Crossbows on the Border

When we think of the reivers, we tend to imagine them wielding a lance, a backsword, a bollock dagger or (at the end of the 16th century) a primitive firearm. But there was another weapon in their armoury, that sometimes gets forgotten: the latch. This was a small crossbow that was native to the Borders and used by reivers (especially in Scotland), during the 1500s.

By this point, traditional crossbows were rarely used in Europe. They were expensive to make, heavy to carry and cumbersome to load so were fast becoming the preserve of the rich (in England, commoners were specifically forbidden from owning them, so that they would not be distracted from their longbow practice).

For the reivers, the crossbow was particularly impractical, as it couldn’t be used on horseback. But the latch (or latchet) offered a local work-around, as it was smaller, lighter and could be loaded with one hand. This made it much better suited to their mounted, raiding style.

As with all such innovations, there was a trade-off (the latch had a shorter range and didn’t penetrate armour so well). But the smaller weapon was vastly more rapid: capable of firing a bolt every 2 seconds or so, compared to one every 30 seconds or so for the traditional crossbow.

In The Dance of Vipers, Antoine is attacked by a crossbow-wielding thug and ends up discussing all this with the reiver chief, Will Baird. They then end up firing shots of a verbal kind, at each other, prompting Baird to thank Antoine for the ‘target practice’.

I hope this post hits the spot with you too.