Facts About the Medieval Longbow Performance

Though bows have existed for millennia, the medieval Welsh longbow was one of the transformative innovations of the Middle Ages. The English used it against the Scottish in their war for independence, but later it changed warfare forever as the deciding weapon in many battles of the Hundred Years War. Despite the fact that gunpowder made is premier in the mid-14th century, the longbow's remarkable features kept it in use until the late 1500s.

  1. The Longbow's Effective Range

    • Although there was significant variation between bows and archers, a typical longbow could fire an arrow approximately 300 yards. In more meaningful terms, a professional yeoman archer of the Hundred Years War was expected to be able to hit his target from 200 yards away. In fact, this level of proficiency was prodded by an English law that forbade yeomen from any recreational sports except for archery.

    Construction of the Longbow

    • The Welsh longbow was made from the bole of the yew tree in such a way that the "belly" of the bow was the heartwood and the back was sapwood. This configuration maximized the strength and elasticity of the bow, allowing for a draw weight typically between 60 and 80 pounds. Some longbows, however, had draw weights in excess of 100 pounds. Depending on the archer's size and strength, most bows were around 6 feet tall and the arrows were 36 inches long.

    Longbow Rate of Fire

    • Compared to the crossbow and early firearms, the essential advantage of the longbow was how rapidly an archer could launch arrows. He was expected to draw, aim and release his arrow in six seconds or less, meaning that he should shoot 10 to 12 aimed arrows per minute. According to Stephen Bull, yeoman archers spent so much time drawing their bowstrings that their skeletons show signs of mild deformation.

    The Longbow in Battle

    • A longbow arrow making a direct hit would usually kill its target. An arrow striking a body part covered in mail would, at the very least, cause severe pain. The arrows frequently pierced mail armor, and modern tests confirm that they could penetrate a breastplate or helmet under the right circumstances. However, archers usually aimed for horses, as knights forced to dismount before the initial charge were at a deadly disadvantage.