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Shortbow , Longbow , and Crossbow
Many of the mercenary troops, however, such as Genoese and Gascons,
whom we constantly hired in medieval days to fight for us abroad, and occasionally
at home, were armed with crossbows till about 1480.
Crossbows for killing deer,
and for shooting at butts, were fairly common among the English in the
fifteenth century, and it was doubtless recognised by those in authority,
that if the people practised with these easily manipulated weapons instead
of with their longbows, skill in the use of the latter might be wanting
in time of national danger.
It was, therefore, with certain reservations, as in the case of nobles
and persons of wealth, at length enacted, that the possession of a crossbow,
even for sporting purposes, be forbidden by law among the people of England.
Fig. 15. - Crossbowmen Practising at the Target.
Their dogs are retrieving the arrows, and were trained
to do this without injuring the feathers of the missiles.
This Act was introduced in 1508, during the reign of Henry V11., and
reinforced by statute, mandate, or proclamation, in 1512, 1515, 1524, 1528,
and 1534 in that of his successor Henry VIII. In 1536, the Act against
crossbows was repealed, and their use was permitted, except in the King's
Parks and Forests.
In 1537, the Act was once more renewed; this time it included handguns
as well as crossbows, with the
proviso, that those persons who were permitted to carry handguns must have
none that exceeded two and a half feet in length, including the stock.
In the few licenses granted to various persons, such as foresters and keepers,
to carry crossbows to kill game, the heron was always excepted, as heron
hawking was the favourite sport of royal and noble falconers.
The prohibition of the crossbow
and the handgun must have been rigidly enforced
in England, at all events till 1539. In April of that year, John Marshall
writes to Thomas Cromwell, Lord Great Chamberlain (in 1539 made Earl of
Essex, and the following year beheaded on Tower Hill): ' Have had the King's
orders to provide four men to send to my Lord Admiral upon an hour's warning.
Have done so. There are no gunners here by reason
The Crossbow
> Chapter 6 >
Shortbow , Longbow and Crossbow > p.33 |
