After the Union of the Crowns

Pacification reduced the importance of the fortresses of Berwick and Carlisle, communities heavily dependent on defence spending for income and employment. During the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Carlisle was overshadowed by other towns in the North West, including Kendal, Cockermouth and Whitehaven, until the development of its textile industry in the later eighteenth century brought renewed pre-eminence. Berwick, too, lost in the short term by the coming of peace to the border.