From the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, outlaws reigned supremeon the contentious frontier between England and Scotland. Feud andterror, raid and reprisal, were the ordinary stuff of life&mdash;and a way ofsurvival. Power was held by the notorious border reivers (the "steelbonnets," named for their flashy helmets), who robbed and murdered inthe name of family: the famous clans (or "grains")&mdash;like Elliot,Armstrong, Charlton, and Robson&mdash;romanticized by Sir Walter Scott. In <em>TheSteel Bonnets</em>, George MacDonald Fraser, author of the bestselling <em>Flashman</em>novels, and himself a borderer, tells the fascinating and bloody storyof the reivers, their rise to power as ferocious soldiers of horse, andtheir surprisingly sudden fall from grace.