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Summary of the History of the
Crossbow
There can be no truth in the assertion of Francis Grose (' Military
Antiquities,' 2 vols., printed 1786 and 1788) that so late as 1572, Queen
Elizabeth engaged with Charles IX. of France to supply him with 6,000 mercenary
troops partly armed with crossbows.
In 1572, and for nearly forty years before this date, the crossbow was
practically extinct in warfare, and even the English longbow in 1572 was
rapidly falling into disuse.
Fig. 19. - Shooting Deer with the Crossbow
The figure on the left is bending his crossbow with
a belt-claw1 , whilst he holds in his mouth the arrow he is
about to use.
The large oblong prints (the original paintings were both burnt when
Cowdray House was destroyed by fire in 1793) depicting (I) the siege of
Boulogne by Henry VIII. in 1544, and (II) the encampment of the English
forces near Portsmouth, and the engagement between the English and French
fleets, July 19, 1545, show many hundred figures of soldiers carrying pikes,
hand-guns, and longbows, but not one crossbowman is to be seen among the
combatants represented.2
1 See Chapter XV. for a description of the
belt-claw.
2 Probably the last occasion on which crossbows
were used against regular British troops, was at the assault and capture
of the Taku forts in 1860, when many of the Chinese carried crossbows.
One of their repeating crossbows, with its bamboo bow, and magazine for
holding arrows, is shown in fig. 169, p. 238. It was thrown away by a Chinese
soldier when the allies entered the fortifications. |
