In 1551, English and Scottish commissioners agreed to clear the Debatable Land — the strip of no-man's-land between the two kingdoms on the Esk — of its reiver population. The English side conducted operations to drive out English-subject Grahams and other families who had settled in the contested territory. The operation partially succeeded in establishing a formal boundary ditch — the Scots Dike — across the Debatable Land in 1552, but the reiver clans proved remarkably resilient in reoccupying cleared land once official attention shifted.
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