TWEEDSMUIR PARISH HISTORY.
Bonnie Bertha of Badlieu
The story of Bertha appears in several publications - 5 excerpts from these sources follow. There is a sixth source that occupies a complete chapter of 12 pages in North and South of Tweed(7) but this does not include any information that is not included in the following five excerpts. The story of Bertha is probably a Scottish Borders Ballad. One would have thought that Sir Walter Scott who collected such ballads would have included it in his collections - not found so far.
a. The New Statistical Account for the Parish of Tweedsmuir(1)
On the right side of the road leading to the Bield Inn, is the shepherd's house of Badlieu, the property of Lord Forbes, and well known as the residence of Bertha, so celebrated for her beauty and her tragical fate. Grimus, king of Scotland, who had a hunting-seat at Polmood, was captivated by her charms, and the birth of a son was a consequence of an illicit connection between them. During the absence of the king, occasioned by an attempt on the part of the Danes to invade the northern frontiers of his kingdom, Bertha, her father, and her child were murdered by assassions employed by the queen. The queen did not survive the act of barbarity. The king on his return caused the grave to be opened, and contemplated with mingled feelings of grief and horror the three mangled bodies. From that period he lost all relish the joys of life, and soon afterwads he died on the field of battle in the eigth year of his reign.
b. Andrew Lorimer(2)
The name Badieu comes from the Gaelic 'Bad Laugh' meaning thicket of the calf or calving. The thickets most certainly have been saugh (willow) which under natural condtions spreads outwards while the older and taller growth in the middle matures and eventually dies. cows in the wild seek a safe hiding place when calving so the calves can be concealed while the dam forages nrarby. The clumps of soughs would be ideal and would probaly be used year after year. Another site nearby is called Badenteric meaning the thicket of the bull. As the hunting ground of the early Scottish kings, operating most likely from Polmood, one gets the impression that the qarry might have been the wild cattle as well as the deer. The tragic story of Bonnie Bertha and Kenneth, her royal lover , still haunts Badlieu.
c. History of Edinburgh Castle(3)
According to a curious old tradition, preserved in the statistical account of the parish of Tweedsmuir, the wife of Grime, the usurper, had her residence in the castle while he was absent fighting the invading Danes. He is said to have granted, by charter, his hunting seat of Polmood, in that parish, to one of his attendants named Hunter, whose race were to possess it while wood grew and water ran. But, as Hogg says in his "Winter Evening Tales," "There is one remarkable circumstance connected with the place that has rendered it unfamous of late years, and seems to justify an ancient prediction that the hunters of Polmood were never to prosper."
The queen in the then solitary Castle, Grime (who according to Buchanan, began is reign in the year 996) often pursued the pleasures of the chase among the wilds of Polmood, in the neighbourhead which he saw a woman of great beauty, named Bertha of Badlieu, whose charms soon proved more attractive that the pursuit of the wild boar or Caledonian bull, and he became her captive - her lover. In process of time a son was the result of their intimacy, and the forgotten queen residing quietly in solitude at Edinburgh, resolve on deadly vengeance.
Selecting a time when Grime was again fighting the Danes, she dispatched to Badlieu certain assassins, who murdered Bertha, her aged father, and infant son, and burying them in one grave, heaped above a rough tumulos, which still marks the spot.
Full of remorse and fear, the queen died before the return of Grime, who after defeating the Danes, and destroying their galleys, hastened to Badlieu, where the huge grave alone awaited him. In a gust of morbid horror the half barbarian prince commanded the tumulos to be oped, that he might behold the remains of those who had perishe. and from that momenthe lost all relish for life, and plunging into a war with Malcolm, his successor, was deserted in battle by his warriors, taken captive and, after having his eyes put out, died in grief and misery in the eighth year of his reign.
