The inevitable progressive improvement of weaponry made it certain that the Hundred Years War would be won by the side that first developed and methodically used artillery. English insistence on retaining confidence in previously successful tactics based on the longbow allowed the French to take this initiative and turn them out of France. Even so, it is fair to claim that not until the mid-19th century was there a handheld infantry weapon as effective as the longbow used by English archers at Crecy in 1346.
The English yeoman and his longbow and the Swiss pikeman were the most significant single factors that, by reducing war to two simple elements, one or both of which have to be employed to defeat an enemy, changed all the old traditions and concepts of medieval fighting and warfare. An enemy must be overthrown either by:
- 1. Shock
2. Or by missile fire
3. Or by both in combination.
The first or shock element means that success is achieved when one side, perhaps with superior numbers, beats another in a hand-to-hand struggle. This method is materially affected by superiority of arms, or the greater strength and skill with which they are wielded. The second or missile method means that the day is won by one side maintaining such a constant and deadly rain of missiles that the enemy are destroyed or driven back before they can come to close quarters - in this manner a smaller force can defeat a larger one. Both methods are capable of numerous variations, techniques, and combinations of various arms and tactics.
In their simplest and most elementary forms the English archer and the Swiss pikeman represented these two basic methods of military efficiency. The former relied on his ability to beat the enemy by highly skilled and accurate shooting; the latter by presenting a solid column faced with a formidable hedge of spear points capable of driving before them superior numbers of the enemy who could not withstand the crashing impact and steady pressure of the pikemen. Both methods possessed the common factor of overthrowing the heavy, mail-clad horsemen who had for so long been masters of the battlefield. The marked superiority of both methods meant that they were copied by those who had suffered from them, but neither was easy to accomplish and the originators were never surpassed.
The longbow originated in Wales and soon crossed the border when first Cheshire men and then archers of other counties were armed with it. All the archers in Edward III's army were Englishmen. They were strong, muscular men - tall and tanned, sinewy, clear-eyed and hard-visaged; middle sized or tall men of robust build with arching chests and extraordinary breadth of shoulder. Their profession was proclaimed by the yew stave slung over their shoulder, plain and serviceable with the older men but gaudily painted and carved at either end when belonging to younger archers. Steel caps, mail brigandines, white surcoats with the red lion of St. George, and sword or battleaxe swinging from their belts completed the equipment. Some men carried a maul or five-foot mallet hung across the bow stave and fastened to their leather shoulder belt by a hook in the center of the handle. When they went to war, spare bow staves were taken, plus three spare cords allowed for each bow and a great store of arrowheads.
It is evident from their scanty defensive armor that archers were considered light infantry, swift and mobile, skillful and deadly with their weapons. On numerous occasions the archer discarded his bow and fought on foot with sword, axe, or maul. A knight seated on a horse could only put power into a swing with a sword by standing up in the stirrups to deliver his blow, so leaving exposed the one unprotected part of his whole armored body - his seat. This was the target of the nimble archers and they seldom missed with their keen swords as they dodged on light feet in and out of the melee.
Henry V's address to his archers before Agincourt fired them by dwelling on the cruelties in store should they fall into the hands of the French who had sworn to amputate their first three fingers so that they would never more slay man or horse. Many an English archer captured by French or Scots could ruefully hold up his hands to show that the thumbs and first two fingers had been torn away from each. His comrades set a vengeful value on them - twenty enemy lives for the thumbs and half a score for the fingers. This indicates the importance of the archer's fingers - every archer sought for a 'sharp loose' acquired by an apparent feeling of increasing the pull of the fingers on the string until suddenly it slipped off the fingers without any sign of creeping or any feel that the fingers had relaxed. Most of the feel of drawing was put into the first finger; the string starting quite close up to the first joint on that finger and sloping away across the middle of the first joint of the second finger, finishing up almost at the tip of the third finger. A very 'sharp loose' could be got in this way, as the first finger, the strongest but the laziest, was under better control. The second was also strong and not noticeably temperamental - it would generally follow the first finger. The third finger was the weakest, but it was also the most willing and could be hurt if ti did more than its proper share of drawing.
When fitted to the bow the arrow was on the right side of the stave, held between the first fingers and the string, which was pulled back by the first three fingers. A leather glove was worn on the right hand to protect the fingers. A leather or horn bracer was strapped to the inside of the left forearm to protect it from the slap of the released string, drawn back to the ear to obtain maximum range.
