpe, Truce of, 165 
 Bisset, Walter, 135, 136 
 Bittleston, tanner, 236 
 Black Dyke, The, 13, 14 
 Black Knowe, The, 13 
 Black Jack, 201 
 Blackett, Sir William, 259 
 
 Mr., of Wylam, 272 
 Blacklaw, 2 
 
 Blakeburn, Robert de, 1 59 
 Blakiston, John, 236 
 Blanchland, Abbey of, 125, 213, 
 
 216 
 
 Blawearie, 5 
 Blenkinsop, 101, 154, 173 
 
 Robert, son of Thur- 
 
 kil of, 143 
 
 Blescius Diovicus, 45 
 Blyth Harbour, 275 
 Blyth's Nook, 242 
 Bockenfield Moor, 236 
 Bodhelm, 62 
 
 Bolam, 87 ; barony of, no, 115 
 Bolbec, Hugh de, 116, 135-137 
 
 Walter de, 125 
 Bolbend (Bowmont), River, 59 
 
 Boltby, Nicholas de, 142 
 Bolton-on-Aln, 133, 159, 176 
 Bolton Castle (Wensleydale), 179 
 Bonaventure, Wreck of the, 222, 
 
 223 
 
 Boniface, St., Vision of, 71 
 Borcovicium, 18, 25, 34,41-44, 46 
 Border Laws, 113, 137, 138 
 Borough Walls, 41 
 Borthwick, Robert, 206 
 Bosa, Bishop, 71 
 Boswell, St., 59, 60 
 Bosworth, Battle of, 204 
 Bothal, 87, ill, 115 ; Castle, 173, 
 
 174 
 Bottisham (Botelesham), Hermit 
 
 from, 143 
 
 Bourg-Saint-Ande'ol, 35 
 Bowes, Sir Robert, 217, 218, 220 
 Bowght Hill, 230 
 Bowmont, The Upper, 2, 52, 59 
 Braboniacum, 41 
 Bradford, Barony of, 116 
 Avenel de, 116 
 Bradley (on the Wall), 154 
 Bradyare fishery, 120 
 Brainshaugh, 73 
 Brandling, Sir Robert, 234 
 
 ,, Colonel, 243 
 j Brankston, 205, 207, 208 
 Bregesne, 73 
 Bremenion, 13 
 Bremenium, 17, 20, 28, 33, 34, 36, 
 
 37, 44-46, 65 
 Bremetennacum, 42 
 Bremetonacce, 37 
 Brescia, 45 
 Bret land, 95 
 Breze", Pierre (Seigneur Varennes 
 
 and Count Maulevrier), 196, 
 
 197, 199, 200 
 
 Brinkburn, 262 ; Priory, 120, 12 1 
 Britannia Inferior, 30, 32, 36 
 Prima, 36 
 Secunda, 36 
 Superior, 30, 32, 36 
 Brocara, 19 
 Brochwel, 54 
 Brocoliti, 18 
 Bromnis, 65 
 Bronze implements, 5 
 Broomhaugh, 173 
 Broomhill, 5 
 
 Bruce, Dr. J. Collingwood, 274 
 Bruce, David, 168, 170, 171, 173, 
 
 174
 
 286 
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Bruce, Robert, 140, 153-156, 159, 
 161, 167 
 
 Brunanburh, 96 
 
 Brunton, 5 
 
 Bryniech, 49 
 
 Buchanan, Sir John, 237 
 
 Buckton, 222 
 
 Budle, 116 
 
 Bulmer, Sir William, 206 
 
 Bunting, Abraham, 262 
 
 Burradon, 4, 5 
 
 Burrius, 34 
 
 Burton (in Bamburghshire), 50 
 
 Burum, Family of, no 
 
 Busby, Thomas, 253 
 
 Bussei, Jordan de, 118 
 
 Butterby, Uctred de, 142 
 
 ' bycocketj 202 
 
 Byrness, 65 
 
 Bywell, 86, 87, in, 142, 150, 181, 
 '225, 243, 257, 258; barony, 
 114, 147, 175; castle, 201 
 
 Cadwalla, 55, 56 
 Cadwallader, 58 
 Caer Golud, 49 
 
 Lliwilydd, 49 
 
 Weir, 49 
 Callaley, no, 250 
 Callendar, Earl of, 245, 246, 248 
 Callerton barony, no, 115 
 Cal-verdon. See Callerton 
 Cambo, 5 
 Cambois, 93 
 ' camera] 141 
 
 Canal, Tyne and Solway, 274 
 Cantierain, John de, 183 
 Canute, King, 101 ; porter, no 
 Capheaton, 28, 218, 250 
 Caracalla, 33 
 Carausius, 36 
 Carelgate, 19, 34 
 Carey, Sir Robert, 231 
 Cargou, Robert de, 139 
 Carham, 61 ; barony, 115-117 ; 
 
 battle of, loo ; boundary at, 
 
 148, 196; church, 116, 128; 
 
 priory of, 136, 149 
 Carl, son of Thurbrand, 101, 102 ; 
 
 his sons, 108 
 Carlisle, 51, 66, 67, 112, 116; 
 
 land of, 118, 122; shire of, 
 
 138 
 
 Carmichael, 227, 228 
 Carnaby, John, 226 
 
 Sir Reginald, 213-217 
 
 Carnaby, William, 214, 218 
 Carnwath, 88 
 
 Carpenter, General, 259, 260 
 Carr, Robert, 226 ; of Howick, 
 
 240 
 
 Carr, Thomas, 220 
 Carrawburgh, 16 
 Carrs, The Three, 137 
 Carry Coats, 213 
 Cartington, 135, 229, 233, 250,261 
 Carvell, Captain, 225 
 Castell, Prior, 64 
 Castelnau-de-Tursan, John de, 
 
 183 
 
 Castles, Fourteenth century, 173 
 ' Castle-ward] 1 1 5 
 Catrail, The, 1 1 
 Catterick, 37, 76, 83 
 Cawfields, 25, 26 
 Celovwn, 20 
 Celunno, 18 
 Cenred. See Kenred 
 Ceolwulf. See Keolwulf 
 Cessford, 224, 230, 231 
 Chad, St., 60 
 Chapelle de Biron, Seigneur de la, 
 
 219 
 Charles I., 235, 236, 240, 249, 251 
 
 H-i 253 
 III., 266 
 the Bold, 200 
 the Great, 77, 82-84, 177 
 Cha Iton, 102 
 
 family, 215, 218 
 Hector, 210, 211 
 William, 2 i r 
 Cherryburn, 270 
 Chester-le-Street, 41, 59, 92, in ; 
 
 bishop of, 99 
 Chesterhope, 6 
 Chesters (Walwick), 16; Great, 
 
 9 ; Little, 14 
 Chevington, no 
 Cheviot, 187, 1 88 
 Cheviots, Battle of the, 221 
 ' Chevy Chase,' 181 
 Chicken, Edward, 266 
 Chillingham, 50, 139, 215 ; castle, 
 
 173, 206, 252 ; cattle, 71 
 Chipchase, 223, 255 
 Chirden, 134 
 Chollerford, 5, 250 
 Chollerton Edge, 250 
 Choppington, 93 
 Chrysanthus, 40 
 Cilurnum, 27, 33, 41-43, 45, 51
 
 Index. 
 
 287 
 
 Claudian, 39, 40, 47 
 Clavering, Family of, 127, 178 
 Sir James, 253 
 John, 233, 261 
 Thomas, 224 
 Clayton, Mr. John, 274 
 Clenell, 229 
 Cleveland, 98, 99, 158 
 Clifford, John de, 176 
 
 Sir Thomas, 212, 214, 215 
 Sir William, 193 
 Coatsforth, Mr., 257, 258 
 Cobham, Sir Reginald, 171 
 Coble Dene, 275 
 Cocidius (Mars), 14, 19 
 Cocklaw Tower (near Ormiston), 
 
 190 
 
 Cocuneda, 20 
 
 Colchester-on-Tyne, 27, 32, 49, 88 
 Coldingham, 115 
 Coldmartin Lough, 220 
 Coldstream, 252 
 
 Haugh, 214 
 Cole, Mr., 235 
 Coleman, William, 144 
 ' Collier's Wedding, The} 266 
 Collingwood, Sir Cuthbert, 225, 
 
 229, 230 
 
 George, 261 
 
 Henry, 219, 228 
 
 Robert ot Abber- 
 
 wick, 226 ; of Etal, 226 
 Colman, St., 60 
 Colpenhope, 176 
 Colte, 90 
 Coludesbyrig, 49 
 Columba, St., 55, 94 
 Comines (Cumin), Robert de, 105, 
 
 1 08 
 
 Commodus, 29, 30 
 Concangii, 41 
 Concessinus, Quintus Calpurnius, 
 
 26 
 
 Condecor, 18 
 
 Condercum, 29, 30, 34, 41, 42 
 Congavata, 42 
 Coniscliff, Stephen of, 144 
 Constable, Sir Marmaduke, 208, 
 
