Longbow

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Longbow, 45 engl. Pound pull weight at standard extension length, corresponds to 200 N pulling force.
Long archers execute Saint Sebastian . Altarpiece from around 1493

The longbow is a launching device for arrows . It represents a historical form of the bow . The term long bow serves as a generic term for all simple, rod-shaped bows; in the extended use it also stands for arches with flat cross-sections ("flat arches"), which have been archaeologically proven in Europe since the Mesolithic . The longbow, like all other bows, is not a firearm under the German Weapons Act .

The English longbow is the type of stick bow made mostly from yew or elm from the late Middle Ages , which was mainly known for its massive use in late medieval battles.

To distinguish the longbow from other bow types, two criteria must be met: The length corresponds approximately to the size of the archer and the bowstring only touches the longbow at the tendon attachments (the "tips").

history

The oldest surviving arch fragments come from the Mesolithic and are up to around 10,000 years old. The oldest arch found on English territory to date dates to 2690 BC. And was found at Meare Heath in Somerset .

There are only sparse sources about the development of the English longbow. When King Vortigern attacked what is now Wales in 449 , the arch appeared in the British Isles . The Welsh were apparently so impressed by this weapon that they studied the specimens that remained after the trigger and let the Vikings instruct them in the art of archery. They quickly achieved a skill that enabled them not only to defend themselves against their southern neighbors, but also to attack and drive them out of their own country. Numerous battles later, they had so practiced the art of archery that they became the national weapon and were decisive for the course of battles for a few centuries.

English longbow

English longbow archer at a target practice (1325)

As an English longbow (ELB), longbows of the Mary Rose type are usually referred to. These are made of yew wood, are over 1.80 m long and have a deep D-cross section, i.e. a round belly. There is also the later Victorian English longbow with a less deep cross-section and a flat stomach.

Manufacturing

In the Middle Ages , long bows were mostly made from yew wood . For this purpose, trunks (more rarely branches) were split lengthways. When pulling off the outside (side facing away from the shooter: "back"), care must be taken that the same annual ring forms the outer surface over the entire length of the arch, otherwise the arch between the annual rings tends to tear. Then the "belly side" facing the shooter and made of heartwood is carefully thinned (" tilled ") until the limbs are evenly bent.

Yew blanks in Central Europe came primarily from southern Germany and northern Italy . Because of the great demand, the yew tree was ruthlessly cut down, so that it became relatively rare in the wild in Europe. Today it is under nature protection and can still be found almost exclusively in parks and cemeteries. In addition, were ash and elm processed. Hazel , although suitable for bow making, was rarely used due to its weaker throwing properties. Arches made of yew, ash and elm are shown in the find catalog of the medieval town of Haithabu near Schleswig. An Indian longbow usually consisted of bamboo , which was sometimes reinforced with metal .

The cross-section of the English longbow has a narrow D-profile. On the belly side, it is largely made of pressure-resistant heartwood, while the arch back is made of tension-resistant sapwood . A D-shaped profiled arch places high demands on the compressive strength of the wood, which only selected types and qualities of wood can meet. A remedy here is a change in the cross-sectional design to flatter and wider, more rectangular-looking limbs, which, in addition to the higher load capacity, also have a more pleasant shooting behavior due to significantly reduced hand shocks. This shape is now called the " American flat arch " in the English-speaking world , even if the flat arch was also a standard type in Europe during the Middle and Neolithic .

Other excellent bow woods for long bow construction - which are mainly used today - are "Osage Orange" ( Maclura ) and Robinia . The black locust was only introduced to Europe from North America around 1630. While very good long bows can be built from Osage Orange , robinia wood is particularly suitable for flat bows due to its hardness. Elm, from whose wood the oldest (Mesolithic) flat arch from Holmegård (Denmark) was built, as well as maple , mountain ash and other woods should also be mentioned.

The bowstring transfers the energy of the bow stick to the arrow. In medieval longbows, it consisted of flax or nettle fibers .

Strength

There is evidence of extremely powerful arches, such as the discovery of a war point in the wooden roof of a tower in the Tower of London , the depth of which can only be explained by an arch of more than 120 English pounds . The arches found in the shipwreck Mary Rose , which sank in 1545, provide further evidence of train weights over 100 pounds . Deformations in the area of ​​the shoulder axis in skeleton finds of English longbow archers are evidence of physical wear and tear due to the high draw weights, which averaged around 80 English pounds (equivalent to about 36 kg) draw weight. Trials with replicas of historical arch finds have shown even higher values. The draw weights were far above those of the bare bows used in today's shooting. The aim was to achieve the highest possible penetration power for heavy arrows . Chain armor , plate armor, or oak plates about an inch thick have reportedly been pierced by longbow arrows. Gerald de Barri reports on the battle for Abergavenny Castle in 1182, in which two fleeing soldiers were shot at by Welsh archers, so that their arrows penetrated the 10 cm thick castle gate made of solid oak so far that the arrowheads protruded on the other side. How fast the arrows of that time were can only be guessed today based on inaccurate reproductions of finds, but these resulted in a speed of around 140–150 feet per second (the then and now common speed specification), which corresponds to 153 to 164 km / h. This value appears plausible, not least because of the arrow speeds measured on today's solid wood bows.

