>In message <27c976de0801081828t404b4a4ai11420dffac4c5f6c_at_7iSJPf355sgBpRTIy-F9OdaQKU2iY1zBbD1KZ0WfHUmBjVUY0q-0YCf-B-rHiaEulMcbzU_cHkXM9QpCdDP615sdLTXrDOjPiL72Wwwa-ZcbzQaQA7ldILBhTjssNSen0Gg.yahoo.invalid> Grimmund writes:
>>2. What would loyal peasant levies be armed with?
>>spears, because they are cheap and easy to make.
>
>I'm not convinced about this. The spearmen gradually disappears
>from most of europe as the feudal system becomes fully established.
>Where they remained (e.g. Scotland and Switzerland) they are drawn
>from the ranks of freeman not serfs. I'm doubtful that peasant levies
>were expected to fight. They were more there as labourers for seiges
>and making camp.
Surely what really happened was the spear evolved a bit and became the pike. Which was one of the dominant infantry weapons up to the middle, if not the end of the 17th century - well after the development of gunpowder.
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