 209 
 
 Constantius, 36, 38 
 Conway, Lord, 237-239 
 Conyers. Sir John, 195 
 Coome Crag, 31 
 Copeldyke, Sir John, 183 
 Copsig, Earl, 105 
 Coquet Island, 65, in, 112, 151 
 
 Coquetdale, 149, 170, 218 ; Ten 
 
 Towns of, 52 
 Corbet, Walter, 130; of Lanton, 
 
 Cor bridge, 14, 27, 33, 76, 77, 84, 
 87,94, 117, 118, 120, 124, 142, 
 
 149, 15, 154. i55 I73i 178, 
 213, 243, 258; Fell, 5 
 
 Coritiotar, 20 
 
 ' Carnage] 1 1 5 
 
 Cornelius Antoninus, 35 
 Victor, 44 
 
 Cornhill, 180, 219, 222, 224 
 
 Cornwall, Arms of the Black 
 Prince as Earl of, 173 
 
 Cornwall, Richard of, 136 
 
 Coroniatotai, 14, 20, 26, 43 
 
 Corstopitum^ 27, 28, 34, 36 
 
 Coryat, Tom, 240 
 
 Cottonhope, 223 
 
 Coupland, Sir John, 174, 176 
 
 Cousinot, Pierre, 200 
 
 Coutances, Bishop of. See Geof- 
 frey de Mow bray 
 
 Cove Burn, 20 
 
 Crab, Sir John, 162 
 
 Crag Lough, 25 
 
 Craike, 92 
 
 Cramlington, 120 
 
 Nicole of, 1 20 
 
 Craster, William, 260 
 
 Crawley, 173 
 
 Cretel, 90 
 
 Crindledykes, 34 
 
 Cromwell, 251, 252, 258 
 
 Crookham Moor, 6 
 
 Cryn, 161 
 
 Cudred, 83 
 
 Culley, George and Matthew, 280 
 
 Culter, 88 
 
 Cumin, Edmund, Widow of, 158 
 John, 140, 141 
 Richard, 120, 130 
 Walter, 136-139 
 William, 136, 139, 140 
 
 Cuneburg, 58 
 
 Cunedda, 49 
 
 j Cuthbert, St., 57, 59-69, 79, 84, 
 89-92, 109, 170 ; his banner, 
 115; his shrine taken to Lindis- 
 farne, 106, 107 ; his well at Bell- 
 ingham, 121 ; his winding-sheet, 
 124 
 
 Cuthburg, Queen, 71 
 
 Cutheard, Bishop, 93, 94 
 
 Cynewulf. See Kynewulf .
 
 2 88 
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Dacre, Peace of, 94 
 
 Thomas, Lord, 208, 209 
 
 Leonard, 225 
 D&gsanstan, 53 
 Dagvald, 26, 44 
 Dally Castle, 135 
 Danum, 41 
 
 Darcy, Sir Arthur, 212 
 Darling, Grace, 275 
 'Darwentwater, Amelia, Countess 
 
 of,' 280, 281 
 
 David, King of Scots, 117-121 
 Dawson, Henry, 236 
 Dead water, 138 
 Dedy, See Deadwater 
 Deira, 53, 54, 56, 61 
 Delaval, Gilbert, 131 
 
 Sir John, 234 
 
 Robert, of Newsham. 174 
 Denisburn, 56 
 Denton, 159 
 
 in Gilsland, 194 
 Denwulf, 89 
 Derby, Colle of, 156 
 Derrydikes, 20 
 Derventio, 41 
 
 Derwent (Cumberland), Mouth 
 of, 89 
 
 (Durham), 92 
 Derwentwater, Earls of. See 
 
 Radcliffe 
 
 Detchant Wood, 236 
 Dewley, 5 
 Dictium, 41 
 ' Dijon,' gun, 203 
 Dilston, 44, no, 115, 120, 233, 
 255, 257-259, 262, 263, 268, 281 
 Dinguardi, 52, 54 
 Dinguayth, 52 
 Diocletian, 36 
 Diodora, 27 
 
 Dionysius Fortunatus, 45 
 Dipton Wood, 198 
 Dissington, 53 
 Dixon, Margaret, 253 
 Doctrees, 145 
 Doddington, 4, 214 
 Dolapene, William, 126 
 Donatianus, Marcus Caecilius, 29 
 Donkin, William, 268 
 Dore, Submission of, 86 
 Douglas, Archibald, 169, 187-190 
 
 James, 181-184 
 
 William de, 140, 141, 
 162, 1 66, 167 
 ' dregnj 102 
 
 Drury, Sir William, 224 
 Dubitatus, Junius, 44 
 Duddo, 6, 205 
 
 Dudley, John, Earl of Warwick 
 and Duke of Northum- 
 berland, 220 
 Colonel, 243 
 Robert, 269 
 Dumbarton, 74, 75 
 Dunbar, 65 ; earldom of, 108 
 
 Waltheof, Earl of, 126 
 Duncan, King of Scots, 101, 103 
 Dunstan, son of Ethelnoth, 104 
 Dunstanburgh, 155, 163, 164, 179, 
 
 1 80, 195-197, 201, 202 
 Durham, 99, 103, 105, 107,111, 
 119, 120,155, 1 79> Treaty of, 119 
 Durward, Alan, 139 
 
 Eadulfingham, 50 
 
 Eagiilfingham^ 49 
 
 Earle, 262 
 
 Easington. 67, 92 
 
 Eata, St., 59, 60, 62, 66, 67 
 
 Ebba, St., 20 
 
 Ebchester, 19, 20 
 
 Ebio, 20 
 
 Ecgive, Countess, 100 
 
 Echse, 67 
 
 Eda Brun, 120, 121 
 
 Edbert, Bishop, 69 
 
 King, 73-76, 79 
 Edderton, 215, 241 
 Edfrid, Bishop, 69, 90 
 Edgar, King of Scots, 115 
 Edgar Etheling, 105, 115 
 
 Unnithing. 130 
 Edinburgh, 58, 88, 98, 174 
 Edingham, 144 
 
 Edlingham, 50, 73, 78, 87, 253, 
 Edmund, bearer, 90, 91 
 
 King, 96 
 Edred, Abbot, 89 
 
 Prince, 93, 94 
 Edward I., 140, 147-150, 153 
 
 II., 154, 155,157, 161,162, 
 164, 165 
 
 III., 165-169, 171-173, 
 
 175 
 
 IV., 195-197,200,203,204 
 the Black Prince, unique 
 
 arms of, 173 
 
 son of Henry VI., 198-200 
 son of Malcolm Can- 
 more, 113 
 monk at Tynemouth, 104
 
 Index. 
 
 289 
 
 Edwin, 54 
 
 Edwulf, King, 71, 73, 78 
 
 High- Reeve, 78, 80, 93 
 Earl, Evilchild, 98, 99 
 Cudel, 100, 103 
 son of Robert, 131 
 
 Egbert I., 89 
 
 II., 91 
 
 Archbishop, 73, 76, 78 
 Bishop, 86 
 Egelwin, Bishop, 104 
 Egfrid, 58, 61, 62, 65 
 Egil, 95 
 
 ' Eg&saguJ The, 94 
 Eglingham, 50, 73, 87, 116 
 Egred, Bishop, 87 
 Eilaf, Bailiff, 121 
 
 of Hexham, 90, 91 
 Elder, Henry, 253 
 Eleanor, Queen of Henry III., 
 
 1 39 
 
 Elfled, 58, 65, 67, 83 
 Elfred, heir of Bertwulf, 93, 94 
 Elfwin, 6 1 
 
 Elgeve, Countess, 100 
 Elizabeth, 221, 227, 231 
 Ella, 88, 89 
 Ellenborough, 42, 82 
 Ellerker, Sir Ralph, 217, 218 
 Ellingham, 50; barony, 115, 116 
 Elrington, 101, 156 
 Elsdon, 6 
 Elsi of Wark, 121 
 Elstan, 94 
 Elterburn, 59 
 Eltringham, 242 
 Embleton, 180 ; barony, 116; 
 
 bailiff of, 163 
 Emeldon (Embleton), Richard de, 
 
 158 
 
 Emerson, John, Sheriff, 237 
 Enfled, Queen of Oswi, 58 
 Enfrid, King, 55 
 Enmund, Monk, 72 
 Enred, 86, 87 
 Erdwulf, King, 82, 85, 86 
 Prince, 93 
 Bishop, 89, 92 
 Eric Bloodaxe, 96, 97 
 Erlleon, 53 
 
 Ermengarde, Queen of Scots, 133 
 Ernan, Monk, 106 
 Emeshaw, 69 
 Errington, Mr., 255, 258 
 
 Captain George, 248 
 Lancelot, 259, 265 
 
 Errington, Thomas, 211, 226, 229 
 Esbrid, 94 
 Esc, 72 
 Esica, 1 8 
 Eslington, no, 261 
 
