The English Longbow was the machine gun of the middle ages, it was the deadliest weapon on the battlefield. The English Longbow contributed greatly to their military dominance against the French in the Hundred years war. After the hundred years the English longbow started to slowly fade away.
The English longbow was the most important English military invention of the 1300s and it changed the political face of Europe forever. The longbow was invented by the Celts in Wales around 1180 C.E. but was not really used by the English military until the 1300s. There is another source that sais that the maybe the Germans and the Scandinavians first used the longbow around 500 A.D.. King Edward I, ‘The Hammer of the Celts’, is normally regarded as the man responsible for adding the might of the longbow to the English armory of the day, and he also ban all sports but archery on Sundays, to make sure Englishmen practiced with the longbow. …show more content…
This compressed when the bow was drawn, while the sapwood on the other side stretched. The combination provided immense power. The biggest bows had a draw-weight of up to 150lbs or more, twice that of a modern hunting-bow. The bow needed to be drawn right back to the ear to obtain full power. It was hardened and cured for 4 years for best results. The curing helped protect it from the elements, which later proved to be a greater asset than thought before. During the period of the longbow's use, shortcuts were found, such as wetting the wood, to speed up the process. The bow stave was formed from half of a branch, with the heartwood on the inside and the sapwood to the outside. This approach was necessary as the heartwood was able to better resist compression, while the sapwood performed better in
The English longbow was the most important English military invention of the 1300s and it changed the political face of Europe forever. The longbow was invented by the Celts in Wales around 1180 C.E. but was not really used by the English military until the 1300s. There is another source that sais that the maybe the Germans and the Scandinavians first used the longbow around 500 A.D.. King Edward I, ‘The Hammer of the Celts’, is normally regarded as the man responsible for adding the might of the longbow to the English armory of the day, and he also ban all sports but archery on Sundays, to make sure Englishmen practiced with the longbow. …show more content…
This compressed when the bow was drawn, while the sapwood on the other side stretched. The combination provided immense power. The biggest bows had a draw-weight of up to 150lbs or more, twice that of a modern hunting-bow. The bow needed to be drawn right back to the ear to obtain full power. It was hardened and cured for 4 years for best results. The curing helped protect it from the elements, which later proved to be a greater asset than thought before. During the period of the longbow's use, shortcuts were found, such as wetting the wood, to speed up the process. The bow stave was formed from half of a branch, with the heartwood on the inside and the sapwood to the outside. This approach was necessary as the heartwood was able to better resist compression, while the sapwood performed better in