num_pages: 361
description: From the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, outlaws reigned supreme on the contentious frontier between England and Scotland. Feud and terror, raid and reprisal, were the ordinary stuff of life and a way of survival. Power was held by the notorious border reivers (the "steel bonnets," named for their flashy helmets), who robbed and murdered in the name of family: the famous clans (or "grains") like Elliot, Armstrong, Charlton, and Robson romanticized by Sir Walter Scott. In The Steel Bonnets, George MacDonald Fraser, author of the bestselling Flashman novels, and himself a borderer, tells the fascinating and bloody story of the reivers, their rise to power as ferocious soldiers of horse, and their surprisingly sudden fall from grace
language: English
title: The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo Scottish Border Reivers
titlecomplete: The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo Scottish Border Reivers
characters: Walter Scott, 1st Lord Scott of Buccleuch, William Douglas, 10th Earl of Angus
genres: British Literature, Historical, History, European History, War, Scotland, Military History, Crime, Nonfiction, Medieval
ratings_count: 733
places: The Borders, Scotland
publisher: Pan Books