Waxed Arrows and Glued Arrows.

L’Art d’archerie divides arrows into two types, waxed and glued. The arrows from the Mary Rose seem to be examples of the first type. At the shaftment, where the fletchings would be attached, archaeologists have identified traces of wax, tallow, copper, and the imprints of thread wound in a spiral around the shaft that they believe to be silk. The copper was probably in the form of verdigris.

The Westminster Abbey arrow, from sometime after 1420, also shows the traces of spiral wound thread. In both cases the thread has almost entirely perished, but enough survives to identify the color as dark red.

Wax, red silk and "verdegresse" were mentioned for the making and repair of arrows for the king of Scotland in 1456.

Speaking of waxed arrows, L’Art d’archerie says: "The harder the silk is on the wax, the better the arrow will fly and the stiffer it will be." (Plus est dure la soye sur la cyre et plus est le trait errant et plus dure.) Submerging the thread in a coating of wax would both help lock it in place and protect it from wear as it shot down the bow.

L’Art d’archerie identifies a different approach, the glued arrow. Animal glue can provide an acceptable bond without thread. Surviving arrows made by Turks and Romans seem to have relied entirely on glue, and at some point before modern adhesives the English longbow tradition came to do so as well. Hugh Soar reports that an English fletcher was still being taught to fletch with hoof glue in the early 20th c.

Some fairly detailed medieval paintings show no sign of spiral bindings:

Above: Portrait of Antoine, 'Grand Bâtard' of Burgundy,  c. 1460 Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Man with an Arrow c. 1470 Hans Memling, Portrait of a Youth Holding an Arrow, c. 1500-10 Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio,

While the Mary Rose arrows were almost certainly waxed, and the Westminster Abbey arrow probably was,  L’Art d’archerie tells us: "There are two sorts of glued arrows, sheaf (tacle) and flight. The sheaf arrows are usually thick, with high swan feathers, cut large, in the same shape as those of flight arrows, and have round iron heads. They are the regular arrows which the English use for butt and target shooting (au chapperons i.e. clout shooting), for they find them, as they are, truer than any waxed arrow.

We find further evidence that the even the English didn't always use the waterproof Mary Rose style waxed arrow with spiral thread winding in this report from Ireland by Sir William Skeffington in 1535.

"...there did fall suche a rayne as hath not been seene in thes parties; so that the fotemen wadid by the way to the middels in waters, which was pite to see,....the sayd fotemen that coulde not have defended themselfes with ther bowes, for ther stringes wer so weate, and moost of the fethers of ther arrowes fallen of."

Robert MacPherson has kindly provided me to a reference to an incident in 1594 when a serving-man  in Yldre managed to burn down a farmhouse while fletching bolts with his gluepot. This was probably a good example of fletching with hot animal glue.

Reproduction Crossbow Bolts

These were made by Robert MacPherson. The heads were ground from 3 Rivers Archery Short Bodkin Points. The point before grinding is on the left below, and after grinding at top with the point upwards to show the reshaped diamond section. The shafts are ash.

The Arbalest

Of all the bowmen quite the best
Are those that span the arbalest
Strong and brave, upright and moral
And not in haste to pick a quarrel

Before Ascham: Early Works on Archery

Livre du roy Modus et de la royne Racio, a mid 14th century book on hunting, contains a brief section on archery. The advice is specific to hunting: the author advises "his bow should be very weak and gentle, so that he may hold it drawn a reasonable space".

Le livre de la chasse was written by Gaston Phoebus, count of Foix, between 1387 and 1388. It discusses archery briefly, closely following Modus.  George Agar Hansard offered a translation in his The book of archery.

"The sportsman's bow should be of yew, and measure twenty palms (five feet) from one notch to the other, and, when braced, have a hand's breadth between string and wood. The string must ever be of silk. The bow should be weak, because an archer over-bowed cannot take aim freely and with address; besides, such a bow may be held half-drawn a long time without fatigue, whilst the hunter stands in wait for the deer.

"The wood of a well-formed arrow measures eight handsful in length from the end of the nock to the barbs of the head, which will be exactly four fingers broad, from the point of one barb to the point of the other. It must be duly proportioned in every part, well filed and sharpened, and five fingers in length. 

