The Writer’s Guide to Bows: Part 4

Use in Battle & Construction

Today I will be covering the use of bows in battle as well as maintenance and construction. There is a lot more to using archers in battle then lining them up and having them shoot. Also, the tactics used in an open field battle are different from the siege of a castle or city.

As always, magic is the exception to the rules. Because magic.

Use in Battle

Archers were an important part of most medieval armies. They could cause damage to the enemy before they even reached your lines. Once the enemy forces closed to melee distance, the infantry would either move in front of the archers or the archers would fall back. During the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William of Normandy opened the battle by placing is archers on the front line and had them shoot into the English shield wall. His initial plan was to then bring up the infantry to engage at close combat. [1] This tactic was repeated in 1415 during the Battle of Agincourt by King Henry V of England. The center front line and the flanks were made up of archers with the men-at-arms and knights held back in reserve in the center. [2]

Battle Formations

There were three main archery formations used in open field battles throughout medieval Europe.

First was the line. This formation provided a large volume of fire, especially if there were multiple ranks and the archers were shooting ranged volleys.

Next was the enfilade, a V-shaped formation with the wings closest to the enemy and the center point the furthest away. Two enfilades could be used together, creating a W shape. In several medieval battles, such as the Battle of Crécy in 1346, multiple enfilades were used.

Last was the defilade, essentially the reverse of the enfilade with the point of the V closest to the enemy.

Both the enfilade and defilade were incredibly effective on sloping or uneven ground.

When using archers to defend a castle or city, they would either shoot through arrow loops or slits or between the merlons, a space called the crenel, of a battlement. Both features provided them with an excellent field of fire while making it hard for the enemy to hit them.

Photo source.

Quivers

Most of the depictions of quivers from medieval Europe show a belt quiver, such as on the Bayeaux tapestry. Across various sources it is shown in multiple positions, hanging straight at the side, across the small of the back and on both the right and the left as well as canted forward and backward. [3] As well there are depictions of arrows stuck through the belt. Medieval archers also used an arrow bag which was a simple drawstring cloth sack with a leather spacer in the top to keep the arrows separated that could be closed to protect them from dirt and rain.

During medieval battles it was common for archers to stick their arrows in the ground in front of them, their supply replenished by young boys acting as the medieval equivalent of power monkeys. This had the added benefit of dirtying the arrowhead, increasing the likelihood of infection.

Despite popular depictions of Robin Hood with a back quiver, this type of quiver was quite rare in medieval Europe. [4]

War arrows were usually bundled into sheaves of 24 arrows. It was common for archers to go through thousands of sheaves in a battle. To give you an idea of the numbers involved, between 1341 and 1359 the English crown ordered 51,350 sheaves. That’s 1,232,400 arrows! [5]

A detail from the Bayeaux Tapestry showing archers with belt quivers. Photo source.
Arrows through the belt. Photo source.

Maintenance

Like all pieces of equipment maintenance is essential for a bow to operate at peak efficiency. It is important to warm up the bow before stringing it. This involves rubbing up and down the limbs to create heat by friction. Once the bow is strung, some half draws and then several full draws are done to further warm the wood fibers, easing down after each one. If a bow is not warmed up before it is strung, it can snap. I have seen it happen.

Another important task is to keep the string waxed. This will hold the fibers together and help prevent fraying. Wax usually came in a block or a tube in modern times, which would be rubbed up and down the string then smoothed in with the fingers. It’s important to use the heat of your fingers or friction to get the wax to melt into the string. The string would also have to be replaced regularly as it stretched out or frayed.

How They Were Made

The most popular wood for longbows was yew although elm, oak, hickory, ash, hazel, and maple were also used. Most were self bows made of a single piece of wood and in the case of recurves, the ends were shaped by heat or force. [6] The other method of construction was lamination, done by gluing different pieces of wood together. Laminated or composite recurves were the standard weapon of Roman imperial archers and have been found on multiple sites throughout the empire.

A bowyer was a craftsman who made bows. To make a self bow, he would select a stave and set it in the clamp of a bowyer’s bench, which would hold it steady while he carved it into shape with a draw knife. In medieval England, a bowyer could reportedly crank out a longbow in as little as two hours. [7] Modern traditional bowyers average between 2-40 hours depending on whether power tools are used. Although if you include the time to dry the staves, that time increases to years. [7] If you want a step-by-step of the making of a longbow with mostly traditional methods, I suggest this video.

A bowyer’s bench. Photo source.
The visual difference between a composite bow (top) and a self bow (bottom). Photo source.

I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions by using the Contact Me form on my website or writing a comment. I post every Friday and would be grateful if you would share my content.

If you want my blog delivered straight to your inbox every month along with exclusive content and giveaways please sign up for my email list.

Let’s get writing!

Copyright © 2020 Rebecca Shedd. All rights reserved.

[1] Bennett Campaigns of the Norman Conquest p. 41
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hastings#Dispositions_of_forces_and_tactics
[2] Sumption, Jonathan (2015). The Hundred Years War IV: Cursed Kings. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-27454-3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt#English_deployment
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiver
[4] Gerry Embleton; Clive Bartlett (1995). English Longbowman 1330-1515Ad (Warrior, No 11). Osprey Publishing (UK). p. 28. ISBN 1-85532-491-1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiver
[5] Wadge, Richard (2007). Arrowstorm. Stroud: Spellmount. pp. 160–1. ISBN 978-1-86227-388-7.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_longbow#Arrows
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurve_bow
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowyer

Category: Fantasy Writing, Historical Writing, Medieval Weapons, Writing    

45 Comments on “The Writer’s Guide to Bows: Part 4”

  2. We absolutely love your blog and find almost all of your post’s to be what precisely I’m looking for. can you offer guest writers to write content for you? I wouldn’t mind composing a post or elaborating on many of the subjects you write regarding here. Again, awesome web site!

    Like

    Reply

  3. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something informative to read?

    Like

    Reply

  4. Simply desire to say your article is as astounding. The clearness in your post is simply cool and i could assume you’re an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission let me to grab your feed to keep updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please continue the rewarding work.

    Like

    Reply

  10. I don?t even understand how I ended up right here, but I thought this put up was once good. I don’t understand who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger when you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!

    Like

    Reply

  14. I would like to thnkx for the efforts you have put in writing this site. I am hoping the same high-grade web site post from you in the upcoming also. In fact your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own site now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings quickly. Your write up is a good example of it.

    Like

    Reply

  35. wonderful submit, very informative. I wonder why the opposite experts of this sector do not notice this. You must proceed your writing. I’m confident, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!

    Like

    Reply

  37. We’re a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your site offered us with valuable information to work on. You have done an impressive job and our whole community will be thankful to you.

    Like

    Reply

  38. Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your blog and in accession capital to assert that I get actually enjoyed account your blog posts. Anyway I will be subscribing to your augment and even I achievement you access consistently quickly.

    Like

    Reply

  39. Simply want to say your article is as astonishing. The clearness in your post is just great and i can assume you are an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission allow me to grab your RSS feed to keep updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please keep up the enjoyable work.

    Like

    Reply

  42. You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be really something that I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and very broad for me. I’m looking forward for your next post, I?ll try to get the hang of it!

    Like

    Reply

  43. Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I have truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I?ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 259 other subscribers
%d bloggers like this: