page_title: Warfare in early modern Scotland
section_title: Royal armies
hierarchical_section_title: Warfare in early modern Scotland / Sixteenth century / Royal armies
caption_attribution_description: English: A leather jacket, reinforced for self-protection by metal plates, of the kind that would have been worn by Border Reivers in the 16th century.
context_page_description: Warfare in early modern Scotland includes all forms of military activity in Scotland or by Scottish forces, between the adoption of new ideas of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century and the military defeat of the Jacobite movement in the mid-eighteenth century. In the late Middle Ages, Scottish armies were assembled on the basis of common service, feudal obligations and money contracts of bonds of manrent. In 1513 these systems produced a large and formidable force, but in the mid-sixteenth century there were difficulties in recruitment. Individuals were expected to provide their own equipment, including axes and pole arms. Highland troops often brought bows and two-handed swords. Heavy armour was abandoned after the Flodden campaign. Highland lords tended to continue to use lighter chainmail and ordinary highlanders dressed in the plaid. The crown took an increasing role in the supply of equipment. The pike replaced the spear and the Scots began to convert from the bow to gunpowder firearms. Feudal heavy cavalry were replaced with light horse, often drawn from the Borders.
context_section_description: In the later Middle Ages, Scottish armies were still largely assembled on the basis of common service and feudal obligations, with the addition of troops maintained by money contracts of bonds or bands of manrent. Common service theoretically called all men between the ages of 16 and 60 for a maximum of 40 days in one year. Such troops were expected to serve at their own expense and to bring their own supplies, a factor that severely limited the ability of Scottish armies to take part in sustained campaigning. Feudalism had been introduced to Scotland in the twelfth century, meaning that knights held castles and estates in exchange for service, providing troops on a 40-day basis, particularly heavily armed noble cavalry. Bonds of manrent were similar to English indentures of the same period, used to retain more professional troops, particular men-at-arms and archers. Scotland relied on these systems longer than was the case in England. In practice, forms of service tended to blur and overlap, and major Scottish lords continued to bring contingents from their kindred. In 1513 for the Flodden campaign these systems were successful in producing a large and formidable force, but in the religious and politically divided mid-sixteenth century there is evidence that the authorities were experiencing increasing difficulty in recruitment.
  A series of musters or wapenshaws, between two and four times a year, checked that potential soldiers maintained suitable equipment. Individuals were expected to equip themselves for war according to their estates. Instructions given to sheriffs in 1513 indicated that gentlemen were expected to muster in plate armour, while common soldiers were to come in jacks and sallets.  After the disaster at Flodden there seems to have been a deliberate abandonment of plate armour by the nobility, perhaps because of the difficulties it created in handling a pike, and by 1547 many noblemen were virtually indistinguishable from the majority of troops. Highland lords continued to use lighter chainmail and ordinary highlanders dressed in the plaid, leaving their lower legs naked. In place of a jack, they often had a patchwork linen garment, covered with wax or pitch.
  Weapons included various forms of axes and pole arms, including spears, the Lochaber axe, Leith axe and Jedburgh stave. Highland troops often brought bows, two-handed swords (claidheamh mór) and axes. The crown took an increasing role in the supply of equipment. There were attempts to replace polearms with longer pikes of 15.5 feet (5 m) to 18.5 feet (6 m) in the later fifteenth century, in emulation of successes over mounted troops in the Netherlands and Switzerland, but this does not appear to have been successful until the eve of the Flodden campaign in early sixteenth century. By the mid-sixteenth century the pike had emerged as the most important infantry weapon in Scottish armies. Modelling themselves on Swiss and German infantry, Scottish tactics tended to focus on rapidly engaging the enemy, particularly necessary to counter the advantage enjoyed by the English in missile power.
  Like most European nations the Scots in this period began to convert from the bow to gunpowder firearms. Handguns were present in Scottish armies in small numbers from the fifteenth century and there are increasingly frequent references to handguns and arquebus in records. An account of the Scottish vanguard at Haddon Rig in 1542 suggests that half the troops were missile men and half of those were arquebusiers. Equal proportions of missile to melee troops seems to have been an aim of Scottish commanders for most of the century, although it was not always possible in the field. The main source of firearms were the French, who seem to have extensively rearmed the Scottish after the English invasions of the Rough Wooing.
  The English enjoyed a marked superiority over the Scots in cavalry, particularly with the resurgence of heavy cavalry with their use of demi-lancers. The feudal heavy cavalry had begun to disappear from Scottish armies after Bannockburn in 1314. It wa
caption: A leather jack of the kind worn by in the sixteenth century
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