The Timeless Art of Archery: A Journey Through History
From the earliest times, mankind has used the bow to hunt for food. Cave paintings in France, Spain, and North Africa depict our ancestors hunting with bows and arrows 20,000 years ago. The oldest arrowheads discovered so far were found at Bol Arta in Tunisia, dating back 50,000 years. However, the bow could be even older than that, as organic matter from these distant millennia has long since decayed, and we may never know how far back its true origins lie.
The development of the bow was a major step in overcoming man’s physical limitations and was thus a significant tool in the development of his intelligent existence. The process of manufacturing flints for arrowheads is called napping. It is the skill of the flint knapper that he can see how the flint is going to flake and is thus able to strike it in exactly the right place. The edge is prepared to ensure that the chip will break away from the main core as he intends. The napper uses a piece of stone or antler as a hammer. Flints fracture, leaving curved sharp edges ideal for working into tools and weapons.
The Craft of Flint Napping
The next stage is called pressure flaking. The flint is wrapped in a leather pad to protect the hand and then a piece of bone or antler is used to flake away the edges of the flint, gradually creating the desired shape. Flint, agate, jasper, and obsidian can all be flaked, and some Stone Age cultures still existing alongside our modern civilizations have been known to use materials such as bottle glass to make arrowheads in the same fashion. When ready, the arrowhead is fitted into the arrow shaft with a kind of paste made from a mixture of birch resin and charcoal dust.
Making an arrow in this way is a labor-intensive process, and a Stone Age hunter’s arrows would have considerable value. Very often, the head is also bound to the shaft. In this instance, it is being secured with metal fibers. Once bound, it is then given a final coating of the resin and charcoal compound, resulting in a very strong bond.
The Oldest Bows and Their Legacy
The oldest bow found in Britain was unearthed at Muir Heath in Somerset, dated to around 2600 BC. It is a flat bow, meaning in cross-section its limbs are wider than they are deep. Also found in Somerset at Ascot Heath is a bow of the same period; in cross-section, it is D-shaped. This, together with its length, classifies it as a longbow. Evidence at prehistoric sites throughout Europe shows that both the flat bow and the longbow were in widespread use.
Today, 5,000 years later, there are still those who hunt with the bow and arrow, although now outlawed in Britain and much of Europe. Bow hunting for wild animals is still legal in many parts of the world. In the United States, it has a wide following, as it is another form of the sport where the targets are not live animals but cardboard cutouts. This is field archery. It originated in America during the early part of this century. A field course is usually laid out in woodland or other natural environments and consists of 28 targets.
Field Archery: Modern Precision Meets Ancient Tradition
Many types of target faces are available, and a recent development has been the introduction of three-dimensional targets. Field archery is popular with those who enjoy shooting barebow, that is, without any form of sighting attachment, and many archers still enjoy the challenge of shooting with the traditional English longbow.
In official competitions, the targets are set at measured and marked distances, whereas informal shoots can be set out at unmeasured, unmarked distances to test the skill of the instinctive shooter. There are other difficulties which can add interest to a course, such as overhanging trees or narrow shooting gaps which can distract the archer’s aim. Natural features can present a range of different shooting situations. Shooting pegs are staked at each target, and the archer must keep his left foot against the peg while he shoots.
The Evolution of the Longbow
A field course offers opportunities for medium and long-distance shots as well as those at very short range. The longbow form, which occurred in prehistory, appears again in Germany and Scandinavia during the Iron Age. An excavated ship burial at Nydam has yielded 36 such bows. This reconstruction shows one with an iron spike on the bottom limb for secondary use in battle. The Vikings made extensive use of archers in battle, particularly during the 9th and 10th centuries. A distinctive feature of their bows is an elaborate string knot on the bottom limb. It requires no nock and does not slip.
Yew was the favored bow wood, but as in this example, Elm was also popular. The top limb was fitted with a side nock, and the copper peg acted as an ingenious string keeper when the bow was unstrung. Archaeologists have unearthed a diversity of Viking-age arrowheads. Most are iron, though some are bone or antler. In the 10th-century poem “The Battle of Maldon,” the poet says both strings were busy, shield parried point, bitter was the battle.
The Role of Archers in Medieval Warfare
In battle, the archers generally fought behind the front ranks of spearmen. They shot on the move, a tactic which sometimes resulted in the chest draw. At Hastings, the Normans used a combination of cavalry and archers to great effect. Just over a hundred years later, in 1169, Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, led an Anglo-Norman force into Ireland. He took with him a large contingent of archers. The Earl himself was known as Strongbow because he drew a stronger bow than any man. The archers in his army were Welsh and earned great fame for their prowess with the bow.