 Lord, 276 
 
 Espec, Walter, 116, 117, 119 
 Esse", Le Sieur d', 219 
 Etal Castle, 173, 206, 219 
 Ethelbert, St., Bishop, 81 
 Ethelburg, 55 
 
 Etheldryd ( Audrey), St.,Queen,6i 
 Ethelfrid, King, 53, 54 
 Ethelhild, Queen, 82 
 Ethelred I., King, 80, 82, 84 
 
 II., King, 88 
 Ethelric, King, 52 
 Ethelwald Moll, King, 76, 77 
 son of Oswald, 58, 76 
 Bishop, cross of, 83, 89 
 Hermit, 69 
 Ethelwin, Bishop, 105, 106 
 Ethelwulf of Lindisfarne, poem 
 
 by, 72 
 Eure, Lord, 231 
 
 John, 157 
 
 Sir Ralph, 219 
 
 Sir William, 217 
 Euse, Gaucelin d', Cardinal, 157 
 Eustace-fitz-John, 116, 117, 119, 
 
 127 
 Examford, 66 
 
 Fabius Honoratus, 45 
 
 Falaise, Convention of, 130 
 
 Falkirk, no, 153 
 
 Fanum Cocidii, 19 
 
 Fame Island, 56, 63-65, 67, 69 
 
 Farnley, Gilbert of, 144 
 
 Farrowshields, 50 
 
 Fauconberg, Earl of, 278 
 
 Fawdon, 141, 212 
 
 Felgeld, Hermit, 69 
 
 Felkington, 212 
 
 Felton, 133, 222, 259 
 Sir John, 156, 183 
 William de, 158 
 
 Fenton, 221, 222, 241 
 
 Fenwick, of Bywell, 257, 258 
 of Meldon, 255 
 Colonel, of Hexham, 243 
 John, 236 ; of Rock, 256; 
 
 of Stanton, 213 
 Sir John, 213, 256 
 Sir Ralph, 211 
 Roger, 216, 217 
 
 19
 
 290 
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Fenwick, Tristram, 226 
 William, 228 
 Fernyhurst, Sir Thomas Ker of, 
 
 228 
 
 Fetherston, 101 
 Fetherstonhaugh, 226 
 
 Albany, 222 
 
 Fieschi, Ludovico, Cardinal, 157 
 Fife, Duncan of, 129, 130 
 Filomena, 48 
 
 Finan, St., Bishop, 58, 59, 68 
 Finchale, 77, 80, 81 
 Fishburn, Thomas, 157 
 Fishing restriction?, 145 
 Fishwick, Ralph of, 142 
 Flambard, Ralph, Bishop, 115, 
 
 116 
 
 Flamdwyn, 53 
 Flaminian Way, The, 45 
 Fla-via Ccesariensis, 36 
 Flavinus, 43 
 
 Fleming, Malcolm, Earl of Wig- 
 ton, 174 
 
 Flodden, 206-208, 280 
 Ford, 5 ; bridge, 206 ; castle, 170, 
 
 173, 180, 206, 220, 221, 229 
 Forster, Dorothy, 260 
 
 ,, Ferdinando, 256 
 
 Sir John, 223-226, 228, 
 231 
 
 Richard, of Newham, 240 
 
 Robert, 223 
 
 Thomas, Stuart General, 
 
 257-260, 271 
 
 Fortescue, Sir John, 195 
 Four Dykes, The (wrongly called 
 
 the Valluni), 8, 10, 12 
 Fox, Richard, Bishop, 205, 206 
 Franco, bearer, 90 
 Fraser, Sir Simon, 146 
 
 William, 146 
 Freburn, Prior of Hulne, 135 
 Friane, Thomelin, 179 
 Friars Observant, 215 
 Frisians, 42, 48 
 Frithbert, St., Bishop, 72, 73 
 Frithwulf, 52, 53 
 Froissart, 181 
 Fulhopelaw, 186 
 
 Gabaglanda, 19 
 
 Gabrosentium, 42 
 
 Gat ana, 37 
 
 Gamel, Hexham vicars named, 102 
 
 Gamelbearn, 104 
 
 Gamelspeth, 138 
 
 Gap Shield, 37 
 
 Garamuynwn, 53 
 
 Garencieres, Sir Eugene de, 175 
 
 Garter, Order of the, 172 
 
 Gaveston, Piers, 154, 155 
 
 Genounia, 26 
 
 George, St., 168, 170 
 
 Gesemuth (Jesmond), Adam de, 
 
 141 
 
 Geta, 33 
 Gildas, 40 
 
 Gillomichael of Tughall, 106 
 Gilpin, Bernard, 223 
 Giudi, 58 
 Glannibanta, 42 
 Cl/woventa, 37 
 Glanville. Ralph de, 129, 130 
 Glappa, King, 52 
 Gledystanes, James, 190 
 Glen, River, 50, 55, 188 
 Glendale, 226, 210 ; the Ten 
 
 Towns of, 52, 220, 221 
 Glenham, Sir Thomas, 241 
 Glonicorn, 104 
 Gloster Hill, 34 
 Godeu, 53 
 Godric, Earl, 95 
 Gordon, Adam de, 161, 188 
 Goring, Colonel. 240 
 Gosforth, 115, 116 
 Gospatric, Earl, 105-108, 116 
 Gosse, John, 202 
 Goswick, 236 
 Graecia, in 
 Graffard's lands, 116 
 Graham, Baron, 279 
 Grainger, Richard, 278 
 Grainvill, Nicholas de, 116 
 ' Grand Leaguer,' The, 236 
 Grandison, Catherine de. See 
 
 Montagu 
 Gray, Sir Thomas, of Heton, 160- 
 
 162, 164, 168, 174, 175, 183, 186, 
 
 194 
 Gray, Sir Thomas, of Horton, 183. 
 
 See also Grey 
 
 grJ, canting badge of Gray, 175 
 Greaves Ash, 6 
 Greece, Expedition of Earl Al- 
 
 beric to, ill 
 Green, Mr., 258 
 Greencastle, 66 
 Greenhaugh, 230 
 Greenlaw, John, 190 
 Greenleighton, 187 
 Green rig, 258
 
 Index. 
 
 291 
 
 Greenwich Hospital, 262, 280, 281 
 Gregson, Mr., 280 
 Grey, Colonel, 240, 241 
 
 Earl, 278 
 
 John, of Dilston, 280 
 
 Lionel, 214 
 
 Lord, of Wilton, 219, 223, 
 224 
 
 Sir Henry, 268 
 
 Sir Ralph, 196, 199, 201, 202 
 
 Thomas, of Newstead, 214, 
 
 215 
 
 Grig, 91 
 
 Grindon, 221 ; Lough, 145 
 Guarth, 52 
 Gubeon, 93 
 Guledig, 49 
 
 Gulevant, Gilbert de, 113 
 Gumer, in 
 Gunnar Peak, 6 
 'gurgttes? 144 
 
 Guthfrid, 69 ; son of Sitric, 94 
 Guthred, King, 92, 93 
 
 Hadrian, 22, 25, 26, 39 ; Wall of, 
 
 24,28 
 
 Hadston Barony, 115, 116 
 Haggerston, 154, 241 
 
 Sir Thomas, 256 
 
 Hagustaldesham. See Hexnam 
 Halfdane, 89, 91 
 Halidon nunnery, 161 
 
 Hill, Battle of, 169 
 Haliwarstell, 115 
 Hall, Clement, 224 
 
 Jack, of Otterburn, 258, 261 
 
 James, 280 
 
 John, 224 
 Hall and Humberston Survey, 
 
 226 
 
 Halliwell, 131 
 Halton, 1 10, 214, 215 
 Haltwellswire, 221 
 Haltwhistle, 101, 131, 134, 154, 
 
 155, 167, 212, 231 
 Harbottle, 123, 130, 134, 141, 149, 
 
 150, 154, 156, 159, 162,210,224, 
 
 226, 229 
 
 Harbottle, Guischard, 209 
 Hardyng, John, 191 
 Harehaugh, 86 
 Harehope, 188 
 Harlow Hill, 9 
 Harterton, 250 ; Hall, 213 
 Hartlepool, 99 
 Hart, Sir Robert, 184 
 
 Haselrig, Sir Arthur, 250, 251 
 John, of Akeld, 159 
 Hatfield, Thomas, Bishop, 174 
 Haughton, 229; Castle, 173, 217 
 Hawden, Bernard de, 136 
 
