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:

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.

The Crossbow  >  Chapter 1  > Military Crossbow  >  p.6