Welsh archers really made their mark, however, during the 13th century, first fighting alongside Simon de Montfort in the Barons’ War and later in guerrilla warfare against Edward I in his efforts to subdue this unruly region. The longbow was not unique to the Welsh; many counties of England boasted fine bowmen at the same period. Even so, it was the Welsh ones’ barbs that Edward felt most keenly. Seeing their worth in battle, Edward went to great lengths to recruit longbowmen into his armies, offering pardon to outlaws who would join his ranks and bend their bows in his service.
The Rise of Professional Archers
In 1277, 800 archers from Gwent and Crickhowell joined the King’s forces. New pay structures were introduced; 100 hand-picked archers from Macclesfield received three pence a day in royal service at a time when the usual pay for infantry was only two pence a day. The days of the feudal army were on the wane, and the need for professional bowmen was increasing. By the 14th century, the longbow was firmly established as a primary military weapon, and regular practice at the butts was required.
Butts were mounds of earth used as stops, and the garland made from plaited brushwood was a common target. The increasing military importance of archers and the need for trained men produced a stream of statutes making regular practice with the bow a legal obligation. Shooting at the butts was compulsory every Sunday for all able-bodied men between the ages of 14 and 65. A proclamation of Edward III prohibited handball, football, bandy ball, and other such like vain plays and urged, on pain of imprisonment, that those strong in body should learn the art of shooting.
Archery: A Weapon of War and Rebellion
Alongside such policies, there were also restrictions on the use of the bow. As well as being the weapon of the soldier, the bow was also the weapon of the rebel, the brigand, and the poacher. Many laws prohibited carrying bows in the Royal forests, that is, the Royal hunting preserves, and severe penalties awaited those caught with a bow and barbed arrows. The Assize of Arms of 1252 stated that those who lived within the Royal forests at that time, a substantial part of the realm, and who owned bows must not carry sharp broadheads but must use blunts, which, though effective enough against birds and small game, did not pose a threat to the king’s venison.
The Luttrell Psalter, illustrated in the early 14th century, depicts many arrows of this type. One variation of shooting at the garland was to shoot at marks. Mark shooting required sharp arrowheads. It was popular throughout the medieval period and is often alluded to in connection with archery competitions. It is the most exacting test of the archer’s skill.
The Craftsmanship of Bow Making
Many types of wood have been used for making the longbow; sometimes two or more woods are laminated together. When made from a single wood, it is known as a self bow. During the Middle Ages, self bows were the norm. Ash, Elm, Laburnum, and Yew were all widely used. Other woods included Boxwood and Brazil, the latter imported from India. But at all times, the Yew tree, Taxus baccata, has been considered supreme.
This mysterious, sacred, and poisonous tree has ever yielded up the best timber for bow staves. The rich dark umber of its heartwood, perfect for resisting compression, and the pale honeyed cream of its sapwood, perfect for resisting tension, combined together in a natural state to form a mighty wooden spring with the potential to accumulate, store, and release energy.
The Mastery of the Bowyer
Once the stave has been hewn from the tree, the wood is seasoned for three years or so before the bowyer begins work. Every bow is unique. The bowyer works by eye alone; he must see the bow in the stave. The wood should be close-grained without wind galls, knots, pins, and twists. Today, much of the best Yew comes from Oregon. During the Middle Ages, it came mainly from Spain and Italy. Good English Yew was scarce, and demand in England for top-class, fine-grain staves was so great that they were levied as an import tax on casks of wine and other goods. By the time of Richard III, this duty was as much as ten staves for every cask of Malmsey wine.
Quality Yew bow staves were at such a premium, and bows were in such demand, that one statute decreed that for every Yew bow a bowyer produced, he must make two more from other woods. As the wood reduces, the work becomes increasingly critical; too much, and the stave is easily spoiled. In cross-section, the stave is roughed out to a high-arched D shape. Then the limbs are gently tapered, which will give the bow its ability to bend. The bowyer must follow the demands of the grain. It is vital that the limbs bend in a smooth curve with no stiff spots or weak points; either will break the bow.
The Art of the Tiller
Irregularities in the grain must be accommodated so that as the bow bends, the stress is evenly distributed. This is the art of the master bowyer. Where the thin layer of sapwood rises, the heartwood must follow; where it dips, the heartwood is left proud. As soon as the stave is up to bending a little, it is made ready to take a string. Then it is put upon the tiller. This allows the bowyer to stand back from his work and see how the limbs are coming around.
