Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: Anglo-Scottish Relations in the Fourteenth Century – An Overview of Recent Research
- 2 The English Army and the Scottish Campaign of 1310–1311
- 3 ‘Shock and Awe’: The Use of Terror as a Psychological Weapon during the Bruce–Balliol Civil War, 1332–1338
- 4 The Scots and Guns
- 5 Edward Balliol: A Re-evaluation of his Early Career, c. 1282–1332
- 6 Scoti Anglicati: Scots in Plantagenet Allegiance during the Fourteenth Century
- 7 Best of Enemies: Were the Fourteenth-Century Anglo-Scottish Marches a ‘Frontier Society’?
- 8 Dividing the Spoils: War, Schism and Religious Patronage on the Anglo-Scottish Border, c.1332–c.1400
- 9 The Pope, the Scots, and their ‘Self-Styled’ King: John XXII's Anglo-Scottish Policy, 1316–1334
- 10 Sovereignty, Diplomacy and Petitioning: Scotland and the English Parliament in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century
- 11 National and Political Identity in Anglo-Scottish Relations, c.1286–1377: A Governmental Perspective
- 12 Anglici caudati: abuse of the English in Fourteenth-Century Scottish Chronicles, Literature and Records
- 13 Anglo-Scottish Relations in the Later Fourteenth Century: Alienation or Acculturation?
- Index
4 - The Scots and Guns
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: Anglo-Scottish Relations in the Fourteenth Century – An Overview of Recent Research
- 2 The English Army and the Scottish Campaign of 1310–1311
- 3 ‘Shock and Awe’: The Use of Terror as a Psychological Weapon during the Bruce–Balliol Civil War, 1332–1338
- 4 The Scots and Guns
- 5 Edward Balliol: A Re-evaluation of his Early Career, c. 1282–1332
- 6 Scoti Anglicati: Scots in Plantagenet Allegiance during the Fourteenth Century
- 7 Best of Enemies: Were the Fourteenth-Century Anglo-Scottish Marches a ‘Frontier Society’?
- 8 Dividing the Spoils: War, Schism and Religious Patronage on the Anglo-Scottish Border, c.1332–c.1400
- 9 The Pope, the Scots, and their ‘Self-Styled’ King: John XXII's Anglo-Scottish Policy, 1316–1334
- 10 Sovereignty, Diplomacy and Petitioning: Scotland and the English Parliament in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century
- 11 National and Political Identity in Anglo-Scottish Relations, c.1286–1377: A Governmental Perspective
- 12 Anglici caudati: abuse of the English in Fourteenth-Century Scottish Chronicles, Literature and Records
- 13 Anglo-Scottish Relations in the Later Fourteenth Century: Alienation or Acculturation?
- Index
Summary
The early use and development of guns in Britain took place at a time when there were hostilities between Scotland and England, or at least the threat of warfare. It was Scotland's great misfortune to share her only land frontier with a country whose military reputation was not only deservedly high for much of the period we are considering but which also had vastly superior resources in wealth and manpower. What is more, the English believed they had a right to the kingdom of the Scots and were to advance this claim as late as the sixteenth century.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the growth of the new gun technology was just how slow the Scots were to adopt it, apparently lagging behind the English by a good sixty years. Perhaps Scottish scholars have failed to think anything amiss in this, inured as many are to tired old assumptions that everything new comes from south of the border and only takes root in Scotland long after its currency in England. In the case of guns, it is clearly time to reexamine the Scottish position.
The late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries were dominated by a determined English attempt to affect the conquest of Scotland.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- England and Scotland in the Fourteenth CenturyNew Perspectives, pp. 60 - 72Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007