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I’m basing a lot of my longbow archery on information derived from the Mary Rose bows, as reported in (among other places) Strickland & Hardy’s The Great Warbow, which includes a history of the longbow in use from the Battle of Hastings up to the Tudor period. (It’s also a great temptation to spend way too much time on details that aren’t plotworthy…how to conserve and then revive bows that have been buried in silt and salt water for centuries, for instance, something no one is trying to do in this book. On the other hand, the horrible but effective treatment one noble received for an arrow wound in the face may show up sometime. Not right now, though.)
This book almost made me reconsider the kind of bows the Pargunese use, but in the end I decided for what I hope are sensible reasons to have them favor crossbows over longbows. For the Lyonyans there was no choice–they have blackwood trees, yielding a superb wood for bowstaves, similar to yew and slightly superior, and their blackwood bows are known as superior weapons throughout the north. But they never export blackwood in bow-stave lengths, so if you have a blackwood bow, that’s where you got it. Paks’s blackwood bow, a gift of the rangers with whom she served, is a distinct rarity.
As with longbows of yew, blackwood bows utilize both sapwood and heartwood, for their differing properties, but the colors are not as distinct as with yew. The sapwood is dark red, and when worked darkens to a rich brown; the heartwood is black as ebony. Many bowyers of the present day apply a stain to darken the brown further, so that a blackwood bow from a distance looks entirely black.
Pargunese crossbows most resemble the Central European style as in the New World Arbalest catalog. Many are imported from Aarenis, where crossbows have a long tradition. When their ancestors lived across the eastern sea, and were primarily seafarers, they used a mix of longbows and crossbows, but shifted to primarily crossbows for the greater penetrating power against the magelords’ armor. Since crossbows can be spanned mechanically or using other muscles than those of the arms and shoulders, they can have a stiffer bowstave (or prod.) The disadvantage is the slower rate of fire (spanning a strong crossbow takes longer than drawing a longbow) and the need to be standing still to span one (the Pargunese crossbows.)
Models for battles with various combinations of archery types and other weaponry types abound, although those who first wrote about them were not always…um…accurate. Battlefield archaeology continues to make headway in explaining what really happened in medieval and Renaissance (and more recent!) battles…when all the data comes from the happy victors or resentful supporter of the defeated, it may not be anywhere near accurate.
Comment by Kip Colegrove — December 1, 2009 @ 3:20 pm
I’ve long been fascinated by the Asiatic recurved composite bow, drawn using a thumb ring. I suppose that’s more like what the horse nomads use in Paks’s world. Some of the archers in the Deed seem to be using bows of that general sort–short and handy, but not lacking in power. Not the easiest bows to string, however.
Comment by elizabeth — December 1, 2009 @ 5:13 pm
Recurved bows are pretty…that sinuous curve all by itself is pretty. Like most kids, I grew up trying to make and use a simple greenwood bow and little stick arrows (not very effective, at least not with the bits of chinaberry we tried to use.) The first recurved bow I saw was in a sporting goods store that friends owned. All the store bows were composite, one way or another–laminated wood, wood and fiberglass, etc.
Comment by Sean McCrohan — December 2, 2009 @ 4:03 pm
I’d love to come up with a justification for a culture favoring the manuballista (like a crossbow, but powered by torsion coils rather than by bending a prod), just for variety, but I really haven’t thought of one that makes sense yet. Practically speaking, they’re heavier and more cumbersome. The torsion spring might give more consistent force across the period of acceleration, maybe. I got distracted half way through building a prototype to play with, and never went back to it.
Comment by elizabeth — December 2, 2009 @ 5:40 pm
I don’t know of one myself, but experimentation with weaponry appears to be one of the commoner forms of human entertainment.
Comment by Sean McCrohan — December 2, 2009 @ 7:54 pm
It’s so true. In fact, to demonstrate…more speculation.
Hmm. Other situational advantages for crossbows. A crossbow can benefit from being fired from a braced position (resting on a wall, braced on the branch of a tree) far more than a longbow, I think. And if it’s constructed of stable enough materials, it can be sighted in and calibrated in a reliable way. Which isn’t to say they’re more accurate than bows in general (that’s largely up to the skill of the archer), but mechanical aids to accuracy probably become possible at an earlier stage of technology. I think that real-world ‘precision’ crossbows were mostly hunting pieces rather than sniper weapons, because firearms were on the battlefield by then, but in a world without firearms, perhaps they’d see military use?
Is there much historical use of crossbows from horseback, in areas that didn’t have the proper technique for powerful horsebows? It seems like it would be possible – again, perhaps something that never happened in the real world because of firearms, but which might have if they hadn’t filled the niche? One of the non-mechanical spanning techniques was to pull the string back by use of a hook hanging from a belt (using the legs). It seems like one could probably accomplish something similar on horseback, perhaps with a modified saddle? You’d know far better than me if that’s practical; I’m no sort of rider. Possibly one would have access to imported horsebows before such a thing was developed.
Comment by elizabeth — December 2, 2009 @ 10:14 pm
Um…crossbows and longbows overlapped in history, some forces using both and some using only one. Not sure about cavalry use. If I were riding now, I might try spanning my crossbow in the saddle to see…mind has a stirrup, and my mind just suggested that the saddle stirrup could have a projecting hook that you could catch the bow stirrup in, using your leg to hold the saddle stirrup (and thus the bow stirrup) down. To span my crossbow, I just step in the stirrup and pull the string up, but it’s not a wildly powerful one…I don’t use or need a belt hook.