"When a deer is discovered approaching the archers, as soon as they hear the hounds are slipped, they ought to set their arrows on their bows, bringing the two arms into such a position as to be prepared to shoot. For, should the animal espy the men in motion whilst nocking their shafts, he will assuredly escape in another direction. Thus, a keen sportsman is ever cautiously on the alert, ready to let his arrow fly without the slightest motion, except that of drawing with the arms." 

He then goes on to describe the different modes of shooting at game in every possible position, somewhat after the fashion of the text; and gives a remarkable reason why an archer should point his shaft in a rather slanting direction when the aim is at the stag's broadside, in preference to straight forwards. He says,-- "There is peril to him who shoots directly at the side, independently of great uncertainty of killing when the arrow does prove fatal, it sometimes passes through and through the beast, and may thus wound a companion on the opposite side. Such an accident I did myself see once happen to Messire Godfrey de Harcourt, who was pierced through one of his arms."

L’Art d’archerie was printed around 1515. In 1901 Henri Gallice published the text of a manuscript of the work in his possession that he believed dated somewhat earlier, to the end of the 15th century. Henry Walrond published an English translation in 1903.

Walrond''s translation contains several errors. What Walrond translates as "target shooting" is some variant of "au chapperon" in the original French, and shot at ranges of 300 or even 400 paces (about 240 or 330 yards). It is better translated as clout shooting in English. "Arrows are likewise made hollow, like balista arrows" should be "Arrows are likewise made hollow, like crossbow bolts".

He explains waxed arrows, trait cyre in the original, as where the feathers are "fastened with waxed silk". This probably an oversimplification.

Our best candidates for waxed arrows are the many arrows recovered from the Mary Rose, sunk in 1545. At the shaftment, where the fletchings would be attached, archaeologists have identified traces of wax, tallow, copper, and the imprints of thread that they believe to be silk.

I think that that a plausible reconstruction is that the fletchings were first tacked down with hot wax and then secured more permanently with thread wound first about the trimmed spine of the feather, spiral wound for the rest of the untrimmed fletching, and then wound about the trimmed spine at the rear of of the fletching.

A final application of hot wax and tallow to the shaftment would have further secured the thread and ensured that the thread was not disturbed as it slid down the bow. Copper acetate would have discouraged vermin from eating the tallow.

Walrond translates tacles in the original as sheaf arrows, but it seems more likely that he is simply using takel, a Middle English word for arrows as well as archery equipment more generally.

L’Art d’archerie gives us insight into European archery at least a generation before Ascham, and it shows how the author thought three different sorts of sports archery, butts, clout and flight, had different optimal gear, which were in turn distinguished from what was best for war. And the earlier texts show that optimal hunting gear differed from all of these.

Interestingly, the author of L’Art d’archerie claims the the English found glued fletchings truer than waxed. Perhaps eagerness to base all reconstructions of longbow arrows entirely on the Mary Rose is misplaced.

An Archery Peerage

The London Archers continued to hold their yearly contests in. the month of September, in spite of the fact that henceforth there would be no use for the longbow in warfare. They formed a very fine corps, had they been of any use; meantime, the City has always loved a show, and a very fine show the Archers provided. Their captain was called the Duke of Shoreditch; the captains of the different Companies were called the Marquesses of Clerkenwell, Islington, Hoxton, and the Earl of Pancras, etc.; in the year 1583 they assembled at Merchant Taylors Hall to the number of 3000 all sumptuously apparelled, “nine hundred and forty-two having chains of gold about their necks.” They were escorted by whifflers and bowmen to the number of 4000, besides pages and footmen; and so marching through Broad Street, where the Duke of Shoreditch lived, they proceeded by Moorfields and Finsbury to Smithfield, where, after performing their evolutions, they shot at the target for glory.

Besant, Walter. 1904. London in the time of the Tudors. London: A. & C. Black p. 355

Here is a fuller account of the 1583 event from a contemporary. Besant has erred in describing the escorts as bowmen rather than bill-men.

I read this as the Elizabethan equivalent of a 21st century Superbowl halftime show. Behold the gaudy expensive excess, which we can well afford. The fact that we can afford it is part of the point. Are you not entertained?

Shooting Speed of Longbow and Crossbow

This video suggests that with a belt hook, the disparity in shooting speed was not as great as commonly supposed: four shots in 30 seconds for the crossbow vs. nine for the longbow. Of course, a windlass crossbow would be much slower.

