At some time in their history nearly every race on earth has used the bow and arrow, but nowhere did they reach the pitch of skill and perfection as in England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In that period the English bowman dominated the wars of Europe as no comparable force has ever done since.
It was a time when England was a young nation, feeling her feet and still a little unsteady. The triple victories of Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt stoked up the fires of national consciousness to forge a pride that has never left these shores. Directed by brilliant, brave and far-seeing captains, the English army did not lose a major battle between Morlaix in 1342 and Patay in 1429. The best professional fighting man of his day, the English yeoman, and his longbow were the most significant single factor that changed all the old traditions and concepts of mediaeval fighting and warfare.
The English archer was not a peasant to be lorded over by the higher born and arrogant of the land; he was a freeman, a respected yeoman possessing a proud and dignified status. He exchanged his exceptional skill and talents with the six-foot yew stave for specified pay and terms of military service. That he was a powerful, muscular man is obvious – only the biggest and the strongest of men could pull a hundred pounds and draw a full clothyard shaft to their ear. His background encouraged him to show initiative and resource, so that, when the occasion demanded, he would drop his bow and nimbly lay to with sword, axe and the murderous five-foot maule or mallet.
The successors of the English archer fought with Marlborough at Blenheim, Wolfe at Quebec, Clive at Plassey and with Wellington in the Peninsula. Their bones also salted the Sudanese sands and whitened on the rugged hills of India’s north-west frontier; they amazed the Germans at Mons with their rapid rifle-fire and built up a reputation for dogged tenacity amidst adversity in two world wars. In the beginning the longbow brought the first immortal fame to the common soldier who might otherwise have hardly rated a mention in the history books.
Whether the longbow really altered the course of history is debatable, nor can it be claimed that the English archer contributed towards the foundation of the British Empire. But it cannot be denied that his skill and courage may well have discouraged other, more powerful, nations from attempting to add England to their empires.
In writing of Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt one is writing of the Hundred Years War, of Edward, the Black Prince, and Henry V, but, more than that, one must write the history of the English archer, because without him, and the tactics built around him, none of the victories in France during that mediaeval period would have been possible.
It might well be claimed that historians have engaged in numerous and fierce controversies over battle sites, numbers engaged and casualties, and that these points of disagreement are not reflected in the pages of this book. To this point it is possible to give a number of valid reasons. In the first place it is intended that this should be the story of a man and his weapon – everything else is a background to that personalised account. Secondly, a considerable number of sources and authorities were consulted and studied during the preparation of this manuscript; many differed but none appeared to the author to improve upon or supplant the excellent reasoning of the late Lieutenant-Colonel A. H. Burne in his books on the Crécy and Agincourt wars. Therefore, much that is written and stated as fact in this book is so recorded because the author is convinced that it happened in that way – in the manner described by Colonel Burne and which requires no argument or discussion.
Further inspiration was gained from A. Conan Doyle’s book The White Company – this most fascinating and enjoyable reading provided the initial impetus to put words on paper in praise of that truly English character and his weapon – the bowman. I am grateful to John Murray (Publishers) Ltd. of London for their unhesitating permission to quote from this wonderful book.
This is perhaps the sixth book that I have written with the invaluable aid of Southampton Public Library. Volumes long since out of print have been sought and borrowed from other libraries by Bob Corlett and Bill Graham, to whom I owe a great deal.
Donald Featherstone
Southampton