Kinmont Willie Armstrong

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William Armstrong of Kinmont or Kinmont Willie was a border reiver and outlaw active in the Anglo-Scottish Border country in the last decades of the 16th century.

Armstrong was captured by the forces of the English Warden of the West March in violation of a truce day in 1596, and imprisoned in Carlisle Castle. Walter Scott of Buccleuch ("the Bold Buccleuch"), keeper of Liddlesdale on whose land the arrest had been made, protested to the English Warden, Sir Thomas Scrope, 10th Lord Scrope of Bolton. When Scrope refused to release Armstrong, Buccleuch led a party of men on a daring raid into England and broke Armstrong out of the castle.

Kinmont Willie Armstrong was never recaptured. Legend supposes he died in his bed of old age.

The story of the raid on Carlisle Castle is told in the ballad "Kinmont Willie" (Child No. 186).

Reference

The Steel Bonnets by George MacDonald Fraser contains a detailed account of the incident.

External links

• [Border Reivers at Historic UK]
• [Kinmont Willie at Cowdenknowes.com]
• [Ballad of Kinmont Willie]

 

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