War Bow
A heavy-draw longbow built for battlefield use
The war bow is a heavy military longbow of medieval England with an especially high draw weight, of 150 pounds, about 68 kg, or more. It is a self bow, the whole bow carved from a single stave of yew, and made thicker and stronger than an ordinary longbow. With the narrow, pointed bodkin arrowhead made to pierce armor, it could punch through mail and, at close range, even relatively thin plate. To handle this tremendous draw weight an archer had to train for years from childhood, and as a result of that lifetime of training the skeletons of archers bear clear marks: curvature of the spine, enlarged bones in the left arm, and deformation of the shoulder and finger joints.
Origin
The war bow is a powerful military longbow developed for war in 13th- to 15th-century England. Originating in the bow tradition of Wales and taken up by the English army, it reached the height of its power in the Hundred Years War. Many longbows and thousands of arrows were found aboard Henry VIII's warship the Mary Rose, which sank in 1545 and was raised in 1982, and reconstruction and measurement put the draw weights at about 100 to 185 pounds, confirming its tremendous power in physical fact. England made archery practice compulsory by law to keep a deep pool of trained archers.
Features
- An extreme heavy bow of 150 pounds, about 68 kg, draw or more
- Pierces mail and even thin plate with the bodkin point
- Clear skeletal deformation left in the bones of archers
- Many actual bows found on the Mary Rose (sank 1545)
- A self bow carved from a single stave of yew
- An effective volley range of about 200 m or more
Stories
The war bow came into its own in the massed volley shooting of many archers at once in a great pitched battle. English longbowmen poured down an arrow storm that darkened the sky, bringing down both the horse and the man of the charging heavy cavalry together. Against armor they chose the narrow, pointed bodkin head, and against horses or lightly armed foes the broad broadhead, with power enough to pierce armor even at 100 to 200 m. In the battles of the Hundred Years War such as Crecy in 1346, Poitiers in 1356, and Agincourt in 1415, the volleys of these longbowmen shattered the French knights again and again.
Weakness
The greatest weakness of the war bow lay not in the bow but in the man. A draw weight of over 150 pounds was harsh enough to leave permanent damage on an archer's body, and without years of training from childhood one could not even draw it properly. That is, harder than the strong bow itself was raising the trained archers to wield it, and only by rearing a whole generation could an army be filled. Unlike the crossbow, which anyone could learn to shoot in a short time, or the firearms that eventually came, the war bow demanded a lifetime of training, so when its culture of archery withered it vanished quickly.
Cultural Significance
The war bow is a weapon symbolic of the military power and national identity of medieval England. The longbowman who upheld the victories of the Hundred Years War joined with the pride of the free yeoman class to become, as in the legend of Robin Hood, a national heroic figure of the English. The English crown saw archery as the foundation of national defense, and Edward III by a decree of 1363 made archery practice on Sundays and holidays compulsory for grown men and banned the games that distracted from it. The deep pool of trained archers reared in this way made possible the victories of Crecy and Agincourt.
In Popular Culture
The war bow appears as an emblematic ranged weapon in works dealing with the Middle Ages and the Hundred Years War. The arrow storm of the English longbowman is often depicted in films and dramas of medieval English setting, including the tales of Robin Hood, and in strategy games such as Age of Empires and Total War. In fantasy too the long self bow is commonly drawn as the symbol of the classic archer. In fiction, though, the harsh draw weight of the war bow and the lifetime of training needed to handle it are scarcely reflected, so it tends to be simplified into a light bow that anyone shoots with ease.
Trivia
- Many longbows and thousands of arrows were found aboard the warship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545 and was raised in 1982, and reconstruction and measurement put the draw weights at about 100 to 185 pounds, confirming the tremendous power of the war bow in physical fact.
- A self bow made of yew is in effect a natural composite: the bowyer keeps the pale sapwood, strong in tension, on the back of the bow and the dark heartwood, strong in compression, on the belly, so that a single stave acts as if in two layers.
- Edward III of England by a decree of 1363 made archery practice compulsory for grown men and banned the games that distracted from it, and the pool of trained archers reared this way made possible the victories of Crecy and Agincourt, while the lifetime of training it demanded meant that when that culture cooled the bow vanished quickly.