The Hundred Years Was lasted – well, about 100 years. It started in 1340 with France and Great Britain having at it – again. On this day, 1346, we got the second significant battle at Crecy. It was important in that it is credited with the first use of cannons. That, coupled with the English longbow allowed the Brits to easily down the French troops in the second of the first four battles which went to the Brits. (Later, the French got a handle on things and started to fight back.) At any rate, the French also put themselves in a bad way by having marched a long way to reach the battle site. They were tired and didn’t bother to bring their large shields which might have come in handy against the longbows. Contrary to popular notion, the arrows were not able to penetrate the better quality of armor worn by the rich guys, but it did kill off quite a few of the guys wearing the cheaper stuff and also the common soldiers who didn’t have any protection. Consider this recounting: The English guns cast iron balls by means of fire...They made a noise like thunder and caused much loss in men and horses... The Genoese were continually hit by the archers and the gunners... [by the end of the battle], the whole plain was covered by men struck down by arrows and cannon balls. The English longbow wasn’t for the weak of nature. It was over 6 feet in length and took about a 100 pound pull to send an arrow 350 yards on average. At first, archers were able to launch about 6 in a minute, but the heavy pull quickly wore them out and the totals dropped significantly. Some guys were lucky to get off one a minute after the first round. The pull of the bow was such that later autopsies made identification of archers quite easy: they all tended to have an enlarged left arm and bone spurs on the shoulder, wrist, and/or fingers was common. Being on the receiving end of one of those arrows was no picnic. Because of the barbed tip they couldn’t be pulled out. The only way to remove them was to force them all the way through. King Henry of France took one in the cheek. He was somewhat luckier because the field surgeon was able to coat the thing with honey for a lubricant. He then enlarged the hole and was able to pull it out. I’m sure it felt real good. Oddly, no bows from that period survived to this day. It’s felt that they were used until they broke and then were destroyed.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 07:21:19 +0000
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