Yup... one of the things James IV doesn't get enough credit for is realising that if he wanted to actually get the bulk of his army into contact with the English, then they would need to counter that Scourge of The Shiltron, the longbow.
The only way to do it was to make sure that the commons, who formed the body of his troops, were sufficiently well armoured that they could shrug of the worst of the arrowstorm; traditionally the nobs would survive to make contact due to their fine suits of European armour, and then be slaughtered to a man because they were hopelessly out-numbered since the rest of the spearmen were lying back down the field doing brilliant hedgehog impressions!
As a result, James set up a harness mill at Stirling to provide munition quality plate for the commons. A combination of that and some of the front ranks hefting pavises, ensured that for once, the dreaded English arrow storm didn't achieve it's usual execution. Unfortunately for the Scots, the English artillery park made up the shortfall at long range; and once the main battle was joined and the momentum of the pike phalanxes slowed, the bill proved more decisive at close quarters than the long pike.
An interesting aside is that after the defeat of Flodden, the Scots army did a complete U-turn. Those in power were quick to see the writing on the wall and realise that even the finest armour was of limited utility against blackpowder weapons, so come the battle of Pinkie Cleugh the Scots were noteworthy in being equipped almost entirely (nobs and plebs alike) with light padded jacks and only pieces of plate in strategic areas of the body; thus affording the lumbering pike formations somewhat better mobility (not that it did a great deal of good at Pinkie, mind). So much for Scotland being a backward nation, unable to keep pace with military developments elsewhere...
15 January 2021, 01:20:38 PM