Here, the problem is the contradictory curves of the stave; one limb reflexes, the other deflexes. The bowyer must get this limb moving whilst at the same time maintaining a balanced curve on both limbs. This curious-looking implement is called a float; it is a traditional tool of the bowyer. The Worshipful Company of Bowyers, formed in the 14th century and still existing today as a city livery company, displays three floats on its heraldic achievement.
The Legacy of the Longbow in Warfare
The plump, rounded part of the bow’s cross-section is called its belly; it is the powerhouse, the muscles of the bow. The pale sapwood, which holds everything together, forms the back of the bow, its strong flexible spine. During manufacture, a stave will be put on the tiller many times before it is complete. The back must be smooth to minimize the risk of any fibers lifting. Trying a stave on the tiller is always a tense moment; how will it look? Will it hold? Will it come round compass? Yes, now it is a bow, a fine bow.
It will be fitted with nocks of horn to protect the wood from the string, and its limbs will be waxed to keep out the damp. Then it will be ready for service. As a military weapon, the longbow had its finest hour during the Hundred Years’ War. The armies of Edward the Black Prince won famous victories at Crécy in 1346 and at Poitiers in 1356. It was Edward’s reliance on archers that carried the day. A Frenchman, Philippe de Mézières, wrote of the English bowmen, “They are the flower and hope of the armies, the most sovereign thing in the world when it comes to battles.”
The Tactical Use of the Longbow
The range of the longbow depends on many things: the skill of the archer, the wind, the draw weight of the bow, and the type of arrow. Fantastic distances can be claimed for heavy bow shooting lightweight arrows, but in war, relatively heavy arrows were used, capable of carrying iron bodkins or broadheads. So, at what range would an advancing army expect to encounter a storm of arrows? Probably at no more than two hundred yards. The strongest men with strong bows could shoot much further, but a few long-range arrows landing amidst the enemy is not an effective or efficient use of precious arrow reserves.
To be effective, an arrow storm requires mass volume, saturating the target zone. The procurement problems of keeping a medieval army supplied with arrows were enormous. In 1356, no bows or arrows were to be found in the county of Chester because the king had taken them all to France. In 1359, eight hundred and fifty thousand arrows were supplied to the Arsenal at the Tower of London. Good quality ash and aspen were in great demand for making arrow shafts. In 1369, the fletchers were given a royal reprimand for using green, unseasoned wood.
The Triumph of the Longbow at Agincourt
During 1418, the tower sent out orders to the counties for 1,190,000 goose feathers for fletching. Three years earlier, the longbow had had one of its greatest triumphs. In 1415, the bowmen of Henry V’s army found immortal glory in their defeat of the French at Agincourt. Five thousand archers and just a thousand men-at-arms defeated a force estimated at some fifty to sixty thousand. They did so with the bow and thousands upon thousands of handcrafted arrows.
Compared to the crossbow and to early forms of gunnery, an advantage of the longbow was its rate of shooting. But its very ability to shoot arrows in volume meant that its tactical use had to be regulated in line with available supplies. In a time minute, these archers each shot twelve arrows. They were by no means shooting as fast as they could; they were simply asked to shoot fluidly at a rate they could keep up for several minutes and repeat again and again.
The Legacy of Archery in the Modern World
To get an idea of the military significance of this rate of shooting, a man wearing full plate armor was timed as he crossed 200 yards of ground. The ground was fairly steep and wet, though not poked with mud as it might have been in battle. Each shot was ranged to take account of an advancing army. The pace of the advance was regulated to conserve sufficient energy to be able to fight when the top of the rise was reached. Without armor, the same distance can be covered with little effort in around 90 seconds. With full armor, it took 2 minutes 17 seconds.
If we take 12 arrows as the average shot per minute by each man, then an archer corps of 5,000 men, as at Agincourt, could loose arrows into the air at the rate of 1,000 shafts per second. Shooting consistently at this rate, a supply of half a million arrows would be exhausted in just over eight minutes. In other words, against four or five enemy attacks, at Crécy, the French attacked 17 times. It therefore seems likely that long-range volleys would be used sparingly, and the bulk of the arrow stocks would be conserved until the enemy were within a hundred or even 50 yards.
A further advantage of shooting at closer ranges is that fair quantities of arrows can be retrieved before the next attack. A range of arrowheads were used in medieval warfare. These are broadheads. They were capable of causing savage wounds, particularly against horse flesh. The production of arrowheads was a major industry. At times of high demand, arrowsmiths would work by day and by night, in a shift system reminiscent of modern industrial practices. Fletchers also applied their craft by day and night, though the bowyers were forbidden by statute to work after dark, lest they turn out bows of inferior quality.
