English Longbowman (Medieval Archer)

Men-at-Arms The English Longbowman 14th to the 16th century Though the bow has been used in warfare for thousands of years, it was not until the 14th century with the appearance of the longbow did it become, for a while, the supreme and dominant force on the battlefield of Europe, especially in the hands of the English and their Welsh subjects. Of particular skill were men from Wales and Cheshire, regions that became synonymous with the English longbow. The simple design consisted of a slightly curved bow made of wood that was as tall as a man and had incredible range, power, and accuracy. To use it took practice and skill, as well as great strength, as the bowstring had to be pulled back over 30 inches when firing it. They were made from a single piece of yew tree branch. It took months or even years to produce one, as it had to be dried and then worked into the correct shape, slowly over time. Cheaper versions of the longbow were also crafted, but were made from inferior materials and were therefore much faster to construct, but they tended to quickly distort, which caused them to become inaccurate, and they swiftly broke apart. Most of the time, English archers were not operating as a soldier, so they used their longbows to hunt with and provide food for their family. Most saw it as a wise investment to buy the best quality longbow that they could find. The longbow needed extensive training to use, and this was part of the reason it was not widely adopted across Europe. But England recognized the true value of the weapon, passing laws encouraging regular archery practice, and even put in place taxation to help with the funding of the special wood needed to make them. To show the importance the English placed on the military value of the longbow, at its peak during the medieval era, it was typical that an English army would be made up of over half its number in longbowmen. The longbow was accurate up to about 250 feet, but in good conditions and fired by experienced archers, an arrow could reach a range of nearly 1,000 feet, though accuracy was only effective if fired en masse at these kinds of distances. When used in a large formation of rank upon rank of longbowmen, they could be a devastating and effective force, as proved at Crecy in 1346 and again at Agincourt in 1415, where both times the English heavily defeated the French by firing massive volleys of arrows in coordinated unison. It was found that the best tactic suited to using these kinds of archers was to deploy them in large groups and use them like artillery, pounding the advancing enemy with wave after wave of arrows raining down on them from high above. In some situations, longbowmen were able to fire between three to six arrows per minute and were often given between 60 and 72 arrows for the duration of the battle. However, this would require a large level of physical exertion and archers would rarely attempt this firing rate. In contrast, the crossbow, favored by a lot of European armies, could only fire at a fraction of this rate. Archers were vulnerable to hand-to-hand combat as they were lightly armed and armored. To counter this, they would be placed behind a defensive line of infantry or a natural defensive geographical feature like a slope or purpose-built ditches. At first, longbowmen were using the highly accurate but expensive broadhead arrows. But over time, these units needed something cheaper and able to counter the trend of medieval infantry becoming better armored, especially knights. So they started to use heavy bodkin arrowheads and the shafts, which were chisel-shaped and less costly to produce, which was the medieval equivalent of an armor-piercing round. Though the plate armor that knights used was still hard to penetrate. By the 16th century, the longbow had well and truly had its day, as ever-improving muskets and cannons were now starting to dominate the battlefield. The last recorded use by actual army units was in very limited numbers in the English Civil War during the 1640s. Though in World War II, an eccentric, highly-decorated British officer called Mad Jack Churchill successfully used a longbow along with a sword during combat with German soldiers. And while the longbow as a military weapon became obsolete long ago, it is still popular today for recreational use, such as for hunting and target practice. It also has a special place in English culture, being frequently mentioned in stories featuring the medieval period and being associated with English heroes, such as Robin Hood.