POLITICAL HISTORY 



I shall evidently prove.' As Dacre went on to describe his destructive 

 progress, he boasted that for twelve miles along the water of the Liddel, 

 where there were an hundred ploughs, and along the Ewes for eight 

 miles, where there were an hundred and forty ploughs, every inch of 

 the country lay desolate and no corn was sown on the grounds. He 

 had burnt and destroyed the township of Annan and thirty-three other 

 places in that region, all of which he named. Whereas, he concluded, 

 there were over four hundred ploughs in these places in time past, they 

 were all clearly wasted and no man dwelt in any of them, save only in 

 the towers of Annan steeple and Woolhope. 1 Such was the contribution 

 to the progress of agriculture that the lord warden of the Western 

 Marches could make four hundred years ago ! 



The disaster of Flodden left Scotland with a widowed queen, sister 

 of Henry VIII., and an infant son. The Duke of Albany, who had 

 been brought up in France and was naturally devoted to the interest of 

 his adopted country, was made regent, and kept the county of Cumber- 

 land for a time in a state of panic by reports of intended invasion. By 

 a letter, ' scriblyed in hast at Sainct Bees upon Sainct Luke daye thevan- 

 gelist,' 1523, dan Robert Alanby, the prior of that house, informed 

 Lord Dacre that a great number of ships were seen upon the coast : 

 they were supposed to be a portion of the fleet of the Duke of Albany 

 and likely to land in Coupland and destroy them utterly. The prior 

 urged the lord warden to command Christopher Curwen of Working- 

 ton, John Lamplugh, lieutenant of Cockermouth Castle, and Richard 

 Skelton of Branthwaite, to come with all their power to their assistance 

 and to defend that district ' with the grace of God and the prayer of 

 his holy sainctes.' Dacre reported the occurrence to the Earl of Surrey 

 and added particulars about the number of the ships and the places 

 where they had been seen, at the same time assuring him that his neigh- 

 bours of Annandale had never moved or stirred, but remained still at 

 home in their habitations. 3 Nothing came out of this naval demonstra- 

 tion : there was distrust on both sides ; but Lord Dacre, by working on 

 the fears of Albany, adroitly succeeded in obtaining a truce. 



The lawless condition of the Scottish clans in the vicinity of the 

 Debatable Land became at this time a serious danger, and engaged the 

 attention of the rulers of both kingdoms. In defiance of law and truce 

 they wasted the English frontier and extended their depredations to their 

 own country as circumstances favoured their prospects of plunder. 

 Their allegiance was claimed by both sovereigns, but rendered to 

 neither. It soon became manifest that united action between the two 

 governments was necessary to deal effectively with the anarchy on the 

 Western Marches. Complaints were made in 1526 and satisfaction 

 demanded for the ' offences doon within Englound by the surenamez of 

 Armestrongs, Elwolds, Croosyers and Nixsonnes dwellyng ' on the 



Cotton MS. Calig. B. ii. f. 190 ; L. W P. of Henry VIII. i. 5090. 

 Add. MS. 24,965, ff. 96, 99 (now ff. 188, 190). 



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