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Podcast: Today In History with The Retrospectors
Episode: When Longbows Defeated Scotland
Description: William ‘Braveheart’ Wallace was defeated by fearsome English archers at the Battle of Falkirk on 22nd July, 1298; when Edward I’s army first used longbows against their Scottish adversaries, with devastating effect.Despite Wallace’s men deploying their famous ‘schiltron’ formation - whereby foot soldiers packed together to form a bristly spear-wall - the arrows the English volleyed back rained down at an awesome rate of ten per minute, per bow. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why even the clergy of the era were keen on longbow-training; consider the advantage of bows over...