"Scottish Army composition 1485-1525" Topic

Hello Folks,
Bit of a big ask! I have a painting customer who wants me to research a Scottish army from the above era. He plays Bloody Barons' ruleset, which, as a 'adjacent' yardstick, has WOTR English foor units in 24-man units, 40mm sq bases, 3 figures on each, 8 bases to a unit, half bill, half bow.
Soooo, the Scottish foot unit>? did they change a lot during this period? a lot of Pike, for sure, but bows also in a unit? separate bow units? foot knights? Artillery, light guns? immobile heavy guns? organ guns?Cavalry, mounted archers? mounted knights?

Now, this is a lot of questions, is there a good website for all this? unit types, army list, say for Berwick? pictures of the troops? weapon types?

Thanks for any help you can give me

All the best

John

Hi. I'm afraid I know most about Flodden. No true pike before Flodden. Before then lowlanders are mostly spear armed. Highlanders and Islesmen have bows and 2 handed weapons (swords predominate as the period progresses)throughout. Likely other weapons were mixed into the units – spears, etc. Armour styles change for the richer nobility as the period progresses. Dismounted nobility forming the front ranks occurs at Flodden and probably often within your timeframe.

There are plenty of books on Flodden – most have illustrations of the troops. The osprey pub on the Flodden campaign would be a good place to start.

You could start with a look at 'The Scots' in Renaissance Warfare by George Gush

Mirror site
'The Scots' in Renaissance Warfare by George Gush

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Thanks, this is all great stuff!

John

A book I'd highly recommend is The Anglo-Scots Wars 1513 to 1550 by Gervase Phillips.

link

Low on pictures but high on cause and effect

Highland and Isles troops likely to have been a rarity, men-at-arms possibly as a front rank, but more likely as stiffeners among the spearmen who should form 70-90% of the army and who should be pretty well-equipped…none of the unarmoured wretches beloved of rule-writers and figure makers.
Longbows in separate units…the 'Scottish short bow' did not exist until 19th C romancers invented it.
There's no difference between Scottish troops and English ones, only the proportions vary really.
Artillery – Scots were partial to it and the odd handgun here and there, though not as definable units. Reivers are a different story.