Summary of George MacDonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The Wall is a monument to the Roman emperor Aulus Platorius Nepos, who conceived it, and the three legions who dug the complex of ditches and mounds, and raised the parapet and intervening fortresses. It was a dividing line between civilization and barbarism, between safety and danger, between the tamed and the wild, and between the settled country and the outland which was not worth fighting over.
#2 The Wall was a permanent reminder of division, but it also had a lasting effect on those who lived either side of it. The regions and the people might have different names from those they bear today, but the Wall stayed, a permanent reminder of division.
#3 The Romans came, and with them, the deluge. The frontiers of middle Britain moved as forgotten kingdoms were made and unmade. The English kings loosened the hold of the searover people, and what may be seen as the prototype of an English-Scottish struggle took place in the tenth century when Athelstan of England fought a great and successful battle against a combined force of Scots, Norsemen, and Britons.
#4 The last three words of Malcolm’s submission to William the Conqueror in 1072 were peace and stability. The period of tranquillity between England and Scotland began when Henry I married Malcolm Canmore’s daughter in 1107.

Sujets

• History
• Naval
• Military
• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 12 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822508682
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on George MacDonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Wall is a monument to the Roman emperor Aulus Platorius Nepos, who conceived it, and the three legions who dug the complex of ditches and mounds, and raised the parapet and intervening fortresses. It was a dividing line between civilization and barbarism, between safety and danger, between the tamed and the wild, and between the settled country and the outland which was not worth fighting over.

#2

The Wall was a permanent reminder of division, but it also had a lasting effect on those who lived either side of it. The regions and the people might have different names from those they bear today, but the Wall stayed, a permanent reminder of division.

#3

The Romans came, and with them, the deluge. The frontiers of middle Britain moved as forgotten kingdoms were made and unmade. The English kings loosened the hold of the searover people, and what may be seen as the prototype of an English-Scottish struggle took place in the tenth century when Athelstan of England fought a great and successful battle against a combined force of Scots, Norsemen, and Britons.

#4

The last three words of Malcolm’s submission to William the Conqueror in 1072 were peace and stability. The period of tranquillity between England and Scotland began when Henry I married Malcolm Canmore’s daughter in 1107.

#5

The Scottish kings were part-English, and took an active interest in the English succession. They promoted Norman settlement in Scotland, which introduced another civilizing influence. The feudal system was introduced into Scotland, but it never entirely displaced the old system of clanship and family chieftainship.

#6

The Scottish invasion of England in 1215 was the worst from the Border’s point of view. The Scottish retaliatory sweep through the English Borders was equally barbarous. However, in the end, all that Scotland achieved was the loss of the Northern English counties.

#7

The relationship between England and Scotland was changed in 1286, when King Alexander III of Scotland fell over a cliff. From then on, Scotland was of increasing importance to England.

#8

The Scots are a very proud people, and they have reason to be. They have been resisting English domination for quite some time now, and they are still sensitive about it. The English, on the other hand, tend to take Scotland for granted.

#9

The English king, Edward I, saw the possibilities of bringing Scotland under control. He used the situation to realize his own claim to overlordship of Scotland. He sent reinforcements to Wark, but the English lord returned unexpectedly with a Scottish raiding party and cut the reinforcements to pieces in the dark.

#10

Edward I of England went to Scotland to subdue it, but instead he made the mistake of treating it as he had treated Berwick. He left an elderly and incompetent governor behind, and hoped for peace. What he got was William Wallace.

#11

After Wallace’s victory at Stirling, the Scottish army invaded Northern England and completely destroyed the English army. The high point in Scotland’s fight for independence, the battle of Bannockburn, was a crushing victory for the Scots.

#12

The War of Independence left the Borderland in a terrible state. It had been brutally used, and the Scots had been pushed to their limits. They had to learn new rules of survival, and they did.

#13

The Borderer was forced to live as a guerrilla during the Anglo-Scottish Wars. The two countries always seemed to be at war, and the Borderers were used as a source of fighting men.