War effort

Battle of Crécy (1346). The English (right) carried a large contingent of long archers with them.

Long archers were highly specialized units with a high level of training. Trained longbow archers could shoot up to ten arrows per minute over ranges of up to 200 m.

More emphasis was probably placed on the quantity than on the accuracy, since in a battle areas were more likely to be shot at than individual targets. 1,000 archers could fire 500 kg arrows per minute . This immense consumption kept a whole "branch of industry" alive, of which many professions existed: not only the bow makers (bowyer) and arrow makers (arrowsmith, fletcher), but also blacksmiths, rope makers (stringer, stringfellow), timber merchants, hauliers, etc. some These job titles still live on today as English family names.

The use of English and Welsh long archers in conjunction with dismounted knights or the use of stakes as cover helped decide the battles of Crécy in 1346 and Azincourt in 1415. The French army was defeated in almost all decisive battles of the Hundred Years War , as they relied on outdated tactics with the emphasis on knights. Other decisive battles shaped the image of today's Europe significantly. For example the battle of Aljubarrota on August 14, 1385, when Portuguese troops striving for independence , reinforced by some English longbow archers, defeated the numerically clearly superior Castilian invasion army under John I and thus brought about the independence of Portugal.

Some critics consider contemporary accounts of the benefits of the longbow to be greatly exaggerated. The longbow has been supplanted by firearms like the arquebus , which developed greater penetrative power , since the late 15th century . Longbows had a longer rate of fire and were less sensitive to moisture than firearms, but training an arquebusier was significantly less time-consuming. So if you couldn't fall back on fully trained archers, as the English did with Welsh archers, archers were no longer economically efficient. In addition, the plate armor became more and more massive in the early early modern times , so that it could be more easily penetrated with the help of an arquebus shot or, since the middle of the 16th century, especially with a musket shot .

Longbows and arrows received

In 1523, according to a report, 11,000 bows, 6,000 bow sticks, 384,000 arrows and 86,400 bowstrings were stored in the Tower of London alone, but by 1982 only a handful of bows remained.

From the wreck of the Mary Rose , a warship of Henry VIII, which sank in 1545 and was lifted in 1982 , more than 3,500 preserved medieval arrows (mostly made of poplar wood ) and 137 completely preserved longbows were recovered. The bows are in great condition making them the main source for research into the English longbow. Their length ranges between 1.87 and 2.11 meters, with an average height of 1.98 meters.

Two arches were salvaged from the Mary Rose by John Deane in 1836 and are now also in the Tower of London. In addition to the bow of the Mary Rose, only three other examples of English longbows are known worldwide , which have been preserved since the late Middle Ages and the early modern era:

Japanese longbow

A variant of the longbow called Yumi is known from Japan . They are considered to be the longest known arches in the world.

Web links

Commons : Longbow  - collection of images, videos, and audio files
Wiktionary: Longbow  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

literature

  • The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 1 . 1992 The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-085-3
  • The bible of traditional bow making 1 . Verlag Angelika Hörnig, Ludwigshafen 2003, ISBN 978-3-9808743-2-8 .
  • The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 2 . 1992 The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-086-1
  • The Bible of Traditional Bow Making 2 . Verlag Angelika Hörnig, Ludwigshafen 2004, ISBN 3-9808743-5-4 .
  • The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 3 . 1994 The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-087-X
  • The Bible of Traditional Bow Making 3 . Verlag Angelika Hörnig, Ludwigshafen 2005, ISBN 978-3-9808743-9-7 .
  • The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 4 . 2008 The Lyons Press. ISBN 978-0-9645741-6-8
  • The Bible of Traditional Bow Making 4 . Verlag Angelika Hörnig, Ludwigshafen 2008, ISBN 978-3-938921-07-4 .
  • Robert Hardy: Longbow: A social and military history . Lyons and Burford 1993, hardcover, 246 pages, ISBN 1558212353
  • Hagen Seehase, Ralf Krekeler: The feathered death. The history of the English longbow in the wars of the Middle Ages . Verlag Angelika Hörnig, Ludwigshafen 2001, ISBN 3-9805877-6-2 .
  • The bow maker book. European bow making from the Stone Age to today . Verlag Angelika Hörnig, Ludwigshafen 2001, ISBN 3-9805877-7-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ JGD Clark: Neolithic Bows From Somerset, England, and the Prehistory of Archery in North-West Europe . Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society XXIX, 1963, pp. 50-98.
  2. ^ Imperial College of Science and Technology re the estimated draw weights of English Longbows from the Mary Rose and other sources
  3. ↑ Strickland, Matthew; Hardy, Robert (2005). The Great Warbow: From Hastings to the Mary Rose. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0750931671 .
  4. ^ Robert E. Kaiser, "The Medieval English Longbow" Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries, Volume 23, 1980.
  5. ↑ Helen Adams: JAPANESE ARMS AND ARMOR , "Japanese Archery", Pitt Rivers Museum, 2007 (online PDF 356 MB) ( Memento from October 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive )