Ancient Roxburgh

From royal burgh to fields
Ancient Roxburgh was once one of the richest and most powerful cities in Scotland. Together with Edinburgh, Stirling and Berwick-upon-Tweed, it was one of the four great urban centres of medieval Scotland.

Made a royal burgh during the reign of David I (king of Scotland from 1124 to 1153), it was granted the much-coveted authority to mint coins of the realm. At the peak of its prosperity, no fewer than five royal mints were located there. The city also had at least three churches, a castle and royal residence, several schools, civic buildings, a number of markets and even a monastery. It was a centre of trade, not only regionally but internationally. Visitors included bankers from Italy and wool merchants from throughout Europe.

Today, however, all that is left of the old town of Roxburgh (or Rokesburg, as it used to be known) lies beneath fields on a grassy peninsula where the river Teviot joins the Tweed. Razed to the ground in 1460, when it was recaptured by the Scots after almost a century of English control, this former centre of Scottish kings lay largely uninhabited and forgotten. By 1649, the church of St James, which Time Team tried to locate during its excavations there, was virtually the only structure left standing. It served just six communicants.

A lost Edinburgh
Roxburgh first rose to prominence under King David I, who is credited with bringing stability to Scotland after decades of internal strife. He chose Roxburgh as his power base, built a castle and royal residence and awarded the town its royal charter. The historical records show David using Roxburgh as his principal seat of government, holding major councils and issuing important proclamations there. If history had turned out differently, Roxburgh could have taken the place of Edinburgh today.

One of the main reasons why it didn't was its location in the Scottish Borders. As the great defence work partially excavated by Time Team demonstrated, with its evidence of burning, Roxburgh's past was often a violent one. It was on the front line of the various wars between the English and Scots during the 13th-16th centuries, and it was besieged on numerous occasions. These included a number of occasions during the city's most traumatic period, from 1296 to 1318, when it was caught up in Edward I's wars against the Scots. Attacked and occupied by each side in turn, its inhabitants endured an almost continual threat throughout this period.

Men, cattle and sheep
One famous attack took place in 1313, when the Scots deliberately timed their assault for a feast day so that they could catch the English unawares. Sir James Douglas, who led the attack, dressed his men in black cloaks and ordered them to approach the city on hands and knees under cover of darkness. The few sentries left on duty thought the dark shapes they glimpsed moving across the fields were cattle and failed to raise the alarm. Those English forces that could retreated into the castle's tower, but caught unprepared and without provisions or arms, they were forced to surrender after a couple of days.

The English sentries were not being stupid in mistaking Douglas's men for cattle because the trade in cattle hides played a major part in Roxburgh's prosperity and the fields around Roxburgh would have been well stocked with them. Cattle hides, together with wool, which was also produced in large quantities locally, were two of the most valuable commodities in the Middle Ages Europe. Both were produced in bulk in this area, which was home to some of the biggest producers in Europe at the time.

They were probably traded at the annual fair held at the church of St James around the end of July and beginning of August. Traders, including the big wool merchants from Flanders, are known to have visited Roxburgh from all over northern Europe. The goods that were bought and sold there would then have been exported by sea through the port at Berwick, 35 miles away on the coast.

Roxburgh's end
A century of English control of Roxburgh ended in 1460 with Scotland's James II besieging and capturing its castle from the English. James didn't live long to enjoy his triumph, however. A cannon exploded when it was fired as part of the victory celebrations and he bled to death when his leg was severed.

Roxburgh never regained its former prosperity. When Berwick changed hands for the last time, when it was taken by Henry VII in 1482, it lost its port and access to the markets in Europe forever. Those of its people who had not already left gradually died out or moved to nearby Kelso. The royal burgh was no more.

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