Quote:
Originally Posted by BigDaddy
Still, I think I'm understanding more of the situation here. The crossbowmen were unskilled. Skilled crossbowmen worked in teams of three with two loaders and a shooter with 3 crossbows and a couple shields that make a wall, but those were mercenaries. Essentially all the longbowmen were a type of mercenary as well. These were all skilled units. The crossbowmen were handed a weapon and sent out.
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Something like this, yes. You should also note that numbers of such skilled crossbowmen in mercenary units were sometimes less even than numbers of knights - crossbows included some rather intricate details, so were not that common. I've seen a publication of a muster rolls of some mercenary companies - numbers such as 15 knights and 20 crossbowmen seem quite common.
And another thing - crossbow contained an inherent factor of accuracy problem: a joining of bow to stock (forgot a proper name of it). In many museum pieces they are simply lashed together! This was another reason why professionals often preferred a longbow.