Most medieval arrowheads fitted over the arrow shaft with a tubular socket like this. Others, less common, were fitted with a tang, that is, a spike which inserts into the shaft. One type of arrowhead made exclusively for war had a needle-like profile; it was called a bodkin. Bodkins were designed to attack armor. In particular, they were designed to attack plate armor. By the second half of the 15th century, a knight could be clad from head to toe in plate armor, and tests have shown that plate can be pierced by a bodkin. Indeed, in an experiment set up in 1984 by Peter Jones of the Defense Research Agency, it was found that there could be considerable penetration.
The Enduring Mystery of Robin Hood
There is still much to learn both about the armor-piercing capabilities of medieval arrowheads and the ways in which medieval armor sought to defeat them. In considering arrow penetration, a number of factors have to be taken into account, one of which is the nature of medieval steel. Up until around 1480, by which time English bowmen had been a supreme force for over a hundred and fifty years, armor was relatively soft and contained many impurities. In fact, it had similar properties to Victorian wrought iron, which is what was used in the 1984 experiments.
Another consideration is the thickness of the armor. Here at the Wallace Collection in London, a 15th-century sallet is being gauged. Where it protects the skull, armor was at its thickest, usually around three millimeters. But where mobility was required, such as for arms and legs, much thinner gauges were used. Beneath the outer casing of his armor, a knight wore a thick padded arming doublet. This was to absorb the shock of heavy blows, but it also meant that an arrow had to penetrate to a considerable depth to have any disabling effect. The angle that an arrow strikes the curved glancing surface of armor is crucial to its success. Arrows shot from longer ranges are more likely to strike at oblique angles.
When the target plate is set at an oblique angle, the effect on the arrow is remarkable. As we have seen, in the right circumstances, the bodkin could defeat plate armor. But only a small proportion of a medieval army wore full plate; it was expensive. Various combinations of plate, mail, and padded jackets were the more usual attire. Mail, of course, was easily defeated by the bodkin. An alternative form of armor was the brigandine. It consisted of a number of small plates individually fixed to a tough outer covering. Brigandines were specially favored by archers. They gave good protection and at the same time allowed the necessary mobility for shooting.
Jean de Vienne, who fought with the French at Agincourt, wrote, “I am of the opinion that the most important thing in battle is the archers.” It was a view shared by a succession of English commanders. As a result, archers were well paid by the standards of the day. Coupled with this were the rewards of war. Looting and plunder were a legitimate means for the rank and file to improve their fortunes. Professional soldiering could be a profitable business, and archers are invariably depicted in manuscripts wearing good-quality clothing and equipped with good-quality weapons.
Even more prosperous was the mounted archer. He traveled by horse but dismounted to fight. Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, mounted archers were recruited in great numbers. Edward III had a contingent of over 4,000 at the siege of Calais. The reputation of English bowmen put them in high demand. The Dukes of Burgundy employed several companies in their wars against the Swiss, and one Burgundian captain wrote with some indignation, “The English have been more watched and admired in our army and better esteemed than were our robes of gold and costly adornments.”
Although mounted archers generally dismounted for battle, there is some evidence to suggest that this was not always so. This figure on the Bayeux Tapestry shoots his bow from a galloping horse, and there is at least one 15th-century manuscript that depicts armored knights shooting the longbow from horseback. But such tactics are against the general tradition of fighting in the West, where the approach to warfare has usually been one of stolid defense. Walls of archers entrenched behind their defensive positions, four walls of armor, ranks of heavily armored troops moving as solid units like mobile fortresses.
This is quite different from the fluid style of warfare encountered in the East. Here, the traditions of nomadic peoples gave rise to the supremacy of the mounted archer. Scythians, Parthians, Avars, Tartars, Mongols, Magyars, and Huns, all are famed for their horse archers, and none more so than the Seljuk Turks. The renown of Turkish archery and the regard in which they hold it is much to the magnificence of their composite bows.
The traditional composite bow occurs in many different national forms. It is made from laminations of horn, wood, and sinew. A particular feature is that it is recurved, which makes the limbs work with extraordinary efficiency. Since the development of glass fiber in the 1950s, bows made for archers in the West have mimicked this ancient design.
The wooden frame or core of a traditional composite bow may consist of up to seven separate pieces, each joined with a V-splice. A scraper is used to make one surface of the core convex so that it will butt perfectly with the concave surface of the horn. The toothed scraper, the tushin, is then used to prepare the surface with deep parallel grooves ready to receive the hot glue. Some traditional glues are made from hides, but the glue that has been most widely used is one called isinglass. It is made from the swim bladders of fish, boiled in water.