Leo "Tod" Todeschini was present at the shoot, and reports that the crossbow had a draw weight of 150 lbs, far too light for a war weapon. He reckons that a belt and claw can span a crossbow up to about 350 lbs in draw, at a rate of about six shots a minute. This agrees with the contemporary Florentine chronicler Villani's account of Crecy that the English shot three times in the time it took the Genoese crossbowmen to fire once.

Before about 1390,  minutes and seconds were things known only by the very learned. A first person portrayal of an English bowman from before then might  say " I can shoot six times in the time it takes to say the Lord's Prayer, three times the speed of a crossbowman spanning from the belt."

"But, if I shoot as fast as I can, I'll use a whole sheaf of 24 arrows before French men-at-arms on foot, starting 200 yards out, are still more than 60 yards out. And this is not to be thought on, since everyone knows that an archer does the greatest injury at close range.  So I will shoot more deliberately at long range, especially since there is much advantage to marking where your first shot falls before firing the second, which can scarcely be  done if you shoot when your first shot is still in the air."

An English bowman who shoots his arrows wisely will shoot his last arrow only a few seconds before he drops his bow and takes up another weapon.





In these videos Tod Todeschini shoots heavy crossbows spanned with a belt and pulley and a goat's foot lever, getting off about three and five shots a minute respectively.  I don't think he's trying to shoot as fast as he possibly can. The belt and pulley is, of course, somewhat more cumbersome than a simple belt hook, but allows a heavier draw.

Note Tod's superior biomechanics compare to the first video: he presses downward with one leg rather than lifting his entire body as he spans the bow. The downward leg press is often visible in medieval images of crossbowmen spanning from a belt.

In comments, Jason Daub says that he can get off six shots in 34 seconds with a 240 lb. bow using a simple belt hook. It is well to know that the draw weights of crossbows and hand bows are not directly comparable, since the crossbow generally has a much shorter power stroke. A 240 lb. composite crossbow might put no more energy into the missile than an 80 lb. hand bow. And crossbows with steel prods suffer further  in comparison, because much of the stored energy goes into accelerating the relatively heavy prod.

The Bridport Muster: 1457

The Bridport muster  roll gives an unusually complete record of one of the musters held by the Lancastrians in 1457. Held at Bridport in Dorset, it records the arms owned, or that should have been owned, or in 82 cases were not owned, by 201 named individuals. Frequently the contraction ordinab occurs, probably for the Latin ordinabitur, or "he was instructed". Presumably it reflects equipment the individual should have had, but didn't bring to the muster. It's unclear how many of them the authorities expected to actually make good the deficiency, and how many would simply by fined.

For those that actually had bow and arrows, the most common kit was was jack, sallet, bow and arrows, often with a sword and dagger, for 33 individuals. Two had jack, sallet and habergeon: the 1473 Burgundian ordinance of St. Maximin de Tréves expected mounted archers to wear a a habergeon beneath their jack. One had jack, wallet and leg harness. One had a sallet and habergeon. 20 had bow and arrow, but no armor. 7 of the archers had a sallet as their only armor.  5 had a jack but no sallet.  Two had brigandines but no sallet.

This is somewhat at variance with Le Fèvre and Waurin's report that most of the English archers at Agincourt were unarmored: one would expect an expeditionary force to be better equipped than a local muster. Probably the many Welsh foot archers were less likely to have armor, and so brought down the average prevalence of armor among the archers as a whole.

Plucke-Buffet

Plucke-buffet is an archery game described in the 15th century ballad A Geste of Robyn Hode. Two poles are set up beneath the trees a considerable distance apart: "By fyfty pase, our kynge sayd, The merkes were to longe". A rose garland hung from each pole, and archer who shot outside the garland both forfeited that arrow and received a buffet from his opponent, a heavy blow to their bare head. What larks!

If you shot within the garland, hitting the pole was best. The ballad reports with approval that Robin and "Gylberte with the Whyte Hande" " ever...cleved the wande" except when Robin missed. Presumably, if shots were within the garland but missed the pole, the closest shot would win.

