Text/Brother Feng
introduction
The decay of archery in the English Middle Ages is currently less studied in the academic community.
Most of his current works focus on the technical and tactical application of the longbow, such as Brian Williams's Longbow and Archery, Mike Loutz's Longbow, Mark Seckelton's The Secret of the English Warbow, and Hugh Hewitt's How the Longbow Hits: A Guide to Historical and Practical Literature.
There are many reasons for the evolution of bow and arrow function and archery in late medieval England, not only involving military reforms, but also involving social and economic development and value changes. Combining this issue with the social environment in which we live, and starting from the socio-economic and cultural perspectives, can not only broaden the scope of medieval military history research, but also deepen the understanding of the relationship between military and social development.
1. The longbow and arrow of medieval England
The bow and arrow is a time-honored weapon that primitive people used to shoot prey and conduct battles between tribes.
Archaeological data show that the oldest British bow and arrow appeared in Somerset in 2690 BC, and was about 6 feet (1.8 meters) long, which is about the same as the bow and arrow of the Middle Ages. The English in the Middle Ages favored the longbow – a bow that is said to have been introduced from Wales by the Anglo-Saxons in the 11th century.
In the Battle of Gwent in 1138, the longbow was the first to exert great power, killing tens of thousands of people in Scotland, and won praise from all over England. Bows and arrows are intimidating for their long range, speed, and lethality. A rain of arrows fired by a hundred archers can easily kill dozens of heavily armored knights.
In medieval English epics, there are many stories of knights who killed enemies with longbows. The tips of the bow's arms are often inlaid with horns with grooves to facilitate the attachment of the bowstring. The edges of the bow are often wrapped in white wood.
The shaft is generally made of aspen wood, which is generally about 30 inches long and relatively thick, but it is cheap and easy to mass-produce. The strings of the drawn bow were made of sturdy horsehair, and the shafts were generally roasted of aspen wood, about 3 feet long and 1 foot thick, with arrowheads 3 feet long at the top, decorated with delicate feathers. The arrows of the longbow come in a variety of shapes, with the most lethal arrows being quadrangular pyramidal, steel, capable of piercing through chain mail and most disc mail.
The crossbow is the European name for a hand-held crossbow, which is a variant of the traditional bow and arrow, which has the characteristics of long range, high accuracy, and fast arrow speed, and can effectively pierce the butt chain mail.
The crossbow generally consists of a bow rest, a bow body, a bowstring, and a pedal board, and is about 30 inches long, 26 inches wide, and weighs 4.75 pounds. In order to ensure its power, the crossbow needs to be fired from shields, walls, bushes, etc., which is suitable for long-range attacks and sneak attacks, and is considered to be an important origin of snipers.
The French liked to equip the crossbow the most, and the crossbow was their main weapon for long-range defense.
As a lethal weapon, the longbow is mainly suitable for surprise attacks or medium- and long-range defense in actual combat. Once the enemy is approaching, it will need to be protected by other classes or equipped with other melee weapons.
In the Middle Ages, English archers were often divided into cavalry archers and infantry archers.
In addition to being armed with a bow and arrow, the cavalry archers were also issued a spear. Due to the high equipment of the mounted archers, they did not often participate in battles, and were mainly used to take on the duties of royal guards and honor guards. Once used in combat, the main task is to complete the task of harassment - wearing light armor, often in small units, quickly harassing enemies in the plains. Compared with other branches of the military, the mounted archery mobile phone is flexible and fast, which is convenient for rapid evacuation.
Common rifle shooters come standard with a bow and a sword, a hooked sickle, an axe, and a five-foot-long mallet. During the battle, they wore light armor, quivers, and bows and arrows on their backs, concealed themselves in special positions, and suddenly shot the enemy in front of them. In terms of combat effectiveness, a mounted archer is inferior to a foot archer. In actual combat, the longbow has advantages and disadvantages, and is greatly affected by environmental factors such as combat terrain and weather.
In the open plains, the shooter has a wide field of vision and a clear target, which is suitable for accurate shooting, but if the terrain is undulating, the weather is hot, the fog is too high, the rain or the environment is noisy, the shooting accuracy will be reduced.
Mastering the advantages and disadvantages of the longbow and seizing the moment is often the key to turning the tide of battle. In the War of the Roses in 1461, when the fog turned to the side of the Lancastrians due to strong winds, the Yorkist archers took the opportunity to attack, shooting many of the opponents and winning a great victory.