 Stank, 186 
 Haydon Church, 142 
 
 Bridge, 166, 211, 217, 
 229, 250 
 
 Heaton, 141, 153 ; Hall, 234 
 Heddon-on-the-Wall, 9, 12J 58, 87, 
 
 243 
 Heddon, near Roddam, 96 
 
 Law, 170, 238 
 Hedgeley, 1 53 ; Moor, Battle of, 
 
 201 
 
 Hefenfeld, 55 
 Heliogabalus, 33, 34 
 Hemma, 66, 67 
 Henry I., 116, 117 
 
 II., 121-123, 130, 131 
 
 III., 134-140 
 
 IV., 186, 187, 190-193 
 
 V., 194 
 
 VI., 195, 196, 199, 200, 202 
 
 VII., 204, 205 
 
 VIII., 211, 212, 217 
 
 fitz-David, Earl, 118-121 
 
 Henshaw, J2o 
 
 Hepburn, Sir Patrick, 184 
 
 Hepple, no 
 
 Herbert, St., 67 
 
 Hercules, 27, 28, 46 
 
 Herebald, Abbot, 73 
 
 Herefrid, Abbot, 67 
 
 Hereric, 54 
 
 Hering, 53 
 
 Herle, Sir Robert. 173 
 
 Herodian, 31, 32 
 
 Heron the Bastard, 206-208 
 Clan of, 179 
 Sir Cuthbert, 255 
 Dame, 206 
 Elizabeth, 220 
 Sir George, 223, 227, 228 
 John, of Chipchase, 214, 
 
 215, 217, 218 
 
 Roger, Rector of Ford, 150 
 William, Lord Say, 192 
 Sir William. 170, 173 
 William, 145, 174, 180, 181 
 
 Hertford, Earl of. See Somerset 
 
 Heslyhurst, 262 
 
 Hethingeshalch. See Henshaw 
 
 Hethpool, 224 
 
 Heton, 219 ; Castle, 194, 205
 
 292 
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Heton, Sir Allan de, 179 
 Thomas de, 158 
 Hetton, 4 
 Heversham, 72, 93 
 Hexham, 33, 43, 45, 61, 62, 67, 68, 
 73, 81, 102, 106, 109, 149, 155, 
 173, 217, 218, 223, 225, 226, 235, 
 243, 250, 252, 262, 265, 266 
 Hexham, Battle of, first, 198 ; 
 
 second, 201 
 
 Church of St. Mary, 71 
 Diocese, 62, 65, 66, 68, 
 71, 72, 77, 86, 87, 88, 
 92 
 
 Priory, 117, 152, 163, 
 166, 173, 213, 214, 
 
 2l6, 222, 28l 
 
 Shire, 99, 107 
 Terrarius of, 145 
 William de, Canon, 163 
 Hexpethgatehead, 228 
 Hextold, Countess of Athol, 120 
 Higbald, Bishop, 83, 84 
 Highlaws, 261 
 Hildimer, 63 
 Hill-forts, 6 
 Hilton, Baron of, 183 
 
 Robert de, 140 
 Hinde, Mr. Hodgson, 273 
 Hiring, 51 
 
 ' Historia Aurea] The, 175 
 Holburn, 168 
 
 Holy Island. See Lindisfarne 
 Holystone, 20, 154 
 Holywell Haugh, 147 
 Homildon, Battle of, 188, 189 
 Honorius, 39, 40, 42, 48 
 Hoperiglaw, 137 
 Horncliff, Robert de, 158 
 Horsley, Long, 253 
 
 George, 226 
 
 John, 265 
 
 Robert de, 158 
 
 Roger, 155, 159 
 
 Sir Thomas, 253 
 Horton-next-the-Sea, 158 
 Hot bank, 25, 26 
 
 Hotspur. See Henry Percy VII. 
 Housesteads, 9, 14, 25 
 Howard, Edmund, 207-209 
 
 Thomas, Lord Admiral, 
 206-209 
 
 See Surrey 
 Howick, 159, 268, 273 
 Howtell, 205 
 Hrings (Rhys ?), 95 
 
 Hulne Priory, 135, 227 ; Tower, 
 
 204 
 
 Hume, Colonel, epitaph on, 247 
 David, 209, 210 
 Lord, 206, 208 
 Hundred, 90, 91 
 Hunnum, 41, 42, 44, 46 
 Hunsdon (Carey), Lord, 224, 226, 
 
 227, 229, 230 
 
 Hunter, Captain John, 257 
 Huntingdon, Earldom of, 122, 
 
 125 
 Hussa, 52, 53 
 
 Ida, 51, 52 
 
 Ilderton, 63, 229, 280 
 Henry de, 144 
 Sir Thomas, 179 
 
 Ingo, 210 
 
 Ingram, 109, 212, 229 
 
 lona, 56, 59 
 
 Irishman, John the, 156 
 
 Irminburg, Queen, 62, 65-67 
 
 James I. (of Great Britain), 231, 
 
 232 
 
 II., 254-256 
 III., 258-260 
 III. (of Scotland), 199 
 IV., 205-209 
 arrow, 22, 41, 109, no 
 effreys, Judge, 254 
 enison, Dr., 235 
 erome, St., 39 
 ocelin. See Louvain 
 John, St., of Beverley, 68, 71 
 King, 132, 133 
 Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, 
 
 193, 194 
 
 of Gaunt, Duke of Lan- 
 caster, 179, 1 80 
 Johnson, John, Sheriff, 257 
 Joyous Garde, 52 
 Judeu, 58 
 
 Judith, Countess, 104 
 Jutes, 49, 51, 58 
 
 Keeps, square: Carlisle, 117; 
 Norham, Prudhoe, 124 ; New- 
 castle, 127 
 
 Keith, Sir William, 169 
 
 Kelso, 133, 176 
 
 Kenterdale, 66 
 
 Kenton Collieries, 257 
 
 Kenulf, knight, 108 
 
 Keolwulf, King, 72, 73, 87
 
 Index. 
 
 293 
 
 Ker, Thomas, 189. See Ferny- 
 hurst 
 
 Kestern, William Fisher of, 144 
 ' khomataj 31 
 Kidland, 53 
 
 Kildare, William (Vesci) of, 1 54 
 Kilhope Law, 3 
 Killingworth, 259, 272 
 
 William of, 142 
 
 Kimmerghame, 88 
 King's Seat, 2 
 Kirkby, John de, 152 
 Kirkham Priory, 133, 134, 146 
 Kirkhaugh, 101, 156 
 Kirkheaton, 210 
 Kirknewton, 55, 133 
 Kirkoswald, Peter of, 153 
 Knaresdale, 101, 156 
 Kraka, 84 
 Kynewulf, 73, 74 
 
 ' labarumi 28 
 
 Laigle. See Matilda 
 
 Lakes, 4 
 
 Lambaste, 23 
 
 Lambert, General, 250, 252, 253 
 
 Mr., 257 
 Lambley, 101, 150 
 ' lambrequin? 178 
 La Motte, 206 
 Lamyford, 138 
 Lancaster, county of, 122 
 
 John, Duke of. See 
 John of Gaunt 
 
 John of. See John of 
 Lancaster 
 
 Thomas Plantagenet, 
 Earl of, 51, 154, 155, 157, 162- 
 164 
 Langdale, Sir Marmaduke, 243, 
 
 250 
 Langley, 101, 142, 180, 193, 211 
 
 Castle, 173, 192, 201, 
 
 214 
 
 Langshaws, 229 
 Lanton, 159, 176, 201; 
 Lanx, The Corbridge, 27 
 Lascelles, Adam de, 130 
 ' lathes,' 49 
 Lauderdale, 57 
 Laval, Hugh de, no. See De- 
 
 laval 
 
 Lavaris, 19 
 Lavatres, 41 
 Lawson, Dorothy, 234 
 Leach, William, 216 
 
 Leaplish, 232 
 
 Learmouth, 210, 241 
 
 Lee in Hexhamshire, 69 
 
 Lee, St. John, 69 
 
 Lees, The, near Langley, 142 
 
 Lemington Staith, 272 
 
 Leslie, General (Earl of Leven), 
 
 241-243, 245, 246 
 Lewyn, John, mason, 179 
 Liburnius Fronto, 29 
 Licinius Clemens, 29 
 Liddell, Anthony, 271 
 Lilburn, Colonel, 250 
 
 Henry, 251 
 
 Henry, 181, 183 
 ,, Sir John, 156, 157 
 Lilliesclive, 77 
 Limes, The, 36 
 Lindisfari, Kings of the, 51 
 Lindisfarne, 4, 51-53, 56, 59, 60, 
 
 67-69, 72, 73, 79, 83-85, 96, 104, 
 
 106, 1 10, 197,240,241, 250,251, 
 
 281 
 Lindisfarne Gospels, 70, 90 
 
 ,, diocese, 62, 65, 66, 68, 
 
 69,77,87,88 
 district, 89 
 Lindsay, David de, 134-136 
 Sir David, 186 
 Sir James, 184-186, 
 
 190 
 
 Lineojugla, 19 
 Linnels, The, 201 
 Lisle, Sir William, 210, 211 
 Liulf of Bamburgh, Sheriff, 114, 
 
 116 
 
 Llangwyn, 56 
 Llovan Llawdivro, 53 
 Locard (Lockhart), Simon, 157 
 ' London,' gun, 203 
 Longovicium, 41 
 ' Lord 'Size,' Ballad of, 276 
 Lorges, Seigneur de, 219 
 Lorimer, Ralph le, 141 
 Lothian, 49, 99, 100, 107, 1 12, 116, 
 
