The longbow (or English longbow, or Welsh longbow, see below) was a type of bow about 2.0 m (6 ft 6 in) long 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.

Description

There are various descriptions of the medieval longbow. There are no surviving longbows prior to the 15th century and more than 130 from the Renaissance period (see Surviving bows). They range in length from 1.87 to 2.11 m (6 ft 1 in to 6 ft 11 in) with an average of about 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in), and were made from yew. Estimates for the draw of these bows varies considerably. Tests done on examples from the Mary Rose typically had draw weights of 72 – 82 kgf (706 – 804 N, 160 – 180 lbf ). A modern longbow's draw is typically 27 kgf (60 lbf) or less.

As to the bow length, there is no agreement. In continental Europe it was generally seen as any bow longer than 1.2 m (4 ft). The Royal Antiquaries Society of Great Britain says it is of 5 or 6 feet (1.5 or 1.83 m) in length. ^{[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_RoyalAntSoc)} Richard Bartelot of the Royal Artillery Institution said that the bow was of yew, 6 feet (1.83 m) long, with a 3 foot (914 mm) arrow.^{[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_RBartelot)} Gaston Foebus in 1388 wrote that a longbow should be "of yew or boxwood, seventy inches [1.78 m] between the points of attachment for the cord,".^{[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_GFoebus)}

The range of the medieval weapon is unknown, with estimates from 165 to 228 m (180 to 249 yds). Modern longbows have a useful range up to 180 m (200 yd).

A longbowman could shoot up to 12 arrows a minute, "The longbow was the machine gun of the Middle Ages: accurate, deadly, possessed of a long-range and rapid rate of fire, the flight of its missiles was liken to a storm."^{[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_machine_gun)} This rate of fire was much higher than crossbows or any other projectile weapon of the period, including firearms.

The construction of a longbow consists of seasoning the yew wood for 1 to 2 years then slowly working the wood into shape, with the entire process taking up to 4 years. The bow stave is shaped into a D-section from a half cross section of a tree or branch. The inner side of the bow stave consists of rounded heartwood and the outer of sapwood with a flat back. The heartwood resists compression and the outer sapwood performs better under expansion. This combination forms a natural laminate similar in affect to the construction of a composite bow. Longbows will last a long time if constructed this way and are protected with a rub of "wax, resin, and fine tallow".

Bow strings were made of hemp, flax or silk and attached to the wood with "horn nocks" which fit onto the end of the bow. Today stings may still be made the traditional way, but modern synthetic material may be used as well.

Origins

In the British Isles the weapon was first recorded as being used by the Welsh in AD 633, 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" than the "Welsh longbow".

At least two Neolithic longbows have been found in Britain. One was found in Somerset. It was identified as Neolithic by radiocarbon dating in the 1950s, much to the consternation of some archaeologists at the time. A second 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 kgf (50 lbf) and a range of 50 to 55 metres. The famous Ötzi the Iceman, of the Chalcolithic period (Copper Age), found in the Ötztaler Alps, bore a bow very similar to the Rotten Bottom example, with a bowstring of nettle or flax fibre.

Weapons resembling a longbow have been discovered by archaeologists in Scandinavia dating from the Mesolithic period, made of elm wood found in the Holmegaard-bog in Denmark (although during the medieval period Scandinavians were characterized by the effective use of the shortbow). From the Neolithic onwards, yew was the preferred material, it was ideal as the inner heartwood would compress, while the outer sapwood would stretch, making a powerful natural spring.

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 into the English army. The lessons the English learned 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 was the Battle of Crécy 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. The last recored use of bows in an English battle seems to be a skirmish at Bridgnorth in October 1642 during the English Civil War^{[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_Bridgnorth)}. Longbowmen armies would aim at an area and fire a rain of arrows indiscriminately hitting everyone in the area, a decidedly un-chivalrous, but highly effective, means of combat.