Of course, if the logistics supply is not smooth, and the archers run out of arrows, it will also affect the combat effectiveness and reduce it to ordinary infantry. Therefore, before each battle, the military commander needs to assign a special vehicle to transport the arrow to the designated location in advance. At the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the Saxons had few archers and did not carry enough arrows, giving the Normans a quick chance to return fire, and were finally defeated.
2. The role of the longbow in the battle of the British army
Medieval English civilians loved archery, not just to supplement their lives by poaching, but mainly to participate in wars to obtain loot and thus improve personal or family fortunes.
According to the medieval Forest Law, ordinary people did not have the right to hunt in forests and parks, otherwise they would be punished, because hunting was the feudal prerogative of the royal family and nobility. However, the practical needs of war and the great power of bows and arrows made the government pay attention to and encourage people to practice Xi archery.
Skilled men can follow the nobles into the war, gaining the opportunity to loot lucrative loot on the battlefield. During the Hundred Years' War, British nobles and soldiers looted in France, and many people "became rich overnight".
After the Battle of Poitiers, the historian Fruisal described it this way: "All those who fought alongside the Black Prince on the battlefield became rich, whether by demanding ransom or by plundering gold, silver, utensils, and jewels", and the fifteenth-century herald Nicolas Upton wrote: "During that period many poor men who served on the battlefields of France became nobles." ”
Participating in wars and gaining good fortune was the main motivation for the people in the Middle Ages to actively practice Xi archery. The many victories in foreign wars made many people have feelings for the longbow, and even in the 16th century, when the bow and arrow were in decline, many people still remembered the longbow.
The longbow was "favored" by the government and the people in the Middle Ages, mainly because it was a weapon of war and helped Britain achieve major victories on many occasions. At the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William's longbowmen killed King Harold with arrows, which turned the tide of the battle and William's side won.
In 1138, King David I of Scotland invaded England with his army, and the two sides fought fiercely at York, and the English archers outnumbered and inflicted heavy losses on the Scottish infantry. In the Hundred Years' War, the British army repeatedly defeated the French aristocracy with fewer victories, and the longbowmen played an important role.
As a military weapon, the longbow could play a major role in the Hundred Years' War, in fact, it depended on a variety of factors: such as the proper tactical deployment of the British army, the high morale of the soldiers, the close cooperation of various branches of the army, and the major military mistakes of the other side, it can be said that the victory of the war was actually the result of a combination of factors.
Under the premise of these favorable conditions, the great power of the longbow can be maximized. Simply emphasizing or highlighting the role of the longbow is very likely to make the mistake of technological determinism, but there is also an erroneous tendency to underestimate the role of military technology by belittling advanced weaponry too much.
Therefore, when analyzing the reasons for the victory of the Battle of Krexi, the scholar Zhu Shuo pointed out that strict military discipline, meticulous military deployment, multi-arm coordination, high combat morale, and the proper use of the longbow were the real reasons why the British army won more with less.
3. The deterioration of the function of bow and arrow weapons and the transformation of archery into sports
In modern times, the popularity and importance of bows and arrows in England has gradually declined. Although Henry VIII was a hobby of hunting and archery, and issued several decrees requiring the public to increase archery training, there are various indications that the military use of bows and arrows is declining.
During this period, many people used bows and arrows, not to improve their military skills, but to shoot wild animals. In various parts of the city and countryside, many arrow targets are crooked, and no one has practiced Xi for a long time.
In 1591, the tenant farmers of the Boulev estate said that they had not practiced Xi archery for 10 months. In 1577, William Harrison lamented: "The bow and arrow, which we were proud of, have now withered and declined." ”
Chronicler John Stowe says that the sport of archery that we used to love to hear about is rarely mentioned by the citizens of London and is largely abandoned. They all like to play wooden ball now and no longer value archery. In 1594, Humfray Balk published a brief discussion of the uselessness of the longbow or archery in view of the use of violence and all man-made firearms, in view of the present application of other powerful military equipment, and the longbow or archery.
In 1684, Robert Howlett wrote in The Trends of Amusement: A Gentleman's Guide: "I am convinced of the value of the longbow in the past, and in ancient times its importance as a defensive and offensive weapon, but these understandings are confined to the past, and in modern times its function can be referred to." ”
In 1688, the longbow appeared on the battlefield for the last time as a weapon, by which time arquebuses, smoothbore guns and cannons had become the main equipment of the army.
While the military function of the bow and arrow is declining, its leisure and entertainment value is becoming more and more prominent.
In the north-west of England, local nobles and gentlemen practiced Xi archery and played games by forming clubs, and archery, as a recreational sport, was transformed into an elegant activity for the elite, and "the English bow and arrow, once a weapon that terrified the enemy, was now a pleasant, elegant and healthy pastime".
