[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The difference between “Subjects” (aka Serfs) and “Citizens”***

I am reminded of pre-gun England when a person was required to be armed. In the wars with the French Englishmen used the bow to good use against the French.

The French found they could take their serfs and make good bowmen out of them, but there arose a problem. It seems the serfs, when armed, felt themselves to be FREE MEN and, after the wars were over, were reluctant to return to serfdom.

So the French preferred to hire Genoese crossbowmen.

[katana]

Yes. Practice for two hours after church required every Sunday for all males under sixty. Those above the age of 17 were required to possess a longbow and (minimum) four arrows. It paid off in battles and David vs. Goliath victories that were ultimately undone by marriage with a French princess carrying really bad genes (Henry VI).

The French crown sort of turned into Henry V's "Bridge Too Far". That part of the story, or the rest of the Wars of the Roses saga, Shakespeare wasn't brave or stupid enough to tell.

[laplata]

“In the wars with the French Englishmen used the bow to good use against the French”.

That’s how flipping the bird came about. The French told the English long bowmen that they’d cut off their middle fingers so they couldn’t use their bows if they captured them. The English would flip the French off and then shoot at them.