>The spearmen gradually disappears
>from most of europe as the feudal system becomes fully established.
I'm not sure where this disappearance of the spearman comes from. The French, the English, the Italians and the Spanish all had them. Medieval wars weren't carried about by knights and archers alone - they also had decent infantry and siege weapons. Just because the romances are full of knights and all that simply means that the only people that had any money to pay the poets to tell them how great they were were the knights.
>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.
Just be careful here - peasants are not automatically serfs. A tenant farmer is a freeman and a peasant at the same time. More importantly, I feel you are blurring two particular issues: the legal requirement to fight and their ability to fight in practice.
If the Malkioni peasants have the legal right to fight but in practice aren't used very much, then it poses no problem for our Hero, Malkioni Jones. If on the other hand, peasants are forbidden from fighting then Malkioni Jones might be in for some legal trouble,
--Peter Metcalfe
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