The Longbow

Bows have long been known in England. They were used in the Neolithic period, by Ancient Britons and Romans, Saxons and Vikings. Harold II is alleged to have died with an arrow in his eye, at the battle of Hastings, as depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. The bows of this time were short bows, about four foot long, with a draw weight of 40 - 50 pounds. They were good for hunting, and against unarmoured opponents. (Chain mail is useless against arrows).

In the late 13th century, a new weapon came on the scene, the longbow, with a draw weight of 100 to 120 pounds. Originally from southern Wales, where records of elm bows record its use around 1150. The first battle where it was widely used was the battle of Falkirk in 1298. It was quickly adopted across England as the weapon of choice, and dominated the battlefield until the middle of the sixteenth century. The longbow was regarded as such an important weapon, that at some battles longbowmen formed as much as 85 percent of the fighting force.

The normal practice range for bowmen was 220 yards, with archers able to loose 8 - 10 well aimed arrows per minute. Exceptional archers could reach 20 per minute. The maximum range for longbows was much greater than this, but they lacked penetrating power against armour. Mounted knights could cover 220 yards in about 15 seconds, so rate of fire was important. Armoured footsoldiers would take about 90 seconds to cover the same distance. For the last 50 yards, the arrows could punch through the finest armour.

At the battle of Agincourt, sources estimate that there were about 5,000 English archers. At a rate of fire of 8 arrows a minute, 40,000 arrows could be loosed each minute; that is almost 700 arrows a SECOND! After the battle, some chroniclers say that the battlefield looked as if it had snowed, such was the quantity of fletchings from the arrows in the ground.

To ensure that there were sufficient archers for the armies, the laws were passed requiring all men from the ages of 12 to 65 to practice weekly. Football (which at the time resembled no-rules rugby with teams of 100 or more) was banned, to prevent people being injured so they could not practice. The practice was so strenuous that the skeletons of archers were slightly deformed. The preferred material for longbows was yew, mainly from Spain and Italy. English yew was not suitable. In order to obtain yew for longbows, duties for wines were set as a set number of staves of yew for each tun of wine imported. The longbow was a long distance weapon, so to protect the archers, defences had to be put in place. These usually consisted of sharpened wooden stakes, with each bowman carrying several. These would be quickly hammered in the ground in front of the bowmen, and the ground would be strewn with caltrops (a four pointed metal spike, which when dropped on the ground would always land with one spike upwards). These were in effect, an early form of landmine. Additional protection would come from blocks of billmen, who were armed with polearms. As a final defence, bowmen were armed with short swords and daggers. Since they were unarmoured, they were much faster and more manoeuvrable than armoured men, and at Agincourt swarmed over the French troops who attacked them.

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