The English longbowman appeared to aim instinctively because it was quicker, but they took careful aim using their judgment to determine height. The best manner of shooting a bow is to use the same force for every shot regardless of whether the target is close or far away. The English archer used the full power of his bow every time, never instinctively using more or less of it in order to reach the mark. The bow held perpendicularly to the ground, their stance was sideways on to their target; so using to greatest advantage the muscles needed for drawing a warbow into such a position that the arrow in the bow lay under the eye. This stance also allowed them to stand closer together, better concentrating their volleys, which were made even more effective by the rear ranks being able to fire over the heads of the men in front of them.
Archery lends itself admirably to the statuesque position and the best archers looked comfortable as a good stance was always graceful and never ugly. With the bow held out by one arm pointing toward the mark or target, the head was turned in the same direction only as far as was comfortable. The other hand drawing the string back with the arrow nocked onto it was brought to such a position under or alongside the chin that the tail of the arrow was at a point under the aiming eye. To make sure that the arrow was brought back to the same point under the eye every time, the string would touch one point on the face - on the chin, the lips or the nose. The chin, either right in the middle or at some spot on the side, was the commonest. The lips were the most sensitive and made it possible to detect more easily any slight variation to one side of the proper place. The drawing hand was at the same time brought back firmly to its anchor point. A definite anchor point was of the utmost importance as it very largely influenced the accuracy of the aim for elevation. If the knuckle at the base of the first finger came up against the angle of the faw, an almost foolproof anchor point was obtained.
After reaching the full draw position there was a brief pause during which the aim was finally taken before the arrow was sent on its deadly way. Now was the time when practice, instinct, innate ability and all the other factors that made one archer better than another came into play. Instinctively, the bowman checked all the other vital points in his stance - his bodily balance, the pressure of the fingers of both hands, the position of the elbows, the anchor point, the angle of the bow, but especially the length of the draw.
The more expert the archer the shorter the period of holding; and it was always the same length of time. Every fraction of a second over his normal holding period with the bow held at full draw took something away from the cast of the bow and caused the arrow to fall short. During the whole act of shooting, from the beginning of the draw until after the arrow was loosed, the archer held his breath with his lungs just normally filled. The action of shooting was not hurried. The same time was taken with each arrow. The English archer acquired a regular rhythm. He would rather come down and start again if he were not satisfied; better that than to take a chance with what he knew to be a bad arrow.
When the whole body was under tension at full draw, concentration reached its peak as the slight final movement of the bow arm was made to complete the aim. Rather than force their arms to move fractionally in their sockets, some archers would shift their body weight a trifle onto the rear foot. All knew that it was best to bring the bow hand up to the required elevation just before or at the moment the draw was completed. In this way only a very minute adjustment was needed after the shaft hand had finally been anchored. Every archer developed some little characteristic action or movement that distinguished him from his fellows. He sought to settle down into a style that suited him best because it was comfortable and automatic, bringing maximum success.
Teaching
The older archers endeavored to instill into the beginners the need to lay the body to the bow; to draw from the thigh and hip as much as from the arm. To learn to shoot with a dropping shaft was essential. An arrow will go a certain distance up into the air before it falls towards its mark. When an arrow has its point directly on the target to be hit there is only one distance at which the arrow will fall on to the mark itself. This is 'point-blank' range and for an average man drawing a bow of, say, fortytwo pounds draw weight (under half that of the old English archer) that distance will be somewhere between 80 and 100 yards. An adjustment had to be made in the aim for elevation when shooting at a distance longer or shorter than point-blank range, bearing in mind that the bow was always drawn to the same extent so that the same power was used each time.
This was done by selecting a point at which to aim either, for shorter distances, on the ground short of the target, or, for longer distances, in a tree or some other tall object above and behind the target. In the latter case, this often meant that the mark was obscured by the bow hand, but the line of the arrow was constantly under observation.
Archers tried to avoid fighting with the sun in their front, believing the dazzling splendor of a summer's day to be very unfavorable to shooting. At Crecy, when the sudden gleam of sunshine after the rain burst forth behind the English, its beams, besides dazzling the eyes of the enemy, flashed upon their polished shields and corselets with a luster so brilliant that the archers discharged their first flight of arrows with more than usual certainty of aim.
