arrow lengths
Unfortunately most of my books are packed at the moment - so I am going on memory - but here are a few points
Hunting - (apart from wondering what they might have been hunting on the Mary Rose... fish?) - medieval armies living off the land seized farm produce including livestock - you can't hunt enough in a small area to support a high density of people. I daresay someone with a bow might have shot at a chance target - nice bit of venison - but it was not part of the routine - so arrows would not have been supplied for it.
Archers with their own arrows..... read Juliet Barkers "Agincourt"... most archers did not turn up with their own arrows.. there was a sophisticated manufacture and supply system producing thousands of bows and hundreds of thousands of arrows.. but it did not cater for individual variations.. like the modern army maybe - only two sizes.. too big or too small remember the artillery bow was not intended to be accurate - it was a volume weapon.. Ascham recommends practising for distance, not aiming at targets...
Professional archers did not make their own weapons for warfare. The medieval military system was just as clever and sophisticated as ours - just a different technology - and the idea of two "standard" arrow types to make it easy for the archers is obviously sensible. It seems clear that at Agincourt there were two arrow types available.. a lighter longer one for distance.. and a heavier one with the famous bodkin point to penetrate armour at closer ranges. The Mary Rose arrows seem to have had some equivalent types.
A final personal thought.. if there is such a thing as "instinctive shooting".. and if the medieval professional archers perfected it.. it was not about whether you used a sight or not.. it was about picking up a bow you had hardly used.. with an unknown draw weight.. with a string of natural and hence variable materials... and sheaves of arrows handed to you at random.. and shooting them all into the right area at a rate of up to 20 per minute.. despite not being able to see where they were going.. Anybody here reckon they could do that?.. even ignoring the medieval draw weights which had to be well over 100lb to get the distance with the arrows..
tom
Unfortunately most of my books are packed at the moment - so I am going on memory - but here are a few points
Hunting - (apart from wondering what they might have been hunting on the Mary Rose... fish?) - medieval armies living off the land seized farm produce including livestock - you can't hunt enough in a small area to support a high density of people. I daresay someone with a bow might have shot at a chance target - nice bit of venison - but it was not part of the routine - so arrows would not have been supplied for it.
Archers with their own arrows..... read Juliet Barkers "Agincourt"... most archers did not turn up with their own arrows.. there was a sophisticated manufacture and supply system producing thousands of bows and hundreds of thousands of arrows.. but it did not cater for individual variations.. like the modern army maybe - only two sizes.. too big or too small remember the artillery bow was not intended to be accurate - it was a volume weapon.. Ascham recommends practising for distance, not aiming at targets...
Professional archers did not make their own weapons for warfare. The medieval military system was just as clever and sophisticated as ours - just a different technology - and the idea of two "standard" arrow types to make it easy for the archers is obviously sensible. It seems clear that at Agincourt there were two arrow types available.. a lighter longer one for distance.. and a heavier one with the famous bodkin point to penetrate armour at closer ranges. The Mary Rose arrows seem to have had some equivalent types.
A final personal thought.. if there is such a thing as "instinctive shooting".. and if the medieval professional archers perfected it.. it was not about whether you used a sight or not.. it was about picking up a bow you had hardly used.. with an unknown draw weight.. with a string of natural and hence variable materials... and sheaves of arrows handed to you at random.. and shooting them all into the right area at a rate of up to 20 per minute.. despite not being able to see where they were going.. Anybody here reckon they could do that?.. even ignoring the medieval draw weights which had to be well over 100lb to get the distance with the arrows..
tom