Hi,
I found this interesting article:
http://www.alderneywreck.com/index.p...-disadvantages
I would like your opinion about this passage!
One of the main advantages of firearms was that almost anybody with reasonable eyesight could be turned, fairly quickly, into a marksman, more or less regardless of age and health. Also, even when wounded, most harquebusiers and musketeers could still pull a trigger bar. A good archer, by contrast, was the product of many years of training and had to be in top physical condition (which, in protracted overseas campaigns, they were often not because of cold, hunger and disease) to be able to draw their bow again and again with accuracy. The importance of good health can be seen from the following comment by the Hertfordshire militia that would only take archers who were ‘… Lustye in bodye, & able to abyde the wether & and canne shoote a good stronge Shoote’, because before they had made a mistake and ‘alowed manye Simple & Weake archers’ into their company.
I am also interested in the psychological effects of early firearms (like arquebuse and later muskets) compared to crossbows and longbows.