Robert Bateman, Daily Beast: How the Longbow Ended Knights in Shining Armor
Historians love watershed moments, and few in military history in the West were as important as the battle of Crecy in 1346.
Here is the short version: In the summer of 1346 the English kicked the snot out of the French in one of the most lopsided military victories of the Middle-Ages. It was the first of the major stompings of the French by the English in what is now known as the Hundred-Years War. At issue was who should rule most, if not all, of France: Edward III of England or Phillip VI of France. But that is somewhat beside the point. If you are studying for the SAT exams and do not care about more, stop here. That is all you need to know to answer a standardized test or perhaps a crossword puzzle.
What is important about this battle is that it is one of the first examples of the rise of disciplined infantry as the real rulers on the battlefield.
Driving into the tiny farm village of Crecy, in early spring when the chill is still in the air of northern France, can be spooky. Completely bare streets. Not a soul walking around, or even cars parked on the streets, making the town seem abandoned. This is a curious thing in such a densely populated nation as France. But it does appear at that time of year to be a de facto ghost town. Or perhaps something else…
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WNU Editor: The above video is an excellent review of this weapon.
3 comments:
That video is largely nonsense. The French who could afford plate armor continued to battle the English with plate armor until the end of the 100 years war, which they won. The longbow wasn't a super weapon or the French would have had to drastically change tactics or would have adopted it themselves. I'd like to see a test where a bodkin from a longbow penetrates plate, ring mail, and gambesons/cloth underneath because that is how it was actually worn. The reason they don't show that test in the video is because it doesn't fit the hystorigraphic narrative of the longbow as super armor defeating weapon.
The longbow was a good tool to kill and disrupt unarmored Frenchmen and horses, but people need to stop saying it could kill fully armored knights, that's simply wrong.
At both Crecy and at Agincourt the English picked the ground, this goes a long was in any battle.
It wasn't the long bow (or crossbow) that ended the dominance of the mounted knight on medieval battlefields. It was the pike and close formation infantry. One of the earliest prominent battles where this happened was the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302 (almost half a century before Crecy and a hundred years before Agincourt) when the Flemish defeated the French. But it wasn't until gunpowder armies became the norm that the mounted knight finally died. The article itself isn't really wrong, but wrongly emphasizes the importance of the long bow against knights. It was one of the factors for the English victory at Crecy though.
Chris
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