Ok so, I was kind of hoping to just define terms before launching back into really long detailed arguments, but since you already did that I'll attempt to be systematic. I'm going to start with number 4 since I think it's the easiest one to settle.
Did complex weapons and metal and / or plate armor make warfare too sophisticated for militias to handle?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I've already probably been too long winded on this argument, so here are some images with brief descriptions.
Mid- 14th Century depiction of the "Battle of Golden Spurs" from 1302, in which the town militia of the cities of Bruges, Ypres and Ghent in Flanders, with a little help from regional knights, smashed the French nobility.
http://medieval2.heavengames.com/m2t...nders/kortrijk
That is the victorious militia on the right, using their characteristic weapon 'the
Godendag' which I'll get into more in a minute. Note they are depicted by the period artist, wearing the latest armor of that period (transitional harness with coat of plates)
Communal skirmish in Bologna between Guelphs and Ghibellines, 1369 AD
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ercambi%29.jpg
It's hard to tell with the shields but the heavy infantry appear to be wearing heavy armor, certainly they all have helmets and some appear to have gauntlets. The crossbowmen are wearing lighter armor, possibly mail or just textile.
Militia from the town of Prague in a wagonberg of War Wagons, 1420
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../Wagenburg.jpg
Note some kind of armor on all of the fighters, coat of plates in my opinion, plus crossbows, firearms, and flails, all of which the Czechs advanced in this period.
Miltia from the towns of Prague and Tabor in a tabor or War Wagon during the Hussite wars (1422-1440's), painting is from mid to late 15th Century.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/attach...id=56249&stc=1
Note they are wearing plate armor and using the latest weapons of that era.
Italian Carroccio, mid 15th Century not sure the specific town or the battle but it could be Milan or Florence. As you are probably aware, these special ox-drawn carts were usually manned by militia, they often carried the standard of the town.
http://warandgame.files.wordpress.co.../01/sdffrr.jpg
Note again, they are wearing plate armor and carrying a heavy crossbow.
Berne militia praying before the battle of Laupen (14th Century, painting from the 15th century) Diebold Schilling
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...bei_Laupen.jpg
Note, plate armor nearly universal, longswords for sidearms. Note the Berne standard behind them. And the crossbow standard I don't know whose that is.
Armed militia from Zurich, relieving a siege, Diebold Schilling, 15th Century
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rom_zurich.jpg
Note, plate armor nearly universal, guns and pikes.
Militia from Berne, Zug, Uri, Schwyz and Zurich praying again after another battle, 15th Century.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Chronik_17.jpg
Note plate armor and longsword sidearms (usually associated with knights) seem to be universal.
Now according to my sources, in Central and Northern Europe, individual members of the militia were required to own both arms and armor by the town ordinances, and also by their guilds (since the guilds usually formed the core of the infantry and often some of the cavalry too - the Butchers of Rostock for example were required to own warhorses as well). I think the guild connection is particularly significant as regards training, though I'll get to that in another post. But we have guild regulations from Flanders in the 13th Century (the oldest I have is from the skinners guild of Arras in 1236) stipulating that all guild members must have specific armor and weapons.
Even in rural militia in many areas, not just weapons but armor was required by all free men. For example the original Law of the Gulating, in Norway, required arms only in the 11th Century, but by the 12th Century the Law had been updated to include "helmet, mail hauberk, shield, spear and sword" for the wealthier peasants and all burghers.
From what I understand it was the same in Italy by the time of the formation of the Lombard League. The regulations of those fighting guilds in Bologna that I linked upthread required armor, bucklers, weapons (spears and swords) from all their members, and in some case horses as well (for the more affluent).
Crosbows, similarly, were ubiquitious particularly in urban militias. In Flanders like in Bologna, they had specific military guilds which were formed to augment the town defenses. The first two on record were the Guild of St. George (in Ghent and then Bruges) which was a crossbow guild, and the guild of St. Sebastian which was an archers guild (the Flemish used English style longbows). These date back to the mid -13th Century. In the 14th Century the St. Michels Guild was formed, and a second St. George guild for the new type of crossbows, and then in the 15th Century the St. Barbara's guild was formed for firearms.
The Swiss are of course, famous for their crossbows, as were the Czechs, and the Germans. Tactical Crossbow training even shows up in some German fencing manuals from the 15th century
http://www.marbles.frothersunite.com...B2/MTDXbow.jpg
http://198.58.99.35/wiktenauer/image..._394a_135r.jpg
http://198.58.99.35/wiktenauer/image..._394a_135v.jpg
http://198.58.99.35/wiktenauer/image..._394a_136r.jpg
In fact I think it's clear that far from falling behind military technology and tactics, the urban miltiias tended to be major innovators of both, setting shockwaves through Eurpean history and carving out crucial landmarks in the development of hand to hand weapons (like the Flemish
Godendag, mentioned above, the Swiss Halberd, the Czech war-flail, and the Swiss pike), crossbows (which were vastly improved by the Genoese, the Swiss, the Czechs who were I think the first to make large scale use of mounted crossbowmen, and the Flemish who were the first to use steel prods), firearms and cannon (both vastly improved by the Czechs), and complex combined-arms systems, some of which are barely known in the English speaking world, like the Hussite style
war-wagon, which turned out to be particularly decisive against the Turks, as well as confounding to the German and Western Knights; and the pike / halberd and crossbow tactics developed by the Swiss as just two examples.
So in light of all this, I think the argument that militias couldn't handle more sophisticated weapons, or armor, or tactics, is bogus. If some or all the urban miltiias in Italy got to the point where they couldn't handle these things, I suspect it means something else was going on. Either factional disputes or too much pressure from outside or the Signore system and loss of citizen autonomy or some other factor. Too much olive oil in their diet ;)
But to be honest I'm actually fairly dubious it was such a factor in Italy, I think the popular narrative about this is off and probably based on some very old data.
G