The previous chapters have shown how the history of the Middle March from 1573 to 1625 should be seen within the context of developments that affected the whole realm: broader changes in crown policy towards its localities and in judicial matters, the evolution of kingship and government, the changing nature of lordship and the resultant gradual social evolution. The Middle March may have been on the periphery of Scotland but it was not an area separated from the kingdom. Its prominent figures were involved in central government and that government was able to make itself felt within the march if and when it chose to do so. Furthermore, given the fundamental importance of kinship in social and political frameworks at both local and central levels, factionalism at court had ramifications in the Middle March. But despite these connections, a variety of circumstances differentiated the region. These were occasioned principally by the proximity of the frontier with England and the changing nature of Anglo-Scottish relations during this period. For three centuries hostile governments had used the area as a diplomatic tool or military buffer zone. By the later sixteenth century, however, the conciliatory effects of the Protestant Reformation in both countries had softened Anglo-Scottish relations, and increasing amity was being consolidated by the likelihood of James's succession to the English throne. This meant that, by 1597, a region traditionally used as a buffer was now seen as a barrier to good relations. What had been an area occasioning sporadically direct intervention was now the subject of growing co-operation. By 1625 this had resulted in the more-or-less successful pacification of the Borders.

In 1573 the outlook had been very different. Scotland was emerging from six years of dynastic crisis and James was in his minority. Only four years before, English forces under the earl of Sussex had burned their way through the Scottish Middle March. By the end of the period, in 1625, the crowns of Scotland and England were united in the person of James vi and i and the international nature of the border had disappeared. James's succession, however, was neither confirmed nor inevitable.