@@neoasura yeah but they needed as many bowmen as they could get, those guys needed years/decades to train instead of the weeks/ months of normal infantry.
Arrows fired by longbows couldn't pierce armor in Agincourt. There were other reasons why it is said the longbow was so effective in that battle. Although arrows coudn't penetrate the armor, they had a tendency to burst when hitting the armor and some splinters could have entered through the visor of the helmet for example. Also the french knights were trapped in a mud, and having hundreds of arrows shot at you, feeling the heavy impact of them, and fearing that one might penetrate through your visor, is scary. They were quickly demoralized. Then in hand to hand, the english archers used daggers to finish off the trapped, tired and demoralized french knights.
Emanuel Vanzetti though a single arrow couldn’t pierce plate armor it could put a dent in it. And maybe if by chance the knight got hit two or three times in the same spot then an arrow could possibly get threw. Then there’s the fact an arrow could hit a low armored joint spot. I wonder if an arrow impact could be enough to knock a knight off balance and fall from his horse.
Jacob Clark it couldn’t pierce the breastplate but the visor was vulnerable. Doubtful an arrow strike would’ve knocked a knight off his horse- the saddles they used held them in place very securely.
I thought the same but in one of Hugh Soar's books he talks about experiments he did which shows that they could penetrate the armour, but probably not deep enough to be fatal. Something he does mention is that it was possible to kill a knight by Blunt Force Trauma. This is like hitting someone on the head with a baseball bat. It will not penetrate the skull but the trauma of the impact on the brain could kill them. Several years ago the French army did some research into body armour and discovered that a force of 80 Joules was enough to kill a person who was unprotected. A bodkin arrow was measured to have a force of over 125 Joules. So even with full plate armour a hit on the head or over the heart could kill. Which is the same areas which the English archers would shoot at when the range was close enough
but also master the longbow require practice during entire life, meanwhile a musket only require FEW days of training and was even more powerfull against steel plate armor, by early XVI century even common soldiers can afford a steel breastplate providing good chest protection against bow and crossbow.
@@Tonyx.yt. An English Longbow with Bodkin AP Arrows could easily penetrate heavy steel breastplates at further ranges which is why the Longbow was so deadly during the period. The Longbow was only ever outclassed by the musket.
@Christopher Gaetan for me last mission is quit easy even in hardest mode. How? Just ignore burgundy base in middle and use all of your army to capture bugundy base in the bottom of map, but dont destroy the market. Build castle and cannon in the bridge and start waiting for eco booming, build few fire ship to prevent attack from British dock(you even can bombard it with your cannon). And for the end game ignore British wall and tower and attack from water.
@Christopher Gaetan kill Burgundy and shrews bury with your starting army and then just boom from there until you are strong enough to kill the main English force
@@tahagi7006 took me looking up someone else's info to know about that southern burgundy base, and I did just that. I won, in moderate difficulty. But not before being constantly bullied by those shrewd Shrewberry sending constant barrages of LCs, Cavaliers, Trebs and Rams. Dunno if you faced that or your strategy was any different here, but I was constantly raging "Give me a damn break with this damned heavy cavalries ffs! Wait a minute, cavalry! ..." What I did built out some pikemen, kept a few Knights to counter the seige weapons and monks to heal after the attacks and it worked! So kept defending till I built up a proper strike force. And they were my first target! Another annoying thing was any villager that snuck past rebuilt most of the major structures I destroyed (TC, Stables, Siege Workshop, thankfully no Castles). At least the Burgundy gave up on attacking (not resigned yet) and the British weren't triggered yet (which only happens if you capture the intended base). I did destroy the market, but managed gold and other resources by sneaking in trade with the British docks (killed/converted any Galleons that spawned) and after cleaning them up, Shrewsberry markets and sneaking off villagers eastwards, after clearing the marshes their for wood.
Actually the English had been using this type of bow for a very long time. What they learnt from the Welsh was to use them on mass rather then spread out in the army. So the Welsh contribution was the tactical use of archers.
The english took tactics and equipment from other nations and incorporated them into their own armies. That's why they were so powerful, because they had one of the most well developed "militaries".
Starts being good? Why exactly do you think the Anglo Saxon English took almost 800 years to go 200 miles When they first arrived in Britain? The Welsh are seen by history as push overs, but the truth is as far from that as one can get. The Romans had to invade Britain twice, and The English took almost 800 uears to subdue them (with Norman help), and that was after they themselves got taken over by the Normans. As for the Vikings - The Welsh had a better time with them than any of the other nations on the island of Britain. One of their kings was even killed in Battle by a Welsh King.
Additional information on the English Longbow: -The draw weight of a medieval longbow ranged from 80 to 200+ pounds, with the average being 120-170 pounds. Contrast this to modern bows which typically have only 20 to 75 pounds of draw weight. - Yew from Italy and Spain was the preferred wood for the longbow as they grew straight, in contrast to yew from Britain which was gnarly and twisted. - A typical formation for the English Army was: Knights and men-at-arms in the center, and archers on both flanks. - Contrary to this video, longbowmen actually regularly engaged in melee combat once they ran out of arrows. During the Battle of Agincourt, the archers dropped their bows and picked up swords/maces/mallets and beat down the tired French knights in the mud. - Again contrary to the vid, archers would NEVER leave their bows stringed up and mounted above the fireplace. Also, when hunting Englishmen used low poundage longbows, as the high draw weights of longbows used in war were unnecessary for killing game. - Henry VIII's ship, the Mary Rose, capsized in the 1500s and left behind several bow staves and arrows in good condition. This is the main source for studying longbows today. - The name "longbow" is a relative new term appearing in the 1700s. In Medieval times it was simply known as bow or warbow. - Warbow Archers are modern day longbowmen who practice with period accurate heavy bows and proper draw technique. One such archer is Joe Gibbs, who runs his own channel on CZcams.
Naturally it's because bows are relegated to hunting and sport archery. The extreme power of medieval warbows meant for taking down armored targets is no longer needed.
@ReonMagnum that is so damn cool! Thank you for taking the time to share all that, I've always wanted to know more about it, I know a fair amount about firearms just out of interest but have always wanted to know more about bows.
