Elizabethan Military technology dummies guide

1. Elizabethan Military technology dummies guide

2. 1. Why were nobles no longer expected to provide the queen with soldiers?a) Because she didn’t want to have to depend on them.b) Because they lost all their power.c) Because the nobles didn’t hold the proper influence required to hold an army.2. Why were rapiers preferred over other swords?a) They were easier and cheaper to produce.b) More fashionable. c) They were lighter and more maneuverable. 3. When did the flintlock replace the matchlock?a) 1950b) 1754c) 17204. What armor was preferred by the Elizabethan military?a) Only knights wore armor because it was expensive.b) Armor was unused, by exception of tournaments.c) Leather, steel and light weight steel.5. What did muskets fire?a) Wood balls.b) Candy Canes.c) Lead balls.

3. Short essay 1:If muskets were slow, expensive, and inaccurate, why did they replace bows and crossbows able to fire 200 yards further than the musket, were more accurate and were firing 12 arrows a minute as opposed to the muskets 1-2 shots a minute.Short essay 2: What changes were made to the original matchlock design to improve it, and why?Short answer question 1:Why did the Elizabethan military keep using medieval weapons?Short answer question 2:Why were archers bad at closer courters?Short answer question 3:Why was the rapier an important fashion piece?

4. Why the musket wiped out the bows and crossbows mike There were several reasons the musket wiped out bows and crossbows, a bow and crossbow was only deadly in the hands of master archers. It took many years of training for someone to master a bow or crossbow, and training would be every day usually a minimum of 8 hours a day just to maintain your skill. Most archers would spend even longer than 8 hours a day. A musket was much easier to teach someone, a musket could be taught to someone in upwards of 8-10 minutes. And usually 1 hour of practice every day, maybe even every other day, would suffice. Anyone could load and fire a musket, and with a little bit of training they could gain a nice rate of fire. And back then they were much cheaper to employ than archers. On the battle field if you ran out of ammunition you would be in trouble, for an archer it would be harder to make an arrow than a lead ball. To make a lead ball all you need is a mould of it and something to pour into the mould. Making an arrow is much harder and time consuming. With musket men you could deploy 1000 for the price of 300 archers, and being a musket man you wouldn’t have to devote all your time to honing you skill with the musket you could also spend your time working on other skills. Archers were horrible hand to hand combatants, but running into a musket man with a bayonet meant bad news for you because they were masters at hand to hand combat. They were masters because they had 2 – 3 extra hours to hone different skills i.e hand to hand combat.

5. James: Quite a while ago, in the Elizabethan era there was a great war between England and Spain. The battle involved a humongous armada from Spain. It had 130 ships in it and the armada was huge compared to the armada from England (in ship size). But against all of these odds England won the war. How did this happen? Was it all luck? Or was it a very good strategy? Let’s find out. Why did Spain want to overthrow England anyway? Well Spain wanted to over throw England for a number of reasons. Well back in the Elizabethan era Spain was in control of modern day Holland and Belgium and they called it the Spanish Netherlands. At this time the king of Spain was married to Elizabeth’s half sister named Mary. This gave him easy access to the Spanish Netherlands through the English Channel. The Spanish did not want to be known as Catholics. But in the Spanish Netherlands there were a lot of people who did not want to change their religion from being Catholic. These people are called Protestants. The Protestants were hunted down by a form of religious Spanish police named the Inquiry. As they were hunting down the Protestants they noticed that England (was catholic at the time) was helping them protest which made the king of Spain very upset. But also in the Elizabethan era, Silver was very wealthy. But when Spain was shipping silver from the West Indies English Pirates would sink the boats and take the silver for themselves, causing the Spanish to lose a large amount of money. This also made the king of Spain very upset. So he decided he had had enough and he was going to try and overthrow England.

6. He prepared a humongous armada of ships to fight the English and overthrow them so the king could take power. The Spanish armada had 130 ships which included 22 fighting galleons. But the English had roughly 200 ships but they were much smaller than the Spanish ships. The English were taking a big risk fighting the Spanish. But they did it and they won. But how did they win if their ships were much smaller than the Spanish? Well the Ships were smaller which made them more manoeuvrable than the Spanish ships. Another thing is that the Spanish didn’t want to destroy the ships as much as they wanted to take them over. This means they have to go alongside the English ships while leaving their broadside completely exposed. But the biggest reason for the victory of the English was the fatal error in the plan of the Spanish. While it sailed in a crescent shape, the Armada was relatively safe. But part of its plan was to stop, pick up sailors and then sail to England. The simple fact that the plan involved stopping the Armada meant that it was very easy for the English to attack. Warships on the move and in formation gave the Armada protection. Once the ships were still, they were open to attack. So in the end the Spanish retreated, saving 67 of their ships but they still failed to attempt to overthrow England. The Spanish had a plan with many flaws and the English had a very big advantage from their small quick ships. The English had a lower ship loss rate. And to think that the Spanish were going to overthrow England.

7. Jeremy. The trained bands were the unofficial military during the Elizabethan era, in a time where nobles were no longer expected to provide the queen with soldiers; the regular man was paid to go to war. The trained bands were composed of three things: men with time to, and who were willing to train, the bulk of the population i.e., the working class man, and the scum of the English streets. Crude tactics and musket men, small payments and lots of men. This is what the trained bands were. Trained bands were the men willing to train for war. Any men 16 to 60 were used, as long as they had the time to complete training. The trained bands were men willing to devote to a month and possibly a week a quarter to training. Since the parish was paying, most men would put off their formal training to a few days a year. A trained man was paid 1 shilling for each day spent away from work. At first, they were only issued armour on the days they trained, but it was found more cost effective to give them cheaper, easier produced armour permanently. 10 percent of the total population were usually trained.The untrained men were the bulk of the population, the regular working man. These men were left untrained until crisis arose, where they would be put through a 2-3 week training program taught by the trained bands. They were deployed to fill in the regiments, as a brute force more or less. These men were left unpaid until after the trained men had been attended to, and after the levy was raised. And, like the pay, these men were given uniforms, after the trained men. They really were a last resort to fill the ranks. As an example, during the Armada crisis, the Northampton Regiment was trained for a measly two weeks before marching to London.

8. And lastly, the pioneers. These men really were scum. Thieves, criminals, homeless and wastrels were encouraged to volunteer for the military, to excuse their crimes and their filth. They were a cost-effective way to dispose of unwanted lower social orders, and an effective meat shield on the front lines. These men were not paid, not trained or clothed, and usually not fed. Left to fend for themselves, they were used as a first move, to distract, draw out, or fill any other need the higher ranking officers could think off. If conscriptions were needed to be shipped to Ireland, it would be these men that filled them. Elizabethan times were hard on all military men. Low pay, hard travels, poor sanitation and poor training were the hardships of the time. Trained bands were by far the most effective military, training few times a year, followed by untrained men, mustered up in large groups to help fill the ranks , and lastly, the scum and wastrels to act as meat shields and defence tests. As you can see, crude tactics were used, with overwhelming numbers. Even though, the Elizabethan era English army was still a force to be reckoned with, with a heavy military influence.