Dr. Ron and His English Longbow

Folks,

In addition to working with my wonderful friends and Indium Corp and teaching statistics and manufacturing process courses at Dartmouth, I have recently taught a course on the impact of materials on civilization. This course is intended for non engineering majors and fulfills a technology requirement at Dartmouth. One of the resoruces for the course is a book written by my friend, Professor Steve Sass of Cornell. The book is entitled: Materials: The Substance of Civilization.

For part of the course we study the invention of the bow and arrow and how the development of the English Longbow in the 14th century affected warfare for 200 years. Around the time of Robin Hood (the 12th century), the pull strengh of bows was 50 to 60 pounds. With these types of bows, arrows did not have enough energy to penetrate a knight's armor. The English longbow require 80 to 120 pounds to pull it back. Arrows shot from one of these bows could kill a knight in armor. These bows were first used by the English in the battle of Crecy (France) on August 24, 1346. The English were greatly out numbered, but they slaughtered the French. The 11,000 English archers filled the sky with arrows before the French could get within range with their crossbows.

The 80 to 120 pounds of pull strength was so great that it typically took 3 years to make an archer strong enough to pull the bows back. As a teenager, I was an archer of modest competency. I was curious to see if I could pull back one of these strong bows. I found a Bowyer (bow maker) in British Columbia that made a 90-100 pound longbow for me. Here is a photo of me pulling it back with ease! This has really been great for my morale as some of my football player students cannot do as well. (Some people think the best part of this photo is that you can't see my face!)

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

Comments for Dr. Ron and His English Longbow

Thursday, April 28, 2005 by Paul Salmon:: I was interested in your longbow, it has been suggested that because of its power that accuracy was compromised and it was what is known today as a section weapon, fired by goups perhaps of 10 at a target/targets. There was a significant advantage over the crossbow in rate of fire, but the latter did not require the skills of the fomer. Certainly there were differnt types of arrowhead for different targets. Some of which I think can still be seen today in the tower of London or the Royal Amouries in Leeds UK.
Saturday, July 2, 2005 by Rod Parsons:: A couple of comments... Naturally, accuracy will tend to fall off as draw weight increases, but at long range the ability to shoot to a length was more important when faced with a crowd of opponents. The word "artillery" is of derived from "arc tireur" for good reason. One can argue that tactics were developed under the captains of Edward 1, learning lessons about the appropriate use of archery against heavy cavalry and indeed about tactical limitations in the use of heavy cavalry from the Scots and Welsh, but the bow itself had been around in Western Europe for a very long time. Serious fighting draw weights most likely developed beyond the heavy hunting bow (say about 70lb) when it became really necessary to throw a heavy shaft further than the men who were shooting back at you. At least 90lb to 100lb had probably been pretty much the norm for serious military use for a long time before the 14thC, most likely for as long as archery has been used in open battle in a seriously organised fashion. There is little difference in draw weights between cultures where organised military use was seriously developed in parallel with protection. Cavalry bows tend to run in the 90lb to 120lb range, the median for infantry heavy bows would be in the 120lb to 150lb range, the extremes say 90lb to 180lb. Low fighting draw weights are only really appropriate to cultures where custom or environment imposed a limitation in fighting distance. For example, the bow was largely out of fashion as an instrument of the gentleman/warrior in the high bronze age because it mattered that your opponent knew whom he was fighting, similarly with the plains indian horse bow culture. There was no honour to be gained by killing at a distance. A little recommended reading: Selby's "Chinese Archery" and Strickland/Hardy's "The Great Warbow", JGD Clark on Neolithic Bows from the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society for 1963, any of the relevant Yale English Monarchs series, say Longshanks (Edward 1) and Edward 111, and Clifford J Rogers' "War Cruel & Sharp".
Monday, October 3, 2005 by marlon torres:: I have 3 howardhill longbows 140# 150# 160# that i enjoy shooting. I would like to have a english longbow to shoot.
Thursday, December 8, 2005 by Roger:: I would love to have a 160 pound bow
Friday, December 30, 2005 by Kevin Shannon:: I just finished reading Churchill's first volume of "the History of the English Speaking People", and was amazed at how the English were able to win so many battles with their longbows. I was wondering why their opponants, ie the French and Scots did not adapt and use the same? It seemed that the French continued to use calvalry and crossbow when it was obvious that they were inferior to the longbow.
Saturday, January 21, 2006 by Sam Bodiene:: i can pull back 1,000 pounds.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006 by Irion Sanger:: I have a question about the draw strength of a bow. Did a bow pretty much just have one draw strength? The question is if you have one bow, could two different people use it and shoot farther with different draw strengths? Or does the stronger person need to get a bow with a larger draw strength?
Wednesday, April 23, 2008 by New Longbowman:: kevin, the french did not adapt to using the longbow because they were afraid of a revolt if they placed such power in the lower class hands. HEY,guys, i just was looking up some research on the longbow for a school project, i have to make one in 3 days, i was wondering if anyone has any tips? i have never shot a bow before, but i always wanted to. my friend is coming over to help me out, so please e-mail me at sywalker456@yahoo.com if you have any tips for me. THANKS! -New Longbowman
Friday, April 25, 2008 by tommyboy:: Doc, whered you get the bow?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 by Paul V. Long, Jr.:: My grandson ask me about the accuracy and range of a Prehistoric a bow and arrow. How far did they shoot and how accurate at that range were they? At what range would they lethal? Thank you for your time. Paul V. Long Jr. Archaeologist
Friday, July 11, 2008 by don buetow:: i got a manhattan archery works bow, with thw trade mark and arrow. 6 long one piece wood. and info. one it? thank you!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 by Rob Howden.:: Anyone interested in the long bow should read The Bowmen of England” by Donald Featherstone. Pen & Sword Military Classics. A good read and very informative.

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