border administration

The article is devoted to the study of relations between the town community and the garrison based on the analysis of documents regulating the life of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Located almost on the very border, Berwick was of great strategic importance, so the town had a military garrison. Early Tudor royal enactments pay little attention to the relationship between the townspeople and the soldiers of the garrison. The legislators were mainly interested in this problem when it came to matters of importance to the defense of the town.

This article analyses the draft reorganization of the administration of the border counties between England and Scotland, which was submitted to the monarch by Thomas Wharton. Thomas Wharton, a nobleman from Westmorland, had long held various posts in the frontier administration and was considered one of the most experienced and loyal nobles of the frontier. In his project, Wharton proposed a precise fixation of the rules of frontier administration and a concentration of strategically important land holdings and frontier strongholds in the monarch’s hands.