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The English longbow, also called the '''Welsh longbow''', was a powerful type of Medieval Longbow (a tall Bow for Archery ) about 6 Ft 6 In (2.0 M ) long used by the English , Scots and Welsh , both for Hunting and as a Weapon of War . The Welsh used it to some effect against the invading Normans who later adopted it for their own military campaigns. English use of longbows was effective against the French during the Hundred Years' War , particularly at the start of the war in the battles of Crecy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), and most famously at the Battle Of Agincourt (1415). They were not as successful after this however, taking casualties at the Battle Of Verneuil (1424), and being completely routed at the Battle Of Patay (1429) when charged before they had setup their defensive position. DESCRIPTION There are various descriptions of the medieval longbow. The earliest longbow found in England is dated to 2665 BC, however there are no surviving medieval longbows definitely dated to the period when the longbow was dominant (c. 1250-1500 AD). This is probably because it was in the nature of bows to become weaker, break and be replaced, rather than be handed down through generations. {Link without Title} There are however more than 130 surviving bows from the '' 3 April 2005 . A review of the ''The Great Warbow'' "The power of a bow is measured in its draw-weight, and these days few men can pull a bow above 80lb. Bows recovered from the Tudor warship ''Mary Rose'' show a draw-weight of up to 180lb, and skeletons retrieved from the wreck show spinal distortions, indicating just what it took to be a proper archer." As to the bow length, there is no agreement. In continental Europe it was generally seen as any bow longer than 1.2 m (4 ft). The ), p. 132 Historian Jim Bradbury said they were an average of about 5 feet and 8 inches.Bradbury, ''The Medieval Archer'', 2002 The range of the medieval weapon is unknown, with estimates from 165 to 228 m (180 to 249 Yds ). Modern longbows have a useful range up to 180 m (200 yd). A 667N(150 lbf) ''Mary Rose'' replica longbow was able to shoot a 53.6 g (1.9 oz) arrow 328.0 m (360 yd) and a 95.9 g (3.3 oz) a distance of 249.9 m (272 yd).Strickland p.18, Appendix 408–418 The longbow had a long range and high accuracy, but not both at the same time. Modern champion archers maintain that a hit cannot be guaranteed on an individual target at more than 75 m (80 yards) with any bow whatsoever. Most of the longer range shooting mentioned in stories was not marksmanship, but rather thousands of archers launching volleys of arrows at an entire army. Longbowmen armies would aim at an area and shoot a rain of arrows hitting indiscriminately at anyone in the area, a decidedly Un-chivalrous but highly effective means of combat. In its day, it was considered amazingly accurate and, by the standards of the day, it was. Standards for accuracy have changed dramatically in the modern age. An archer could hit a person at 165 m (180 yards) "part of the time" and could always hit an army. A Welsh or English military archer during the 14th and 15th Century was expected to shoot at least ten "aimed shots" per minute. An experienced military longbowman was expected to shoot twenty aimed shots per minute. A typical military longbow archer would be provided with between 60 and 72 arrows at the time of battle, which would last the archer from three to six minutes, at full rate of shooting. Young boys were often employed to run additional arrows to longbow archers while in their positions on the battlefield.The statistics on rates of shot are taken from . This rate was much higher than that of its Western European projectile rival on the battlefield, the Crossbow . It was also much higher than early firearms (although the lower training requirements and greater penetration of firearms eventually led to the longbow falling into disuse in English armies in the 16th century). The traditional construction of a longbow consists of drying the Yew wood for 1 to 2 years, then slowly working the wood into shape, with the entire process taking up to four years. (This can be done far more quickly by working the wood down when wet, as a thinner piece of wood will dry much faster.) The bow stave is shaped into a D-section, from a half cross section of a tree or branch. The inner side of the bow stave consists of rounded Heartwood and the outer of Sapwood with a flat back. The heartwood resists Compression and the outer sapwood performs better in Tension . This combination forms a natural "laminate", similar in effect to the construction of a Composite Bow . Longbows will last a long time if protected with a water-resistant coating, traditionally of "wax, resin and fine tallow". Bow String s were made of Hemp , Flax or Silk and attached to the wood via horn "nocks", which fit onto the end of the bow. Today strings may still be made in the