 132, 138 
 
 Lough End Crag, 25 
 Louis XI., 200 
 Louvain, Counts of, 177 
 Jocclin of, 177 
 Lambert of, 178 
 Low, stream, 53 
 Lowes, William, 25 
 Lucilianus, Egnatius, 34 
 Lucilla Julia, 45 
 Lucius ./Elius Caesar, 26
 
 294 
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Lucker, 142 
 Lucy, Arms of, 180 
 
 Maud de, 180 
 
 Richard de, 127 
 Lugubalum, ig, 49 
 Lullus, Bishop of Mayence, 78 
 Lumley, John, 215 
 
 Ralph, Lord, 185 
 Lunsford, Colonel, 239 
 Lupicinus, 38 
 
 Maelum mac Baodan, 53 
 
 MagfE, 41 
 
 Maglo, 41 
 
 Magnce, 19, 26, 29, 36, 41, 42, 45 
 
 Maia, 14, 19 
 
 Maiatai, 14, 31 
 
 Maiden Way, The, 18, 37 
 
 Maitland (Mautalent), John, 
 
 159 
 Malcolm Canmore, 104, 107, 109, 
 
 111-113, 148 
 the Maiden, 122, 124, 
 
 125 
 Maldred, son of Akman, 109 
 
 father of Gospatric, 105 
 Malet, Louis, Seigneur de Gra- 
 
 ville, 197 
 
 Maluvel, Richard, 130 
 Malvoisin at Bamburgh, 113, 114 
 at Tweedmouth, 132, 
 
 133 
 Maners, Arms of, 173 
 
 Robert de, 165, 167, 170 
 Manius Suilius, 43 
 Marches, Wardens - General of 
 
 the, 210, 211, 220 
 East, 204 ; Warden of 
 
 the, 225 
 
 East and Middle, 203 
 Middle, Wardens of 
 
 the, 227, 231 
 Marcus Aurelius, 29, 36 
 Margaret, St., of Antioch, 199 
 St., of Scotland, 107 
 Queen of Alexander 
 
 III., 138, 139 
 Queen of Edward I., 
 
 153 
 
 of Anjou, Queen of 
 Henry VI., 195- 
 200 
 
 Margery, lady of Tyndale, 134 
 Marley, Sir John, 237, 242, 245, 
 
 246, 248 
 Marmion, Sir William, 160 
 
 Martin, Hermit, 151 
 Mary (Tudor), Queen, 220 
 Matfen, 6, 44 
 
 Matilda, Queen of Henry I., 1 16 
 de Laigle, Countess, 113, 
 114 
 
 Matres, 34 
 Mauduit, Roger de, 141, 142, 
 
 157 
 
 Maulevrier. See Breze" 
 Maxima Ccesariensis, 36 
 Maximinus, 33, 34 
 Maximus, 34 
 Maximus, Clemens, 39 
 Maxwell, John, 184 
 May Games, Lord of the, 224 
 Mechil Wongton, 77 
 Medcaud, 52, 53 
 Medomsley, 67 
 Meldred, Sons of, 117 
 Melkridge, 101, 156 
 Melmtn, 55 
 Melrose, 59, 60 
 Merchenley, 173 
 Merlay, William de, no, ill 
 Messius Magnus, 44 
 ' Middle Shires of Britain,' 232 
 Middleham, John de, 193, 194 
 Middletons, The Three (North, 
 
 South, and Middlemost), no 
 Middleton, Gilbert de, 157-159 
 
 Sir John, 201 
 
 Mr., 237 
 
 Richard, 157 
 
 ' Midford Galloway, The] 261 
 Milburn Moor, 145 
 Mile Castles, 24, 39 
 Milfield Plain, 206, 207 
 ' Military Road,' The, 265 
 Milking Gap, 25 
 Mill Ford (Twizel), 207 
 Mindrum, 59, 241 
 Mints, Earl Henry's, 120 
 Mittord, 1 10, 119, 133, 134, 143, 
 
 154, 157-159 
 Mithras, 26, 35, 36 
 Mitton, Battle of, 162 
 Monasteries, Visitation of, 213 
 Monday Clough, 188 
 Monecestre, 108 
 Moneylaws, 148, 156, 229 
 Monk, General, 252, 253 
 Monk's Seaton, 116 
 Mons Graupius, Battle of, 48 
 
 264 
 Mons Meg, 205
 
 Index. 
 
 295 
 
 Montagu, Catherine de, Countess 
 
 of Salisbury, 171, 172 
 
 Lord and Marquess of 
 
 (John Neville, Earl 
 
 of Northumberland), 
 
 195, 199-203 
 
 Sir William, Earl of 
 
 Salisbury, 168, 171 
 Montfort, Simon de, 140, 213 
 Montgomery, Sir Hugh, 184, 189 
 Monthaut, Sir William de, 167 
 Montnytt, Robert de, 109 
 Montrose, Marquess of, 244, 246 
 Moray, William de, 139 
 
 Earl of, 1 66, 167, 171 
 Morbium, 41 
 
 Morel of Hamburgh, 113, 114 
 Morkere, Earl, 104 
 monk, 109 
 
 Morpeth, no, 113, 115, 133, 157, 
 174, 216, 221, 224, 250, 252, 
 253, 259, 265, 276, 277 ; castle, 
 siege of, 244 
 
 Mortimer, William cle, 130 
 Morton, Dr., 196 
 Morwick, 6, 110 
 Mousen, no, 142 
 Mowbray, Alexander de, 160 
 Christiane de, 148 
 Geoffrey de, Bishop of 
 
 Coutances, in 
 Robert de, Earl, in, 
 
 113, 114, 116 
 Roger de, 129, 130 
 Mozley, Thomas, 263 
 Muggleswick, Parson of, 211 
 Mug mawr drevydd, 5 1 
 Mundingedene, 93 
 Munechester, 108 
 Murdack of Fife, 189, 194 
 Murray, Andrew, 152 
 ' munts,' 10 
 Murus cespitaceus, 28 
 Murus perforatus, 24 
 Murus Romanorum, 8 
 Muschamps of Barmoor, 223 
 Sir George, 240 
 Robert de, 116 
 Thomas de, 130 
 
 Nafferton, 134, 258 
 Neapolitan calendar, 71 
 Nechtansmere, Battle of, 56 
 Nesbit in Glendale, 194 
 
 the Merse, 174, 175 
 Neumagen, 85 
 
 Neville's Cross, Battle of, 174 
 Neville, Sir Humphrey, 202 
 Robert de, 139, 140 
 Newbiggen by Blanchland, 173, 
 
 174 
 
 near Alnmouth, 121 
 on-the-Sea, 164 
 
 Newbrough, 142, 144, 154 
 
 Newburn, 3, 5, 105, in, 117, 178, 
 243, 250 ; battle of, 238, 239 
 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne, 34, 87, 108, 
 no, 113,117-122, 130, 132, 135, 
 136, 142, 143, 145, 147, 151, 155, 
 158, 167, 168, 181-183, 185, 191, 
 195, i99 200, 211, 225, 226, 232, 
 235, 238-240, 252, 253, 255, 256, 
 259, 262, 264, 277-279, 281 ; St. 
 Andrew's Church, 182, 246 ; 
 Andrew Tower, 247 ; Black 
 Gate, 136, 274 ; Carpenters' 
 Tower, 248 ; County of, 3, 264, 
 277 ; Hospital of St. Margaret, 
 144 ; Keep, 127, 274 ; molto, 
 249 ; Nag's Head, 235 ; St. 
 Nicholas, 117, 246, 252, 277, 282 
 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne, Earl and 
 Marquess of, William Caven- 
 dish, 240, 242, 244, 245 
 
 ' Newcastle ' gun, 203 
 
 Newham, 5, 158 
 
 Newminster, 118, 150, 151, 162, 
 213 
 
 Newsham, 174 
 
 Newstead, 215 
 
 Newton (-on-the-Moor), 144 
 Richard de, 144 
 
 Nithsdale, Gilbert of, 143 
 
 Noble, Harry, 21 1 
 
 Norham, 87, 93, 107, 116, 117, 119, 
 126, 130, 133, 139, 147, 158, 1 60, 
 161, 163-165, 167. 174, 199, 200, 
 201, 205, 206, 224 ; keep, 124; 
 Treaty of, 220 
 
 Noricuni) 44 
 
 North Berwick, William of, 184 
 
 North Shields, 57 
 
 Northampton, Treaty of, 167 
 
 Northumberland, Austrian Duke- 
 dom of, 269 
 
 Northumberland, boundaries, 2, 
 3 ; derivation of, I ; origin of, 
 3> 54 ; greatest extent, 75, 
 restricted signification of, 101 
 
 Northumberland, Dukedom of, 
 220, 269 
 
 Northumberland, Earldom of, 98 ;
 
 296 
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 suppressed, 114; revived, 118; 
 again suppressed, 122 ; sale of, 
 