An archer had to shoot straight and fast; but often he was called upon to deal with an enemy hiding behind a wall or an arbalastier protected by his mantlet. Then the arrow had to be discharged so that it fell upon the straight from the clouds. There are numerous instances of archers being intelligently used to cover the movement of other troops - a "combined operation" at the landing of English men-at-arms at Cadzand in 1346 enabled them to get comfortably ashore whilst the defenders were pinned down by hails of arrows from massed archers. In the autumn of 1342 Robert of Artois besieging Vannes delivered an early morning assault when his archers put down what would now be called a 'standing barrage' on the battlements - so fierce and accurate that, according to Froissart, the battlements were soon cleared and not an enemy dared show his head. Covered by this fire, the men-at-arms advanced to the assault.
Archery was simply a primitive form of artillery, playing the same part then as now by softening up the enemy to allow the infantry to get to grips under the most advantageous conditions.
The English archer did not fight in small guerilla bands - shooting from cover - but in disciplined solid masses shooting hundreds of arrows in volleys. For example, at Crecy, the men-at- arms were deployed into line by the marshals and then a solid wedge of archers formed up on the flanks of each of the divisions, with men inching forward diagonally, pivoting on the flank of their own men-at-arms, where the two continuous lines of archers met, an apex was formed. In this way a bastion-like formation know as a herce was created in the intervals between the divisions. It had obvious advantages in that the front of the men-at-arms and the flanks of the army could be enfiladed by arrow fire.
Volley Fire
The deadly effectiveness of this was apparent when one considers 250, 500, or 1,000 skilled and experienced archers standing shoulder-to-shoulder, shooting collectively with each man loosing off six shafts a minute -- hundreds of arrows in flight at once followed by similar waves at 10 second intervals with the first wave arriving on its target as the last wave left the longbow.
The proficient archer could maintain this rate of fire as long as he had arrows. More effusive descriptions of the English bowman claim that he was capable of drawing and discharging his bow 12 times in a single minute at a range of 250 yards, and if he once missed his man in those twelve shots he was but lightly esteemed. This might not be over-colored for a weary and sick army of less than 6,000 men to defeat over 25,000 French at Agincourt, killing 10,000 of them, would indicate that the archers could notch with a shaft every crevice and joint of a man-at-arms' harness from the clasp of his basinet to the hinge of his greave.
A single volley by the archers at Agincourt amounted to about 5,000 shafts, each weighing 2.5 ounces, a total of 781 pounds; the total weight of all the arrows that fell on the French on the day, assuming that each archer loosed all his stock of 48 shafts, was nearly 17 tons. In this battle there is little doubt that by far the greater proportion of the 6-7,000 French dead lost their lives in close quarter melee fighting - by concussion, cuts or stab wounds - yet English archers probably loosed 240,000 shafts during the course of the battle! Generously allowing that they killed 25% of the total French dead -- it took 150 arrows to kill one man. However, that is far from the true effect and long-term potential of the arrow hails that darkened the skies during the 100 Years War.
The skill and deadliness of the English archer was not a matter of chance as the law prescribed the bow weights that were proper for use of various ages, because a weapon was little use without special training. A contemporary chronicler wrote, "My father was diligent in teaching me to shoot with the bow; he taught me to draw, to lay my body to the bow, not toe draw with the strength of the arm as other nation s do, but with the strength of the body. I had my bows bought me in accordance with my age and strength; as I increased in these my bows were made bigger and bigger." Through extensive practice the yeomen of England could pull a warbow of 100 pounds or more with ease and skill.
Not un-naturally, the success of the English longbowmen encouraged the French to form archer companies of their own and at that time French historian Juvenal Des Ursins claimed that the assembled force was as good and indeed superior to the archers of England! He wrote, "In a short time the French archers became so expert in their use of the bow that they were able to discharge their bows with a more sure aim than the English; and indeed, if these archers had formed a close confederacy among themselves, they might have become a more powerful body than the Princes and Nobles of France; and accordingly it was the apprehension of such a result as this which caused the French King to suppress the archer force in his army." It was unfortunate that the bowmen of England were not given the opportunity to test this question of national superiority, when there might have been displayed yet another example of that insular obtuseness that has always caused English soldiers to be unable to understand when they are beaten!
Well could Sir John Fortescue say, "The might of the realme of England standyth upon archers."
Related
100 Years War Campaign by Don Featherstone
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© Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum
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