The Longbow

English longbow men were the backbone of Plantagenet armies, particularly throughout the Hundred Years War.  The longbow itself was made of wood from the yew tree to a length of over six feet.  It took considerable skill and precision to work these bows and practice, which is why many kings authorize laws directing that subjects with a certain income level possess a longbow and devote time to practice, rather than wasting time at other games and pursuits.  A statute of Henry III required that all citizens, burgesses, freemen and villeins (peasants bound to land) to be armed.  Poorest men could arm themselves with a knife or a halberd.  Men with 2L income or more had to possess a bow.  Massed English archers sending up volleys of arrows at Sluys (1340), Crecy (1346), Poitiers (1356) and even Agincourt of 1415 were just as deadly as knights or pikemen.  It was only in later battles, when the French learned to break their lines with massed mounted attacks, as happened at Vermeil (1424) and Patay (1429), that French forces began to turn the war toward their side.

Longbows were known in England from pre-Roman times but none survive from the hey-day of the longbow, 1250-1450.  A few do survive from Tudor times, which gives some idea of their size and constructions.  The bows themselves were made of yew, a commonly available wood in England that almost anyone could afford to access.  Strings were made from hemp, flax or silk.  Arrows were made from a variety of materials, depending on the area and the craftsmen who made them.  It took considerable force to draw a longbow, but the trick was not in jerking or yanking the bowstring, but in learning how to draw it to its full strength, place or nock the arrow and then shoot.  For this reason, boys began learning to draw and shoot at an early age, progressing to larger bows as they grew older, until they were capable of handling a full bow.  English archers were famed for their skill at using the weapon, not only mastering the draw, but he ability to quickly fire volleys of arrows in tight formation.  Sources differ on how far a distance longbows could reach in the heat of battle, and at how accurate they were in piercing various types of armor.  But an arrow with the right kind of bodkin or tip could pierce most types of armor and, if it found a chink in armor, was even more deadly.  It was less effective against shields or men-at-arms using shield wall formations.

The first use of the word longbow comes from one of the Paston letters of the 15th century.  Arrows were deadly, not only depending on where they hit but also the means used to extract them.  Extracting an arrow was painful and could result in infection and death.  Being hit with an arrow was a long, slow, bleeding and agonizing death.  Because an armed citizenry was a mandate, English kings could easily raise an army by commanding their lords to raise their levies, knights, men at arms, and bowmen.  But it also meant that angry citizens could easily start an uprising on their own.  For this reason, Kings were reluctant to push the commons too far and sometimes the prospect of a rising might force a King to rethink some issue of policy, particularly if he didn't have the support of the barons or parliament. 

Incidentally, the idea of an armed citizenry prepared to use their weapons was the faintest glimmer of the militias and trained bands of Tudor and later Puritan England.  It was also the distant ancestor of the American militias and minutemen.