Pirates

Take a look at this wonderful 15th century manuscript image of longbow archers practicing. Note the shooting stance with the tilted pelvis, which is the hallmark of shooting a heavy bow. Note the stoutness of the bows. A couple of the bows appear to have a slight steamed recurve. One man is stringing or unstringing his bow. Another rests on the ground. It is a great representation of a group of sturdy longbow archers practicing together. Oh and by the way, it is FRENCH longbowmen who are populating this scene. In my book War Bows, I write about the substantial corps of archers that were raised in France in the second half of the 15th century. They learned, to their cost, the effectiveness of massed longbow archers from the English and they soon turned to recruiting and training their own longbowmen. Charles VII’s Compagnie d’Ordonnance, raised in 1445, included between 4,000 and 6,000 mounted archers (in the sense of them being dragoon longbowmen, who rode to battle but dismounted to fight) in it’s 12,000 company strength. There was also a form of territorial militia, known as ‘francs-archers’, who were raised from the towns and villages. Two thousand of them pinned down the English garrison at Caen in 1450 and 4,000 francs-archers did the same at the second siege of Harfleur in 1449. Under Louis XI (r. 1461 - 1483) the number of francs-archers was boosted to around 16,000.There were also thousands of Scottish archers – the Garde Écossaise - who fought on the French side in the latter part of the 100-years-war. They played a major role in the army of Joan of Arc.There were as well many thousands of longbow archers in Burgundian armies. Their alliances fluctuated during this long conflict – at tomes they were allied with France, at others with England (and in the latter case, they recruited English archers into their armies). The French had a reserve of 4,000 longbowmen and 1,500 crossbowmen at Agincourt. It was just a failure of command that they were left at the back and never deployed.None of this is to diminish the scale, the skill, the courage, the fighting pluck, the cultural and military significance of English and Welsh longbowmen during the 100-Years-War. They were a phenomenon – a phenomenon that led to the French also adopting massed longbowmen. It is just to remind us that history is complicated and that easy stereotypes are seldom reliable. During the last half of the 15th century, the French developed a significant longbow shooting culture. Though for the Welsh and the English, the story goes back much earlier. However the 'longbow' is not exclusive to British shores.Also of interest in this image is that one pair are wrestling and another pair are practicing ‘fencing’ with their lances. Using lances on the battlefield wasn’t just about thumping your opponent, There are various techniques recorded where you can use your lance for defence – engaging and lifting the tip of the opposing lance, for instance. The fact that they are apparently unarmoured (though they may well have a padded garment, a leather plastron or even a metal breastplate under their jackets) suggests that they are practicing such moves, rather than trying to hit each other. I ‘jousted’ in modern dress a couple of times for ‘Weapons that Made Britain’ all those years ago. It is a little scary but provided you trust your opponent and that you both have good skills and control, it is perfectly doable. I am indebted to Augusto Boer Bront who first brought this image to public attention on the Horsey Hema page. The source is “Le secret de l'histoire naturelle contenant les merveilles et choses mémorables du monde.” A MS in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, dated to the 15th century. The artist is believed to be Robinet Testard (1470 – 1531) ... See MoreSee Less

Pirates

Recent Posts

Mike on Facebook