Yes but they trained all there life for it. I'm trying to get my bow arm back and then proceed into warbow territory. If you can draw and shoot 120lbs accurately you can pretty much hunt anything with a bow.
I heard an interesting story concerning the origin of the English "two-fingers" taunt. When the French captured English soldiers, they would cut off their index and middle fingers to prevent the soldier from being able to fire a longbow. Thus, to show that they could still fire a longbow, the English would raise their two fingers at the french which over time became an aggressive gesture. Can someone confirm/disconfirm this story?
Its quite likely that many archers did do this, and certainly explains the two-fingered taunt that's still prevalent today, however there's no real historical account of it happening.
German with a state of the art MMG that fires 1250 rounds a minute: *Thinks hes unstoppable* Some lad with a fucking longbow and sword : Im about to end this mans entire career.
@Mcfch The country with the most victory in her history salutes you loser. Do you smell that ??? it's the smell of defeat during the 100-year war :) all your's longbow men was anihillated by 200 knights, don't forget that englishboys.
The main advantage of using a longbow in modern warfare is the bow is silent and you can kill enemy troops without giving away your location or raising the alarm in the event of an ambush.
@@walterbrunswick They complained about Australian bomber crews in WW2 who had a habit of emptying their toilets while bombing the target. Imagine being a Berlin fireman when that lots comes down. And of course he would be looking up. As A thought. This may explain why Hitler's Brown Shirts. Deduct one letter from shirt and see what the truth was.
Thank you for this informative yet simple and entertaining piece of about the English Longbow. Definitely helps killing some time with this quarantine :)
Also those 200 English longbowmen are also elite troops through many battles and deadly accurate experienced troops. I think without the English troops that battle may have been a lot more bloody for the Portuguese.
Oh where do we begin. The longbow dates back thousands of years into prehistory. An example was found in prehistoric Denmark. What made the bow so important in the Medieval times was that it was used on mass rather the spread out amongst the army as it used to be. The Longbow was a hunting weapon. The one used in combat was the War Bow. The difference is the draw weight. This is the weigh needed to draw the bow string back to its full length. Draw weight for a longbow was somewhere between 20 and 30 pounds. Whereas the minimum draw weight for a warbow was 90 pounds. The bows at the Battle of Cressy were about 120 pounds while those used at Argincourt would have been about 140 pounds. Those on the Mary Rose had a draw weight of 200 pounds. Bow did not get fired, they were shot. There was no fire involved, unlike a gun. Bows did not take years to make. Under normal circumstances you could make a bow in a couple of weeks. The time factor came into play because bows had to be made individually by a bowyer and if you had thousands to make it would mean the wood would be stored until needed. And because there was a limited number of bowyers and each bow took two or three hours to make this is why it took so long. There were other types of bow, such as the flat bow which was just as good as the long bow, but they required much more wood to be removed so it quicker to make. Training took so long because they used instinctive shooting which was much better then aimed shooting, but took much longer to learn. One of the big advantages of the bow over the crossbow was you could use the fall of the arrow to hit people behind objects such a battlements. You aimed higher then you would for a normal shot and the arrow could then come down behind the battlement. This technique is still used today by machine gunners and is called beaten ground. As for hand to hand combat. English archers were training in the use of the sword and buckler which meant even a close range they were deadly.
I live in a part of England in town called Middleton in the north of England. In my town there is a church call Saint Leonard’s. It was built in 1412 and has a stained glass window which thought to be thee oldest war memorial in the UK which I do believe is a memorial for the battle of Flodden in 1513 for some arches who thought in the battle known at the “Middleton archers”!
3:38 "Though the plate armor that knights used was still hard to penetrate" Not just hard, nigh impossible. A knight in proper plate armor was more or less invulnerable to arrows, even from longbows, save for the occasional extremely lucky shot that found a gap. Horses were vulnerable, though, as the French discovered at Agincourt. Of course, troops less armored than knights were also vulnerable.
Eeyup, I also cringed a bit at the "shooting voleys high" as evidence show longbows were mostly used as direct fire, not indirect fire (projectiles lose a bit of their kinetic energy when fired indirectly). As much as I like simple history, I take their videos with big grains of salt.
Tod from Tod's workshop says they didn't shoot volleys of arrows up in the air like in the movies, Simple History says they did. When the two smart kids in class have different answers*
The answer is both. In the Battle of Agincourt, English archers started the battle by shooting a single volley into the French lines from 200 yards away to get them to charge. This means that they shot in a high angle. However, once the French have closed in at 100 yards and closer, the archers would be shooting straight with no angle.
What reon says is true for the first stage of war they can shoot in waves but this will not be effective when they are close because u will shoot in ur own armies their back.
@@ReonMagnum nope at 100 yards you would still be aiming high. You can see a video by Tods workshop when Joe Gibbs shot his longbow (160#) at 50 meters he had to compensate for range.
@@lahire4943 just let it go bro. This is yet another comment. No one cares about the Middle Ages like they do for Napoleonic and World Wars. People being burnt for witchcraft versus the Industrial Revolution, even Denmark annexed England into the Kingdom of Denmark back then. You’re not special, it’s a small island yet still stole your spot for number one superpower when it mattered most. That’s got to sting, I’d be bitter about it too. Maybe one day you’ll swallow your pride about some medieval war where the average person couldn’t read or write and accept the fact that you two became friends after Napoleonic wars. If only you did that in the first place you could’ve dominated the world together. But considering how many French patriots I’ve seen on these videos, I doubt those same people are in the comments of WW2 and the Napoleonic War videos. Just take the L. England joke about it, why can’t you?
@Lê Thanh Truyền Fully upgraded longbowman: 12 range. Full upgraded castle: 11 range.... Unless your playing against Teutons with their 13 range castles...
I was taught the long bow or recurve as a young man, I enjoyed it immensely, I actually forgot how much I enjoyed it. I'm 50 now and have plenty of room on my property to shoot long bow. I think you have created a monster with this video, I thank you. My wife on the other hand, not so much I imagine.