traditional way or a modern synthetic material (usually a string twisted of Dacron ) can be used. HISTORY . English longbowmen figure prominently in the foreground on the right, where they are driving away the French Crossbow men.]] The earliest known bows, from Stellmoor in northern Germany, are dated to approximately 10,000 years ago. Arrow heads have been found in the Sahara and other places where dry sand is an excellent preservative. Recognizable longbows dating as far back as the Mesolithic period have been found in many parts of Northern Europe. The medieval English use of a powerful longbow as a decisive weapon of war was more of a social than a technical development. It required in particular the training, recruitment, and maintenance of a large number of men, their supply with yew wood by means of foreign trade, and their incorporation with other troop types into an effective tactical system. During the Anglo-Norman invasions of Wales, Welsh bowmen took a heavy toll on the invaders. The English were quick to realise the impact that the longbow could produce on the battlefield. As soon as the Welsh campaign was successfully over, Welsh conscripts began to be incorporated into English armies. The lessons the English learned in Wales were later used with deadly effect by Welsh mercenaries on the battlefields of France and Scotland . Their skill was exercised under King Edward I Of England (r. 1272–1307), who banned all sports but archery on Sundays, to make sure Englishmen practised with the longbow. As a result, the English during this period as a whole became very effective with the longbow. The longbow decided many medieval battles fought by the English, the most significant of which were the 1642 from Bridgnorth describing the incident.. Longbowmen remained a feature of the Royalist Army , but were not used by the Roundheads . Although longbows were much faster and more accurate than any Black Powder weapons, longbowmen were always difficult to produce, because of the years of practice necessary before a war longbow could be used effectively (examples of longbows from the Mary Rose typically had draws greater than 637 N (143 lbf)). In an era in which warfare was usually seasonal and non-noble soldiers spent part of the year working at farms, the year-round training required for the effective use of the longbow was a challenge. A standing army was an expensive proposition to a medieval ruler. Mainland European armies seldom trained a significant longbow corps. Due to their specialized training, English longbowmen were sought as Mercenaries in other European countries, most notably in the Italian city-states and in Spain. The , containing men-at-arms and longbowmen and commanded by Sir John Hawkwood , is the best known English Free Company of the 14th Century . The trade of yew wood to England for longbows was such that it depleted the stocks of yew over a huge area. The first documented import of yew bowstaves to England was in 1294 . In 1350 there was a serious shortage, and Henry IV Of England ordered his royal bowyer to enter private land and cut yew and other woods. In 1470 compulsory practice was renewed, and hazel, ash, and laburnum were specifically allowed for practice bows. Supplies still proved insufficient, until by the Statute Of Westminster in 1472, every ship coming to an English port had to bring four bowstaves for every tun. Richard III Of England increased this to ten for every tun. This stimulated a vast network of extraction and supply, which formed part of royal monopolies in southern Germany and Austria. In 1483, the price of bowstaves rose from two to eight pounds per hundred, and in 1510 the Venetians would only sell a hundred for sixteen pounds. In 1507 the Holy Roman Emperor asked the Duke Of Bavaria to stop cutting yew, but the trade was profitable, and in 1532 the royal monopoly was granted for the usual quantity "if there are that many". In 1562, the Bavarian government sent a long plea to the Holy Roman Emperor asking him to stop the cutting of yew, and outlining the damage done to the forests by its selective extraction, which broke the canopy and allowed wind to destroy neighbouring trees. In 1568, despite a request from Saxony, no royal monopoly was granted because there was no yew to cut, and the next year Bavaria and Austria similarly failed to produce enough yew to justify a royal monopoly. Forestry records in this area in the 1600s do not mention yew, and it seems that no mature trees were to be had. The English tried to obtain supplies from the Baltic, but at this period Bows Were Being Replaced by Guns in any case. Yew: A History. Hageneder F. Sutton Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0750945974. USE Longbows were difficult to master because the force required to draw the bow was very high by modern standards. Although the draw weight of a typical English longbow is disputed, it was at least 360 N (80 lbf) and possibly more than 650 N(143 lbf). Considerable