No survey of medieval weaponry would be complete without mentioning the Longbow.
Originally a Welsh weapon, Edward I was so impressed by it's sheer power that he adopted the weapon for his own, indeed it became law that anyone using the bow on the field must practice every Sunday after church, indeed this law has only been repealed in recent years.
Such a weapon of immense power, it could not be used by just anyone, bowmen were trained from childhood on increasingly powerful versions of the bow. It is probably this fact that prevented the nations of Europe from adopting this weapon themselves, preferring to use the easier to learn Crossbow.
The bow usually measured around 6ft and usually had an extreme range of about 400 yards (365m) The arrow shafts were divided into two main types the heavy sheaf arrow with a bodkin tip for armour piercing, and the lighter flight arrows with a broader flanged head. Experienced archers used bows with a draw of upwards of 80 pounds to an extreme of about 150 pounds.
The Chronicle of Gerald de Barri described how an arrow passed through the skirt of a Mail Hauberk, the Gambeson, the Chausses (leg padding) beneath that, through the wearer’s leg and saddle thus pinning him to his horse. The chronicle also states that the arrows were capable of passing through 2 inches of solid oak!
Crossbows were first brought to England by the Normans in 1066 and soon became an important weapon in history. The Medieval Crossbows were used in warfare as well as for hunting and were widely employed in England, although their use was not as widespread as the Longbow.
A large crossbow could be more powerful than any longbow but the lighter crossbows were reasonably common and quite effective for use in the field by armour clad soldiers. Both types were able to shoot a bolt with such power as to punch through an armoured man, their main failing was in the rate of fire.
A well trained arbilist (crossbowman) could shoot a maximum of 5-7 bolts in a minute whereas a skilled archer would be able to shoot twice that amount if not more.
Where the crossbows came into their own was in the defence of fortified places such as castles. The castle tower afforded an advantageous position for their use as the bolts had a much further reach when employed at the top of a fortified wall. The larger crossbows that needed hand cranks or windlasses to span them were well suited to the cramped conditions inside towers and walls and could be used with ease to shoot through arrow loops. And as the arbilist was within a tower or behind the crenalated walls he could reload in relative safety.
