Hacker News Reader

Comment by NeedMoreTea | Hacker News Reader

It's the most well known. It's not like the English longbow or archery was a recent innovation by the time of the Hundred Years Wars. by that point there had been centuries of extensive use. The Burhs defending against Viking raids in the time of Alfred needed arrowheads too, as did the Vikings themselves.

View on HN

Adding a response to the original question: The Battle of Gisors in 1198 was an English victory on French soil.[1]

Regarding the English Longbow, there appears to be an ongoing debate regarding when the longbow was developed, as used in the Hundred Years War. There are some who argue that prior to the late thirteenth Century, English bows were either a shortbow or less powerful "ordinary bow."[2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gisors

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_longbow#Origins

You're right. There's a respectably wide span across which the longbow may have become dominant, and another period of using some amount of both. I think most certainty is their origination in Wales. The Welsh and Normans were constantly learning from each other's tactics from the earliest excursions by the Normans. There are some who document longbows being used during the war of succession between England and Normandy in the 1140s (The Anarchy), and in Wales a little later in the 12th.

Others have argued much later. Unless we get an older find of Mary Rose quality, I think that debate will run on. :)

Centuries? In Wales perhaps, but not in the large-scale standardised way across England. That was initiated by Edward I who saw the longbow in action during a campaign in Wales, and ordered every able-bodied man in England to practice every Sunday on the village green. That's what lead his grandson to have access to so many highly trained longbow archers.

Archery definitely existed before that time, but that was not the same as the famous heavy longbow of the late Middle Ages.

Some have argued earlier, see my sibling comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18544499

It's quite possible that they existed earlier, but as far as I know, they weren't in widespread use until Edward I ordered everybody to practice with them. And that makes a huge difference, because you need a lot of practice to be good with a longbow, and many many people practicing with them made it easier for Edward III and Henry V to field so many good archers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com