The game only appears in the one ballad, and may be entirely fictional, but it does give an idea of how medieval archers might have shot at a garland. Shots outside the garland were useless at best: the winner would be the shot that came closest to a mark within it.

Archery for Pleasure or Practice in 14th-16th Century England

There were at least two different ways of shooting bows for recreation or practice in fourteenth-century England. The first was shooting at the butts. The mark to be shot at was set in front of or on the front of a bank of turf or earth. Butts were most useful at shorter ranges since they stopped a flat trajectory miss from passing far beyond the target. In the 18th century butts were shot at distances from 30 to 120 yards.

The second was shooting at a mark or "prick" without a butt behind it. This avoided the trouble of cutting and maintaining butts, but worked best for longer range shooting when the arrows fell at a steep angle, far enough that significant draw and strength was required. A twelvescore prick could be 240 yards from the shooter, and some marks were even further. In 1478 twelve married staplers of Calais challenged a like number of bachelor freemen of the Staple, with the challenge recorded in the Cely papers:

“If it would please you for your sport and pleasure to meet with us next Thursday (on) the East side of this town in the place called 'the Pane', you shall find a pair of pricks (marks), the length betwix the one and the other being thirteen score tailor’s yards, mete out (measured) with a line. There we, the underwritten, shall meet with as many of your order and shoot with you at the same pricks for a dinner or supper, price 12d a man. And we pray you for your goodly answer within twenty-four hours. Written at Calais the 17 day of August, anno Jesu, ‘78”

Recorded marks of London’s Finsbury archers during the 1500s ranged from 180 to 380 yards. Butts and pricks often used a pair of marks as in the 1478 Calais challenge, so the archers could shoot from one mark to the other and then back again, to reduce the time spent walking.

Other formats were recorded in the 1400s, and may have been used earlier. In shooting at rovers, archers would shoot from mark to mark, choosing the second mark when they reached the first, selecting some feature within range to shoot at like a tree or bush. Because the distance varied at each shoot, rovers was seen as better training for combat or hunting.

Henry VIII's law of 1541, 33 Henry VIII c. 9, attempted to mandate archery practice that required both long ranges that required powerful bows useful on the battlefield and the ability to shoot at varied ranges useful in war.

"That no Man under the Age of twenty-four Years shall shoot at any standing Prick, except it be at a Rover, whereat he shall change at every Shoot his Mark, upon Pain for every Shoot doing the contrary, iv. d. and that no Person above the said Age of twenty-four Years shall shoot at any Mark of eleven Score Yards or under, with any Prick-shaft or Flight, under the Pain to forfeit for every Shoot, six Shillings Eight-pence"

The mark itself could take a number of forms. The early fourteenth-century Luttrell Psalter shows a garland or circlet set against the butt about chest-high, and garlands were also the mark in the fifteenth-century Gest of Robin Hood. Other early marks were small circular pieces of paper or pasteboard, fixed to the butt or a post in front of it by a wooden pin or wand, or peeled willow or hazel wands set up as marks. An alternative mark was the “clout” (cloth), a piece of white fabric large enough to be seen from the shooting distance, fastened to a sharpened stick driven upright into the ground so that the bottom of the clout almost reached the ground. The modern archery target of concentric circles seems to have been a seventeenth-century innovation.

For most marks the winner was simply the closest arrow to the mark, and at longer ranges, the mark itself would rarely be hit. The garland was probably scored similarly to eighteenth-century “shooting within the inches”: each shot that hit within a twelve-inch diameter circle counted at thirty yards. At sixty yards the circle was twenty inches. Typically, each archer shot two arrows at the mark, the arrows were collected and scored, and then the bowmen would shoot at the next mark. The heads of arrows for shooting at marks had a specialized shape that differed from heads used for hunting or war: barbless and streamlined with a swelling shoulder so the archer could consistently draw to full length by feel. When shooting at rovers, archers might carry more than one pair of arrows so they could have arrows suited for different ranges.

In shooting at the popinjay, archers took turns attempting to knock an artificial parrot off the top of a church steeple or tall pole. This was popular on the continent perhaps as early as the 13th century, and Stowe reports that crossbow-makers had brought the sport to London by the 16th.

Alternatively, arrows could be purely for distance, either with lightweight flight arrows or the heavier standard arrow.

