The ENGLISH LONGBOW
The medieval longbow, or English Longbow, as it is traditionally
known in military history was the battlefield weapon of choice for
the English army nearly 700 years ago. The characteristics that allowed the
longbow to stand out from other bows was the power, precision and
the rate of fire that could be achieved by a skilled archer. The medieval longbow was a Welsh invention
and incorporated into the English armies by Edward I and brought about a devastating element of artillery fire that had not been seen on the battlefield for some time.
Archers made up a vast portion of many armies for hundreds of years, going back into the times of ancient warfare. Egypt, the Greeks, Carthaginians and Persians all fielded some form of this artillery-firing soldier. Egyptian archers were well respected for their close fighting skills as well as their accuracy. Not confined to the long range abilities of his bow and arrow, the archer could switch to a sword or dagger for close-in fighting when the battle went south. Most, if not all archers, were armed with a sword or dagger for close range combat (English Longbowmen were issued 3-foot long longswords). This assured that the archer could still be part of the battlefield should ranges begin to decrease - though most were often held behind battle lines or fielded with a personal group of bodyguards. For additional self-defense, archers could be set up behind a wall of forward-facing stakes (similar to the pike but not movable in the heat of battle once entrenched) that could protect the soldier from oncoming cavalry charges.
Longbows were traditionally made out of yew, which
was a wood grown in England at the time of the Medieval Ages. The string of the longbow
would be manufactured out of linen or hemp. The grass was then processed
into the fiber, creating a string-type material that could later
be woven into the bow. English Longbows measured about 6 feet tall
when standing and required a tremendous amount of upper body strength to fire the system with any accuracy.
Archers were expected to train for up to ten full years in order to develop the strength and
accuracy needed in maintaining an acceptable rate of fire often required in the thick of battle.
With this amount of investment, it's no doubt that English archers were the prize of Edward III's armies for some time and, as a result,
became the highest paid soldiers in his army.
Arrows used by medieval longbow archers varied on
the type of enemy they faced. Archers would rely on an armor-piercing
arrow tip to help break through knight armor, or chainmail.
Other types included a standard tip that could be used against horses - bring down the ride and you in effect bring down the charging rider, creating evermore havoc to the charging horses behind him.
This particular arrow tip was called the swallowtail. Other arrows available to the archer could include a flammable tip that acted more as a psychological tool of warfare than a direct attack one. Effective ranges for Longbowmen are reported to be between 50 yards and 250 yards. Armor of the Longbowman consisted of nothing more than a leather cap reinforced with
iron and a sleeping/rain cloak to keep their bowstrings dry. Some
were even provided with a fast pony for quick entries and departures
from the field of battle.
The longbow maintained many advantages on the battlefield
for many years until eventually superceded by the crossbow - which offered up less of a range but more force behind its bolt shots. As mentioned above, rate of fire was the true advantage
to the expert archer as much as the range of the system. A trained army archer could shoot upwards of ten to twelve arrows in one minute, making him the world's first "machine
gun" in some ways. With the advent of powder rifles in the 16th Century, the day of the archer - and knight for that matter - would see its closing days.
 THE MEDIEVAL CROSSBOW
The counterpart of the longbow during this time was the crossbow (the crossbow is covered in-depth through this entry here), which
can be seen as a "rifle" version of the longbow. Though powerful in their own right, crossbows were harder to aim and were heavier in construction than that of
the longbow. Their rate of fire could also not match that of the
medieval longbow. The crossbow slightly outranged the longbow but
the longbow remained a more efficient weapon in terms of rate-of-fire. Also, since bowman
had a tendency to lean into their shots and stand sideways, more
longbowman could be put in one spot of the formation as opposed
to the wider stance relegated to soldiers using the crossbow. Thusly advantaged lay in the utilization of either system.
The 14-century crossbow could fire a variety of bolts and
was extremely accurate in its own right. Its major drawback was
that the tension would have to be rewound after every shot, exposing
the reloading crossbowman to an enemy charge or volley all their own. A
trained crossbowman could get off about 1 bolt per minute, vastly inferior to the twelve a trained Longbowman might achieve.
In all, the crossbow could easily compliment any army and was particularly aggressive when defending high points like castle walls from sieges. Though not the perfect weapon of choice, it was nonetheless a step forwards in artillery design and could be considered one of the earlier attempts at arming infantrymen with a rifle-type weapon. Some armies made extensive use of the crossbow, preferring it even to the regular bow in most cases, as the piercing power was much more relied upon than the artillery facet. |
