The Heron family of Ford Castle and the East March occupied an ambiguous position characteristic of the English border gentry — officially servants of the crown as border administrators while simultaneously engaged in reiver violence. The Herons had killed the Scottish Warden Sir Robert Kerr at a Day of Truce in 1510, contributing to the crisis that led to Flodden. Through the following decade they maintained the same dual character of official service and private raiding, reflecting the impossibility of separating legitimate border governance from the reiver culture it was supposed to suppress.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
Research a location near Northumberland