Langholm area Border raid 1540
Who Fought
History & Significance
Johnnie Armstrong or Johnie Armstrong was a Scottish raider and folk-hero. Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie was captured and hanged by King James V in July 1530. He is related to the Baird family. Child ballad number 169 tells of his life.
John Armstrong of Langholm and Staplegorton, called Johnnie of Gilnockie, was a famous Scottish Border reiver of the powerful Armstrong family. A plunderer and raider, he operated along the lawless Anglo-Scottish Border in the early 16th century, before England and Scotland were joined by the Union of the Crowns. Like his fellow reivers, he raided into England when Scotland was in the ascendancy, and would change allegiances as power shifted. He led a band of a hundred and sixty men, despite having no income from rents.
The romanticised picture of Armstrong was promoted by the nineteenth-century writings of Sir Walter Scott and Herbert Maxwell. Armstrong operated with impunity for some years under the protection of Robert Maxwell, 5th Lord Maxwell, as a leader of a gang of raiders. He burnt Netherby in Cumberland in 1527, in return for which William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre burnt him out at Canonbie in 1528; and Gavin Dunbar, the Archbishop of Glasgow as well as Chancellor of Scotland, intervened with an excommunication for Armstrong, whose activities made the central authority look weak and were a hindrance to diplomacy with England. When King James V took personal control of the situation, Armstrong and his men were dealt with severely, as rebels. In July 1530, Armstrong was captured. The king had promised him safe conduct, but he was hanged with 36 of his men at Caerlanrig chapel. A memorial to Armstrong and his men stands in the chapel graveyard.
The king's movements in July 1530 were recorded in his household book. The account lists food purchases and dates with the king's location. He left Linlithgow Palace on 2 July to ride to Peebles. Next, his entourage rode to Douglas Water, and James was at Caerlangrig on Tuesday 5 July. After his encounter with Johnnie Armstrong, James returned to Peebles, and spent a few days hunting at Cramalt Tower. On 20 July he returned to Linlithgow.
In 1540 Johnnie Armstrong was mentioned in a play or interlude performed at Linlithgow Palace before James V. The play is thought to have been an early version of A Satire of the Three Estates by David Lindsay. An actor looked at a king depicted in the play, and declared this "was not the Kinge of Scotlande, for ther was another King in Scotlande that hanged John Armestrang with his fellowes, and Sym the Lairde, and many other more, which had pacified the countrey, and stanched thefte."
The ground they fought on
The site of Langholm area Border raid 1540 lies on Inverclyde Group, bedrock that formed in the Osagean. The rock here is sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything a full report reveals about Langholm area Border raid 1540
This page covers Langholm area Border raid 1540. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside scheduled monuments and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Scheduled Monuments near Langholm area Border raid 1540
Battles near Langholm area Border raid 1540
Explore the landscape around this battlefield
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the UK — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
- Johnnie Armstrong · Wikipedia
- Border reivers · Wikipedia