Longest continued use of the Longbow possible?

Sior

Banned
Dew dew! Yet again the myth of the English Longbow, it was the Welsh who introduced the Sais to the Longbow, when small bands of Welsh Bowmen would decimate the Anglo-Saxon invaders.
The favourite being to fire the arrow through the leg into the horse and then cut the enemies throat at your leisure.
As soon as the Welsh campaign was successfully over, Welsh conscripts began to be incorporated into English armies. The lessons the English learned in Wales were later used with deadly effect by Welsh mercenaries on the battlefields of France and Scotland.
Yes there were English Longbowmen but it was the Welsh who were the best!
 

Deleted member 5719

Dew dew! Yet again the myth of the English Longbow, it was the Welsh who introduced the Sais to the Longbow, when small bands of Welsh Bowmen would decimate the Anglo-Saxon invaders.
The favourite being to fire the arrow through the leg into the horse and then cut the enemies throat at your leisure.
As soon as the Welsh campaign was successfully over, Welsh conscripts began to be incorporated into English armies. The lessons the English learned in Wales were later used with deadly effect by Welsh mercenaries on the battlefields of France and Scotland.
Yes there were English Longbowmen but it was the Welsh who were the best!

Normans surely. And although many Welshmen were in the English armies of the 100 years' war, they were no more mercenaries than the English who fought alongside them.
 

Sior

Banned
"...The longbow was first recorded as being used by the Welsh in 633 C.E., when Offrid, the son of Edwin, king of Northumbria, was killed by an arrow shot from a Welsh longbow during a battle between the Welsh and the Mercians -- more than five centuries before any record of its military use in England..."
(per TheMiddleAges.net)
"..."Henry (V of England) dealt a crippling blow to that nation (France) at the battle of Agincourt ... England with her fierce Welsh bowman, seemed an unstoppable force..."
(per The Highlander Magazine, May-Jun 09)
 
Dew dew! Yet again the myth of the English Longbow, it was the Welsh who introduced the Sais to the Longbow, when small bands of Welsh Bowmen would decimate the Anglo-Saxon invaders.
The favourite being to fire the arrow through the leg into the horse and then cut the enemies throat at your leisure.
As soon as the Welsh campaign was successfully over, Welsh conscripts began to be incorporated into English armies. The lessons the English learned in Wales were later used with deadly effect by Welsh mercenaries on the battlefields of France and Scotland.
Yes there were English Longbowmen but it was the Welsh who were the best!

Ok. So? I don't think anyone denies that the longbow was orignally a welsh weapon but by the 13th C it had been naturalized as an English cultural weapon too. That's what gave them a large enough population pool of archers
 
"...The longbow was first recorded as being used by the Welsh in 633 C.E., when Offrid, the son of Edwin, king of Northumbria, was killed by an arrow shot from a Welsh longbow during a battle between the Welsh and the Mercians -- more than five centuries before any record of its military use in England..."
(per TheMiddleAges.net)

How exactly do we know that this was a longbow? There are different ways of propelling arrows.

Secondly, assuming it was, what does it prove other than that the Welsh used bows much like the continental Germanic peoples did?

"..."Henry (V of England) dealt a crippling blow to that nation (France) at the battle of Agincourt ... England with her fierce Welsh bowman, seemed an unstoppable force..."
(per The Highlander Magazine, May-Jun 09)

Not a lot of conspicuously Welsh names in the Agincourt Honour Roll. There could be all manner of reasons for the men to have English names, but I rather suspect the explanation is a lot of them were English.

http://www.familychronicle.com/agincort.htm
 

Deleted member 5719

Interestingly, in that battle (Hatfield Chase I believe, or was it Winwaed?), the Welsh were allied with the Mercians against the Northumbrians.

Ah, the eternal racial war between Gymro and Sais! :rolleyes:
 
"...The longbow was first recorded as being used by the Welsh in 633 C.E., when Offrid, the son of Edwin, king of Northumbria, was killed by an arrow shot from a Welsh longbow during a battle between the Welsh and the Mercians -- more than five centuries before any record of its military use in England..."
(per TheMiddleAges.net)
"..."Henry (V of England) dealt a crippling blow to that nation (France) at the battle of Agincourt ... England with her fierce Welsh bowman, seemed an unstoppable force..."
(per The Highlander Magazine, May-Jun 09)

Of course, it was the English Kings that put the longbow into both a battle and war winning system...

And the Highlander mag quote probably stems from the general perception of longbow = welsh - as the esteemed mr bach says, there were a much higher number of English names in the roll - not surprising given the fact that the nobles indentured to provide troops largely held English lands.

Oh, and the royal longbowmen hailed from Cheshire - or at least they did for Richard II (and so I would expect Edward III as well)
 
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