The Longbow

There has probably been more nonsense written about the English longbow than any other weapon, with the possible exception of the Kentucky rifle.

First, the longbow had more range than the Genoese expected, based on their rather limited experience with other bows, but it did not outrange the crossbows. The Genoese did not open fire at extreme range, but at a range at which they could easily sight their crossbows. A crossbow, like a rifle or a longbow, gets maximum range when elevated about 43 degrees. Because of the way it is made, it’s easier to aim a longbow at that elevation than it is to aim a crossbow.

Around the turn of the last century, Sir Ralph Payne‑Gallwey, using restored medieval crossbows, was able to shoot arrows up to 450 yards. A few years later, Dr. Saxton T. Pope, an expert archer and bowyer, used a replica of an English longbow to shoot 250 yards.

Second, the power of the longbow did not depend entirely on its length. The power of any bow depends on three things: (1) how much strength it takes to draw it, (2) how quickly it springs back to its original shape, and (3) over what distance the bow string is pushing the arrow. The old English war arrow was 28 inches long. To draw an arrow of that length to its fullest, the bow also had to be long. An old archers’ adage holds that “A bow full drawn is 9/10 broke.” A half round yew bow, with sapwood on the back and heartwood on the belly, had to be about 5 1/2 feet long to draw a standard arrow without breaking if its draw weight was 70 or 80 pounds.

Third, the longbow did not have a draw weight of 150 or 200 pounds and require a lifetime of training to use it. Dr. Pope made an exact replica of a longbow stave recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose, an English warship that sank in 1545. The bow stave was 6 feet, 4 3/4 inches long. He made an exact replica of choice yew, strung it, and tested it. The bow had a draw weight of only 52 pounds and shot a flight arrow 185 yards. He cut the length to 6 feet. It now weighed 62 pounds and shot the flight arrow 227 yards. Pope again trimmed the bow, this time to 5 feet, 8 inches. It now weighed 70 pounds when drawn 28 inches and shot the flight arrow 245 yards. From Pope’s experiments, it would seem that the average longbow had a draw weight of 70 or maybe 80 pounds.

Most archers today would consider that a moderately heavy bow, but certainly not one that would require a lifetime of training.

Fourth, the longbow was neither a new weapon nor a particularly sophisticated bow. Longbows almost exactly like the English weapon have been dug out of European bogs and dated by radiocarbon technology to as early as 6000 B.C.

In Neolithic times, the bow seems to have been the most important European weapon, perhaps because Neolithic people were primarily hunters. In the early Bronze Age, a people known to archaeologists as the “Beaker People” swept across Europe from Spain to central Europe. The graves of Beaker men contained bone or stone bracers, worn on the inside of the bow arm to prevent injury by the released bow string, and flint or bronze arrow heads. But the people of central Europe, after learning – often firsthand – of the effectiveness of the armored Greeks, had adopted the Greek tradition of shock warfare. In the densely forested central Europe of that time, shock warfare was probably more effective than mobile tactics based on the bow. The descendants of the Beaker People traded their bows for battle axes, spears, and, later, swords.

The bow continued to be an important weapon in Scandinavia, particularly in Norway, where almost all transportation was by boat or ship. Missile weapons have always been important in naval warfare. The descendants of the Northmen, the Normans, didn’t lose their taste for archery during the time they stayed in France. Archery played a big part in Duke William’s victory at Hastings over Harold Godwinsson. King Harold was even struck down by an arrow. A longbow was difficult to shoot from horseback, so the chivalry of England neglected the weapon until they invaded Wales, where the archery tradition was still strong.

Welsh arrows perforated Norman armor and even penetrated a castle door made of seasoned oak 4 inches thick. The success of the Welsh archers led to the revival of the longbow by the English Infantry.

The English longbow was the simplest type of bow – a “self bow,” one made of a single piece of wood. It was fairly sophisticated for a self bow, because the back – the part facing away from the archer – was the more flexible sapwood, which allowed the bow to be bent more sharply without breaking. More sophisticated than the self bow are: the laminated bow, composed of several layers of wood glued together; the backed bow, with animal sinew on the back to deter breakage and increase springiness; and the composite bow, a thin wood core backed with sinew and a belly – the part facing the archer – made of horn.