 131 ; incorporated in England, 
 
 132 ; claimed by the Middle- 
 tons, 159, by the Scots in its 
 fullest extent, 165 
 
 Northumberland, Percy Earldom 
 of, I77-I79> 194, 203, 204, 221, 
 268, 269 
 
 Northumberland, prosperity of, in 
 twelfth century, 121, 125 
 
 Northumberland, roads in, 116 
 
 Norwich soldiers, three, 235 
 
 Nostell, canons of, 117 
 
 Notitia Dignitatum, 40 
 
 Nunwick, 6 
 
 Adam of, 125 
 
 Oclatinus Adventus, 31 
 Odard, Sheriff, 116 
 Odo of Bayeux, no 
 Offa, Prince, 73 
 Offa's Dyke, 1 1 
 Ogle, Cuthbert, 219 
 
 Lord, 216 
 
 Sir Robert, 170, 175, 183, 
 
 '95 
 
 Oleiclams, 20 
 Olenacum, 42 
 Onno, 1 8 
 
 Optatus, Ccecilius, 34 
 Ord, 222, 236 
 Ormiston, 190, 191 
 Osbald, 84, 85 
 Osbern Bullaxe, 103 
 Osbert, King, 88 
 84 
 
 master-mason, 116 
 Osborn, John, 247 
 Osgeofu, Queen, 78 
 Oslac, Earl, 98, 99 
 Osred I., King, 71, 72 
 
 II., 8r, 82 
 Osric, 72 
 
 Ossa Cyllelawr, 51 
 Oswald, St., 55, 56, 59, 79, 80, 92 ; 
 
 arm of, 103 
 Oswi, 56-58, 60, 61 
 Os-wigesdune, 92 
 Oswin, St., 57 ; feast of, 160; herd 
 
 of, 125; peace of, 108 ; shrine 
 
 of, 112; translation of, 104; 
 
 vigil of, 183, 1 88 
 Oswin, patrician, 77 
 Oswulf, King, 76, 77 
 Earl, 97-99 
 
 Oswulf of Bamburgh, 104, 105 
 Otalinoi, u, 13, 14 
 Othere the Black, 101 
 Otterburn, 182, 183, 185, 186, 188, 
 
 258, 261, 266; ballad of the 
 
 battle of, 181, 183, 189 
 Otterburn, Thomas de, 175 
 Ottercap, 187 
 Ottobuoni, Legate, 135 
 Ouston (Ulmston), 101, 156 
 ' Out-with-the-Sword,' 186 
 Outchester (Ulchester), 21 
 Ovingham, 50, 87, 111,243,270, 
 
 271 
 Master of the cell of, 
 
 213 
 
 Ovington, 50 
 Owain, son of Urien, 53 
 Oxford, 170 
 Oxley, Mr., 280 
 Oysel, General d', 221 
 
 Pacatianus, Litorius, 35 
 
 Pallinsburn, 96 
 
 Paris, Judgment of, 27 
 
 Parliamentary representation, 276 
 
 Paston, 50, 224 
 
 Patrician, 76 
 
 Patten, Robert, 259, 260 
 
 Paulan, 96 
 
 Paulinus, St., 55, 56 
 
 Peada, 58 
 
 Peel Feil, 2 
 
 Peels, The, 224 
 
 Peles of Horton, 158: of Bolton 
 
 and Whittingham, 159 
 ' pele-yardj 165 
 Penda, 55-58 
 
 Penrith, John de, 162, 164 
 Pepin le Bref, 74 
 
 Percy, Algernon, 4th Duke of Nor- 
 thumberland, 274 
 ,, loth Earl of Nor- 
 
 thumberland, 251 
 Ann, Countess, 226 
 Arms of, 178, 180 ; motto, 
 
 204 ; name of, 177, 268 
 Elizabeth, Duchess, 268, 
 
 269 
 Henry I., 178 
 
 III., 154, 178 
 IV., 167, 178 
 
 VI., ist Earl, 177, 
 
 178, 180, 181, 188, 
 191-194
 
 Index. 
 
 297 
 
 Percy, Henry VII.*(Hotspur), 179, 
 181-184, 1 86, 187, 
 189, 190, 191 
 VI 1 1., 2nd Earl, 193- 
 
 195 
 
 IX., 3rd Earl, 195 
 
 X., 4th Earl, 195, 
 
 2O3, 212 
 
 XI., 5th Earl, 210 
 
 XII., 6th Earl, 211- 
 
 213, 217 
 XI 1 1., 8th Earl, 22 1, 
 
 222, 225, 226, 233 
 
 XIV., 9 th Earl, 233 
 of Athol, 192 
 
 Hugh, ist Duke of North- 
 umberland, 269 
 Jocelin, nth Earl, 268 
 Ralph, 181, 184 
 Sir Henry, son of Sir Ralph, 
 
 204 
 
 Ingram, 214, 215, 217 
 Ralph, 195-197, 199,201 
 Thomas, 213, 215-217 
 Thomas, 233 
 Bishop, 269 
 
 ,, Lord Egremont, 
 
 195 
 7th Earl, 221,222, 
 
 225-227 
 
 Percy's Cross, 5 
 Leap, 6 
 Pervica, 44 
 Peter, St., 54 
 Peterborough thief, 103 
 Petriana, 18, 42 
 Philippa of Hainault, 169 
 Pictf Wall, The, 8 
 Pilgrimage of Grace, 214 
 Pipard's Hill, 209 
 Plainfield Moor, 258 
 Platorius Nepos, 25 
 Plenmellor, 101 
 
 Poictou, Philip de, Bishop, 132 
 Pons ^Clius, 18, 23, 41, 42 
 Ponteland, 4, 136, 182 
 Port, Adam de, 130 
 Presidium, 41 
 Prenderlath, Ellen de, 148 
 Prendwick, 212, 229 
 Pressen, 148, 170, 241 
 Preston, Battle of, 260 
 Prima Static, 17, 31, 33 
 Pringle, Jack, 219 
 Pringle, Thomas, 170 
 
 Procolitia, 26, 34, 41-43 
 Proctor, Mr., 280 
 Proculinus, Publius, 35 
 Prudhoe, 243 ; barony, 116, 180, 
 
 181, 193, 184; castle, 174, 192, 
 
 193, 215, 216, 233; keep, 124; 
 
 pele-yard, 165 ; sieges, 127-129 
 Ptolemy, Claudius, 13 
 Pudsey, Henry, Justiciary, 131 
 Hugh, Bishop and Earl, 
 
 124, 126, 127, 130-132 
 Pulcher, 27 
 Punce, merchant, 145 
 Purvis, Roger, 159 
 Pykewell, Robert, Vicar, 155 
 
 Radcliffe family, 233, 268 
 
 Charles, 5th Earl of 
 Derwentwater, 261- 
 263 
 
 Sir Francis, 250 
 Sir Francis, ist Earl 
 of Derwentwater, 254- 
 256 
 
 James, 3rd Earl of Der- 
 wentwater, 257, 258, 
 260 
 
 | John, Viscount, 4th 
 Earl of Derwent- 
 water, 262, 281 
 Thomas, Earl of Sussex, 
 226,255 
 Ragnar Lodbrog, 83, 84 
 
 Longneck, 177 
 Railways, 272, 273 
 Ramsay, Sir Alexander, 170 
 Sir William, 174 
 Impostor, 252 
 Rap, 90 
 
 Rattenraw, 229 
 Ravenglass, 31 
 Ravennas, The, 17, 20, 21 
 Read, Captain, 225 
 Redesdale, 52, 109, 141, 149,170, 
 
 218, 224, 232 
 Robin of, 203 
 
 Redeswire, The, 159, 227 
 Redman, Sir Matthew, 179, 183, 
 
 185, 186 
 
 Redpeth, 157, 173, 229 
 Reged, 52, 53 
 Reginald I., 93, 94 
 
 II, 9 6 
 
 Reginald of Durham, 103 
 Rcl, 198 
 
 * The notation followed is that of the ancient pedigrees at Alnwick Castle.
 