Although longbows were much faster and more accurate than any black powder weapons, longbowmen were always difficult to produce because of the years of practice necessary before a war longbow (examples from the Mary Rose typically had draws greater than 65 kgf (143 lbf)) could be used effectively. To train the average commoner to use a handgun required a mere fifteen minutes, and the most difficult thing to master was keeping one's eyes open when the powder ignited. In addition to this, the longbow was a powerful weapon to put in the hands of the commoners — 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-weights often exceeded 65 kgf (143 lbf). 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 armour, war arrows had "chisel" (or "bodkin") heads. Bodkin arrows have tips like elongated pyramids, which results in a very sharp and very narrow point. There was also a war arrow of Turkish origin called the "flight arrow" which was capable of ranges exceeding 780m (850 yds) using conventional bows. In peace-time, in some regions, carrying chisel points was a hanging offence, 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. The effects of a longbow are illustrated by this 12th century account by Gerald of Wales:

...in the war against the Welsh, one of the men of arms was struck by an arrow shot at him by a Welshman. It went right through his thigh, high up, where it was protected inside and outside the leg by his iron cuises, and then through the skirt of his leather tunic; next it penetrated that part of the saddle which is called the alva or seat; and finally it lodged in his horse, driving so deep that it killed the animal. (Itinerarium Cambriae, (1191))

On the battlefield, English archers stabbed their arrows upright into the ground at their feet, reducing the time it took to notch, draw and loose (as 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. Bowmen relieved themselves on the same ground, but this is unlikely to have any additional effect. The only way to remove such an arrow cleanly would be to tie a piece 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 — this was incredibly painful. There were specialised tools used in the medieval 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 contains 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. A well-placed arrow that struck a deer through both lungs or the heart would kill it in seconds. But even a wounding shot with a broadhead might cause the animal to bleed out and die relatively quickly. 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. At one time 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 in flight 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 vulnerable to a committed 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 centre forward, in rank formation.
• Heavy Infantry (often armed with pollaxes or pole weapons with bill hooks being the preferred English weapon) in the centre middle, in rank or square formation.
• Traditional Archers and Crossbowmen in the centre back, in rank formation.
• Cavalry either on the flanks (to protect against attacks), or deployed in the centre 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 skilful 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; the psychological effect on the enemy of the famous 'cloud of arrows' produced by such a volley is not to be underestimated.

Surviving bows

More than 3,500 arrows and 137 whole longbows were recovered from the Mary Rose, a ship of Henry VIII's navy that was sunk at Portsmouth in 1545. It is an important source for the history of the longbow, as the bows, archery implements and the skeletons of archers have been preserved. The bows range in lenth from 1.87 to 2.11 m (6 ft 1 in to 6 ft 11 in) with an average length of 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in).^{[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_MaryRose)}.

The longbows on the Mary Rose were in excellent finished condition. There were enough bows to test some to destruction which resulted in draw weights of 45 kgf (100 lbf) on average. However, analysis of the wood indicated that they had degraded which significantly in the seawater and mud which had weakened their draw weights. Replicas were made and when tested had draw weights of 68 to 90 kgf (150 – 200 lbf) ^{[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_Hardy)}.

In 1980, Robert E. Kaiser published a paper^{[8] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_Kaiser_paper)}, prior to the recovery of the Mary Rose, stating that there were five known surviving longbows:

• The first bow comes from the Battle of Hedgeley Moor in 1464 during the War of the Roses. A family who lived at the castle since the battle had saved it to modern times. It is 1.66 m (65.5 in) and a 27 kgf (60 lbf) draw weight. ^{[9] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_Bat_heg_moor)}
• The second dates to the Battle of Flodden ("a landmark in the history of archery, as the last battle on English soil to be fought with the longbow as the principal weapon..."^{[10] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_Flodden)}) in 1513. It hung in the rafters at the headquarters of the Royal Scottish Archers in Edinburgh, Scotland.^{[11] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_Kaiser_Scotland)} It has a draw weight of 36 to 41 kgf (80 – 90 lbf).
• The third and fourth were recovered in 1836 by John Deane from the Mary Rose. Both weapons are in the Tower of London Armoury and Horace Ford writing in 1887 estemated them to have a draw weight of 28 to 32 kgf (65 – 70 lbf) ^{[12] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_Ford)}. A modern replica made in the early 1970s of these bows has a draw weight of 46 kgf (102 lbf).^{[13] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_MaryRose_replica)}
• The fifth surviving longbow comes from the armoury of the church in the village of Mendlesham in Suffolk, England and is believed to date either from the period of Henry VIII or Queen Elizabeth I. The Mendlesham Bow is broken, has an estimated length of 1.73 to 1.75 m (68 to 69 inches) and draw weight of 35 kgf (80 lbf). ^{[14] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_Mendlesham)}