There are many reasons for the shift in the nature of archery. In the 16th century, people attributed it to the "price revolution" – the overall increase in the price of bows and armor discouraged archers, and the motivation to practice Xi was severely affected.
On 6 May 1542, for example, William Boyce, a Kent magistrate, wrote to Edward Linley, the Calais Auditor, stating that many people in the district could not afford bows and arrows because of their high prices. In order to protect the traditional military sport of archery, the British government issued an imperial decree on August 31 of that year to limit the price of bows and arrows, requiring that the price of bows, arrows, anchor hooks, armor and other materials be taxed and determined according to the grade, and the local county warden and magistrate are responsible for implementation.
In the early 17th century, when King Charles I was inspecting Lancashire and other places, he found that the local people's entertainment activities were sluggish, and after investigation, he believed that it was the Puritans "troubled" - the Puritans started from their own religious concepts, and obstructed and restricted the legitimate entertainment activities of the people, making it difficult for the rural archery to develop.
In order to change this situation, Charles I ordered the Edict of Entertainment in 1633 to strengthen the protection of the Puritan forces against the Puritan forces and the sport of archery. In the author's view, these views are only superficial factors of the problem, and do not touch on the essence and deep factors of the problem.
The decay of the military use of archery is directly related to its inability to meet the needs of modern military reform, and its gradual transformation from a popular and popular sport to an elite and entertaining activity shows that it cannot meet the needs of modern social and economic development. In order to fully analyze the decay of archery, it must be understood in the context of modern society.
In modern times, new firearms have been applied on a large scale in the military field, and bows and arrows have lost their weapon superiority and inevitably withdrew from the military arena.
Studies have shown that in the 16th and 17th centuries, Westerners had mastered the scientific formula of gunpowder and were able to produce low-cost gunpowder; on this basis, they successively manufactured firearms that were more lethal than bows and arrows - arquebuses, flint guns, fire wheel guns and smoothbore guns, etc., and invented long-range, powerful and mobile artillery, such as stone guns, cannons, Calflin guns, Seck guns, etc., which soon became the most prominent military advantages of modern Western Europe.
The American military historian Archer Jones clearly pointed out in "The Art of Western War" that because longbowmen require greater strength and a certain amount of skill, and need to be trained for a long time, the cost of equipping the army with longbow weapon systems is higher than that of arquebuses, and this factor ultimately ensures the adoption of arquebuses.
In modern times, capitalism has flourished, commodity trading is in full swing, and the temptation of market interests has led to a decline in the enthusiasm of ordinary people to practice Xi bow and arrow, and their leisure and entertainment time has decreased, and they have actively turned to commodity production. In particular, the rapidly growing population and frequent movement trajectory have also caused the space for Xi archery practice to shrink sharply, making it difficult to continue as a sport.
Due to the social and economic effects, the conditions for the popularization and popularization of bows and arrows were lost, and they gradually declined. While the military function of the bow and arrow is declining, its leisure and entertainment and moral education functions are emerging. This transformation was initiated by the English aristocratic gentlemen, who were influenced by humanist values and saw archery as a useful means and capital for self-cultivation and status.
In the 16th-century book "The Will of the State: The Farmer's Entertainment", the author made it clear that practicing Xi archery not only makes life enjoyable, but also helps people concentrate and improve their self-cultivation, and it also brings people a lot of joy while building strength.
Elegant sports such as archery are not only a physical and recreational activity, but more importantly, a beneficial sport to improve moral cultivation. Long-term exercise and edification will make the participants' behavior more elegant, their moral cultivation more noble, and their status more noble.
This view was heavily influenced by Italian humanist thought. As the most famous humanist scholar in Italy, Castillio warned the aristocracy in "The Courtier" that in order to become an ideal courtier with elegance, steadiness, wisdom, art and other temperaments, it is necessary to carry out physical exercise, engage in archery, horseback riding, tennis and other recreational sports, which will make people full of strength, lightness and agility, and help them perform perfectly in social situations.
It showcases the bravery and grace of the courtiers, while also earning the respect of the common people and showing prominence. In social development, having strong wealth is the basis for obtaining a good reputation and honor, but in order to get people's long-term and effective respect, wealth or power alone is not enough, it also needs to master more social resources and capital.
Recreation, as a useful means of gaining the respect of others, has a psychological advantage that is incomparable with other activities. Engaging in labor is seen as a sign of weakness and is inherently classified as inferior. However, the organization or participation in ostentatious leisure activities away from work has become the recognized cultural capital of the elite to show their prominent status.
Because sports have many social functions, physical education is an indispensable part of modern aristocratic education.