d. Buchan, J.W. and Paton, H. Rev; History of Peeblesshire(4)
Not far from Tweedswell is the Badlieu Burn. A little white farm-house stands beside it, and near there are buried a murdered woman, her father, and her little child. Somewhere before the year 1000 AD was one os Scotland's ruler Kenneth the Grim-- grim only in the word which denoted great strength. For nearly eight years he ruled peacefully a nd well, a monarch whose sterness was used only when justice required it, and whos wisdom, good looks, and personal charm made him one of the most popular kings of his line. Polmood was a royal hunting box, and Kenneth, a keen huntsman, hunted with zest the Wood of Caledon, where game was always to be had in plenty. At the close of a long days sport he lost his way in the mist of the gloaming and found himself at the hut of the herd of Badlieu. The door was opened by the herd's daughter, "Bonnie Bertha of Badlie," a girl in all ways beautiful. In her Kenneth found the queen of his heart and in him Bertha the knight of her dreams. There could be no question of making the peasant girl his queen, he had a queen already; he had made a loveless match. But his dream of love went on, and in course of time Bertha bore her royal lover a son. and while the king, more and more, adored Bonnie Bertha and her babe, the heart of his lawful wife grew more and more bitter against him, his light o' love and her bastard, An incursion of the Danes took Kenneth off to the coast to fight and repel them. Thevictory won he unwillingly went to do duty at his court before hastening back to Polmood. He found the court in mourning. He was told that the Queen had been sricken by a fever , afer a few day's illness, died, raving mad. Kenneth made no pretence of a sorrow he did not feel, and rode, hotfoot, to Badlieu. There was now no reason why Bertha should not be his queen. But at Badlieu he found a harried nest. Tragic signs of violence showed on every side. An old peasant told him what had happened. Hi queen had sent murderers to slay Bertha, her father, and her little son, and their grave was in the peat on the hillside beside the burn, Kenneth got a spade and proved for himself that the tale was true. His heart was broken and when, a broken man, a few years later led an army against the forces of his cousin Malcolm, he met with dire defeat. he was sorely wounded in his head, his eyes burned out, and he, who had known an idyll of love and fatherhood in the lonely valley, died in all the physical and mental anguish that man can undergo.
e. Andrew and John Lang(5)
A few miles further on the road we follow passes Badlieu, a place famed as the home, away back in the eleventh century, of Bonnie Bertha, who captured the roving heart of one of our early scottish Kings as he hunted here one day in the forest. Unhappily for Bertha, there was already a Scottish Queen and when news of the King's infactuation came to the lady's ears, she --quens have been known to entertain such prejudicies--disapproved so strongly of the new menage, that one afternoon when the King (who had been absent on some warlike expedition) arrived at Bertha's bower, he found the nest harried, and Bertha and her month-old babe dead. And ever after, they say, to the end cared no more to hunt, nor took pride in war, but wandered disconsulate, mourning for this Scottish fair Rosamond, But how the rightful Queen fared thereafter, tradition does not say.
It would appear that the earliest source is the Statistical Account for Tweedsmuir in 1834(1). Being written by a Minister does gives some credance to the peice. But, where did Doctor Burns find this over 800 year old story? And, why has it escaped scholars of the Hunter family as the piece iindicates that the Royal Hunting Lodge at Polmood goes back to at least King Kenneth III while Hunter tradition has it that it was Malcolm Canmore in 1057? For more about this see page Hunters of Polmood.
What the story of Bertha has brought to light is that Badlieu is the earliest recorded place name in Tweedsmuir Parish along with Polmood.
From the sources it is fairly certain the the royal lover was Kenneth III who reigned from 0996-1004. However, the use of nicknames does muddy the waters. Anyway the story is not about the King but about Bonnie Bertha herself who according to Andrew Lorimer(2) still haunts Badlieu.
List of Scottish Monarchs of the eleventh century
Kennneth III 0996-1004 Killed by Malcolm II
Malcolm II 1005-1014 Last of the House of McAlpine.
Duncan 1014-1040 Killed by McBeth
McBeth 1040-1057 Killed by Malcom Canmore
Lulach 1057-1058 Son of McBeth.
Malcom III 1058-1083 First of the House of Canmore. Married secondly to Margaret Athelane - Saint Margaret.
The sources also indicate that the quarry of the hunt was not only deer, wild boar but also wild cattle described as Caledonian Bulls(3). These cattle could be the descendants of the aurochs that roamed over southern Scotland c5000 BC. See image(6). The caption to image reads "Mrs Anne Keddie with the skull of a 5000 year wild ox or auroch unearthed from a peat bog near Ashkirk in 1980 (photo James Thomson)"
A more nearer to home find was recorded in 1923 when it was noted that Mr. Sharpe tenant of Tallalinnfoot and Gameshope also exhibited the horn of the urus, or great ox, which roamed over Scotland from glacial to neolithic times. The horn was taken from a peat moss in the wilds above Talla at an elevation of some 2,000 feet(8)
I wonder what our peat-bog - Falla Moss - hides in its depths?
References
1) Burns, George, Rev; New Statistical Account for Tweedsmuir Parish, 1834. pp 62-63.
2) Railton, Margaret, Compiler; Andrews Lorimer's Life and Times in the Upper Tweed Valley. Tuckwell Press Phantassie, 2001. pp59-60
3) Grant, James; Old and New Edinburgh, Cassells, London 1880. Vol 1, Chapter 2, pp14-20.
4) Buchan J.W and Paton H, Rev; History of Peebleshire, Jackson Wylie, Glasgow, 1927. Vol III p 371.
5) Lang, Andrew & John; Highways & Byways in the Border, McMillan, London, 1913. p372.
6) Scottish Borders Council; Early Settlers in the Borders, 1997. p21.
7) Lang, Jean; North and South of Tweed; Nelson, Edinburgh, 1913. pp249-261.
8) Berwickshire Naturalists Club 1931