practice was required to produce the swift and effective combat shooting required. Skeleton s of longbow archers are recognizably deformed, with enlarged left arms and often Bone Spur s on left wrists, left shoulders and right fingers. It was the difficulty in using the longbow which led various monarchs of England to issue instructions encouraging their ownership and practice, including the Assize of Arms of 1252 and Edward III's declaration of 1363: "Whereas the people of our realm, rich and poor alike, were accustomed formerly in their games to practise archery - whence by God's help, it is well known that high honour and profit came to our realm, and no small advantage to ourselves in our warlike enterprises... that every man in the same country, if he be able-bodied, shall, upon holidays, make use, in his games, of bows and arrows... and so learn and practise archery." If the people practised archery, it would be that much easier for the King to recruit the proficient longbowmen he needed for his wars. Along with the greater ability of gunfire to penetrate plate armour, it was the amount of time needed to train longbowmen which eventually led to their being replaced by musketmen. To penetrate chain mail armour, many war Arrow s had 'chisel' (or ' Bodkin ') heads and were quite massive. Bodkin arrows have tips like elongated pyramids, which result in a very sharp and very narrow point. With their Bodkin Point s these massive war arrows probably weighed around 65 to 100 grams (1000 to 1500 grains, Grain being a unit of measure often used for arrows and bullets). This is 2 or 3 times the weight of the wooden or aluminum arrows that are used today and 4 to 5 times the weight of modern carbon fiber arrows or pre 20th century 'flight arrows', used in distance shooting contests. In peacetime, in some regions, carrying chisel points was a hanging offence, because it was thought to threaten noblemen or they were taken as evidence that one was a Highwayman . Specialist war-arrows were designed to tackle the problem of different types of armour. For example, arrows with thin and sharply slanted heads were used to pierce Chain Mail suits, breaking one ring and consequently 'popping' a huge hole in the armour as the force of the impact knocked the other rings out of place. Many war-arrows had heads that were only attached with a small blob of wax, so that if they were to be removed conventionally only the shaft would come out, leaving the head lodged in the victim which would almost certainly cause an infected wound. The effects of a longbow are illustrated by this 12th Century account by Gerald Of Wales : Bodkin arrows were much less effective against Plate Armour . The latest research is that even very heavy draw longbows armed with bodkin arrows have trouble penetrating well made, tough steel plate armour, which was used increasingly after 1400. However, not all plate armour was well made or well looked after, and there were also weak points in the joints where arrows could still penetrate. Full plate armour of the highest quality was also extremely expensive, only used by the most elite (and rich) soldiers, such as knights; the vast majority of soldiers were not armoured in plate from head-to-toe. Even for knights, in practice their horses tended to be less well protected than they were themselves. As late as 1415, the hail of arrows created by massed ranks of thousands of longbowmen helped to win the battle against plate armoured French knights at Agincourt . English longbowmen often carried short swords or Maul s (massive leaden hammers) and longbowmen taking advantage of wet, muddy terrain could outfight dismounted armored knights whose horses had been killed by arrows. On the battlefield, English archers stabbed their arrows upright into the ground at their feet, reducing the time it took to notch, draw and loose (as drawing from a quiver is slower). An additional effect of this practice was that the point of an arrow would be more likely to cause Infection . Bowmen relieved themselves on the same ground, but this is unlikely to have any additional effect. Cloth-yard shafts (used in longbows, their length being 31" or one yard of cloth) recovered from the Mary Rose show that some arrowheads were attached using a copper-based glue. Copper is slightly toxic but there is no evidence that it was used because of this, or indeed that it could enter the bloodstream through a wound at all. The only way to remove such an arrow cleanly would be to tie a piece of cloth, soaked in boiling Water or another sterilising substance, to the end of it and push it through the victim's wound and out of the other side — this was extremely painful. There were specialised tools used in the medieval period to extract arrows if in places where Bone prevented the arrow being pushed through. :Prince Hal (later Henry V ) was wounded in the face by an arrow at the Battle Of Shrewsbury ( 1403 ). The royal physician John Bradmore had