Scotland's firearms circa 1500

Something that has long bothered me in M2TW is the fact that Scotland is denied firearms other than cannon.
I know that they supplied Irish forces with firearms in the latter 16th century and for them not to have had them seemed odd.

I suspect that Jacobite rebel tactics of enticing the English to fire on them and then dropping to the ground, then rising and charging them in hand to hand combat played a part but was a hasty decision.

Hand guns were not a noble weapon and so were seldom mentioned when recounting an engagement.

Very likely the first recorded use in Europe came in the Hussite Wars. But one source has it as in France.
the English got a rude surprise in 1429 at the siege of Orleans. They found that a French marksman named Jehan de Montesiler had some kind of hand cannon capable of picking off individual soldiers. He did this at the extreme range of arrows and was so sure of his advantage that to amuse himself he taunted the besiegers by occasionally lying down and pretending to be dead. The entire episode was a shock to the English. It is now recognized as the earliest documented use of handheld firearms in Europe.

http://xenophongroup.com/montjoie/gp_wpns.htm

James the IV of Scotland was famed to have a particular alchemist he patronized who believed he could fly, and jumped from the walls of Sterling Castle.

http://heritage.scotsman.com/ViewArt...icleid=2800105

What isn‘t mentioned in this story is that in his travels, specifically in Italy he sent back a number of guns. Actually hundreds of guns, enough guns to equip several companies of men, if not a complete regiment.

Gun making in Scotland does date from the time of James IV which is also within the scope of the game.

The earliest record of Scottish gun makers dates from the first quarter of the 16th century and we find them making "dags" or pistols and "hagbuts" or long guns.
http://www.mckaybrown.com/scottish.html

Sporting guns were not a high demand item at the time, but dags were all the rage with nobility, however they were the Nth degree in technology of the time. It took a well trained smith to make one of these that actually worked. Hagbuts were equally at the top of the tech tree of the time. It was military hardware.

As I said earlier hand held firearms were not noble weapons and were often omitted from the conduct of a battle so we don’t have reliable information either way as to when and if they were used but we do know that gun making had begun in Scotland.

Handguns were certainly in use earlier than 1429. I don't know what the earliest use was but there are a litany of references. As for Scotland not having handguns or arquebuses, yes that is retarded.