Bernard Cornwell's Azincourt is an excellent novel featuring an English marksman and his exploits in France during the Hundred Years' War. If you're into action and history, I guarantee you'd love it.
the is an old joke that goes something like this; a frenchman and an englishman are fighting, the frenchman shouts "you english fight for money, we fight for honour!" and the englishman reponds "we all fight for what we don't have!"
Angry Communist Funny how this is actually a quote from Surcouf saying that to an English captain he just defeated. Funny how you Englishmen reinvent everything: www.whizzpast.com/21-historys-badass-quotes-2/
You make these great vids, and the animations just stood out of all the channels making such things, keep it up mate! Greetings from 🇵🇱 Could you tell us in the next video about the Birmingham’s urban gang known as the Peaky Blinders? I’d very much enjoy watching that. 🔥💪
Longbows at Agincourt were fired at point-blank range and not volleys. This is a common misconception, as firing with volleys would not have penetrated the heavy armour of the French knights.
You should actually look up what 'point blanc' means. It is the distance that when the bow is at full draw the point of the arrow visually will 'sight' on what it will hit. For example I have a longbow that has a 'point blanc' of 100 yards. Point on gold at 100 yards for shooting the UK York round.
Although they had an issue with penetrating armor, they did actually shatter upon impact and thus creating a shrapnel effect that would fly through the slits on the face armor. They were still effective in volleys
Amen to that. But what I really want is a new empire total war, that covers 1600s to late 19th century across the globe. Maybe a paradox and creative assembly project.... a man can dream 😂
They didnt mention the actual weight it took to draw it back. From what I remember it was around 100lbs-150lbs . Which is insane. Because my Compound bow is 70lbs and thats tough and gets tiring after just a few rounds.
25% 0f the French aristocracy were slaughtered with these bows, you didn't mention that sometimes the targets were half a mile away. When the arrows dropped they went through the armour and the horse easily at Agincourt.
And the bows didn't defeat them. Not by themselves. The good use of terrain is a much bigger factor. Though the majority of troops were not in plate and thus mostly vulnerable to arrows.
@@Balinux There's more than one type of bodkin. Short Bodkins were known as plate cutters and are too thick to be able to pierce the rings of a mail shirt, they'd likely bounce straight off. Needle Bodkins were thin enough to get through the rings and go straight through fabric.
I live and have grown up in Cheshire England and this video was great, I remember getting a mini longbow when I was a kid and have always enjoyed archery, could you maybe do a video on Robin Hood?
Dear Simple History! I am glad to have stumbled upon your channel several years ago, you have inspired me to make my own channel: The Futurist Tom and my second video, "Why There May Be a VR Exodus"
The reason why us Brits consider sticking two fingers up (nails forward, palm facing backward) to be an insult similar to "flipping the bird" is due to to how the French treated captured Longbowmen. When the French captured English longbowmen they cut off their bow fingers as punishment, and when French troops were captured by the English, the bowmen would stick their bow fingers up at them in defiance and to mock the enemy, parading that they still had their bow fingers. We call it several names such as Flicking the Vs, The Two Finger Salute and our Australian cousins call it The Forks.
French Noble Knight:Noooooo!! You can't just shoot us from very far distance while we got stuck in the mud nooo!! English Longbowman:Haha my longbow go pew pew
I always loved to play medieval war games such as Stronhold where i used to produce archers in mass and put them as they said in the video on the top of a wall or behind spearman or so. Wow i love it 😍😍
It is said that longbowman and archers in general were physically stronger then infantrymen since the act of drawing a bow meant for war uses most of the upper body muscles but they were seen as less glorious due to the fact they rarely toke part in melees and were usually seen dispatching stragglers after the battle was over. But I would bet an archer to be better in a physical competition then a infantrymen, with strength and endurence
Archers were generally not put in dangers due to the skill requirement and strength required. Making them hard to replace, and is a reason why crossbows were seen as better then a bow even with their slow fire rate. A man needed less skill to accurately shoot it or draw strong ones due to mechanical assistance. Then the gun replaced the crossbow because it required even less training and less strength, it even managed to replace the sword.
You can bet the english longbowmen went into melee pretty often. Half the english armies were made of longbowmen at the time. And they weren't really that lightly armored and always had melee weapons ready. There also wasn't arrows enough to simply continue shooting. Most longbowmen were already regular infantrymen before they become professional longbowmen, so most of them likely already had plenty martial weapon training.
Great vid! Although I’d say the effects of good armor surviving bodkin arrows is pretty downplayed here:/ putting this in context at Agincourt, the French men at arms and noblemen that slogged their way up to the English lines were disorganized due to the arrow barrages rather than killed by them. The English man at arms took advantage of this and successfully countered the French foot charge. 9/10 times Good armor is pretty invulnerable to any traditional arrow. Crossbows and later hand gonnes/Arquebus’ would prove to be superior in this function. See the battle of Castillon (1453), or any post 15th century battle to see how improved crossbow/cannon tactics successfully outpaced and led to the demise of the longbow in continental warfare. Scholagladiatoria does a great job at examining this topic in depth:) Again great work!
Great video, a tiny note though, one of the archers has one of his eyes closed wich is a horrible thing to do when shooting a bow, other than that. Great video!!
@@flashfm7456 That is an extremely modern view of an old gesture made back in 1415 towards the French. The French would cut the index and middle fingers off of every English Longbowmen they caught to keep them from using the Longbow again. So the English adopted the Two-Finger Salute as an insult when greeting the French to show that they still have their fingers and get still kill their highest nobles from 200 yards away. The French at the time was the apex of arrogance, they butchered their own Crossbowmen on the field of Crécy simply because they retreated to collect their Pavise's.
Forgot to mention that there are 2 two different types of bodkin arrows. On with a rounded end for plate armor, and one with a needle tip for chainmail.
Is not that expensive, it's only 35 of wood and 40 gold!
I see somebody here has been playing the remastered versions of Age of Empires I & II. Classy.
It's all fun and games until some old boy says wooowoo and then you're blue
@@yaboishooty5552 WOLOLOOO
Depends. Cost would be higher for Daedric or Dragon bows.
"Yus"
"If you want to train a longbowman, start with his grandfather"
-King Edward III
True, most were trained by tradition
It also kept the bowmen safe from competition, handed down like nepotism.
