English Longbows
The English longbow was invented in the Middle Aged at around the 13th century and was one of the most dominant weapons due to the fact that it was easy to make, also making it widely popular with peasants too. Later a law was passed saying that anyone with an income of over 2 pounds to own a bow. It took a while to learn how to use and aim properly, but after it was invented, children at a young age were taught how to use them. It was invented by the Welsh from the country of Wales (which has now been incorporated into modern day United Kingdom). It was made to block attacks from the French. The bow would be made from a single stave of wood from the yew tree, and the trees sap would also be included. The longbow was one of the few weapons that could actually pierce through armor, due to its accuracy and strong power. The English longbow could range very far in battle, about as for as 200 yards. The English longbow had a very far range and very good accuracy, but not at the same time. When the enemy was killed, it was usually because many people using longbows were shooting at it; with one person it would be very hard to kill an enemy. The shooting rate of this weapon would very from person to person, as their muscles were tired from having to reload arrows so many times. Their fingers would too get strained from having to pull back the string just as many times. Even if the shooters tiredness got in the way of their aiming and made them run out of arrows, young men were employed to run a fresh pack of arrows over to the shooters so they were in constant supply. The usage of longbows was difficult to master since the force needed to supply to the arrow was very high in order to hit through the armor of an enemy. If one was struck with an arrow, there was a way to remove it, although as one would guess; it was extremely painful. You would remove it by tying a piece of cloth, soaked in boiling water (or another sterilizing substance) to the end of the arrow and push it through the victims wound and out the other side. As well as this method, specialized tools were made to extract the arrows from places where the bone wouldn’t allow it to push all the way through the body. Prince Hal (later known as Henry V) was once struck in the face with an arrow. The royal physician known as John Bradmore had a tool made that consisted of a pair of smooth tongs. After carefully inserted into the rear end of the arrowhead wound, the tong screwed apart until they gripped its walls and allowed the head to be extracted from the wound. Afterwards the wound was soaked in honey (which has antiseptic properties) and after 20 days the wound would be free of infection. Overall the English longbow was a very impacting weapon, both in the battlefield and socially.
 Beignet Binch · Sat Mar 13, 2010 @ 02:41am · 0 Comments |
