Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

STATE OF THK BORDERS IN 1601. cxli
by fair means, policy, and cvaft, to get them to renounce their tacks that
she might place therein such tenants as lie would not be able to remove.
She was so enraged and inflamed at their refusal tiiat she "resolved, in-
directlie under the pretens of law, to have thair lyffis." She had already
executed one of them as a thief without any triah She had since obtained
the commission of justiciary for Sir James that she might pursue them.
Further, she had only borrowed her son's name in the matter, and she would
be practically judge and party, and would not fail to convict the men. The
councii refused to sustain the complaint of Jardine, and ordained the com-
mission of Sir James Johnstone to be put to execution in all points.^
The Borders again demanded the special attention of the warden and
the government, and occasioned considerable correspondence between England
and Scotland. Tiie Armstrongs were raiding upon the English borders. In
the papers relating to Scotland preserved in the Public Eecord Office, Lou-
don, the letters of this period help to show the actual state of matters, the
anxiety which it occasioned to the authorities, and the attempts which were
made to cope with the evil On 31st March IGOl, the king wrote to John-
stone and liuccleuch to rcpre.?s tbe attempts of the broken men of their
bounds upon England, and blaming them for incursions into that kingdom
which had lately taken place. Three days later George Nicolson, the
English agent, v/rote him about " the horrible outrages on the Borders,"
and as to the best means of preventing them, and also of his communica-
tion with the king on the subject. The king at the same time authorised
Sir Eobert Gary and Lord Scrope, as shown in a letter from George
Nicolson to them, to pursue the rebels in England or Scotland, wherever
they should have opportunity. George Nicolson had also written a letter
complaining that Sir James Johnstone had not met with the English
officers for redress of Border matters. Sir James in reply to that letter
attributed all the blame to Lord Scrope. In a subsequent letter to Sir
' IGtli March IGOl. Register of tlio Privy Council, vol. vi p. 227.