Most were trained as children and few hundred of them could rain death from a mile awau
@@neoasura yeah but they needed as many bowmen as they could get, those guys needed years/decades to train instead of the weeks/ months of normal infantry.
Smart.
Many thanks to our English allies and their longbows that joined my country, Portugal, in battle, many times.
We're lucky to have Portugal as friends :)
William Adams would like to know your location
The oldest military alliance in human history!
No one really likes the French or Spanish.
Englands oldest ally, Portugal.
Arrows fired by longbows couldn't pierce armor in Agincourt. There were other reasons why it is said the longbow was so effective in that battle. Although arrows coudn't penetrate the armor, they had a tendency to burst when hitting the armor and some splinters could have entered through the visor of the helmet for example. Also the french knights were trapped in a mud, and having hundreds of arrows shot at you, feeling the heavy impact of them, and fearing that one might penetrate through your visor, is scary. They were quickly demoralized. Then in hand to hand, the english archers used daggers to finish off the trapped, tired and demoralized french knights.
Emanuel Vanzetti though a single arrow couldn’t pierce plate armor it could put a dent in it. And maybe if by chance the knight got hit two or three times in the same spot then an arrow could possibly get threw. Then there’s the fact an arrow could hit a low armored joint spot. I wonder if an arrow impact could be enough to knock a knight off balance and fall from his horse.
@@MandalorV7 Against the head it surely could let him lose balance.
Jacob Clark it couldn’t pierce the breastplate but the visor was vulnerable. Doubtful an arrow strike would’ve knocked a knight off his horse- the saddles they used held them in place very securely.
French realized this problem, and add v shaped deflector on their chestpiece exclusively to counter this problem too
I thought the same but in one of Hugh Soar's books he talks about experiments he did which shows that they could penetrate the armour, but probably not deep enough to be fatal.
Something he does mention is that it was possible to kill a knight by Blunt Force Trauma. This is like hitting someone on the head with a baseball bat. It will not penetrate the skull but the trauma of the impact on the brain could kill them.
Several years ago the French army did some research into body armour and discovered that a force of 80 Joules was enough to kill a person who was unprotected. A bodkin arrow was measured to have a force of over 125 Joules. So even with full plate armour a hit on the head or over the heart could kill. Which is the same areas which the English archers would shoot at when the range was close enough
Englishman: uses longbow with high rate of fire
A bald german dude: The legolas! Let me show you it's features!
lol
INSTANT
Joerg sprav.....i think.....HA HA HA
niiiiice
True, true, true!
imagine preparing every day of your life for one battle just to get annihilated by a longbow.
but also master the longbow require practice during entire life, meanwhile a musket only require FEW days of training and was even more powerfull against steel plate armor, by early XVI century even common soldiers can afford a steel breastplate providing good chest protection against bow and crossbow.
Imagine spending month creating longbow to get annihilated by mass produced crossbow
Tony I’d give you that one, it definitely takes a lot of skill to master a longbow rather than just simply aiming at an enemy and pushing the trigger.
@@potassiumcyanide3857 Longbows > Crossbows
If a crossbow is a Lebel rifle, then a longbow (in terms of effectiveness) is an AWP
@@Tonyx.yt. An English Longbow with Bodkin AP Arrows could easily penetrate heavy steel breastplates at further ranges which is why the Longbow was so deadly during the period. The Longbow was only ever outclassed by the musket.
Meanwhile in AoE2:
"We'll see how British longbows fare against French cannons."
@Christopher Gaetan for me last mission is quit easy even in hardest mode. How? Just ignore burgundy base in middle and use all of your army to capture bugundy base in the bottom of map, but dont destroy the market. Build castle and cannon in the bridge and start waiting for eco booming, build few fire ship to prevent attack from British dock(you even can bombard it with your cannon). And for the end game ignore British wall and tower and attack from water.
@Christopher Gaetan kill Burgundy and shrews bury with your starting army and then just boom from there until you are strong enough to kill the main English force
It’s not British but English longbows.
@@billybellend1155 Americans eh, they think "British" is synonymous with "English"
@@tahagi7006 took me looking up someone else's info to know about that southern burgundy base, and I did just that. I won, in moderate difficulty. But not before being constantly bullied by those shrewd Shrewberry sending constant barrages of LCs, Cavaliers, Trebs and Rams.
Dunno if you faced that or your strategy was any different here, but I was constantly raging "Give me a damn break with this damned heavy cavalries ffs! Wait a minute, cavalry! ..." What I did built out some pikemen, kept a few Knights to counter the seige weapons and monks to heal after the attacks and it worked! So kept defending till I built up a proper strike force. And they were my first target! Another annoying thing was any villager that snuck past rebuilt most of the major structures I destroyed (TC, Stables, Siege Workshop, thankfully no Castles). At least the Burgundy gave up on attacking (not resigned yet) and the British weren't triggered yet (which only happens if you capture the intended base).
I did destroy the market, but managed gold and other resources by sneaking in trade with the British docks (killed/converted any Galleons that spawned) and after cleaning them up, Shrewsberry markets and sneaking off villagers eastwards, after clearing the marshes their for wood.
Wales: starts being good at longbows
England: I’ll take your entire stock
Actually the English had been using this type of bow for a very long time. What they learnt from the Welsh was to use them on mass rather then spread out in the army. So the Welsh contribution was the tactical use of archers.
\./
The english took tactics and equipment from other nations and incorporated them into their own armies. That's why they were so powerful, because they had one of the most well developed "militaries".
Starts being good? Why exactly do you think the Anglo Saxon English took almost 800 years to go 200 miles When they first arrived in Britain?
The Welsh are seen by history as push overs, but the truth is as far from that as one can get. The Romans had to invade Britain twice, and The English took almost 800 uears to subdue them (with Norman help), and that was after they themselves got taken over by the Normans.
As for the Vikings - The Welsh had a better time with them than any of the other nations on the island of Britain. One of their kings was even killed in Battle by a Welsh King.
Cymru Am Byth (!)
