Originally Posted by Kaelith

One point people have really missed about the devolution of the longbow was that it took a generation of training to develop a people strong enough to weild a longbow, where as the musket could be handed to anyone who had been talked through the basics of loading and firing, which is also why the crossbow stayed around through the period of longbow supremacy. And it the only reason england seemed to be the only place that was able to field large numbers of longbows was due to it becoming incredibly popular and then it becoming a LAW to shoot your longbow every sunday!