The Crossbow
The medieval bow meets its maker thanks to the arrival of this rifle-type, bolt-firing machine.
 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. |