Quarantine got us going hunting for food the old fashioned way
Hunting for toilet paper
Hunting for soap
Hunting for hand sanitizers
hunting for people
Wait a minute
Additional information on the English Longbow:
-The draw weight of a medieval longbow ranged from 80 to 200+ pounds, with the average being 120-170 pounds. Contrast this to modern bows which typically have only 20 to 75 pounds of draw weight.
- Yew from Italy and Spain was the preferred wood for the longbow as they grew straight, in contrast to yew from Britain which was gnarly and twisted.
- A typical formation for the English Army was: Knights and men-at-arms in the center, and archers on both flanks.
- Contrary to this video, longbowmen actually regularly engaged in melee combat once they ran out of arrows. During the Battle of Agincourt, the archers dropped their bows and picked up swords/maces/mallets and beat down the tired French knights in the mud.
- Again contrary to the vid, archers would NEVER leave their bows stringed up and mounted above the fireplace. Also, when hunting Englishmen used low poundage longbows, as the high draw weights of longbows used in war were unnecessary for killing game.
- Henry VIII's ship, the Mary Rose, capsized in the 1500s and left behind several bow staves and arrows in good condition. This is the main source for studying longbows today.
- The name "longbow" is a relative new term appearing in the 1700s. In Medieval times it was simply known as bow or warbow.
- Warbow Archers are modern day longbowmen who practice with period accurate heavy bows and proper draw technique. One such archer is Joe Gibbs, who runs his own channel on CZcams.
Wow. Impressive. Nice extra informations right there.
Naturally it's because bows are relegated to hunting and sport archery. The extreme power of medieval warbows meant for taking down armored targets is no longer needed.
Another thing: bows of this sort are ancient AF, not novel to England or Wales.
@ReonMagnum that is so damn cool! Thank you for taking the time to share all that, I've always wanted to know more about it, I know a fair amount about firearms just out of interest but have always wanted to know more about bows.
Yes but they trained all there life for it. I'm trying to get my bow arm back and then proceed into warbow territory. If you can draw and shoot 120lbs accurately you can pretty much hunt anything with a bow.
"Eccentric" is certainly a good word to describe John "Mad Jack" Churchill.
It's one of those irregular verbs. I have an independent mind, you are an eccentric, he is round the twist
so is Jack "Crazy As A Shiathouse Rat" Churchill
FUN FACT: English Archers were the most feared soldier in medieval Europe.
Their skeletons were distinguished from the rest of the soldiers due to their massive left arm size..
I hope future archaeologists think that I was an archer.
@@PonzooonTheGreat HA take my like!
GodILoveAlcohol made my day
Archaeologists would say I practice archery three time a day
Right arm, their whole right side of the shoulder blade, upper arm and finger tendans.
People who played Age of Empires: **Joan of Arc Campaign Flashbacks**
*Tutorial flashbacks
dont forget Bodkin Arrow, +1 dmg +1 rng.
Another glorious defeat for France...
more like PTSD
@@logoncal3001 I reflexively curled up in a fetal position and started to profusely both cry and throw-up at the same time.
French: it just a bow
England: it's just your death
I guess bows were not that useful to defend against artillery in 1453 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@cyprienvieville6940 toshe
I heard an interesting story concerning the origin of the English "two-fingers" taunt. When the French captured English soldiers, they would cut off their index and middle fingers to prevent the soldier from being able to fire a longbow. Thus, to show that they could still fire a longbow, the English would raise their two fingers at the french which over time became an aggressive gesture. Can someone confirm/disconfirm this story?
Curtis Hammer I thought it was only the middle finger
Popular story, but as far as I know nobody has been able to find any proof of it, other than English folklore
As much as I love the story the only historical record of it was in a speach by king Henry V. So it's probable that it was just propaganda.
Its quite likely that many archers did do this, and certainly explains the two-fingered taunt that's still prevalent today, however there's no real historical account of it happening.
there are historical accounts of the French ordering the removal of the index and middle finger however
The Amount of strenght needed to Pull back a Bow for far range.
Yeah, I shot a bow. It's hard
Talk about the muscle build up.
@@stukature How many pounds of pull? 24? 28? 32?
They found some on the wreck of the Mary rose and tests showed that some could be up to 300lb draw weight.
@@TheIndogamer Can't remember. Sry.
Random guy: invents bolt action rifle.
Longbow: Am I a joke for you?
Mad Jack: Not for me.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Oh ok
German with a state of the art MMG that fires 1250 rounds a minute: *Thinks hes unstoppable*
Some lad with a fucking longbow and sword : Im about to end this mans entire career.
Bolt action rifle: am i joke to you?!?
Mad jack: yes
"Robin hood?"
The French: No you can’t use longbowmen against out highly trained and armoured knights. It’s not fair😭
The English: Haha arrow go whooosh
5000 arrows per minutes from 1000 bowmen. The English cheesed the game really hard.
The contrary happened in Patay...
@Mcfch The country with the most victory in her history salutes you loser. Do you smell that ??? it's the smell of defeat during the 100-year war :) all your's longbow men was anihillated by 200 knights, don't forget that englishboys.
La sainte brioche issouhhh *1,000 knights*
@@gustavolemonke 200 knights + 750 footmen but all the english army was destroyed by the knights.
These videos are so humble, amazing work!
WW2, “Longbow? Nobody got time for that.”
Mad Jack, “Almost.”
Imagine being having to explain to the commander the man died from an arrow in WW2.
The main advantage of using a longbow in modern warfare is the bow is silent and you can kill enemy troops without giving away your location or raising the alarm in the event of an ambush.
Surprised the Germans didn't complain about it not being "fair"
@@walterbrunswick well it's only mad jack who uses it so I can't see why the Germans would complain
@@walterbrunswick They complained about Australian bomber crews in WW2 who had a habit of emptying their toilets while bombing the target. Imagine being a Berlin fireman when that lots comes down. And of course he would be looking up.
As A thought. This may explain why Hitler's Brown Shirts. Deduct one letter from shirt and see what the truth was.
I appretiate the lack of 1 min long Raid: Shadow Legends add.
Acid Trip much appreciated lmao
I got one:/
Another great video, well researched. Thank you Simple History!
Thank you for this informative yet simple and entertaining piece of about the English Longbow. Definitely helps killing some time with this quarantine :)
Bow: who are you
Longbow: I'm you but better
composite bow : really ?
