The extract below sheds some additional light on draw weights and distances for military longbows.‘A Martial Conference’ was published in 1598. It is a translation of an earlier work (date unknown) by Barnabe Rich. It follows the popular style at the time (like Toxophilus) of an imagined dialogue. Here it is “betweene two souldiers, the one Captaine Skil, trained vp in the French and Low Country seruices, the other Captaine Pill, only practised in Finsburie fields in the modern warres of the renowmed Duke of Shordich and the mightie Prince Arthur”. Here is the quote:"for although there be many that in their gaming bowes and there arrowes, fitted to their length, and neately feathered, will shoote sixteene or eighteene score, yet when they shall be brought to their liverie bowes, which are rather made to indure weather, then for free shooting, their arrowes likewise big timbered, their fethers ruffled, whereby they will gather winde, and ordinarily made of such length, that very few will draw them to the heads by two three inches, these things considered, if tenne amongst a hundred do shoote above tenne score, all the rest will shoote short of nine."My very loose and annotated version: ‘There are many who, with their recreational bows and equipped with fine (lightweight?) arrows, cut precisely to the archer’s draw length and with neatly trimmed feathers, can shoot 320 – 360 yards. However when they have to shoot livery bows (war bows), which are made to endure weather (not sure about the significance of that?) with thick, heavy arrows, having large feathers that have considerable drag and which are a standard length, then few can draw the head of the arrow to within 2 or 3 inches of the bow. Taking all this into consideration, with a war bow, only 10% of archers will achieve a range of 200 yards and 90% will only manage 180 yards.”In other words, beyond a certain common sense point, a heavier bow is not an advantage for range. It is however a necessity for delivering a heavy arrow with military thump. What he is saying (about the archers of his day) is that Livery Bows/War Bows, using livery arrows, (c. over 120lbs draw weight) can only shoot HALF the distance of those used by Finsbury Field archers using perhaps bows of around 70lbs. Now – don’t shout at me yet… I am aware that exceptional archers in our own age (Joe Gibbs, Ian Coote, Mark Stretton, and many, many more) have been shooting bows up to 200lbs and at significant distances, but they may be in the top 1%. What is interesting in this piece is that he assesses that 90% of archers (in an age when military archery was still practiced) could manage no more than 180 yards with a war weight bow and arrow.The Finsbury Mark distances have frequently been cited as the benchmark for assessing the longbow’s long range capability in battle. I have argued extensively (see my book War Bows), for a host of reasons, that exhausting finite arrow supplies with ‘too much’ long range shooting has limited military benefits (I’ve never said ‘never’ but simply argued that most of the work would be at relatively close range).Now if we consider that the calculation from ‘A Martial Confernece” is possibly correct, then the ‘long range’ we should be thinking of in medieval battles is more like 180 yards, save for a very few talented bowmen. Massed arrowstorms beyond that range seem unlikely. An enemy army should be broadly safe sitting just 200 yards off your front line. It doesn’t take a horse very long to cover 180 yards. I doubt archers with heavy bows could get two arrows off before the cavalry is at their front door. When the enemy arrives at your front line, they don’t just wave, turn back and have another go. They engage, they fight. It is during this fight that the archers have to work quickly (using every ounce of stamina) with targeted shots at relatively close range (between 50 and 10 yards). That is when the thump of a heavy arrow from a heavy bow will really count. Thanks to Jonathan Waller for unearthing this fascinating passage from "A Martiall Conference". ... See MoreSee Less
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