 298 
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Rene" of Anjou, 200 
 Revedeneburne. See Ridingburn 
 Reveley, 109, 229 
 Reynton, John de, 168 
 Richard I., Cceur-de-Lion, 131, 
 
 132 
 
 II., 177, 179, 180, 186 
 III., 204 
 of Cirencester, 38 
 Ricsig, King, 89, 91, 93 
 Riddell, Sir Peter, 234 
 
 Sir Walter, 237 
 Ridel, John de, 144 
 Riding (Mill), 173 
 Ridingburn (Reddanburn), 127, 
 
 137, 138 
 Ridley, 101, 156 
 
 Christopher, 7 
 Nicholas, 211 
 Ripon, 59, 69,71,82, 96 
 Riseburn, 102 
 Rise-wood, 102 
 Risingham, 17, 34, 45, 46 
 Robin of, 43 
 
 Robert, St., of Newminster, 213 
 Knight, 1 08 
 of Normandy, no, 112 
 son of Godwin, 115 
 son of Meld red, 117 
 Fitz Roger, 151 
 Robson, Lionel, 232 
 Rock, 196, 280 
 
 Moor, 236 
 Roddam, 96, no 
 
 Beatrice de, 144 
 Robert, wife of, 229 
 Thoma?, 181 
 Roger fitz Richard, 126, 127 
 
 ,, fitz Roger, 142 
 Ronan, St., 59 
 Ros, 212, 222 
 family of, 123 
 Robert de, 134, 139, 140, 148, 
 
 149 
 
 William de, 134, 148 
 Rose Castle, 4, 6 
 
 Hill, 47 
 Rosebrough, 5 
 Rothbury, 117, 142, 144, 178, 258- 
 
 260 
 
 Forest, 151, 259, 261, 
 
 266; Old, 5 
 
 Rothbury, Hugh de, 150 
 Rothley, 187 
 Rowley Burn, 56 
 Rudchester, 16 
 
 Rufinus, 45 
 
 Rugg, Robert, 240 
 
 Rumabo, 20 
 
 Rus, Raoul le, 130 
 
 Ruspus, Quintus, 44 
 
 Russell, Lord Francis, 228 
 
 Rutherford, Sir Richard, 186, 
 
 187 
 
 Ryal (Rye Hill). See Rel 
 Ryle, Great, 212, 229 
 Ryton, 152, 170, 195 
 
 Saalburg, 16 
 
 Sadler, Sir Ralph, 222 
 
 ' sagegy 78 
 
 St. Anthony's, 234 
 
 St. Carilef, William of, Bishop, 
 
 111-113, 116 
 
 St. Evroud, monks of, 116 
 St. John Lee, 69 
 St. Liz, Simon de, Earl, 118 
 Salisbury. See Montagu 
 Salkeld, Colonel, 250 
 Salley, Abbot of, 216 
 Salona, 45 
 Salso Marisco (Saltmarsh), Peter 
 
 de, 158 
 
 Salvianus, yEmilianus, 31 
 Sanderson, William, 261 
 Sandgate, 242, 247, 248 
 Sandyford, 207, 208 
 Sanquhar, 148 
 Saville, John, 183 
 Say, Lord. See Heron 
 Sayning Side, 168 
 ' Scalacronica] The, 175 
 Scoldings, 83 
 
 Scarburgh (Lumley), Earl of, 259 
 Scots, character of, 201, 246, 249 
 
 in Northumberland, 229, 
 
 237 
 
 Scythlescester, 81 
 Seaton Delaval, 131 
 Secundinus, Titus Flavius, 26 
 Segedunum, 41, 42 
 Seghill, 5, 160 
 Selby, Sir George, 233, 234 
 
 Odinel, 214 
 
 Walter de, 157, 158, 160 
 Selgoouai, 13, 14 
 Seman, Hermit, 143 
 Senecio, Alferius, 31 
 Sentius Castus, 36 
 Serduno, 18 
 Seton, Alexander, 169 
 Settlingstones, 19
 
 Index. 
 
 299 
 
 Settrington, 108 
 Severus Alexander, 34 
 Severus, Septimius, 30-33 
 
 ,, Wall of, 30, 3 1 
 Sewinshields, 51, 164 
 Shafto, 185 
 
 Cuthbert, 213 
 
 Captain John, 257 
 Sheppard, Father, 229 
 Shield Field, 242, 245, 246, 250 
 
 John, 279 
 Shields, North, 116 
 Shilbottle, 194 
 Shildford, 173 
 Shildon, 6 
 Shitlington, 211 
 Shores wood, 205 
 Shorston, 140 
 Shortflat, 153 
 Shotley, 87, 174 
 Shotton, 59 
 
 Shrewsbury, Battle of, 19 r 
 Shuttle worth, George, 216 
 Sibba, 66 
 Sibyl, 175 
 Sicgan, 81, 83 
 Sienna, 45 
 
 Sigen, Countess, 100 
 Sigwulf, 8 1 
 
 Silvanus Pantheus, 46 
 Silvertops, 174 
 Simon, Earl of Northumberland. 
 
 See St. Liz 
 Simon, a Scot, 143 
 Sinclair, Sir John, 184 
 
 Sir Walter, 184 
 Sitric, 94 
 Siward, Earl, 103, 104 
 
 of Gosforth, 116 
 Skirlawe, Walter de, Bishop, 183, 
 
 185 
 
 Slaley, 173 
 Sleekburn, 93 
 Slingsby, Stephen, 143 
 Smalesmouth, 5 
 Smithson, Sir Hugh. See Percy, 
 
 Duke of Northumberland 
 Somerset, Duke of (Henry Beau- 
 fort), 197, 200, 201 
 Somerset (Edward Seymour, Earl 
 
 of Hertford), 218, 219 
 Somerville, family of, 151 
 
 Colonel, 242, 243 
 
 John de, 153 
 Soules, Annora de, 136 
 
 Nicholas de, 136, 137 
 
 Soules, William de, 156 
 
 Southdean, 181 
 
 South Shields, 57, 67 
 
 ' sow,' 161, 162 
 
 Sowle, Captain, 262 
 
 Spalding, Peter, 159 
 
 Spindleston, 6, 116 
 
 Spring, Henry, 140 
 
 Sproich, 120, 121 
 
 Stafford, Sir Richard, 171 
 
 Stagshawbank, 213 
 
 Stain moor, 97 
 
 Stamfordham, 136 
 
 Standard, Battle of the, 119 
 
 Standing Stones, 6 
 
 Stanegate, 19 
 
 Stanhope, 166, 167 
 
 Stanley, Sir Edward, 209 
 
 Stanton, 144 
 
 Stanwix, 16, 37 
 
 Stavely, Ninian, 216 
 
 Steelrig, 25, 26 
 
 Stephen, King, 117-119 
 
 Stephenson, George, 272 
 
 Stewart, Sir Walter, of Forest, 
 
 189 
 
 Stewart, Sir William, 186 
 Stilicho, 40 
 
 Stirling, Treaty of, 205 
 Stithard, 90, 91 
 Stocksfield, 136, 154 
 Stone implements, 4 
 Storey, 230 
 
 William, 231 
 Story, Thomas, 253 
 Stuart, Sir Walter, 162 
 Stuteville, Roger de, Sheriff, 126, 
 
 128 
 
 Styford, 115, 116, 257 
 Styr, 100 
 
 Sunderland, North, 275 
 Surrey, Thomas Howard, Earl of, 
 
 205-209 
 
 Sussex, Earl of. See Radcliffe 
 Sweethope, 223 
 
 ,, Walter de, 145 
 
 Swinburn, 6 
 
 Adam de, 149, 157 
 
 Edward, 261 
 
 James, 261 
 
 John de, 154 
 
 Sir Thomas, 234 
 Swinton, Sir John, 188 
 Sydenham, Silver-tongue, 252 
 Symeon of Durham, 73 
 Syrian Goddess, 29
 
 300 
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Taca, Robert, 1 1 1 
 Tailbois, William, 196 
 Talbot, John, of Cartington, 261 
 Tarset, 134 
 
 Hall, 211 
 Tate, Mr., 258 
 
 George, 6 
 Team, mouth of the, 89 
 Tees, The, 101 
 Tempest, Colonel Sir Richard, 
 
 250,251 
 
 Temple Thornton, 154 
 Ten Towns of Coquetdale, 52 ; of 
 
 Glendale, 52 
 Terentius Firmus, 45 
 Thanes, no 
 Theodbald, 54 
 Theodore, Archbishop, 60, 62, 68, 
 
 7i 
 Theodosius, 38 
 
 Emperor, 39 
 
 Theodric, 52 
 Thingsus, Mars, 48 
 Thirlivall, The, 24 
 Thirlwall, 101, 154, 156 
 
 Malcolm of, 143 
 Thomas of Canterbury, St., 131,213 
 Thornbrough, 281 
 Thorngrafton, 101, 156 
 Thornington, 59, 280 
 Thornton in Tyndale, 120, 134 
 Thorolf, 95 
 Three Stone burn, 6 
 Throckley, no 
 Thrunton, 5 
 Thrush Island, 63, 69 
 Thurbrand the Hold, 100, 101 
 Tidfrith, 86 
 Tilbert, St., 81 
 Tilmouth, 89, 175, 205, 219 
 Tilred, Abbot, 93 
 Tineius Longus, 29 
 Tinemore, 94 
 Tison, Gilbert, no 
 Tods, 90, 91, 1 06 
 Tortmund, 85 
 Tosson, 5, 250, 268 
 Tostig, Earl, 104 
 Towton, Battle of, 195 
 Trewhit, 5, 50 
 Trollope (Troughope), 174 
 Trumwine, Bishop, 66 
 ' Truncage] no 
 Tuda, Bishop, 60 
 Tughall, 106 
 Tumbert, Bishop, 65 
 
 Tungrians, 42, 46, 48 
 Tunnocelum, 42 
 Tunstal, Cuthbert, Bishop, 214 
 Sir Richard, Sir William, 
 
