User:The Hsinging Tree/Longbow
History
[edit]
Southeastern North America
[edit]Prehistory
[edit]Europe
[edit]Prehistory
[edit]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.[1] 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.[2]
Middle Ages
[edit]In the Middle Ages the English and Welsh[3] 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).[4] 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.[5] 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..."[6]
Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
[edit]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 Battle of Tippermuir (1644), in Scotland, may have been the last battle in the British Isles to involve the longbow in significant numbers.[8]
Early literature
[edit]The earliest known book on European longbow archery is the anonymous L'Art D'Archerie, produced in France in the late 15th or early 16th century.[9] 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.
Modern recreational and hunting use
[edit]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. With the longbow it is possible to use instinctive shooting, a fast shooting method widely used in hunting or in 3D Archery competitions. However, other things being equal, the modern bow will shoot a faster arrow more accurately than the longbow.[10][11]
Organisations that run archery competitions have set out formal definitions for various classes of bow; many definitions of the longbow would exclude some medieval examples, materials, and techniques of use.[12][13] Some archery clubs in the United States classify longbows simply as bows with strings that do not come in contact with their limbs. According to the British Longbow Society, the English longbow is made so that its thickness is at least 5⁄8 (62.5%) of its width, as in Victorian longbows, and is widest at the grip.[14] A similar, more inclusive, definition was created by the International Longbow Archers Association (ILAA) which defined the bow as fitting within a rectangular template of the proportions 1:0.625.[15]
- ↑ Scottish Archaeological Research Framework: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Neolithic: Alison Sheridan & Kenny Brophy (editors). ScARF National Framework Neolithic 5. Material culture and use of resources 5.3 Organics 5.3.2 Wood and other plant material https://scarf.scot/national/scarf-neolithic-panel-report/5-material-culture-and-use-of-resources/5-3-organics/5-3-2-wood-and-other-plant-material/
- ↑ Loades, Mike (2013) The Longbow, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-7820-0085-3 (p. 7)
- ↑ "The History of the English Longbow". Historic UK. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
- ↑ "The Efficacy of the Medieval Longbow: A Reply to Kelly DeVries," Archived 2016-01-23 at the Wayback Machine War in History 5, no. 2 (1998): 233–242; idem, "The Battle of Agincourt", The Hundred Years War (Part II): Different Vistas, ed. L. J. Andrew Villalon and Donald J. Kagay (Leiden: Brill, 2008): 37–132.
- ↑ Nolan, Cathal J. (2006), The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000–1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization, Volume 2 Archived 2016-08-20 at the Wayback Machine, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-33734-9 (pp. 546–547)
- ↑ Heath, Ernest Gerald (1972). The Grey Goose Wing. New York Graphic Society. ISBN 978-0821204498 – via Google Books.
- ↑ Hutchinson, Robert (2013) The Spanish Armada, Phoenix (Orion Books Ltd) ISBN 978-1-7802-2088-8 (pp. 65–66)
- ↑ "The History of the English Longbow". historic-uk.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
- ↑ Fox, E.T. (2020). For Maytenance of Archers. Lulu.com. p. 205-216. ISBN 978-1-716-44395-4.
- ↑ Byron Ferguson (2002). Diventare la freccia (in Italian). Greentime Editori.
- ↑ Luca Vinci. "Diventare la freccia" (PDF). arcoefreccia.it (in Italian).
- ↑ "The (UK) National Field Archery Association's definition of a longbow". Archived from the original on February 9, 2007.
- ↑ "The International Field Archery's definition". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
- ↑ "British Longbow Society Definition". Sylvan Archery. 2009. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
- ↑ Cornhill, R. E. "Longbow definition". International Longbow Archers Association. Retrieved November 5, 2022.