Scottish Soldiery
Throughout most of the medieval period, Southwest Scotland was more or less under English suzerainty. During the twelfth century this area was also subjected to considerable military influence from its southern neighbour and in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries this influence was replaced by an attempt at direct political control which resulted in the Scottish Wars of Independence.
The Southwest area of Scotland had only been drawn into the Kingdom of Scotland in 1034, having previously been the separate British or Welsh Kingdom of Strathclyde with its predominantly Scandinavian sub-kingdom of Galloway to its south. This meant that the military organisations of the western Lowlands retained their own distinct traditions. Scottish monarchs during this time however, also started a policy of feudalisation, using Norman England as their model even going as far as encouraging Anglo-Normans to settle in Scotland in the twelfth century, where they would become a major military influence. Scottish charters from the twelfth century mention knight service, mounted sergeants who held estates, mounted and infantry archers and feudal fiefs, granted in return for the supply of ships and oarsmen for the royal fleet. Not only does this show an adoption of 'feudal' ideas, but it meant that the Scots could now call up large armies unlike the Welsh who still used traditional, 'native' organisation. Although southern Scotland copied many aspects of these English or French methods of organisation, the old military structures didn't disappear fully until the English system was imposed on them by the English crown during the occupation of the late thirteenth century.
During this period the military structure, equipment and tactics of southwest Scotland was very similar to that of Northern England. The infantry played the major part in warfare with cavalry not playing much of a role at all until the eleventh century. The most common infantry weapons were spears, axes and swords with the soldiers from areas such as Galloway being poorly equipped compared to their counterparts in Ayrshire. A favoured weapon in Galloway was still the old Danish style axe with it's wickedly upwards sweeping blade, which had originally been designed to break through the shield walls of previous centuries. Although the small feudal elite were mounted and armoured, Scottish lowland warfare still relied on infantry armed with long spears or pikes. This was the main difference between Lowland Scotland and England; the peasantry were still the mainstay of Scottish armies in contrast to the professional mounted knights south of the border. By the fourteenth century Lowland Scotland had adopted many of the tactics and weapons of the English, including siege engines and most noticeably there was a pronounced emphasis on archery.
The Scots had to adapt to compete within the evolving world of warfare. The tactic of using static circular formations of long spears (schiltrons) to defeat cavalry had met with disaster at Falkirk in 1298, where they had been ripped apart by English arrows. However in 1314 at Bannockburn these units were mobile and well drilled, similar to later pike formations, and after the English longbowmen had been routed, they met with amazing affect, devastating one of the most advanced and well equipped armies in Europe. However the Scots were deterred from further adaptation of this style after the sickening defeat at Halidon Hill in 1333, again proving the dominance of the English Longbow at this time. Out of necessity the Scots, knowing that they could not compete in the open field against the heavy English cavalry resorted to guerrilla warfare which consisted of small-scale hit-and-run operations or swift raids into Northern England to plunder lightly protected towns and monasteries. To do this the Scots were lightly mounted and carried their own food, dismounting to fight (These troops were known as hobelars). The larger English horses could not follow the small, sturdy Scottish horses across the hills of the rugged border landscape and the English relied on an arterial, easily severed train of supplies to its troops. The French chronicler, Froissart, describes Scottish Soldiery around 1327 thus "They were all a-horse back, the knights and squires being well horsed while the lower ranks rode sturdy little nags, whose sole object was to transport their rider to the field of battle, or convey him rapidly in a raiding party……They would take with them no purveyance of bread nor wine, for…they will pass in the journey a great long time with flesh half sodden, without bread, and drink of the river water without wine, and they neither care for pots nor pans, for they seethe beasts in their own skins…on their horse between the saddle and the panel they truss a broad plate of metal, and behind the saddle they will have a little sack of oatmeal…they lay this plate on the fire and temper a little of the oatmeal; and when the plate is hot, they cast of the thin paste thereon, and so make a little cake…and that they eat to comfort withal their stomachs."
This led to a reversal of the earlier trend, England now had to learn Scottish tactics and strategies in order to compete with this highly mobile force and hobelars now became an aspect of the English military along with other infantry tactics learned from the Scots. Combined with their better trained and equipped troops and great numbers of archers, these new tactics (which were actually quite ancient) did not only ensure English military superiority over the Scots, but were employed by Edward III to crush the flower of French Chivalry during the early part of the Hundred Years War.