A strip of horn is shaped and prepared to form the tough, compression-resistant belly to the bow. Supplies of horn are plentiful in both Asia Minor and the steppe lands of Eastern Europe. The best horn, that is, the most flexible and resilient, comes from the water buffalo. The scored surfaces are intended to increase the surface area of the bond and to prevent sideways slipping. A first sizing coat is allowed to dry, and then a second coat is added before putting the two together. The adhesion is critical, and the two components must be lashed together as tightly as possible while the glue sets.
The bow is bound with twine to keep the two layers under tension. A special tool called the tenjak is used to keep an even pressure on the binding. The recurved shape of the finished bow is created by tying the ends of the bow together with a cord, thus setting it in a reflex state while the glue dries. It is left for at least a fortnight. The sinew is first prepared by hammering until it becomes fibrous. This will form the elastic, tension-resistant back to the bow. It is teased apart and combed into very fine strands. The best sinew comes from either the Achilles tendons or the back tendons of oxen.
When ready, it is thoroughly saturated with the hot glue, effectively creating a substance very like modern fiberglass and resin. Great care must be taken at this stage. A 15th-century Persian manuscript says that all of the skill lies in the laying of the sinew. The fibers of each bundle of sinew must overlap with those of the next so that it forms one long continuous strip. A bow may have up to three layers of sinew, and at least six weeks’ drying time must be left between each layer. After the final layer, the bow must be left for a year before stringing, four years for the best flight bows. The drier the sinew, the more elastic it becomes.
After a year or so of natural drying, the very best bows are put into bread ovens and baked for 24 hours. Once the bow has been strung, shot, and adjusted, it is then covered with vellum or with birch bark. The materials used in a composite bow make it very sensitive to climate, particularly damp, and it must be sealed from the elements. It is then lacquered. The finest bows are highly prized and often exquisitely decorated.
In European art, composite bows appear widely in representations of biblical or classical themes. In this portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, she is depicted as the ancient goddess of hunting, Diana. Diana was a symbol of feminine power and emancipation. It became highly fashionable for influential women to have themselves portrayed in her image. In the 18th century, Madame de Staël, a celebrated courtesan and society hostess, nurtured a deep passion for archery. It is said that she practiced constantly, dressed in classical guise.
In this age of Romanticism, Diana, the Roman incarnation of the Greek Artemis, represented an ideal of womanhood. Both the Romans and the Greeks used mercenary archers in their armies. Indeed, Scythian archers had been recruited into the Grecian armies from as early as the 6th century BC. The Scythians and the Roman cohortes sagittariorum used various forms of the composite bow.
In 1795, Mahmud Effendi, secretary to the Turkish ambassador in London, shot an arrow a distance of 480 yards in a field behind Bedford Square. It was shot, of course, with a composite bow. In order to string the immensely powerful bows that are necessary for shooting such distances, the bow is first partially bent around wooden blocks called templets. The pursuit of distance records is called flight shooting. For the Turks, it is a hallowed tradition. Three years after Mahmud Effendi’s demonstration in London, the Sultan Selim is said to have shot an arrow 972 yards. His feat was witnessed by Sir Robert Ainslie, British ambassador to the Ottoman court.
This attachment is called a siper. It allows the short flight arrow to be drawn back into the bow itself, giving maximum power to the minimum size of arrow. The standard method of shooting the composite bow is with a thumb release. The thumb is protected by a thumb ring, which in turn is hooked over the string. Thumb rings have been made in bone, horn, and a host of semi-precious materials. They occur in many forms; the cylindrical ones are Chinese.
To draw the bow, the thumb is supported and locked into position by the fingers. Because of the immense distances attainable with these bows, a special form of practice arrow was developed called an ebrush. The spiral awan fletching prevents the arrow from traveling too far. Composite bows are capable of delivering formidable power with relatively short limbs, which also made them suitable as the bows for crossbows.
The knowledge of composite bows brought back from the Crusades enabled Europeans to build crossbows which were both powerful and compact. Earlier crossbows had wooden bows, but to have any great power, a wooden bow needs long limbs, clumsy on a crossbow, so their strength was limited. With the more powerful composite bows, some form of mechanism was required to span them. This one is called a goat’s foot lever. On average, it gives a power advantage of around five to one.
An alternative device is the cord and pulley system, which attaches to a belt. Some versions are fitted with double pulleys working side by side. Although relatively quick in operation and cheap to produce, the cord and pulley only gives a power advantage of two-to-one. Here at the Wallace Collection, there is an array of crossbows and spanning devices. This one, known variously as a German winch, a rack, a cric, or a crannequin, is the most powerful of all. It has a power advantage of a hundred and forty-five to one. It was in use from the late 14th century onwards.
