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The Battle of Sollomoss has been variously described as a large raid, the last serious invasion of England by a foreign power and a simple retaliation by the Scots for the Bowes raid. Conventional historical wisdom claims that this battle had few if any, long term implications for national politics of both sides, but this view overlooks the importance of the setback to Catholicism in both countries. James V, in conjunction with the Scottish Church, was effectively trying to reinstate Catholicism in England and there is little doubt that had his Bishops succeeded in delivering the Papal interdict from an English pulpit, mainland Europe would have siezed the opportunity to support him. Wharton decisively closed this door at Sollome Moss. James V died within a month and Scotland was yet again under a Regency of nobles, whose purpose was to consolidate their weakened Kingdom and not impose Catholicism.
If Wharton had not neutralised the Bell’s at Middlebie and James not executed Johnie Armstrong, and Maxwell had not been so intent on his Graeme feud, then James’s army would have arrived at Arthuret, backed up by a Reiver force equal to the task set by Wharton. As at Flodden the unwritten law of the Borders would have ensured a small Reiver skirmish, followed by a stand-off. Wharton’s "meite purpos" would not have convinced Maxwell that there was a large English army ready for the Scots and James would have successfully delivered the excommunication so desperately needed for English Catholics to overthrow Henry.
The Aftermath of Sollome Moss:
As a result of Sollome Moss the English Catholics remained unsupported and excluding a few small rebellious events, they diminished in political authority over the ensuing century. Sollome Moss was not an important military battle, except insofar as it finally convinced the Scots that their attempts to invade England should cease, but it was a crucially important cultural battle for the adverse effect it had on Catholicism and the resultant consolidation of English Protestantism, which directly lead to the Civil War, centralisation of Government authority and military power and the consequent rise to global power of the United Kingdom.
It is also true that James VI of Scotland arrived on the English throne in 1603 with a definite dislike of Borderers, having had both his father and grandfather die as a result of battles that they had lost against the Reivers, and ordered them to be imprisoned, hanged or deported during his Border pacification of 1603 to 1612. But Reivers were survivors and many resurfaced in a different guise, inventing telephones (Bell), walking on the moon (Armstrong), becoming famous preachers (Graham), presidents (Nixon, Johnstone), Prime Ministers (Hume), footballers (Charlton), writers (Scott), scientists (Rutherford) and amongst the countless other famous Border Reiver names, even coffee makers (Maxwell).
Sollome Moss may be regarded by conventional history as merely a footnote, but it may have indirectly caused some of the greatest changes seen by mankind. James Bell’s family motto sums it up quite aptly: "Quod Adsumus, Meliore Est" - Because we are here, it is better!