Longbow from the Middle Ages just as deadly as today’s infantry weapons

2024-01-10 10:28:00

Archeology Longbow from the Middle Ages just as deadly as today’s infantry weapons

The Bayeux Tapestry contains many military details of the period. This passage shows Harold II being hit in the eye by an arrow.

© Wkipedia / Commons

The British defeated the French knights with the longbow. A new investigation shows how fatal the injuries were. The rotation of the arrows resulted in particularly serious wounds.

The fact that the knights were driven from the battlefields by the invention of firearms is a myth that persists. Compared to early portable firearms, much older bows of the Middle Ages were much more dangerous. They caused wounds similar to those caused by today’s infantry weapons. This is the result of a study by archaeologists at the University of Exeter.

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Surprising find

To do this, they evaluated skeletons and bones that were excavated from a Dominican monastery in Exeter. A lucky find. Sources attest to the use of bows in the wars of the late Middle Ages, but finds of injured skeletons are extremely rare. At a monastery in Exeter, 22 bones or bone fragments have now been found that show traces of arrow wounds. Radiocarbon testing suggests the remains date to between 1482 and 1645 AD.

This arrow penetrated the skull.

© University of Exeter / PR

The team found a skull with the arrow entering through the right eye and exiting the back of the head. The deadly weapon had a special feature. This arrow was feathered so that it rotated clockwise during flight. This rotation stabilizes the trajectory because it eliminates small inaccuracies in the mass distribution of the arrow can be balanced. When it enters the body, this twist leads to particularly serious injuries, especially when a flattened tip is used. The scientists were only able to examine the entrance and exit wounds, but the decayed soft tissue was also torn open with a wide channel.

“Arrow trauma is difficult to identify, but our compilation shows that arrows fired from longbows can produce entry and exit wounds in the skull that are comparable to modern gunshot wounds,” the authors write. “These results have profound implications for our understanding of the power of the medieval longbow.

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War-decisive weapon

The English longbow is not an ordinary hunting bow or a light bow like the ones used by equestrian peoples. The English longbow is about 1.8 meters long and is a powerful weapon. Lifelong training was necessary to be able to cock it. The effort resulted in specific changes and wear and tear that could be detected in the skeletons of shooters. These arrows penetrated chain mail and lighter armor at 200 meters. Depending on the arrow used, they could carry over 300 meters. But contrary to what Robin Hood films suggest, no targeted individual shots were fired.

Military historian Andrew Ambert said in the Smithsonian’s “World of Weapons” series: “The longbow is not a precision instrument. It is not designed to hit a single man at long ranges. It is designed to hit a formation of men and of horses “To fight those who are moving towards the shooters. They fire volleys at the mass of enemies. This is a type of mass fire, which is quite modern.”

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Huge volleys

In the Hundred Years’ War, the English foot soldiers managed to defeat the heavily armored French knights with this weapon. The riflemen always appeared in large groups and let a shower of arrows rain down on the enemy’s formation in volleys. Whether and where on the body the arrows hit was random. Because of the crowded battle lines, they always found their victims. Also due to the high frequency of shooters. In the Battle of Crécy in 1346 – the first major battle of the conflict – the English archers are said to have fired 35,000 arrows in one minute. So they broke the French attack momentum and were able to win the battle despite being outnumbered by only 14,000 to 30,000 French. Only heavy and expensive armor plates prevented the arrows from passing through.

The noble knighthood despised long-range weapons because they made the armored knight obsolete. However, this meant that the armored warriors’ killing radius was barely more than two meters. It was completely hopeless to trudge 200 or even 300 meters across the battlefield in heavy armor and hope to reach the enemy alive.

Those: Smithsonian, The Antiquaries Journal

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