&gt; Perhaps yew was also way too hard to come by &#x2F; expensive for the Scottish?<p>One of the first point the paper makes is that the domestic supply of english yew was of poor quality and way outstripped by the demand, and the country imported yew from throughout continental Europe. So while yew availability may have been an explanation for Scottland, it definitely wasn&#x27;t for France.<p>&gt; Still, producing a longbow compatible population (of strong, loyal) men might have had other costs then political ones. Precision wise, a longbow is not a real tournament weapon<p>The longbow is a tournament weapon if you set up longbow-only tournaments and legally forbid other sport tournaments.