Hand cannon- " Hello."
M16: excuse me?
Miko Panghulan Nuke: *Hello there*
repeater rifles: oh hello
Mad Jack was a beast! 🏹
@Swedger - Thank you! 😊
Ikr
Come on, you know Madjack wasn't just smiling. He was grinning like a damn maniac when he did that.
Yet again, an amazing and educational video.
You guys never disappoint!
I still use these to fight off the chavs from raiding me bins
"bow usage.."
"Bruv wot u got 4 me"
*roots through bins*
This is the most British thing ever lmao.
oi do you have a license for that longbow?
There were 200 english longbowmen in the battle of Aljubarrota.
I hear that there were quite a few in mons as well...
🏴🇵🇹
Portugal caralho
@Savage Cabbage ew no
Also those 200 English longbowmen are also elite troops through many battles and deadly accurate experienced troops. I think without the English troops that battle may have been a lot more bloody for the Portuguese.
Oh where do we begin. The longbow dates back thousands of years into prehistory. An example was found in prehistoric Denmark.
What made the bow so important in the Medieval times was that it was used on mass rather the spread out amongst the army as it used to be.
The Longbow was a hunting weapon. The one used in combat was the War Bow. The difference is the draw weight. This is the weigh needed to draw the bow string back to its full length. Draw weight for a longbow was somewhere between 20 and 30 pounds. Whereas the minimum draw weight for a warbow was 90 pounds. The bows at the Battle of Cressy were about 120 pounds while those used at Argincourt would have been about 140 pounds. Those on the Mary Rose had a draw weight of 200 pounds.
Bow did not get fired, they were shot. There was no fire involved, unlike a gun.
Bows did not take years to make. Under normal circumstances you could make a bow in a couple of weeks. The time factor came into play because bows had to be made individually by a bowyer and if you had thousands to make it would mean the wood would be stored until needed. And because there was a limited number of bowyers and each bow took two or three hours to make this is why it took so long.
There were other types of bow, such as the flat bow which was just as good as the long bow, but they required much more wood to be removed so it quicker to make.
Training took so long because they used instinctive shooting which was much better then aimed shooting, but took much longer to learn. One of the big advantages of the bow over the crossbow was you could use the fall of the arrow to hit people behind objects such a battlements. You aimed higher then you would for a normal shot and the arrow could then come down behind the battlement. This technique is still used today by machine gunners and is called beaten ground.
As for hand to hand combat. English archers were training in the use of the sword and buckler which meant even a close range they were deadly.
I live in a part of England in town called Middleton in the north of England. In my town there is a church call Saint Leonard’s. It was built in 1412 and has a stained glass window which thought to be thee oldest war memorial in the UK which I do believe is a memorial for the battle of Flodden in 1513 for some arches who thought in the battle known at the “Middleton archers”!
Requires Castle Age to train.
Britons in Age of Empires II !!!
3:38 "Though the plate armor that knights used was still hard to penetrate"
Not just hard, nigh impossible. A knight in proper plate armor was more or less invulnerable to arrows, even from longbows, save for the occasional extremely lucky shot that found a gap. Horses were vulnerable, though, as the French discovered at Agincourt. Of course, troops less armored than knights were also vulnerable.
That's right.
Eeyup, I also cringed a bit at the "shooting voleys high" as evidence show longbows were mostly used as direct fire, not indirect fire (projectiles lose a bit of their kinetic energy when fired indirectly).
As much as I like simple history, I take their videos with big grains of salt.
Jean-Sebastien Matte I know, that part is super annoying. They should at least get their facts right if they are a history channel
That's right at Agincourt the French Knights became bogged down and were easy pickings for the archers
The top of the helmet is one of the thickest parts of the armor, lauching volleys in an arch, to fall in high angles would be almost useless
Love this and all other videos y'all make. Thank you feeding my knowledge starvation!!
Awesome presentation! Just subscribed.
*Age of Empires 2 time*
3:29 technology tree starts to speak
Lmao
@Mitthraw that's also cool!
@Christopher Gaetan remember those days in Age of kings, when camels were counted as ships and you wanted to reaserch heated shot?😂😂
@Christopher Gaetan thank goodness for that.
Tod from Tod's workshop says they didn't shoot volleys of arrows up in the air like in the movies, Simple History says they did.
When the two smart kids in class have different answers*
The answer is both. In the Battle of Agincourt, English archers started the battle by shooting a single volley into the French lines from 200 yards away to get them to charge. This means that they shot in a high angle. However, once the French have closed in at 100 yards and closer, the archers would be shooting straight with no angle.
What reon says is true for the first stage of war they can shoot in waves but this will not be effective when they are close because u will shoot in ur own armies their back.
@@ReonMagnum And as it had been raining the ground was sodden. Imagine trying to run 200 yards in full armour in a quagmire of mud.
@@ReonMagnum nope at 100 yards you would still be aiming high. You can see a video by Tods workshop when Joe Gibbs shot his longbow (160#) at 50 meters he had to compensate for range.
Tod needs to read...
The virgin French cavalryman vs the Chad English Longbowman.
Chad ?
*laughs in the battle of Patay*
We saw that in Patay and La Brossinière LOL
We also saw what a French light cavalry did to a Dutch fleet in Den Helder LOL
@@lahire4943 just let it go bro. This is yet another comment. No one cares about the Middle Ages like they do for Napoleonic and World Wars. People being burnt for witchcraft versus the Industrial Revolution, even Denmark annexed England into the Kingdom of Denmark back then. You’re not special, it’s a small island yet still stole your spot for number one superpower when it mattered most. That’s got to sting, I’d be bitter about it too.
Maybe one day you’ll swallow your pride about some medieval war where the average person couldn’t read or write and accept the fact that you two became friends after Napoleonic wars. If only you did that in the first place you could’ve dominated the world together. But considering how many French patriots I’ve seen on these videos, I doubt those same people are in the comments of WW2 and the Napoleonic War videos. Just take the L. England joke about it, why can’t you?
I'm liking the new animations, always a great channel 👍
A single longbowman could destroy a whole castle.
He just had to shoot 4,800 arrows out of his magic quiver.