Of the array of knychtis lordes and vtheris, 1429

ACT OF THE PARLIAMENT HELD AT PERTH, 6th MARCH 1429.
Of the array of knychtis lordes and vtheris.

Anent the maner of grathing of gentilmen and utheris for weir.

4. Item, be the awyse of the haill parliament it is statute and ordanit that ilk man that may dispende yerly xx lib. or at has jC (100) lib. in movabil gudis, that he be wele horsit and haill enarmyt as a gentill man audit to be. And vther sympillaris of x lib. of rent or L lib. in gudis, haif hat gorgeat or pesane, with rerebrasaris vambrasaris and gluffis of plate brest plate panse and legsplentis at the lest or better gif him likis.

Anent the maner of grathing of yemen for weir.

5. Item, that ilk yeman that is of xx lib. in gudis haif a gude doublat of fence or ane habergeone, ane yrn hat, with bow and schefe, suerde buklar and knyfe, and all vther yemen of x lib. in gudis haif bow and schefe, suerde and buklare and knyfe And the yeman that is nane archer na can nocht deyll with a bow sail haif a gude souer hat for his  hede and a doublat of fence, with suerde and buklar and a gude ax or ellis a brogit staff.

Anent the maner of grathing of burgessis for weir.

 6. Item, it is statute that ilk burges hafand jC lib. in gudis salbe hail enarmyt as a gentil man audit to be, ande at the yeman of lawer degre ande burges of xx lib., be bodyn with souer hate and doublat habergeone suerd buklar bow schefe and knyfe, ande at he that is na bowman haf a gude ax' or wapynis of fens, as is forsaide. Ande the balyeis sal rayse the payn in the burgh gif it be nocht kepit as is forsaide, that is to say of ilk harnest man iiij s. at the first warnyng, at the secund warnyng viij s., ande at the thrid tyme a mark and sa furth, whil he be wele enarmyt, ande of ilk yeman at the first tyme ij s., at the next tyme iiij s., and at the thrid tyme viij s., ande sa furth whil he be wele enarmyt.

Brogit staff: spiked staff
Gorgeat: gorget
Grathing: dressing, making ready
Legsplentis: leg protection
Panse: pauncer, belly protection of mail or plate 
Pesane: pisan, mail collar
Soure: sure, assured

Scotland, Cosmo Innes, and Robert Renwick. 1868-1919. Ancient laws and customs of the burghs of Scotland. Edinburgh: Printed for the Scottish Burgh Records Society. Vol. 2 pp15-16

Haucepiez

vij balistis de vicibus quarum j de baleigne cum j hasepe de novo apparatu

Compotus of Roger de Horncliffe, from 8 Feb. 1 Ed. III. to Mich, 4 Ed. III. in Ministers' Accounts, Bamburgh, V2 1-4 Ed. III. P.R.O.  (1328-29) 

une arbalète à tour, et un tour, et une arbalète de deux pieds et un haussepied.

An ordinance made for the manner in which men will be distributed in the defense of the Castle of Bioule, 1346

2 croichez de fer, 2 baudriez et 2 haucepiez pour tendre lesd. arbalestes.

Inventory of the Movables of the Castle of Vieux-Chateau, 16 August 1370

Item onze garrotz ferrez. Item vignt et quatre garrotz non ferrez; dous haucepiez garniz, dont les sièges sont ou haut du chastel.....Item, un haucepié garni, près la chambre Olivier Dinet.

Inventory of the Castle of l'Hermine, 23 January 1400

 

Item un haulcepié à tendre arbalestes et un tour à viz

 

Inventory of the Castle of Blois, 1421

 

From the above it appears that the haussepied was an engine for spanning large crossbows, mounted on a  frame, but distinguished from the tour, tour à viz, or vice, which seems to have been a screw and handle engine. I conclude from that that it was a frame-mounted windlass like those shown in the 1316 Carlisle charter and Walter de Milimete's 1326 MS.

 

Such a machine could easily span a two-foot crossbow that otherwise required a man to use the force of both legs while seated on the ground, with the crossbow on the frame at table height. I believe this was the source of the name.

