Philobiblon

p. 1. For several centuries, this desolate tract running north-east from the Solway Firth had served as a buffer between the two nations. Within those 50 square miles, by parliamentary decress issued by both countries in 1537 and 1551m ‘all Englishmen and Scottishmen are and shall be free to rob, burn, spoil, slay, murder and destroy, all and every such person and persons, their bodies, property, goods and livestock … without any redress to be made for same’. By all accounts, they availed themselves of the privilege. Under Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James V and James VI, the Debatable Land had been the bloodiest region in Britain.”