#14

The reiving system developed on the Border, and it was not changed until the sixteenth century, when England began to look beyond her own coasts and when the spirit of Western man was being reborn.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The adjective Border in the context of this book covers the area occupied by the old Marches, which stretched on the Scottish side from the River Cree to the North Sea coast, and on the English side from the coast of Cumberland to that of Northumberland.

#2

The Border country was divided into six Marches, three on the Scottish side and three on the English. The East Marches were the smallest of the six, but they were still important. They fronted each other exactly along the Borderline from near Carham on the Tweed to a point just north of Berwick.

#3

The Eastern Marches were easier to control. The Scottish Eastern Marches overlapped with the English Middle Marches, and saw the most raids. The Scottish Middle Marches fronted each other across the Cheviots, and the Scottish Eastern Marches overlapped with the English West Marches.

#4

The Scottish Middle March was a collection of ruffians, and the valley of Teviotdale was their playground. It was the site of the Redeswire Raid and massive forays when as many as three thousand lances came sweeping over the moorland to harry Coquetdale or Teviothead.

#5

The West March of Scotland was a region of constant feud and turmoil, due largely to the enmity between the Johnstones and Maxwells. The English West March was the strongest of the six, with its string of holds eastward from the Solway.

#6

Carlisle was the hub of the Borderland, and was well-defended. The sixteenth-century Borderers respected it, and the reivers tended to give it a wide berth.

#7

The Borderland was home to about 120,000 people in the sixteenth century. The population of the Scottish Borders has probably declined proportionately, and the 1559 population figure would be much higher than a straightforward comparison with 1959 suggests.

#8

The Scottish Borderers were a tough bunch, and they were known for their crafty and vengeful nature. They were also known for their barbarous and crafty nature.

#9

The Borderers were supposedly a trustworthy people, but the records suggest that they were not. They had their own eccentric notions of honor, but veracity was not essential to it in practice.

#10

The Border reivers were a strange bunch, but they were also a part of Scottish culture. They were poor, but they were proud of it, and they loved to hear the English abused.

#11

The Borderland was a unique place that was almost entirely separate from the rest of England and Scotland. The people there were close to each other, and they had a common heritage that they understood each other and shared common problems.

#12

The Borderer’s agricultural system was peaceful and lawless, and followed a regular pattern. From autumn to spring, when the nights were long, was the season for raiding. The summer months were for husbandry, and although raiding occurred then, it was less systematic.

#13

The sheiling communities were not immune from the reivers. Their inaccessibility made raiding more difficult, but it also placed the herdsmen farther from the protection of the Warden forces.

#14

The Peel was a chief’s house, and no matter how rich or powerful a Border leader became, he needed a tower to provide a rallying point and defensive centre for his dependants. The peat inside the walls would burn for days, making it impossible for gunpowder charges to be laid or for the invaders to get inside.

#15

The Borderers were a very independent bunch, and they did not appreciate being told what to do. They would raid towns and steal their supplies, which they would then sell. The towns were generally more sophisticated than the rural communities, and their residents had a higher standard of living.

#16

The riding surname list is not comprehensive, but it is a brief and general guide to the main riding tribes. The names are not chosen for their national or political importance, but for their prominence in the limited sphere of frontier reiving.

#17

The Armstrongs were a powerful riding clan on the Scottish border. They could put 3000 men into the saddle, and they did more damage by foray than any other two families combined.

#18

The Scottish were a very predatory and vicious family of the Middle March, who reached a peak in the 1590s when they were operating under the protection of Robert Kerr of Cessford.

#19

The Tynedale Charltons were a hardy and intractable family that were alternately allied with and at feud with the Scottish tribes in the west. They were engaged in a bitter vendetta with the Scotts of Buccleuch.

#20

The second family of Liddesdale, and although less numerous than the Armstrongs, they were as predatory as any clan on the frontier.