New weapons and formations: 1250-1500
- Created by: alexbovington
- Created on: 21-03-19 18:32
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- New weapons and formations
- The longbow
- Longbows were introduced in the 1290s for English armies and they were a key part for 150 years
- 15 arrows could be fired every minute which was 5x more than the crossbow
- Power was increased and arrows could pierce through chainmail
- Pikes and schiltrons
- Scotland used schiltrons under William Wallace
- Tight formations of infantry gathered together in a circle or square
- Pikes would face outwards towards the enemy
- Gunpowder and the development of cannon
- Gunpowder was introduced to Europe in the 13th century
- Gunpowder was used to fire cannon and became a standard weapon in 1450, which affected the design of castles because they became vulnerable to cannon fire
- Limitations of cannon
- Heavy and expensive to transport
- Inaccurate as they could only be used against large targets such as walls
- Had to be close to targets as they had short range
- Slow to reload
- Trained personnel needed
- Advantages and improvements
- Useful for destroying cities and castle walls
- Improvements were made with new technology
- Specialist cannons were developed to launch cannonballs over walls or for longer distances
- Metal was used for cannon barrels and balls rather than stone to make cannons more effective and accurate
- The mounted knight
- Mounted knight declined because of weapons
- Longbow was more effective to taking down knights, horses and infantry
- Schiltron was effective at defeating cavalry and increasing infantry
- Cavalry became more integrated to specialist tasks like patrolling and scouting and fought defensive battles
- The longbow
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