#OnThisDay

On July 22nd 1298 the battle of Falkirk took place. This was one of the major battles in the First War of Scottish Independence. The English army, led by Edward I, defeated the Scots who were led by William Wallace. With Welsh longbows archers the rain of deadly arrows thudded into the Scots, heavily depleting the Scottish schiltron lines. The 4,000 strong Scottish army of mostly pikemen, who now faced 13, 000 heavily armed English cavalry, foot,  and those deadly Welsh archers, with no cavalry of their own and their own short bow men slaughtered by the English cavalry, were harried from the field. And with them the hopes of Scottish Independence fled before them. But, the Scottish rebels would rise again and again to free Scotland from English rule. This battle had proved the effectiveness of the longbow, marking it as a decisive weapon, one that would go on to be used with devastating advantage when England fought France in the mid fourteenth century

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