 196 
 
 Turchil Cadiol, 125 
 Turnbull, John, 186 
 Tweed, The, 58 
 Tweedmouth, 60, 132, 133, 146 
 
 Ferry, 168 
 
 Tweedside, 61 
 Twelve Towns of the Bowmont, 
 
 52, 59; of Tyndale, 52, 101, 112, 
 
 156 
 
 Twisle (Bedlingtonshire), 93 
 Twizel (on the Till), 205, 219 
 
 Bridge, 207 
 Twyford, 65, 122 
 Tydlin, Prefect, 65 
 Tyndale, 134, 147, 149, 155, 217 
 Chace, 154 
 North and South, 123 
 Tyne Commission, 275 
 
 mouth of the, 33, 44 
 Tyne, North, 103 ; bridges on, 
 
 120 
 Tynemouth, 57, 73, 82, 104, 108- 
 
 114, 116, 143, 152,153,155,158, 
 
 160, 233, 248, 251 
 Tynemutheham^ 104 
 Tyneside, 277 
 Tyningham, 88, 96 
 Tynmouth, John de, 175 
 Tyrconnel, King of, 136 
 
 Uctred, 94 
 
 Bailiff, 107 
 Earl, 99-101 
 son of Meldred, 117 
 Ulchester (Outchester), 20 
 Ulcotes, Philip de, 134 
 Ulgham Grange, 230 
 Ulmston. See Ouston 
 Ulpius Marcellus, 29, 30 
 Umfraville, Gilbert, 140, 141, 145, 
 
 174, 1 80 
 Odinel, 123, 124, 127- 
 
 129 
 
 Richard, 134 
 Robert, 109, 116, 160, 
 
 1 86 
 Upsetlington, 164 
 
 Treaty of, 222 
 
 West, 167 
 
 Urbicus, Lollius, 28 
 
 Quintus Petronius, 45
 
 Indeic. 
 
 301 
 
 Urbs Coludi, 49 
 Urien, 52, 53 
 Uxelludamo, 19 
 
 Valence, Aymer de, 155, 157 
 Valentia, 38 
 Valerius Tullus, 44 
 Valery, St., 121 
 ' -vallum ,' 10 
 
 ' Vallum, The.' See Four Dykes 
 Varennes. ^'^ Braze" 
 Velurtion, 18 
 Verca, Abbess, 67 
 Verner, 254 
 Verier CE, 41 
 Vesci, family of, 151 
 Beatrice, 117 
 
 bastard, 126 
 
 Eustace, 133 
 
 Isabel, 154 
 
 John, 140 
 
 William, 121, 123, 130, 
 
 140 
 
 of Kildare, 154 
 Victor, Julius, 34, 46 
 Victory, 46, 47 
 Vienne, 45 
 
 John de, 180 
 Vindobala, 35, 41, 42, 46 
 Vindolana, 25, 34, 41, 42, 45 
 Vindolande, 19 
 Vindovala, 18 
 Vinheide, 95 
 Vinovia, 19, 36 
 Vinivood, 95 
 Virosidum, 42, 49 
 Vitellius Atticianus, 46 
 
 Wade, General, 265 
 
 Walcher of Loraine, Bishop, 107- 
 
 no 
 Wall, 163 
 
 Kiochher of, 125 
 
 The Roman, 50 
 Wallace, William, 150-153 
 Wallbower, 28 
 Wallington, 5, 259 
 Wallis, 25 
 
 Henry, 254 
 Wallsend, 12, 22, 23 
 Walltown, 9, 101, 156 
 Waltheof I., Earl, 99 
 
 II., 104, 105, 108, 109 
 Wandon. See Wendon 
 Warbeck, Perkin, 205 
 
 Wardon, 6, 118 
 
 Waren, The, 4, 53 
 
 Wark-on-Tweed, 66, 117, 119, 
 123, 126, 128, 133, 139, 140, 
 148, 159, 171, 172, 180, 186, 
 194, 195, 210, 218, 221, 224, 
 226, 241 ; barony, 134 
 
 Wark-on-Tyne, 121, 145, 156 
 Tower of, 194 
 
 Warkworth, 52, 73, 89, 117, 118, 
 120, 121, 126, 127, 130, 150, 
 164, 167, 178, 191-193, 196, 199, 
 
 212, 225, 227, 229, 241, 251, 
 
 258; college, 210; hermitage, 
 
 192 ; Lion Tower, 210 
 ' Warkworth, The Hermit of,' 
 
 269 
 Warren, Earl of, 150 
 
 William de. See William, 
 
 King of Scots 
 Warwick (Richard Neville), Earl 
 
 of, 196, 197, 199, 200, 202 
 Wast, Nigel de, 112 
 Waterfalls, The, 258 
 Waterton, Robert, 193 
 Watling Street, 14, 17, 20, 21, 27 
 Weatherburn, William, 267 
 Welsh archers, 188 
 Welton, William, 226 
 Wendon, 95, 96 
 Weondune. See Wendon 
 Wessington (Washington), Sir 
 
 William, 183 
 Weteslade, 142 
 Whalton Barony, 115 
 Whelpington, 140 
 Whitby, 60 
 White Coats, 245 
 White Stocking Regiment, 262 
 Whitelaw, 134, 137 
 Whitfield, 101, 124, 154 
 Rector of, 146 
 ,, Beatrice de, 146 
 Whitherne, 86, 89, 90 
 Whitley, 116 
 
 Castle, 37 
 Whittingham, 50, 73, 87, no, 117, 
 
 159, 262 
 Whittington, 163 
 
 Great, 77 
 
 Little, 218 
 
 Whittledene, 134 
 Whittle, near Shilbottle, 212 
 
 Thomas, 261 
 Whitton Shield, 256 
 Whittonstal), 36
 
 302 
 
 History of Northumberland. 
 
 Wicliffe, William, 231 
 Widdrington, 193, 231 
 
 Tower (castle), 173 
 Lord, 258, 260 
 Ralph, 213 
 Roger, 174 
 Sir Henry, 233 
 Wigglesmere, 4 
 Wilfred, St., 59-62, 65, 68, 69, 71, 
 
 81, 96, 109. 149 
 
 William the Conqueror, 105-110 
 Rufus, 111-114 
 (de Warren), Earl, 121, 
 122 ; Lord of Tyndale, 
 123,124; King of Scots 
 (the Lion), 125-133 
 fitz Duncan, 118 
 son of Aluric of Cor- 
 
 bridge, 120 
 
 Willington-on-Tyne, 93 
 Wimund, Archbishop, 87 
 Windermere, 26, 82 
 Windsor, St. George's Chapel at, 
 
 170 
 
 Winegot, 103 
 Winuth the Fisher, 116 
 Wtnwced, Battle of the, 58 
 Wischard, John, 156 
 Witch-trying, 252 
 Witton Underwood, 169 
 
 Witton, John de, 145 
 Wolsey, 210, 211 
 
 Woodchester, 73, 87, 122 
 Wooden, 87, 122 
 
 Woodford, 122 
 
 Woodhorn, in, 131 
 
 Wooler, 230, 241, 252, 260; barony, 
 
 116 
 
 Haugh, 207 
 Worcester, Ralph de, 116 
 Wrangham, 57 
 Wulsi, Archbishop, 87 
 Wulstan, knight, 108 
 
 IVulwardshope, 125 
 Wyden, 101, 229 
 Wylam, in, 124, 125, 272 
 Wyther, Andrew, 142 
 
 Xenophon, Claudius, 34 
 
 Yarrowford, The, 161, 168 
 Yetholm, 224 
 Yetlington, no 
 Yevering, 55 
 
 Bell, 6 
 Yielder, William, 278 
 York, 30, 31, 60, 69, 80, 85, 87, 
 
 88 
 Yrrumpers, William, 143 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row, London.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 14, line 12, for ' with its ' read 'and their.' 
 
 Page 1 8, line 12, delete comma. 
 
 Page 28, line 7, for ' one vestige' read 'one positive vestige.' 
 
 Page 29, line 14, for ' During Agricola's ' read ' During this Agricola's. 
 
 Page 42, line 4 below table, for ' estates ' read ' states.' 
 
 Page 43, line 21, enclose ' Carrawburgh ' /# brackets. 
 
 Page 48, line 3,y<?r ' Grampius' r<f<z</ ' Graupius.' 
 
 Page 59, line 31, delete ' out.' 
 
 Page 88, line i,for ' portions ' read ' portion.' 
 
 Page 142, line 17, for ' by' ra/ ' through.' 
 
 Page 152, lines 25 and 26, for 'missing' read ' stolen.' 
 
 Page 187, at bottom of page, read: 
 
 ' Then the Percy out of Bamburgh came, 
 
 With him a mighty many, 
 With fifteen hundred archers bold ; 
 They were chosen out of shires three.' 
 
 Page 231, line 30, for ' night ' read ' day at night.' 
 Page 264, line i,for ' Grampius ' read ' Graupius.'
 
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