Medieval Archery
Archery in general is the practice of using a bow to shoot arrows. Historically archery was used in hunting and warfare while today it has become an important precision sport. Archeologists believe that archery may have started 15,000 years ago but the earliest and concrete evidence is 8,000- 9,000 years old. It is believed that the bow had originated for hunting and then later was adopted as a tool for warfare.
During the medieval times in Europe, the importance of archery in the battlefields was steadily increasing. In the eastern European countries, the Mongols were highly skilled in archery on the horseback. These archers would shoot the target while approaching them and again turn around in the saddle to shoot after they passed the target. They used this art of archery to dominate nearly all the Asian countries. There was a steady rise in the use of archery as a weapon in the battles in the Eastern European countries, but it was not as prevalent and dominating in the western European countries.
The archers were often the lowest paid soldiers in the army due to the use of poor quality of the bows and arrows which were used against the soldiers with strong swords. This disregard was countered by the Vikings who would use archery to dominate countries like Britain and France. They would often shoot two arrows, one on the high trajectory and the other on a lower trajectory. These arrows would simultaneously hit the enemy from two different angles thus making their defense stronger.
The use of crossbow became quite popular in the medieval era as it took years for a person to become a proficient longbow archer, while a person could easily get trained and become a dexterous crossbow archer in a short time period. Also, the crossbow had nearly the same power and range as the longbow. But one major drawback of the crossbow was that it took a long time to reload the arrows.
Also the bowstrings were made of linen, hemp or gut and thus had a high tendency of shrinking when wet. Thus to protect the bowstrings from shrinking, they used to be coated with beeswax or glue. Later these strings were replaced by the strings made of silk.
During the battles, an archer would carry his longbow, some arrows, a few spare strings and a ball of archers wax. These skilled archers could fire about 12-15 arrows in a minutes time. Other than their use in the battlefields, they were also a part of the army protecting the castles from their enemies. As a modification, the archers would often use arrows with venom or fire in the battles. Thus, archery slowly became an important part of the army. But with the invention of other weapons using gunpowder, the use of bows and arrows faded away slowly.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 9:36 am and is filed under Archery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.