XPost: soc.history.war.misc, soc.culture.scottish, alt.religion.   
   hristian.presbyterian   
   XPost: alt.religion.christian.baptist   
   From: allan@EASYNET.CO.UK   
      
   "Nebulous"  wrote in message   
   news:w-KdnXTGd474pc3YnZ2dnUVZ8tadnZ2d@pipex.net...   
   >   
   > "Raktizer Omheit"  wrote in message   
   > news:454fc810_1@news.iprimus.com.au...   
   > >   
   > > Don, if that's the case, then why did the English longbowmen, with the   
   > > help of knights and pikemen, defeat the Scots so many times in battle?   
   Why   
   > > did the Scots fail to use the longbow to the extent that the English   
   did?   
   >   
   > The longbow was a relatively expensive weapon which took a long time to   
   > learn. You could teach the basic pike moves in half an hour.   
      
   Plus the other poster is starting from an incorrect position in the first   
   place. He seems to be suggesting that the long bow was the deciding factor   
   in the English victories mentioned. That simply isn't true as far as many of   
   them go. I presume the first time Scots would have seen the longbow would   
   have been during the Wars of Independence. Of course the said weapon didn't   
   help the English at Stirling Bridge where the Scottish pike/spear was   
   immensely succesful. The Scots lost at Falkirk but again the Scottish pike   
   proved immensely effective at Bannockburn, a battle which the Scots simply   
   shouldn't have been able to win. So the three battles of several decades   
   later saw the longbow wreak havoc but that is about it. Why would the Scots   
   necessarily have changed to this weapon by then when England had so   
   decidedly lost the earlier round of conflict? Later rather than follow   
   English practise which did prove decisive in the mid-14thC battles, the   
   Scots tried to emulate the famous Swiss tactics in the 16thC. The 16thC   
   defeats mentioned did not really have the longbow as a deciding factor.   
   Light artillery, poor leadership and even naval bombardments were factors.   
   By the Civil War period I imagine that the bow was a thing of the past and   
   would play no, or next to no part anway.   
      
   cheers   
      
   Allan   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)