Improvements in steel manufacture, which took place during the 15th century, meant that it also became possible to make steel prods for crossbows. These could be tremendously powerful, producing battlefield weapons of greater range than before. They were also quicker and cheaper to make. This spanning device is known as an English windlass. It gives a power advantage of 45 to one.
Crossbowmen were deployed in massive numbers. At Poitiers, the French used six thousand Genoese. Then came on the cruel company of crossbowmen, making the darkness in the skies with a multitude of quarrels which they shot. Fire arrows were used both in siege warfare and as a mainstay of naval engagements. Paradoxically, just as the longbow reached its zenith on the battlefield, the age of gunpowder dawned.
The first major battle at which the use of gunpowder was recorded was Crécy in 1346. One chronicler wrote, “The English struck terror into the French army with five or six pieces of cannon, it being the first time they had seen these thundering machines.” It took another hundred years for the gun to completely oust the bow from the battlefield, not least of all because early handguns were so slow to load. However, by the end of the 15th century, the more easily trained handgunner was becoming an increasingly familiar sight.
The bow remained popular for hunting. Firearms were considered unchivalrous, good enough for war but not against noble quarry. Huntsmen often rode out with their bows. From one 14th-century book, “Le Livre de la Chasse,” shows them shooting the longbow from horseback. The type of arrowhead necessary for hunting large game was broad. In his celebrated treatise on hunting, written in 1387, Gaston Phébus, Count of Foix, declared that there should be a width of four fingers between the barbs.
Ladies of rank enjoyed their hunting on equal status with men, and the bow was a favorite weapon. The more usual practice when hunting with a bow was to take stand and wait. Crossbows were also extremely popular for hunting. This remarkable example is 15th-century German. In England, crossbows were banned by Magna Carta, and many subsequent statutes continued to outlaw them to all but the wealthiest landowners. They were the weapon of the poacher and the assassin. In 1087, William Rufus, King of England, had been killed by a crossbow bolt while out hunting in the New Forest.
Most crossbows were fitted with horn clips to prevent the bolt from slipping out of its shallow groove. This was a particular advantage when shooting from horseback. An alternative version of the crossbow is the pellet crossbow, or stone bow as it is otherwise known. A stone or pellet was placed in this cradle, the rear loop of which hooked onto the trigger release. Pellets were made either from lead or baked clay. They were used predominantly for shooting birds. It is thought that the stone bow was invented by the Chinese and introduced into Europe by Portuguese traders.
“Oh, for a stone bow to hit him in the eye,” cried Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” Made in all manner of sizes for men, women, and children, they were immensely popular throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Another Chinese invention was the repeating crossbow. Here at Her Majesty’s Tower of London, displayed among the collections of the Royal Armouries, are some rare examples of the English longbow. They were salvaged in 1841 from Henry VIII’s warship, the Mary Rose, which sank in the murky waters of the Solent in 1545.
During a major excavation of the site in the 1970s, a further 138 bows were brought to the surface. Since no actual medieval bows are still in existence, these are the closest evidence we have to the great bows of the Hundred Years’ War. Originally fitted with horn nocks, now long dissolved by the sea, the bows provide vital clues as to the nature of the medieval longbow. Most are from single staves and are of deep-stacked D cross-section. They are all made of Yew. There is no sign of any binding on the hand grip, and unlike modern bows, the limb action works right through the center of the bow.
The modern style of longbow is slightly stiff through its center section, the majority of work being done by the limbs, whereas the Mary Rose style longbow curves in a smooth arc, working right through the hand. Henry VIII actively promoted the use of the longbow, outlawing both the crossbow and the handgun. In 1510, he sent to Venice for forty thousand of the best quality Yew staves, and in 1534, he commanded that thirty thousand longbows be made and stored in the Tower.
Most of the bows found on the Mary Rose have been calculated to have draw weights in a range of 70 pounds to 140 pounds. They are a remarkable legacy. In 1544, Roger Ascham, a tutor in Greek and Latin to Henry VIII’s children, wrote a treatise on archery. It was called “Toxophilus,” and it captured for posterity an age when men knew and used the bow. Ascham’s five principles—standing, knocking, drawing, aiming, and loosing—remained the foundations for all good shooting.
But Henry’s preferment of the longbow was against the tide of change. In 1549, Bishop Latimer preached a sermon lamenting the decline in the nation’s archery. It was too late. A generation were walking to the butts for the last time. Ever mindful of the defense of his realm, Henry had already capitulated on his earlier ban of handguns and crossbows. In 1537, he incorporated the Guild of St. George to encourage the study and practice of all shooting, namely with longbows, crossbows, and handguns. This was to become the Honourable Artillery Company. It still exists today as an adjunct to the Territorial Army and thus has the distinction of being the oldest regiment in the British Army.
