Following the killing of the Scottish Warden Sir Robert Kerr in 1510, the Heron brothers who were responsible continued to evade English justice from their stronghold at Ford Castle. In 1511 the diplomatic crisis deepened when James IV threatened to mount a punitive raid in force if England did not surrender the Herons. Henry VIII refused, citing the impossibility of arresting men protected by the Percy family interest. The standoff over the Heron case continued until 1513 when it became one of James IV's formal grievances for the Flodden campaign — making this East March border murder a proximate cause of the bloodiest battle in border history.
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