Longbow

Illustration of longbowmen from the 14th century

A longbow was found in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps with a natural mummy known as Ötzi. His bow was made from yew and was 1.82 metres (72 in) long; the body has been dated to around 3300 BC. A slightly shorter bow comes from the Scottish parish of Tweedsmuir in a peat bog known as Rotten Bottom. The bow, made from yew, has been given a calibrated radiocarbon date of 4040 BC to 3640 BC.[3] Another bow made from yew, found within some peat in Somerset, England has been dated to 2700–2600 BC. Forty longbows which date from the 4th century AD have been discovered in a peat bog at Nydam in Denmark.[4]

In the Middle Ages the English were famous for their very powerful longbows, used en masse to great effect against the French in the Hundred Years' War, with notable success at the battles of Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415).[5] During the reign of Edward III of England, laws were passed allowing fletchers and bowyers to be impressed into the army and enjoining them to practice archery. The dominance of the longbow on the battlefield continued until the French began to use cannon to break the formations of English archers at the Battle of Formigny (1450) and the Battle of Castillon (1453). Their use continued in the Wars of the Roses. They survived as a weapon of war in England well beyond the introduction of effective firearms.[6] The average length of arrow shafts, which has been recovered from the 1545 sinking of the Mary Rose, is 75 centimetres (30 in). In 1588, the militia was called out in anticipation of an invasion by the Spanish Armada and it included many archers in its ranks; the Kent militia for instance, had 1,662 archers out of 12,654 men mustered.[7]

The first book in English about longbow archery was Toxophilus by Roger Ascham, first published in London in 1545 and dedicated to King Henry VIII.

Although firearms supplanted bows in warfare, wooden or fibreglass laminated longbows continue to be used by traditional archers and some tribal societies for recreation and hunting. A longbow has practical advantages compared with a modern recurve or compound bow; it is usually lighter, quicker to prepare for shooting, and shoots more quietly. However, other things being equal, the modern bow will shoot a faster arrow more accurately than the longbow.

The Battle of Flodden (1513) was "a landmark in the history of archery, as the last battle on English soil to be fought with the longbow as the principal weapon..."[8] The Battle of Tippermuir (1644), in Scotland, may have been the last battle involving the longbow in significant numbers.[9] It has also been claimed that longbows may have been used as late as 1654 at the Battle of Tullich in north-east Scotland.[10]

Top: Lemonwood, purpleheart and hickory laminated bow.
Bottom: Yew selfbow.

Because the longbow can be made from a single piece of wood, it can be crafted relatively easily and quickly. Amateur bowyers today can make a longbow in about ten to twenty hours,[11] while highly skilled bowyers, such as those who produced medieval English longbows, can make wooden longbows in just a few hours.

One of the simpler longbow designs is known as the self bow, by definition made from a single piece of wood. Traditional English longbows are self bows made from yew wood. The bowstave is cut from the radius of the tree so that sapwood (on the outside of the tree) becomes the back and forms about one third of the total thickness; the remaining two-thirds or so is heartwood (50/50 is about the maximum sapwood/heartwood ratio generally used). Yew sapwood is good only in tension, while the heartwood is good in compression. However, compromises must be made when making a yew longbow, as it is difficult to find perfect unblemished yew. The demand for yew bowstaves was such that by the late 16th century mature yew trees were almost extinct in northern Europe.[12] In other desirable woods such as Osage orange and mulberry the sapwood is almost useless and is normally removed entirely.

Longbows, because of their narrow limbs and rounded cross-section (which does not spread out stress within the wood as evenly as a flatbow’s rectangular cross section), need to be less powerful, longer or of more elastic wood than an equivalent flatbow. In Europe the last approach was used, with yew being the wood of choice, because of its high compressive strength, light weight, and elasticity. Yew is the best widespread European timber that will make good self longbows, (other woods such as elm can make longbows but require heat-treating of the belly and a wider belly/narrower back, while still falling into the definition of a longbow) and has been the main wood used in European bows since Neolithic times. More common and cheaper hard woods, including elm, oak, hickory, ash, hazel and maple, are good for flatbows. A narrow longbow with high draw-weight can be made from these woods, but it is likely to take a permanent bend (known as "set" or "following the string") and would probably be outshot by an equivalent made of yew.

Wooden laminated longbows can be made by gluing together two or more different pieces of wood. Usually this is done to take advantage of the inherent properties of different woods: some woods can better withstand compression while others are better at withstanding tension. Examples include hickory and lemonwood, or bamboo and yew longbows: hickory or bamboo is used on the back of the bow (the part facing away from the archer when shooting) and so is in tension, while the belly (the part facing the archer when shooting) is made of lemonwood or yew and undergoes compression (see bending for a further explanation of stresses in a bending beam). Traditionally made Japanese yumi are also laminated longbows, made from strips of wood: the core of the bow is bamboo, the back and belly are bamboo or hardwood, and hardwood strips are laminated to the bow's sides to prevent twisting. Any wooden bow must have gentle treatment and be protected from excessive damp or dryness. Wooden bows may shoot as well as fiberglass, but they are more easily dented or broken by abuse. Bows made of modern materials can be left strung for longer than wood bows, which may take a large amount of set if not unstrung immediately after use.

The longbow and its historical significance, arising from its adoption by the Welsh fighting alongside the English during the Hundred Years' War, have created a lasting legacy for the longbow, which has given its name to modern military equipment, including:

• The AH-64D Apache Longbow, an attack helicopter;
• The AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire, an air-to-ground missile; and
• The Dakota Longbow T-76, a sniper rifle.

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Longbows.

Look up longbow in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 1. 1992. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-085-3.
• The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 2. 1992. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-086-1.
• The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 3. 1994. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-087-X.
• The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 4. 2008. The Lyons Press. ISBN 978-0-9645741-6-8.
• Bryant, Arthur (1963). The Age of Chivalry.
• Gray, David (2002). Bows of the World. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-478-6.
• The Great Warbow: From Hastings to the Mary Rose, by Dr. Matthew Strickland Department of History - Dr Matthew Strickland and Robert Hardy, Pub Sutton, 2005, ISBN 0-7509-3167-1.
• Longbow: A Social and Military History, by Robert Hardy, CBE, FSA. Pub Sutton, rev 2006, ISBN 0-7509-4391-2.

• Jenkins, Simon 2018 A Short History of England pp72 - 73 Profile Books Ltd.ISBN 978 1 78816 089 6