Preserved here at its London headquarters is the last roving mark to have been removed from nearby Finsbury Fields. Roving is cross-country shooting from one mark to another. Today, roving is the most informal of all archery’s many forms, and the marks tend to be features of the landscape, like a patch of earth, a stick, or a leaf. The archer whose arrow lies closest to the mark chooses the next. The distances are random according to the whim of the shooters, whereas at Finsbury Fields, the distances were fixed between each stone mark.
There is a map belonging to the Honourable Artillery Company which shows the layout of this ancient shooting ground in great detail. The distances between each mark are noted in scores and yards, so that the distance between, say, Scarlet and the Whitehall mark is twelve score and two, which is two hundred and forty yards. The distance between the Lambeth mark and the Turkswale mark is three score and thirteen, a mere 73 yards. The permanent stone markers were surmounted by wooden posts or crosses to make them visible from a distance.
Closely allied to roving is clout shooting. The clout was a canvas target stretched over a hoop and shot at from long distances. At these longer ranges, it can be difficult for the archer to gauge exactly where his arrow has landed and thus correct his aim. For this reason, a marker is set to stand near the mark and signal where each shaft falls, for instance, one bow length short or two bow lengths over, and so on, for a perfect hit, a dead man.
An order-in-council of 1598 directed that all bows be exchanged for muskets and calivers. This officially marked the disappearance of the longbow from the battlefield, though throughout the following century there were many who called for its revival. It was argued that the longbow could get off six shots for every one fired by a musket. Charles I renewed old statutes insisting on archery practice, and he took measures to safeguard ancient shooting grounds. During the Civil War, he tried in vain to raise a company of archers from the undergraduates at Oxford University.
Before the battle at Stow-on-the-Wold, Sir Jacob Astley had an arrow land between his feet. It was a rare event. The fashion was for gunpowder, and the bow was no more to be bent in anger. After the Civil War, archery was kept alive by a few diehard enthusiasts. One such was Sir William Wood. At his burial in 1691, three flights of whistling arrows were shot over his grave. He was the Marshal and celebrated champion of the Finsbury Archers. They were a body of men once described as a most heroic rarity.
Whistling arrows were more common in Japan, in particular for the “Hekki” ceremony, intended to drive away evil and bring peace and happiness. The ceremonial and religious aspects of archery have always played an important role in Japanese society. Bamboo, of course, is the traditional material for both bows and arrows. Kyujutsu, war archery, was central among the ideologies of the samurai. Both mounted and infantry archers were used in battle, where individual accuracy was considered more important than the massed flight of arrows.
This is Kyudo, the way of archery. Above all, the archer strives for beauty of form and dignity in the shooting attitude. The Japanese set great store by the mental and spiritual disciplines involved in shooting the bow. In particular, Zen philosophy is thought by many to hold the key to infallible accuracy. In a Zen approach, the archer empties his consciousness and seeks to become a single entity with the target. Thus, there is no distance between them.
Shooting at targets became popular in Britain during the Regency period. The Prince Regent was an enthusiastic bowman, and fashion-conscious society was quick to follow his lead. Targets were constructed with pasteboard, and target faces varied in both size and coloring. Scoring systems, such as existed, were idiosyncratic and haphazard. The revival of archery as a cultivated diversion amongst the elegant beau monde also prompted the formation of a number of prestigious archery societies.
The Royal Kentish Bowmen and the Royal British Bowmen both enjoyed royal patronage. In 1766, Sir Ashton Lever and a group of enthusiastic archer friends founded the Toxophilites. They have an unbroken history to this day and are now the Royal Toxophilite Society. The Royal Company of Archers in Scotland had had the Royal Charter since 1704. In 1791, two of its members fought a duel, each shooting three arrows at the other. No harm came to either party. Since 1822, the Royal Company has been the sovereign’s official bodyguard in Scotland.
The Prince Regent’s most enduring legacy to archery was in introducing an orthodox scoring system and in regulating the distances at which the target should be shot. The distances, as he set, were 60, 80, and 100 yards, called the Prince’s lengths. They are the ranges still shot for a York round today. The target face he designed would also be familiar to any archer today. The Prince’s reckoning, as it is known, remains a standard for scoring: one for the outer white, three for the black, five for the inner white or blue, the red scores seven, and the gold nine.