Weapons at Bamburgh Castle: 1328-29

…unius aketon nullius valoris, v. bacinettis nullius valoris, vij balistis de vicibus quarum j de baleigne cum j hasepe de novo apparatu, xij balistis unius pedis de novo apparatu, j cista, iiij bukettis plenis de quarellis pro predictis vj balistis, j arcu, v garbis sagittarum, vij costis pro arcubus, xij costis pro balistis unius pedis quarum iiij nullius valoris, ij costis pro balistis de vicibus, x balistis unius pedis nullius valoris, j teler sine nuce pro balista de vicibus, xxxv quarellis pro springald de novo apparatu, xxviij quarellis pro springaldo sine pennis quarum iiij sine capite, xlvj torches cere in una cista, 1 tortie et xxvj broches cere in una alia cista, xv baudreis quorum iiij sine clavibus, …

Compotus of Roger de Horncliffe, from 8 Feb. 1 Ed. III. to Mich, 4 Ed. III. in Ministers' Accounts, Bamburgh, V2 1-4 Ed. III. P.R.O. .

…one aketon of no value, five bassinets of no value; seven screw crossbows, one of them of whalebone, with one new hasepe, 12 new one foot crossbows, one chest and four buckets full of quarrels for the aforesaid 6 crossbows, one bow, five sheaves of arrows; seven staves for bows; twelve prods for one-foot crossbows, four of them of no value; two prods for screw crossbows,  10 one-foot crossbows of no value; one tiller without a nut for a screw crossbow, 35 new springald quarrels, twenty-eight unfeathered quarrels for a springald, four of them without heads; forty-six wax torches in one chest, and fifty torches and thirty-six wax tapers in another chest; fifteen belts (for spanning crossbows), four of them without hooks…

Translation: Will Mclean 2012

Inventory of the Castle of Montgomery: 1301

Transcriptum indenture inter dominum W de Leyburn recipientem et dominum Bogonem de Knoville liberantem Castrum Montis Gomeri.

Memorandum quod die Lune proxima post festum sancti Luce Evangeliste anno regni Regis domini E. xxix° Bogo de Knoville liberavit domino Willelmo de Leyburn Castrum de Monte Gomeri cum omnibus rebus in eodem contentis, videlicet cum tribus prisonis de Scotia1 per dominum Regem ibidem prius missis. Liberavit etiam eidem xiij galeas parvi valoris,  xxviij capellos ferri parvi valoris, xx. balistas lesas et x. milia quarellorum pro balistis unius pedis, et j miliare quarellorum pro balistis duorum pedum iij bandrellos pro balistis duorum pedum, et ij viceas pro balistis extendendis. Item liberavit eidem iij balistas cornuas ad viceas integras et unam lesam, et iij balistis cornuas ad ij pedes, & duas ad unam pedem de dono domini Bogonis ad opus Principis. Item xij targias et iij. scuta parvi valoris, et unum incudem et j martellum et ij  sufflettos parvi valoris.  Item liberavit eidem iij par cooptorum ferri et ij testeras ferri et v. loricas1 cum capite et v. sine capite de veteri opere cum pluribus defectibus. Item j molam ad manum sine hoper, j ollam eneam, et j craticulam, xvj. par firgearum  et iij cathenas ad pontes trahendas. Item de ornamentis Capelle liberavit eidem unum par vestimentorum integrum cum corporalial iij manutergia debilia et terciam partem unius antiphonalis et terciam partem unius gradate et unum cofrum predictis ornamentis imponendis, et ij. cruettos et unam pixidem' et unam campanam pendentem in capella, et iiij"r cistas cum coopturis et iij sine coopturis et Iij dolia vacua.

Transcript of an indenture between lord W. de Leybum receiver and lord Bogo de Knoville deliverer of the Castle of Montgomery.

Be it remembered that on Monday next after the festival of Saint Luke the Evangelist in the 29th year of the reign of our Lord King Edward, Bogo de Knoville delivered to Lord William of Leyburn the Castle ot Montgomery with all things contained in the same, namely with three prisoners of Scotland previously sent there by our Lord the King. He also delivered to him 13 helmets of little value, 28 kettle hats of little value, 20 damaged crossbows and 10,000 quarrels for crossbows of one foot, and 1,000 quarrels for crossbows of 2 feet, 3 bandrellos for crossbows of two feet and two screws for spanning the crossbows. Also he delivered to the same 3 complete horn crossbows with screws and 1 damaged, and 3 horn crossbows for 2 feet and 2 for one foot of the gift of Lord Bogo for the use of the Prince. Also 12 targes and 3 shields of little value and 1 anvil and 1 hammer and 2 pair of bellows of little value. Also he delivered to the same 3 pairs of iron (horse) coverings and 2 iron testiers and 5 hauberks with headpiece, and 5 without headpiece of old work with many defects. Also 1 hand mill without a hopper, one brass pot and one grill, 16 pair firgearum and 3 chains for drawbridges.

