Longbow
A longbow is a type of bow. It was mainly used in the Middle Ages until the 1500s. It had many advantages over other weapons at the time: it was inexpensive to make, could easily be mass-produced, and was quite lethal. When shot from a longbow, metal-tipped arrows could pierce all but the strongest armour.[1]
Groups of longbowmen would shoot at the same time. The arrows would come down like hail, which often scared the enemy. Archers (longbowmen) would usually have a second weapon, often a battle-axe, if the fighting came close to them.
History
[change | change source]The Welsh were the first people to use longbows.[2] In AD 633 Offrid, son of Edwin, king of Northumbria, was killed by an arrow shot from a Welsh longbow. This happened during a battle between the Welsh and the Mercians — more than five centuries before any record of its use in England. Despite this, the weapon is more commonly known as the "English longbow" than the "Welsh longbow".
In the Middle Ages, the English and Welsh were famous for their very powerful Welsh longbows. They were used to great effect in the civil wars of the period and against the French in the Hundred Years' War (with notable success at the battles of Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415)).[3]
The average length of arrow shafts recovered from the 1545 sinking of the Mary Rose is 75 cm /30 in.
Advantages
[change | change source]The longbow had many advantages over other weapons of the time. It may not have been as strong as a crossbow, but it could shoot more arrows per minute.[1] It was also quite lethal. When shot from a longbow, metal-tipped arrows could pierce all but the strongest armour.[1]
The basic equipment cost little, and could easily be mass-produced.[4] The longbow was made from a single piece of hard-wearing, flexible wood, often from a yew tree.[4] Yew was cut during the winter when there was no sap.[4] The flat side of the bow facing the target was flexible sapwood while the belly (facing the archer) was round and made of strong heartwood (from the center of a tree).[4]
A longbow has practical advantages compared to a modern recurve or compound bow: it is usually lighter, quicker to prepare for shooting, and shoots more quietly. However, other things being equal, the modern bow will shoot a faster arrow more than the longbow.
Effects on the human body
[change | change source]Bowmen had to practice for many years and gain a lot of strength before they could shoot a longbow well. Longbows are very strong. This made archers' bodies different from other people's bodies.
Compared to other people's, the skeletons of medieval bowmen have thicker arm and shoulder bones that are a little bent. These bones supported the large muscles that grew on the archers' arms and backs as they practiced with the bow.
On some archers, the right shoulder was higher than the left shoulder. This is because archers almost always shot on the same side. They did not switch hands.[2]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Fadala, Sam 2011. Traditional archery. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, p. 13/14.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "English bowmen". King Richard III Visitor Centre. 7 August 2019. Archived from the original on 29 June 2022. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
- ↑ The Hundred Years War (Part II): Different Vistas, eds. L.J.A. Villalon; D. J. Kagay (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 37-132
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Mark Denny, Ingenium: Five Machines That Changed the World (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), p. 6