I’ll ask our local abalest, whose wife was an equestrian, if she ever used a crossbow on horseback.
As for stable materials–you’d better have one made of stable materials or you can’t aim at all.
Comment by Sean McCrohan — December 2, 2009 @ 11:04 pm
Sorry, didn’t mean to suggest that longbows and crossbows didn’t overlap. They were both used at Crecy, I think. The longbow gets much better PR, but they definitely both had a role.
The only crossbow in the house here is a light (25-lb pull, easily spanned by hand) pellet bow I built; I mostly plink acorns at squirrels to scare them away from the birdfeeders (not that it works for long). I’ve noticed with that, though, that even though the draw distance is precisely the same each time, if I put it in a bench vise there’s small but noticable variation in range. I /think/ that’s mostly the result of temperature, humidity, and the prod warming up from use. I assume that the right materials or design would minimize that.
Comment by elizabeth — December 2, 2009 @ 11:13 pm
If you want an expert opinion, you might ask David at New World Arbalest. As I understand it, both the prod material and the string material can be more or less responsive to temperature and humidity and there’s something about the tying in, too. I’ve never built one; I’ve watched him and his apprentices build them. Link is on the Links page here.
My problem with mine is failing to keep the prod level, so I’m off horizontally…when I keep it level, I do a lot better, but I don’t always. I have the same problem when shooting vertical images with my camera–I tilt.
Comment by arthur piantadosi — December 3, 2009 @ 1:12 am
Could you also use some Carroballista’s ? I read about them once, and they seem like a real Roman analog to the machine gun as a crew served weapon. And I have been wanting to ask, are the Aarean lords based on the Romans, the Normans, or both. I read Legacy of Gird years ago before I read about the Norman Conquest. I have to say I HATE the Normans, and have always wished that Hastings was lost by William Tannerson
Comment by elizabeth — December 3, 2009 @ 7:14 am
Weapons have to fit the societies they grow from (well, until you have international arms traders who can take someone from muzzle loaders to tactical nukes for the right price…) There’s no space here for anything like that.
The Aarean lords are not based directly on either the Romans or the Normans (for Romans, look at the gnomes–their attitude to law comes from Prof. Lear’s book _Treason in Roman and Germanic Law_.) The disparity in technology (magery) and military experience was more like that of much later conflicts, when one side had firearms and the other didn’t. As the magelords lost their magery (as if those with firearms lost their muskets and pistols and cannon) those they had oppressed figured out ways to resist effectively. As happens even now.
As an exercise, it’s interesting to consider an alternate history in which Harold had not needed to race north to fight off an invasion there, and then race back to face William with exhausted troops. How would a Saxon England have developed? They weren’t exactly buddies with the Celts to north and west, themselves…they were not the indigenous people (if anyone was.)
Comment by David Watson — December 3, 2009 @ 10:22 am
Concerning things crossbowlike. First: Crossbows are inherently more accurate than longbows, because they automate a number of operations that effect accuracy. Always draw to the same spot, release the same way, hold the lath (bowstave or prod) the same way, etc. However, longbows have real advantages in a mobile, open-field combat that make them more effective field weapons, as long as the enemy’s armor isn’t too good.
Comment by David Watson — December 3, 2009 @ 10:29 am
Woops, that wasn’t supposed to post quite yet. lemme finish my thought.
There were European horse-crossbowmen. Spanish light-horse, ‘jinetes’ used crossbows and javelins from horseback, among others. Horse crossbows tend to be shorter and lighter than infantry bows. The most workable spanning devices would be the excellent iron ‘gafa’ or ‘goatsfoot’ cocking lever, for medium-weight bows and the powerful, if slow and expensive ‘cranequin’ or ‘rack’ spanning machine. The cranequin will span just about anything you could carry.
The small Roman ‘cheirobalista’ was a light infantry-support javelin thrower. It used the heavy support frame and doubled twisted rope skeins of the catapulta (balista) Beyond a certain size and weight, crossbows become progressively less efficient. Beyond about 2000 lb. of draw, you’re much better off building a balista than a giant crossbow. That’s why Leonardo da Vinci’s giant crossbow experiment is a no-starter. It’s just too big and natural materials have too many flaws. DRW/Crossbow advisor to Famous Authors.
Comment by David Watson — December 3, 2009 @ 3:27 pm
Crossbow comments from the maker. Crossbows are inherently more accurate than handbows because they mechanize and regularize many of the variables a handbow archer must be aware of. However, handbows have a flexibility of action and speed of loading not available to crossbowmen, so they can be more effective in combat IN THE HANDS OF EXPERT BOWMEN. Inexpert bowmen will be much better off with crossbows.
There were mounted crossbowmen in medieval europe. Spanish ‘jinete’ light infantry used both crossbows and javelins.
Horse crossbows work best with the iron ‘gafa’ or ‘goatsfoot’ cocking lever for medium-weight bows and the more powerful/expensive ‘cranequin’ or ‘rack’ for stronger bows. Cavalry bows are usually smaller in size than infantry bows but are not necessarily weaker.
Torsion machines, that put two crossbow-like arms into a square frame, are actually substantially more efficient than crossbows, but they pay a big penalty in weight.
Enjoying the conversation: DRW/New World Arbalest