Social importance

The importance of the longbow in medieval English culture can be seen in the legends of Robin Hood who was increasingly depicted as a master archer and in the "Song of the Bow," a poem from The White Company^{[15] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow#endnote_WhiteCompany)} 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

• Yumi

Footnotes

See Wikipedia:Footnote3

1. ^  "The Berkhamsted Bow", Antiquaries Journal 11 (London), p.423
2. ^  Major Richard G. Bartelot, Assistant Historical Secretary, Royal Artillery Institution, Old Military Academy, Woolwich, England. Letter, 16 February 1976
3. ^  C.J. Longman and H. Walrond, Archery (New York: Fiederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1967), p.132
4. ^  Robert E. Kaiser, "The Medieval English Longbow" (http://www.student.utwente.nl/~sagi/artikel/longbow/longbow.html), Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries, volume 23, 1980
5. ^  Did bowmen repell Earl of Derby before Bridgenorth 1642? (http://www.sealedknot.org/beertent/thread.asp?CatNo=3&TI=12998&RNG=1&MX=59) In "The Garrisons of Shropshire during the Civil War" there is reference to a letter written by a John Norton, dated October 5, 1642 from Bridgnorth describing the incident.
6. ^  Mary Rose: The Ship - Armament - Page 6 of 10 - Bows (http://www.maryrose.org/ship/bows1.htm) The web site of the The Mary Rose Trust.
7. ^  "Longbow", by Robert Hardy (on line summary (http://www.florilegium.org/files/ARCHERY/p-archery-msg.html))
8. ^  Robert E. Kaiser, "The Medieval English Longbow" (http://www.student.utwente.nl/~sagi/artikel/longbow/longbow.html), Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries, volume 23, 1980
9. ^  Henry Gordon and Alf Webb, "The Hedgeley Moor Bow at Alnwick Castle", Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries 15 (1972), pp. 8–9
10. ^  E.G. Heath, The Grey Goose Wing, p. 134
11. ^  Robert E. Kaiser, "The Medieval English Longbow" (http://www.student.utwente.nl/~sagi/artikel/longbow/longbow.html), Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries, volume 23, 1980
12. ^  Horace Ford, "The Theory and Practice of Archery" (London: Longman Green and Co., 1887), page 3.
13. ^  Alexander McKee, King Henry VIII's Mary Rose (New York: Stein and Day, 1974), p. 103
14. ^  W.F. Paterson, Chairman, Society of Archer-Antiquaries. Letters, 5 May 1976.
15. ^  Project Gutenberg e-text of The White Company (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/903)

Bibliography

• The Medieval English Longbow (http://www.student.utwente.nl/~sagi/artikel/longbow/longbow.html), Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries, volume 23, 1980.
• "Longbow: A Social and Military History" by Robert Hardy, Pub Patrick Stephens,1992, ISBN 1852604123

Further reading

• "The Great Warbow: From Hastings to the Mary Rose", by Dr. Matthew Strickland[16] (http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/History/History/staff/strickland.htm) and Robert Hardy, Pub Sutton,2005, ISBN 0750931671
  • Review   by Will Cohu of the Daily Telegraph 3 April 2005. Draw weights of up to 180 pounds.
• "The Crooked Stick: A History of the Longbow (Weapons in History S.)" by Hugh David Hewitt Soar, Pub Westholme U.S, 2004, ISBN 1594160023

External links

• PDF:An Approach to the Study of Ancient Archery using Mathematical Modelling (http://www.bio.vu.nl/thb/users/kooi/kobe97.pdf)
• PDF: UNITED STATES NATIONAL ARCHERY ASSOCIATION FLIGHT COMMITTEE MODERN LONGBOW FLIGHT RULES (http://www.usarchery.org/files/flight_longbow_rules.pdf)
• SECTION 11: TOWARDS A MORE MEDIEVAL ARCHER (http://www.ealdormere.sca.org/files/handbook_archeryapp1.pdf.)
• A Bundle of Tudor War Arrows (http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/lalonde/SCA/arrow.html) by Paul Lalonde. An article about the arrows found on the Mary Rose.