When this series first started, one of the weapons I almost immediately thought about was the longbow. Not that I have a passion for it or anything, but burned into my memory are images of archers in battle and besides, I grew up on Robin Hood watching it on TV when I lived in the UK during the 50s.

Well finally we have a book on it and it was well worth the wait. The long bow is not a compound bow as you see today, but a simply section of wood, more often than not ash or yew, that is bent by the attachment of line from its ends. These bows are measured in the amount of force it takes to pull back the bow string. Figuring out what these were like was not the easiest thing as being wood, they tend not to last long once no longer used. It is thanks to the restoration of the Mary Rose, a ship from the time of Henry VIII that we have gotten to see preserved bows and arrows, something else that rarely lasts the centuries intact. Arrow heads are not a problem, but the rest of the system is.

Anyway, it has been determined that the force required to pull back on the bowstring increased as the defensive armor of the opposition increased. It started around 70-80 pounds of force and worked its way up to 90-100 with some bows being in the 120-130 pound category, though those were few and far between as it takes a lot of strenth to bend a bow of that size.

The author is quite knowledgeable on the subject and is able to take us through the history of the weapon as well as its manufacture as well as the manufacture and care of arrows. I found it most interesting that in England, being able to operate a bow and arrow was required by law. Undoubtedly to provide a method of defense against the enemy (at this time that would be the French), in case of invasion. Archers were also very well paid for the time as the English army used a lot of them and most consider the English archers of the time to be the best in the world.

The book goes into the offensive and defensive use of the long bow, the development of armor to ward against it and its use in several period campaigns. It also covers the use of archery at sea, an area where it was most useful. In fact, the development of fire arms did not mean the end of the long bow as the hitting power was comparable and an archer could lease many arrows in the time it took to reload period guns. The conclusion that the author comes to regarding the actual effectiveness of the longbow is one that I would not have thought of, and will probably come to be a bit of a surprise to most readers. In all, it is an outstanding addition to this series and a book I most highly recommend to you.

October 2013

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