Gilnockie Tower on the Esk, just north of the English border in Eskdale, was the principal stronghold of the Armstrong clan of Scotland but was used as the base for raids that struck deep into England's West March. John Armstrong of Gilnockie — the Johnnie Armstrong celebrated in border ballad — commanded approximately 3,000 horsemen according to contemporary English estimates and his raids reached as far as Cumberland and Westmorland. English complaints about Gilnockie were among the most frequent in the State Papers of the 1520s, and the tower represented everything that made the western border ungovernable.
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