With a "flight" arrow a heavy longbow can shoot over 400 yards. A normal arrow (which weighed between 3 and 4 ounces) was effective to about 250 yards. They're still very dangerous at that range because unlike modern arrows, which are much lighter, they start to accelerate again on the way down. At 250 yards they were absolutely lethal to an unarmoured man and a serious nuisance to anyone in mail or a padded coat. At 100 yards they'll punch right through anything except steel plate armour (most 14th century plate was iron).
African elephant bows have a draw weight of about 90-100lb and they'll bring down, well, an elephant. We don't know what weight the bows used at Crecy were because none have survived. We DO know that 200 years later Henry VIII complained about archers not being able to draw heavy bows any more. The ones his archers took on the Mary Rose ranged from 100-190lb. Medieval longbows had a ridiculous level of overkill against anything except the larger whales. That's because to get through armour they needed to throw a very heavy arrow at a respectable speed. I've made some very close replicas of medieval arrows; from my 60lb bow they have a flight path like a rainbow, but enough energy that they actually knock my target over sometimes. I can launch them about 160 yards.
Thank you! I can see how (given a large enough body of archers) they'd be enormously useful for a force trying to hold a position against an oncoming force (unless the oncoming force were infantry with a Roman tortoise-shield defence). Do you think they'd have enough accuracy to still be useful when battle was joined? (I do know who won at Crecy, and that the longbows get a lot of the credit! I'm just trying to visualise why.)
The standard for being allowed into a medieval archery company, apparently, was being able to hit an oyster shell at a hundred paces (call it 63 yards). If you could do that, you'd stand a good chance of being able to hit the joints of plate armour at the same range - or the visor of the helmet, of course, and arrows could usually break through even a good visor.
As for the tortoise, that only really worked with the scutum, which of course was rectangular. A typical medieval shield was too small and the wrong shape; there would be gaps between shields that the archers would simply shoot into. In any case a shield would probably start to break up after half a dozen hits.
At both Crecy and Agincourt the archers fought hand to hand as well as with their bows. They were more agile than men in armour and tended to carry sledgehammers, axes and daggers. It all got rather nasty.
:) Yes, I knew the tortoise wasn't used in these battles! I was just musing on things that could have been. and will now be able to muse with good solid background data - thank you very much!
With a "flight" arrow a heavy longbow can shoot over 400 yards. A normal arrow (which weighed between 3 and 4 ounces) was effective to about 250 yards. They're still very dangerous at that range because unlike modern arrows, which are much lighter, they start to accelerate again on the way down. At 250 yards they were absolutely lethal to an unarmoured man and a serious nuisance to anyone in mail or a padded coat. At 100 yards they'll punch right through anything except steel plate armour (most 14th century plate was iron).
African elephant bows have a draw weight of about 90-100lb and they'll bring down, well, an elephant. We don't know what weight the bows used at Crecy were because none have survived. We DO know that 200 years later Henry VIII complained about archers not being able to draw heavy bows any more. The ones his archers took on the Mary Rose ranged from 100-190lb. Medieval longbows had a ridiculous level of overkill against anything except the larger whales. That's because to get through armour they needed to throw a very heavy arrow at a respectable speed. I've made some very close replicas of medieval arrows; from my 60lb bow they have a flight path like a rainbow, but enough energy that they actually knock my target over sometimes. I can launch them about 160 yards.
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Do you think they'd have enough accuracy to still be useful when battle was joined? (I do know who won at Crecy, and that the longbows get a lot of the credit! I'm just trying to visualise why.)
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As for the tortoise, that only really worked with the scutum, which of course was rectangular. A typical medieval shield was too small and the wrong shape; there would be gaps between shields that the archers would simply shoot into. In any case a shield would probably start to break up after half a dozen hits.
At both Crecy and Agincourt the archers fought hand to hand as well as with their bows. They were more agile than men in armour and tended to carry sledgehammers, axes and daggers. It all got rather nasty.
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and will now be able to muse with good solid background data - thank you very much!
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