@Lê Thanh Truyền Fully upgraded longbowman: 12 range. Full upgraded castle: 11 range....
Unless your playing against Teutons with their 13 range castles...
unless, of course, you have the Saracens on your side.
Your *insert research machine here* Has researched Longbow
Everyone in Europe: ew no
England: I'LL TAKE YOUR ENTIRE STOCK
Research-inator.
Thank you for your video!!! :)
Loves your videos
This makes me want to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance again.
I’m using a long bow right to kill cumans
Brilliant game
Finn Spooner don’t spoil it for anyone or at least put a warning
Finn Spooner probably for the next KcD and also
*SPOILER ALERT*
U find out that sir radzig kobyla is your biological father
@Finn Spooner Yeah Warhorse Studio says the story will continue in part 2, Henry's adventure isn't over yet.
I'm a simple man, I see simple history posted and I instantly click.
I was taught the long bow or recurve as a young man, I enjoyed it immensely, I actually forgot how much I enjoyed it. I'm 50 now and have plenty of room on my property to shoot long bow. I think you have created a monster with this video, I thank you. My wife on the other hand, not so much I imagine.
We need a lot of uploads during this quarantine
Legend says that those battles all occured on the Black Forest map
@Christopher Gaetan Until the smart guy decides to cut through the wood with some siege onagers and kills your trade
Bernard Cornwell's Azincourt is an excellent novel featuring an English marksman and his exploits in France during the Hundred Years' War. If you're into action and history, I guarantee you'd love it.
French Noble Knights: Look at these feeble little Englishmen with their little bows. It's 1415, they can't even afford armor.
English Longbowmen: Yes.
English longbowmen tried that again in 1429 and 1453 ... Didn't work out very well for them this time XD
the is an old joke that goes something like this;
a frenchman and an englishman are fighting, the frenchman shouts "you english fight for money, we fight for honour!" and the englishman reponds "we all fight for what we don't have!"
Similar things were said by Napoleon a few hundred years later and the result was the same at Waterloo...
English longbowmen.... who weren't actually English! 😂
Angry Communist Funny how this is actually a quote from Surcouf saying that to an English captain he just defeated. Funny how you Englishmen reinvent everything: www.whizzpast.com/21-historys-badass-quotes-2/
You make these great vids, and the animations just stood out of all the channels making such things, keep it up mate! Greetings from 🇵🇱
Could you tell us in the next video about the Birmingham’s urban gang known as the Peaky Blinders? I’d very much enjoy watching that. 🔥💪
Longbows at Agincourt were fired at point-blank range and not volleys. This is a common misconception, as firing with volleys would not have penetrated the heavy armour of the French knights.
Neat
@Revolutionary Communist the french knights were dismounted at agincourt
You should actually look up what 'point blanc' means.
It is the distance that when the bow is at full draw the point of the arrow visually will 'sight' on what it will hit.
For example I have a longbow that has a 'point blanc' of 100 yards. Point on gold at 100 yards for shooting the UK York round.
Although they had an issue with penetrating armor, they did actually shatter upon impact and thus creating a shrapnel effect that would fly through the slits on the face armor. They were still effective in volleys
This video makes me wanna play Medieval 2: Total War. Anyone else want the third installment into the Medieval games instead of Troy: Total War?
Yes, medieval II is still my favorite total war game.
not try out archery?
As an experienced player, I still think medieval 1 has the best campaign, really gets the medieval atmosphere.
Amen to that. But what I really want is a new empire total war, that covers 1600s to late 19th century across the globe. Maybe a paradox and creative assembly project.... a man can dream 😂
Looking forward to Troy
I love the medieval videos great work
I shoot traditional archery with a Yew and red-oak long how, wasn’t expecting this episode, thank you!
Saw longbowman, then remembering my OG times playing Age Of Empires as Britons
Could we get one on the Byzantine Cataphracts right now?
Oh, that is a video I want to watch.
Yes and the Cho Ku nu after that!
@@Mattstafford2009 That would be interesting too.
Damn animation keeps getting better and better good work 💯
Great video
English Longbowmen are dangerous but not as dangerous as Pommel Throwers ending their opponents Rightly
The comment I had been waiting for.
@@wingood94 I don't know why it wasn't that funny the first million times it was posted.
They didnt mention the actual weight it took to draw it back. From what I remember it was around 100lbs-150lbs . Which is insane. Because my Compound bow is 70lbs and thats tough and gets tiring after just a few rounds.
25% 0f the French aristocracy were slaughtered with these bows, you didn't mention that sometimes the targets were half a mile away.
When the arrows dropped they went through the armour and the horse easily at Agincourt.
History classes at schools should show these videos, the kids would be far more engaged.
Plate armor: "I'm about to end this weapon's whole career"
bodkin arrowheads: Nope, you
I fired directly at target which happened more than you think of the time it could pirce even the best plate armour
*Laughs in mongolian horse archers*
Bodkin arrows: Allow us to introduce ourselves.
@@ironwar1863 actual tests would disagree with you
No, you can't just defeat our heavily armoured knights of honour with mere peasants.
Haha, longbow go fwoop!
Monty Python: "JESUS CHRIST"
It still didn't work. The bodkin arrow heads were meant to pierce maille armor and lighter armor types.
And the bows didn't defeat them. Not by themselves. The good use of terrain is a much bigger factor. Though the majority of troops were not in plate and thus mostly vulnerable to arrows.
@@Balinux There's more than one type of bodkin. Short Bodkins were known as plate cutters and are too thick to be able to pierce the rings of a mail shirt, they'd likely bounce straight off. Needle Bodkins were thin enough to get through the rings and go straight through fabric.
@@Turgz It just doesn't work. Extensive testing has been done.
I live and have grown up in Cheshire England and this video was great, I remember getting a mini longbow when I was a kid and have always enjoyed archery, could you maybe do a video on Robin Hood?
Nice info.😀👍
HAHA BOW GO "pew"
French - "Nooooo... You can't just equip peasants with Longbows and defeat our professional knights"
English - HAHA BOW GO "PEW"
I can't believe I laughed at this
"'Tis the tramp of Saxon foemen, Saxon spearmen, Saxon bowmen
Be they knights or hinds or yeomen, they shall bite the ground"
Actually sang this in my mind while reading 😁
@@madmarvshighwaywarrior2870 for the glory of M.I.L.F
What song is this? I know I heard it from sovietwomble vids.