A form of archery popular in 18th-century Europe was to shoot at popinjays, that is, wooden birds set high upon a pole. Popinjays have also been a favorite target for the crossbow since at least the 13th century. This example of a target crossbow is Flemish and dates from the 18th century. During the Middle Ages, many European towns formed guilds and fraternities of crossbowmen for their defense. A number of these guilds remain to this day and carry on the tradition of shooting at the popinjay.
The popinjay can also be shot with the longbow, though this is rarely done today. The popinjay does not seem to have been as widely used in England as it was on the continent, although Henry VIII’s charter to the Fraternity of St. George specifically states that they may use and exercise the shooting in their longbows, crossbows, and handguns at all manner of marks and butts, and at the game of the popinjay. In Scotland, however, there is a strong tradition of shooting at the popinjay, or poppingo as it is known locally.
The Irvine Toxophilites, formed in 1814, shot at an elevated target fixed to the top of a 30-foot pole. At nearby Kilwinning, in a custom dating to the 15th century, the bird was perched atop the abbey tower. In 1841, Prince Albert became patron of the Kilwinning Archers, although in 1870, the poppingo was raised on the abbey tower for the last time until a recent revival of the custom in 1950.
In 1856, Horace Ford published his famous book “Archery: Its Theory and Practice.” He has been described as the father of modern target shooting. Target shooting at precisely measured distances was the only form of archery that he would countenance. He described clout and roving as a refuge for the destitute. A deeply religious man, he practiced every day of the week except Sundays. He changed many aspects of the shooter’s stance and action. Ford was 12 times champion of Great Britain and consistently shot record scores.
Once, when asked, “Why don’t I improve? I’m always practicing,” Ford replied, “Ah, that is the reason. You use your arms too much and your head too little, and so you go on repeating and confirming your faults instead of mending them.” Target archery flourished during the Victorian era, and away from the Grand National Archery Meetings that Ford frequented, it was also fashionable as a country house amusement. The Grand National Archery Society was formed in 1861, and to this day, it is the governing body of target archery in Great Britain.
The greatest difference between the archery of Horace Ford and that of today is the changes in tackle made possible by modern materials and technology. Bows constructed of tubular steel made regular appearances on the archery field from the 1920s to the 1960s. Superb steel bows had been produced in India and Persia as far back as the 18th century. They were of flat cross-section with reflex limbs and beautifully decorated. By contrast, the European steel bow seemed rather utilitarian, but in its time, it was considered a most modern and innovative weapon.
During the ’30s and ’40s, a group of American archer-scientists developed a new style of flat bow. It had echoes of the past. Their version of the flat bow was based on the bows of an American Indian tribe from the West Coast called the Yuroks. It became known as the American longbow and enjoyed universal popularity until superseded by the reflex composite bow introduced in the 1950s. Such bows are today made in take-apart form, the limbs attaching to the central riser by means of bolts.
Modern engineering and lightweight materials such as carbon fiber and aluminum have given rise to all manner of elaborate bow designs. In 1969, Wilbur Allen, an American, patented the compound bow. Using a system of eccentric wheels to distribute the load, the archer only holds a percentage of the weight at full draw, so that at full draw, a bow of 50 pounds may let down to 25.
With this embrace of new technologies for the bow has come other developments, such as all manner of mechanical release aids and aids such as kisses to ensure absolutely consistent anchor points. Precisely calibrated sighting systems have been developed; some even incorporate scopes and levels. Forests of pokers, V-bars, and torque-flight compensators nod gently on the modern target line, stabilizing the bow, damping down the kick, and smoothing the shot.
The effect of new technology on arrows has been of particular significance. Molded plastic nocks have given a uniform precision to the way the arrow leaves the string. They have also given Hollywood the means for countless historical faux pas. Tubular aluminum arrows can be made with matching specifications impossible to achieve with wood, and today, even more exacting specifications are produced in carbon fiber. The consistency offered by every arrow being exactly the same produces relentless accuracy at championship levels.
Archery was an Olympic event from 1908 to 1924, then fell into decline and was not reintroduced until the 1972 Games in Munich. Today, it thrives and is enjoyed by millions in many countries throughout the world. In this brief survey, we have touched on just some of its history. One character who cannot go unmentioned, however, is Robin Hood. Countless versions of the legend for film and television have reduced noble sentiment to cliché. Even so, he continues to capture the imagination of succeeding generations, and from target line to Greenwood, his spirit resides in every archer’s heart.
First mentioned in the 14th-century poem “Piers Plowman,” tales of the great bowman occur throughout the Middle Ages, and scholars have long debated whether or not he actually existed. Some place him in the reign of Richard I, others argue persuasively that he was active during the reign of Edward II. The legend persists, but the man himself remains shrouded in mystery.