Also of chapel ornaments he delivered to the same one whole pair of vestments with a corporal, 3 worn towels  and the third part of an antiphonal and the third part of a gradual, and one chest receive these ornaments, and two cruets and one pix and one bell hanging in the chapel and 4 chests with covers and 3 without covers and 3 empty casks. [Oct. 23rd, 1301]

Bandrellos: probably belts with hooks for spanning crossbows, related to the French baudrier.

Testier: head protection for a horse
Screw: In this context a machine with a screw and handle for spanning a crossbow
Firgearum: Unknown

Cott. MS. Brit. Mus. Vitellius C. x. fo. 154.  Translation by Will McLean, 2012


Excerpta historica, or, Illustrations of English history. 1833. London: Bentley. p.22

Sir John Smythe: Unreliable Narrator

Smythe in his 1590 Certain Discourses, gives a detailed account of a combat during the siege of Thérouanne in 1513, in which an English supply convoy was ambushed by a French force "which did farre exceed the English in number", The English drew their "carriages into a conuenient forme" with archers both filling the gaps between the carts and "in the two open places of the carriages before and behind" so that the French "were that day repulsed and ouerthtrowne by the excellencie of Archers", and "one of their chief Captaines, called Monsieur de Plessis lifting up his sword to strike, was with an arrowe shot in the arme hole through his gusset of maile, and there slain" Smythe names as a source a certain "old English Gentleman yet aliue...Master Caudwell that was there present"

Old indeed. If Master Caudwell was only eighteen at the time of the battle, he would have been 95 by the time Smythe published his Discourses.

Smythe seems to have conflated three different incidents.

In June of 1513, according to Hall's Chronicle, an English convoy was overrun and looted by French light horsemen, with 30 English archers and eight English gentleman killed. The French lost 87 horses and "diverse" Frenchmen.

In August of 1513, a cavalry skirmish near Guinegate, also called "The Battle of the Spurs" ended in a French route. The French captain Jacques de la Palice was captured.

In 1429, an English supply convoy was attacked by superior French forces near Vouvray. Forming a defensive circle of wagons the English defeated the attack in what would later be called the Battle of the Herrings

A Skirmish During the Siege of Therouanne: 1513

Upon the Mundaie beeyng the xxvii. daie of June xxiiii. Cartes charged with victaill, wer by the Garrison of Caleis conduited to Guisnes, and ther the Crewe of the castle and toune of Guisnes with three C. foote men, under the conduite of sir Edward Belknappe, al beyng in nombre iiii. C. lx. men, set furthe to conduite the saied victailes to tharmie liyng before Tirwyn, and so thei passed to Arde. And while the Carters passed the toune, the horsemen fel a drinkyng in the waie, and the foote men wer al out of ordre. The duke of Vandosme capitain generall of Picardie, which laie in a bushement in the forest side of Guysnes with viii. C. light horsemen, toke his advauntage and set on the victailers, the Carters perceivyng that losed their horses and fledd to the toune, whiche was but a myle of and left their Cartes. Sir Nicholas Vaux capitain of Guysnes did al he could, to bryng the foote men in an ordre: but the Frenchmen set on so quickly that thei could not set theim in ordre, the horsmen of Guysnes whiche wer but onely xxiiii. toke their speres and joyned with the Frenchemen: the Archers of Englande whyche passed not lx. shot manfully, and a noble capitain called Baltier Delien and diverse other, but the Frenchemen wer so many in nombre and in good ordre, that thei slew viii. gentlemen of the Garrison of Guysnes, and xxx. Archers slain and many hurte, and so thei distrussed the victailes, and caused sir Nicholas Vaux, and sir Edward Belknappe to flie toward Guisnes. This misaventure fell by tariyng of the horsmen and breaking of array, for if tharchers had taried together it had happened otherwise, for the fewe Archers that held together, slewe and hurt diverse Frenchemen: For on the felde laie lxxxvii. great horse which never went thence, by the which it appered that the Frenchemenne went not quite a waie without losse. 

