War on Land: Military Organisation

Abstract

If this country was behindhand and needed to take tips in shipbuilding and design from abroad, when naval power was indispensable to its existence, how much more backward itwas in military matters and the art of war on land ! Behind its moat it was about half a century belated in military developments: not until the country became involved in intervention in the Low Countries, from 1572 onwards, did we begin to catch up. If any hostile power had managed to break through the barrier of naval power, it would have been a very serious matter—as serious as it would have been in 1940. For, on the Continent, a revolution in warfare was taking place and gathering momentum as the century went forward: in the development of artillery, but most of all in that of small firearms for infantry and cavalry, bringing about radical changes in methods of fighting, in the organisation of armies and the training of troops. During all this, right up to more than half-way through Elizabeth’s reign, the main weapons of her forces, it is extraordinary to think, were bills and bows.