Longbow

A longbow is a type of bow. It may not have been as strong as a crossbow, but it could shoot more arrows per minute.^[1] Also, the basic equipment cost little, and could be easily mass produced.^[2] Metal-tipped arrows could go through armour. Only the strongest armor would stop it.^[1] Archers (longbowmen) would usually have a second weapon, often a battle-axe, if the fighting came close to them.

The longbow was mainly used in the Middle Ages until the 1500s.

It was made from a single piece of hard wearing, flexible wood, often from a yew tree.^[2] Yew was cut during the winter when there was no sap.^[2] The flat side of the bow facing the target was flexible sapwood while the belly (facing the archer) was round and made of strong heartwood (from the center of a tree).^[2]

Groups of longbowmen would shoot at the same time. The arrows would come down like hail. This often scared the enemy.

Longbows have been found in Europe as far back as the Mesolithic period.^[source?]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Fadala, Sam 2011. Traditional archery. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, p. 13/14.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Mark Denny, Ingenium: Five Machines That Changed the World (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), p. 6