Hall, Edward, and Charles Whibley. 1904. Henry VIII. London: T.C. & E.C. Jack.

Crossbows of Horn, 1236

Re.r. De balistis.—Mandatum est H. Giffard', constabulario Turris London', quod de balistis regis que sunt in custodia sua habere faciat Amauro de Sancto Amando quatuor balistas de cornu ad duos pedes et decem balistas de ligno ad unum pedem ponendas in castris nostris Heref' et Sancti Briavelli. Teste rege apud Windes', xv. die Aprilis.

Great Britain. 1892. Calendar of the close rolls preserved in the Public Record Office. London: H.M. Stationery Office.  p. 258

The Duke of Orleans' Crossbows at Blois: 1418 and 1421

A 1418 inventory of the Castle of Blois describes 14 crossbows, 11 of wood and the rest unspecified. A 1421 inventory counts 27, 10 of wood, three of steel and the rest unspecified.

Revue des sociétés Savantes des Departments. 1900. pp 312-314

Crossbows in the Bastille 1436

Item, two crossbows of steel
Item, eight crossbows of wood, complete, of which three are large, called haussepiez
.....
Item, five engines of wood for spanning crossbows, of which three are complete and the others not
Itam, five iron windlasses, both large and small, for spanning crossbows


Bournon, Fernand. 1893. La Bastille. Histoire et description des bâtiments.--Administration.--Régime de la prison.--Événements historiques. Paris: Imprimerie nationale.

Crossbows of the Dukes of Burgundy

 The dukes of Burgundy seem to have made a major technological shift in the 1440s. According to the records below, from 1362 to 1445 in cases where the material of the bow was identified they owned or bought 552 crossbows with wooden bows, and 195 composite bows of corne. From 1446, when they first began to acquire steel crossbows, to 1485, they owned or bought 197 crossbows with wooden bows, and 1,422 with steel bows.

Garnier, Joseph. 1895. L'artillerie des ducs de Bourgogne: d'après les documents conservés aux archives de la Côte-d'Or. Paris: H. Champion.

Crossbows at Tournoël and Marlborough: 1213 and 1215

Guy de Dampierre 
Inventaire du château de Tournoël 
Lettre adressée au roi Philippe-Auguste le 12 décembre 1213 

Guy de Dampierre au roi. 
Votre Sérénité connaîtra que Gualeran de Corbelles et Robert m’ont livré, dans le château de Tournoël : 11 arbalètes de corne, 7 arbalètes à ettrif, 3 arbalètes à deux pieds, une arbalète à tour, 10 arbalètes en bois, 8 casques, 2 cuirasses, 10 écus [boucliers allongés], deux targes [autre espèce de bouclier], 4 coffres de carreaux [flèches], ettrifs et autres traits, 2 tours à arbalètes, 2 crocs, 2 pelotes de fil, 100 livres de cire, 4 setiers de sel, 12 porcs salés, 19 setiers de froment vieux, 4 haches, 3 tarrières, 1 serpe, 6 pilons et 1 mortier de cuivre, 6 marteaux, 2 câbles, 6 couvertures, 2 coussinets, 53 setiers de froment nouveau, 10 setiers et 1 émine de fèves, 1 tonneau de vin et 13 muids, 3 setiers de fèves vieilles, 2 moles dans la tour, des tonneaux à contenir 100 muids de vin et 3 cuves. 

Source Texte retranscrit dans : Hippolyte Gomot, Histoire du château féodal de Tournoël, 1881, p. 33-34.

Crossbows at Marlborough in 1215: "balistae ad turnum...balistae ad unum pedem...balistae; corneae; ad unum pedem...ad duos pedes," 

Rot. Pat. 16 John.
British Archaeological Association, Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and Royal Archaeological Institute (Great Britain). 1844. The Archaeological journal. London: Longman, Rrown [sic] Green, and Longman. Volume 15.

By 1213, we see both the the stirruped crossbow spanned with one foot in the stirrup (ettrif) and a belt hook, or croc,  and the heavy crossbow spanned by a windlass or screw, or tour/turnum.