a tool made, which consisted of a pair of smooth tongs. Once carefully inserted into the rear of the arrowhead wound, the tongs screwed apart till they gripped its walls and allowed the head to be extracted from the wound. Prior to the extraction, the hole made by the arrow shaft had been widened by inserting larger and larger dowels of wood down the entry wound. The dowels were soaked in Honey , which contains natural Antibiotics . The wound was dressed with a Poultice of Barley and honey mixed in Turpentine . After 20 days the wound was free of infection. TACTICS Although bowmen were still deadly at close range, they were light skirmishers unsuited to prolonged hand-to-hand combat and were understandably vulnerable to a committed attack by Cavalry . Consequently they were often deployed behind physical barricades, such as stakes and poles driven into the ground. A longbow corps was vulnerable to ambush until its defensive barricade was complete. This practice discouraged offensive battle tactics because the longbow was most effective when an opposing army charged. A common battle formation:
Longbows, although capable of hitting a much more far-off target than traditional bows, were not very accurate at extreme distances, forcing generals to mass longbowmen in order to create a 'cloud of arrows.' A skillful general would alternate flights of arrows with cavalry charges, sometimes alternating flank attacks to induce shock and fear in the enemy. The arrows were used in volleys and not aimed at specific targets until the enemy was quite close. The English used longbowmen in unprecedented numbers in the Hundred Years War, as the dominant part of their armies, with approximately 7,000 archers in an army of 9,000 at the Battle Of Agincourt . The psychological effect on the enemy of the famous 'cloud of arrows' from the concentrated shots of so many thousands of archers should not be underestimated. SURVIVING BOWS More than 3,500 arrows and 137 whole longbows were recovered from the '' Mary Rose '', a ship of Henry VIII 's navy that was sunk at Portsmouth in 1545 . It is an important source for the history of the longbow, as the bows, archery implements and the skeletons of archers have been preserved. The bows range in length from 1.87 to 2.11 m (6 ft 1 in to 6 ft 11 in) with an average length of 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in). Mary Rose: The Ship - Armament - Page 6 of 10 - Bows The web site of The Mary Rose Trust. The longbows on the ''Mary Rose'' were in excellent finished condition. There were enough bows to test some to destruction which resulted in draw forces of 450 N (100 lbf) on average. However, analysis of the wood indicated that they had degraded significantly in the seawater and mud, which had weakened their draw forces. Replicas were made and when tested had draw forces of 680 to 900 N (150 to 200 lbf)."Longbow", by Robert Hardy ( on line summary ) In 1980 , Robert E. Kaiser published a paper prior to the recovery of the Mary Rose, stating that there were five known surviving longbows:
SOCIAL IMPORTANCE The importance of the longbow in medieval English culture can be seen in the legends of . The Assize of Arms of 1252 stated that all "citizens, burgesses, free tenants, villeins and others from 15 to 60 years of age" should be armed. The poorest of them were expected to at least have a bow. This made it easier for the King to raise an army, but also meant that the bow was a commonly used weapon by rebels during the Peasants' Revolt . From the time that the Yeoman class of England became proficient with the longbow, the nobility in England had to be careful not to push them into open rebellion. This was a check on the power of the nobility of England which did not exist on the European continent. There is a village in Wales called Pont-y-Bodkin ("The Bodkin Bridge"). It lies in the valley below an ancient Welsh palace (Plas-ym-Mhowys = Palace in Powys). From the probable site of the barracks to the bridge is about 700 m, although the bridge is about 100 m lower in elevation. The village predates Christianity. Maybe it was renamed in honour of its main product, or how far a champion archer could reach from the palace's barracks. POPULAR MYTH It has long been told that the "two-fingers salute" or " V Sign " derives from the gestures of English Archers , who used the English longbow, fighting at the Battle Of Agincourt , during the Hundred Years' War . The Myth claims that the French cut off the two shooting fingers on the right hand of captured archers, and that the gesture was a sign of defiance by those who were not mutilated. This is, however, almost certainly untrue, as the first definitive known reference to the "V-sign" is in the works of Rabelais , the French satirist of the 1500s {Link without Title} . Additionally, archers were typically commoners, who were usually executed when captured. SEE ALSO NOTES REFERENCES ;Books
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