Debatable Lands

The Debatable Lands extended from the Solway Firth near Carlisle to Langholm in Dumfries and Galloway, the largest population centre being Canonbie. The lands included the baronies of Kirkandrews, Bryntallone and Morton. == "Border reiver" clans ==

The origins of the peculiar status of this territory have been the subject of various interpretations. One of the more convincing proposals is that it arose from a landholding created on both sides of the Esk in the twelfth century. For over three hundred years the area was effectively controlled by local "riding surnames" or clans of border reivers, Scots for plunderers or raiders. They successfully resisted any attempt by the Scottish or English governments to impose their authority. and the Grahams, who owned five towers in the Debatable Land. The Irvines, Carruthers, Olivers, Bells, Dicksons, and Littles were also present in varying numbers. Eventually, however, the Debatable Lands became the last part of Great Britain to be brought under the control of a state beginning in 1530, when King James V of Scotland took action against the lawless clans of the Debatable Lands and imprisoned the lords Bothwell, Maxwell and Home, Walter Scott of Buccleuch, and other border lairds for their lack of action. James took various other steps, but significantly he broke the strength of the Armstrongs by hanging Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie and thirty-one others at Caerlanrig Chapel, under questionable circumstances. == Division between England and Scotland ==

In 1552, commissioners from Scotland and England met and divided the Debatable Lands between England and Scotland, with a line, known as the Scots' Dike, drawn from Esk to Sark, abolishing the Debatable Lands' de facto independence from either crown. Since then, the Anglo-Scottish border has remained essentially unchanged. The 1552 division of the Debatable Lands, the Scots' Dike and the several changes to the status of Berwick-upon-Tweed between the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries until it finally became English in 1482, remains the only significant alterations to the border agreed in the 1237 Treaty of York. In 1590 James VI of Scotland declared that the Debatable Lands and the lands of Canonbie were annexed to the crown, and he set new leases to various landowners. ==See also==