Online Encyclopedia
Longbow
The longbow (or English longbow, or Welsh longbow, see below) was a kind of bow used in the Middle Ages both for hunting and as a weapon of war. It reached its zenith of perfection as a weapon in the hands of English and Welsh archers.
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Origins
The longbow was common in Scandinavia and several preserved longbows have been found. Longbows made of elm wood found in the Holmegard -bog in Denmark have been dated to the Mesolithic. From the Neolithic onwards, yew was the preferred material. It was ideal as the inner heartwood would compress, while the outer sapwood would strech, making a powerful natural spring.
At least two Neolithic longbows have been found in Britain. One was found in Somerset identified by radiocarbon dating in the 1950s much to the consternation of some archaeologists at the time. A second one was found in Southern Scotland at Rotten Bottom, it was made of yew and dates to between 4040 and 3640 BC . A reconstructed bow had a draw-weight of about 23 [kg] (50 [lb]) and a range of 50 to 55 metres. The famous Early Bronze Age Ötzi the Iceman found in the Ötztaler Alps bore a bow very similar to the Rotten Bottom example, with a bowstring of nettle or flax fibre.
In the British Isles the weapon was first recorded as being used by the Welsh in 633 A.D., when Offrid , the son of Edwin, king of Northumbria, was killed by an arrow shot from a Welsh longbow during a battle between the Welsh and the Mercians -- more than five centuries before any record of its military use in England. Despite this, the weapon is more commonly known as the "English longbow" rather than the "Welsh longbow".
History
During the Anglo-Norman invasions of Wales, Welsh bowmen took a heavy toll on the invaders by using this extraordinary weapon of war. 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 in to the English army. The lessons the English learned through their experiences in Wales were later used with deadly effect on their enemies on the battlefields of France and Scotland.
The longbow decided a number of medieval battles fought by the English, the most significant of which being the Battle of Crecy and later the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War. A variant (bow-staves) was used by 14th century mercenary troops of Sir John Hawkwood. Longbows were used until around the 16th century, when gunpowder began to be used, and such units as arquebusiers and grenadiers began appearing.
Although longbows were much faster and more accurate than any blackpowder weapons, longbowmen were always difficult to produce because of the years of practice necessary before a war longbow (the Mary Rose puts most of these at 72–82 kg (160–180 lb)) could be used effectively. Fifteen minutes was all it took to train the average commoner to use a handgun, and the most difficult thing to master was keeping your eyes open when the powder ignited. In addition to this, the longbow was a powerful weapon to put in the hands of the commoner - many nations (e.g the French) simply did not trust their people enough to instruct them in how to use a weapon that could be turned against the nobility.
Usage
Longbows were difficult to master because the draw-weight often exceeded 65 kg (637 newtons, 143 lb). Considerable practice was required to produce the swift and effective fire combat required. Skeletons of longbow archers are recognizably deformed, with enlarged left arms, and often bone spurs on left wrists, left shoulders and right fingers.
To penetrate light armor, war arrows had "chisel" (or "bodkin") heads. Bodkin arrows have tips like elongated pyramids, which result in a very sharp and very narrow points. There was also a war arrow of Turkish origin called the "flight arrow" which was capable of ranges exceeding 850 yards (approximately 780 m) using conventional bows. In peace-time, in some regions, carrying chisel points was a hanging offense, 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 chainmail 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. On the battlefied, English archers stabbed their arrows upright into the ground at their feet, reducing the time it took to notch, draw and loose (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 -- especially so as bowmen relieved themselves on the same ground. The only way to remove such an arrow cleanly would be to tie a peice 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 - incredibly painful. There were specialised tools used in the medival period to extract arrows if bone meant that the arrow could not be 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, 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 contain 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.
Hunting arrows generally had what is called a 'broad-headed' arrowhead, though specialist hunting arrows did exist. Broad-head arrows leave wide cuts when they pierce flesh, which results in rapid blood loss. This is typically enough to render an adult deer unconcious in under half an hour. An arrow with a head shaped like a crescent moon was used to knock birds and other small animals out of trees so that both the animal and the arrow could be retrieved with relative ease, when a normal arrow would have pinned itself and the animal to the tree, making recovery difficult. Originally it was thought that the crescent headed arrow was used at sea to cut ropes on enemy ships, but the fact that an arrow rotates would mean that cutting a rope at distance - requiring the crescent arrow to remain exactly horizontal - would be nigh-on impossible.
Tactics
Although bowmen were still deadly at close range, they were light skirmishers unsuited to prolonged hand-to-hand combat and were understandably vunerable to a commited attack by cavalry. Consequently they were often deployed behind physical barricades, such as stakes and poles driven into the ground.
A common battle formation:
- Light Infantry (such as swordsmen) in the center forward, in rank formation.
- Heavy Infantry (such as pikemen)in the center middle, in rank or square formation.
- Traditional Archers and Crossbowmen in the center back, in rank formation.
- Cavalry either on the flanks (to protect against attacks), or deployed in the center to counter any breakthroughs and such.
- Longbowmen were usually on the side, in an enfilade formation, rather like this: \ ___ / , with the middle being occupied by melee troops.
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 got quite close: and the psychological effect on the enemy of the famous 'cloud of arrows' produced by such a volley is not to be underestimated.
Archaeology
The Mary Rose, a Ship of Henry VIII's navy, sunk at Portsmouth forms an important source for the history of the longbow, as numerous bows, archery implements and the skeletons of archers have been preserved. The Mary Rose longbows had a draw weight of up to 82kg (180 lb).
Social importance
The importance of the longbow in medieval English culture can be seen in the legends of Robin Hood and in the "Song of the Bow," a poem from The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The longbow was the weapon of choice for 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 power of the nobility of England which did not exist on the European continent.
See also
External links
- Project Gutenberg e-text of The White Company
- Mary Rose: Archery - Page 1 of 2
- PDF:An Approach to the Study of Ancient Archery using Mathematical Modelling
- PDF: UNITED STATES NATIONAL ARCHERY ASSOCIATION FLIGHT COMMITTEE MODERN LONGBOW FLIGHT RULES