|
It is gang warfare, politics, nationalism, religion, and economics in one treatise. The border reiver families' conflicts and alliances are dealt with in detail, as are the English and Scottish attempts to bring the border marches under control. If you want to buy only one book, this is it. I have read one other book on this topic, plus lots of online historical documentation. Fraser, born in the border town of Carlisle, England,has compiled the most extensive history I have found.
Wonderful history - well written. I bought this used - but you'd never know it. It arrived timely and in perfect condition.
And it does not hide that, if border raiders were vicious, the English and Scottish governments, were not pillers of virtue either. It is pleasingly unsentimental and does not regard border chieftains as heros simply because they were successful raiders. With civilization stolen from them, they became barbarians. It also gives a history of border politics and ends finnally with the brutal pacification of the region by King James, who as the author wryly acknowledges, was acting in a manner not dissimilar to his victims.The most attractive figure in the book was the Elizabethan lawman Robert Carey, who deserves to be better known, for he handled the difficult job of policing the border honestly, valiantly, and not without mercy. And the tales of their life still remain.The Steel Bonnets gives a picture of life on the border. When Scott says they abhorred and avoided the crime of unnecessary homicide, one can only comment that they seem to have found homicide necessary with appalling frequency.-The Steel Bonnets by George Macdonald FraserThis delightfully cynical line is one of my favorites of the book.
Long a frontier of war, people could not count on normal guarentees of their survival. But it does give a fascinating portrait of their life. It shows Fraser's sardonic personality as well as giving a healthy contempt for the romanticism of brigandage.In The Steel Bonnets, the author describes a world in which law was half broken, the sword was the ruler, and woe betide the weak. It describes local customs, the techniques of raiding, as well as some of the most important clans. The Steel Bonnets is a book that is very much worth reading. It is the old Anglo-scottish border.
And remained so for centuries.
His tragic although not entirely unexpected death robbed us of one of the great authors of the 20th century. As my command of the English language once again fails me in regards to communicating how good the author is let me just say that just as Black Ajax convinced us all that GMF missed his calling as a sports writer and Quartered Safe Out Here convinced us he should have been a lecturer talking about his experiences in Burma this current book also tells us something. GMF again missed his calling in addition to being an excellent writer of fiction as is evidenced by the Flashman series "The Steel Bonnets" shows that GMF had the makings of a serious historian.
An excellent and exhaustive narrative of what must be one of the most turbulent periods in the history of the British Isles.
|
