ABSTRACT
In 1586, Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch was contracted in marriage to Margaret Ker, daughter of Sir William Ker of Cessford and sister to his heir, Robert.2 However, this happy fact failed to stem the feud between their kindreds that had rumbled on periodically through the sixteenth century and which was to be played out again in the 1590s between Buccleuch and his brother-in-law Robert Ker of Cessford. Despite this, both men continued to hold border-specific offices in the Middle March of the Scottish Borders, where they exercised their authority as leaders of sizeable kindreds. James VI’s increasingly insistent attempts from the late 1580s to suppress the ancient practice of bloodfeud appeared to have had no impact upon their deteriorating relationship. By the mid-1590s the antagonism between them had escalated into outright threats and ultimately a challenge to combat. In 1597, in a furious exchange of letters between Buccleuch and Robert Ker, Buccleuch accused Cessford of having ‘intencion against my life’. Shortly afterwards, in January 1598, it was reported that ‘The declaracion that the lard of Buccleuch hathe made to the challenge brought by [Cessford], is dispersed common here’, and it was thought that ‘without bloode that matter can never end honorably between them’.3