Was madjack churchill related to winston? Phenomenal videos and amazing content. I love this channel so much, they should use it in schools
HAZAA! Medieval history! Glad to see it making a comeback on here!
The welsh 'men of Gwent' archers were at Agincourt
Hey Simple History, you left out that English Archers would sometimes put a small bead of wax on the tip of their bodkin point arrows in war time
Can you make a video on operation phantom fury. I can't find any educational video on the battle and I love the your style.
I love this!
Dear Simple History! I am glad to have stumbled upon your channel several years ago, you have inspired me to make my own channel: The Futurist Tom and my second video, "Why There May Be a VR Exodus"
Awesome! The video idea seems so cool!!
The reason why us Brits consider sticking two fingers up (nails forward, palm facing backward) to be an insult similar to "flipping the bird" is due to to how the French treated captured Longbowmen.
When the French captured English longbowmen they cut off their bow fingers as punishment, and when French troops were captured by the English, the bowmen would stick their bow fingers up at them in defiance and to mock the enemy, parading that they still had their bow fingers.
We call it several names such as Flicking the Vs, The Two Finger Salute and our Australian cousins call it The Forks.
MrNorthern Spitfire
The virgin 2 finger salute vs the chad **The fork**
I’m not sure I anyone picked up on it, but the archers in the video fire in the right side. Good to see that they did their research!
French Noble Knight:Noooooo!! You can't just shoot us from very far distance while we got stuck in the mud nooo!!
English Longbowman:Haha my longbow go pew pew
50% of the comments *Archery/Bow memes*
Other 50% *Triggered Frenchman*
Accurate lmao
When you finally reached the fucking longbowmen, but realized they have strong right arm and are carrying mallets
Imagine in medieval times and the recurve bow is know for being a assault rifle and the longbow being more of a sniper
I always loved to play medieval war games such as Stronhold where i used to produce archers in mass and put them as they said in the video on the top of a wall or behind spearman or so. Wow i love it 😍😍
It is said that longbowman and archers in general were physically stronger then infantrymen since the act of drawing a bow meant for war uses most of the upper body muscles but they were seen as less glorious due to the fact they rarely toke part in melees and were usually seen dispatching stragglers after the battle was over. But I would bet an archer to be better in a physical competition then a infantrymen, with strength and endurence
I mean, on hand to hand combat, an Infantryman is more skilled than an archer..
Archery uses different muscles than most activites. Some say the only exercise for drawing a bow is drawing a bow.
Archers were generally not put in dangers due to the skill requirement and strength required. Making them hard to replace, and is a reason why crossbows were seen as better then a bow even with their slow fire rate. A man needed less skill to accurately shoot it or draw strong ones due to mechanical assistance.
Then the gun replaced the crossbow because it required even less training and less strength, it even managed to replace the sword.
You can bet the english longbowmen went into melee pretty often. Half the english armies were made of longbowmen at the time. And they weren't really that lightly armored and always had melee weapons ready. There also wasn't arrows enough to simply continue shooting. Most longbowmen were already regular infantrymen before they become professional longbowmen, so most of them likely already had plenty martial weapon training.
Great vid! Although I’d say the effects of good armor surviving bodkin arrows is pretty downplayed here:/ putting this in context at Agincourt, the French men at arms and noblemen that slogged their way up to the English lines were disorganized due to the arrow barrages rather than killed by them. The English man at arms took advantage of this and successfully countered the French foot charge.
9/10 times Good armor is pretty invulnerable to any traditional arrow. Crossbows and later hand gonnes/Arquebus’ would prove to be superior in this function.
See the battle of Castillon (1453), or any post 15th century battle to see how improved crossbow/cannon tactics successfully outpaced and led to the demise of the longbow in continental warfare.
Scholagladiatoria does a great job at examining this topic in depth:)
Again great work!
Great video, a tiny note though, one of the archers has one of his eyes closed wich is a horrible thing to do when shooting a bow, other than that.
Great video!!
I like how you depict them shooting on the right side of of the bow.
85 Frenchmen disliked this video.
Hey....no mention of the "Two Finger" Salute that Longbowmen used to taunt the French?
Yeah, that seemed like something they would mention
I heard that was a myth. I think the two-fingered salute means 'cuckold'.
It wasn’t even a salute they just stuck their pointer and middle finger at the enemy looking like a peace sign in our eyes
@@flashfm7456 That is an extremely modern view of an old gesture made back in 1415 towards the French.
The French would cut the index and middle fingers off of every English Longbowmen they caught to keep them from using the Longbow again.
So the English adopted the Two-Finger Salute as an insult when greeting the French to show that they still have their fingers and get still kill their highest nobles from 200 yards away.
The French at the time was the apex of arrogance, they butchered their own Crossbowmen on the field of Crécy simply because they retreated to collect their Pavise's.
It's a myth propagated by Winston Churchill during WW2 to boost morale.
OMG you are awesome!!!
Forgot to mention that there are 2 two different types of bodkin arrows. On with a rounded end for plate armor, and one with a needle tip for chainmail.
14th century France:
NOOOOOO!!!! You can’t just use peasants to fight knights with bows!
14th century England: **haha arrow go woosh**
They still won the war mate
"The first battle i beat him, carried again by my English Longbows"
this one was awesome
Pls do a video on the Prague Spring
I’d like to have that bow for bow hunting.
I hope you won't use it against minorities
Nice flag good sir
@@yurichtube1162 Why would you say that?
Because it’s history
@@yurichtube1162 Get out of here with your anti-white narrative.
The English Longbow helped make English armies very formidable in combat.
It was a welsh invention and They were majority Welsh archers in the English army, sorry to burst your bubble.
@@WalesTheTrueBritons Maybe it was a Welsh invention but the majority of the archers were English. Sorry to burst your bubble
Love Medieval Videos! Should do one about Alfred The Great!
Maybe a video on the Varangian Guard? Just a suggestion