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The Bows of the English and Genoese at the Battle
of Crecy
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fortunate rival, with the "arbalest" or short stirrup
stick. The translation of this passage, as rendered by A.J. Johns (the
italics are mine), runs:
And thou crossbowman true and good,
Thou shooter with a faultless wood,
Haste with thy stirrup fashioned bow
To lay the hideous varlet low.
As further proof that at Crecy the Genoese did not use
the powerful steel crossbow which was bent by a windlass, I quote the following
extract from Viollet-le-Duc (Dictionnaire raisonne du Mobilier francais.
Paris 1868-75). "John II, King of France (the Good), issued in 1351 a military
regulation which ordered that the crossbowman who had a good crossbow,
strong according to his strength, should receive three sous tournoise wages
per day." This plainly shows that the military crossbow of the time of
Crecy was bent either by hand alone, or, as was more probable, by a thong
and pulley, a claw fixed to the girdle, or by means of a goat's foot lever.
If the crossbowmen referred to it in the regulation given above had steel
crossbows with windlasses, such as were commonly used toward the end of
the century, the question of regulating the power of the bow to the strength
of the soldier would not have arisen, as with the windlass a boy could
bend the thickest of steel bows.
The Genoese at Crecy (they were in the first line and
were the only troops in the French army who advanced toward the English
in fair order) were probably checked, and thrown into confusion, by showers
of arrows, before they could approach their assailants sufficiently near
to discharge one crossbow bolt with effect1. All contemporary
and later evidence tends to prove, that the crossbows carried by the Genoese
at Crecy had not steel bows; thus they could not compete at all with the
English longbow, as they had formally done with the old shortbow.
The Genoese became, therefore, a large and helpless target
for the English bowmen, and very soon scattered and fled, for they were
unable to inflict any lose upon their opponents, though struck down in
numbers themselves.
This, in itself, was sufficient to throw these unfortunate
mercenaries into a state of panic, even if their small crossbows been in
proper condition, as indeed they may have been, notwithstanding tradition
and surmise to the contrary.
When the crowding mass of horse and foot, which for several
miles had been pressing in disorder on the hells of the Genoese, came up,
they found the crossbowmen in hot retreat, either by reason of the deadly
hail of English arrows they had just encountered, or because of the uselessness
of their weapons.
The cavalry, however, in merciless manner, galloped furiously
over the
1 It is probable that the crossbows carried
by the Genoese at Crecy were unable to send their bolts further than about
200 yards.
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| The Bows of the English and Genoese at the Battle of
Crecy |
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