Fig. 153.—Archers. (Roy. MS. 20, D. 1.)
Fig. 154.—Archer, &c., from Painted Chamber.
It was during the period now under consideration, 1250 to 1325, that the archer first stepped into prominent notice, and that the efficacy of his weapon, the most deadly that the art of man devised until the introduction of gunpowder, came to be fully recognised. During the Norman period the infantry as a rule were armed with the bow, but the other weapons they bore were considered of equal if not greater usefulness and importance in battle, owing probably to the undeveloped condition of the weapon. With the advent, however, of the long-bow proper, and the invention of the arbalest, the deadly effect of the arrow and the quarrel began to be fully recognised and accepted, and changes consequently occurred in the art of warfare occasioned by the adoption of these weapons. The bow was not at first considered to be of exceptional efficiency in the open field, but to be especially valuable in sieges, and the defence of mountain passes and strongholds. When this idea was proved to be erroneous we find from various Statutes of Arms that a number of the military tenants were ordered to be provided with the long-bow and arrows. The Statute of Westminster, for instance, especially mentions the bow. Their equipment was considerably augmented also with respect to body armour, for in [Fig. 109] on p. [94] we see the bowman of c. 1220 defended only by his chapelle-de-fer, whereas in Figs. [153], [155], taken from Roy. MS. 20, D 1, dating from the end of the century, when the conical heaume had been generally adopted, the archers are depicted with the same headgear and the body defended by a hauberk of banded mail. Whether arrows were ever furnished with the small cross-pieces as shown is conjectural; they are, however, often shown in MSS. having a foreign origin. In [Fig. 154] the archer is seen clad in a coif-de-mailles and hauberk. The arrow-head is usually barbed as shown, but whether the three-barbed arrow of Spain, shown in the Spanish Codex, Add. MS. 11,695, written in 1109, was ever adopted in England is very doubtful. The fourteenth century showed the fullest development of the bow, as we shall find, and during that period the archer attained the height of his importance, but by his equipment at this early period we may conclude that he was taking an important place in the military force of the nation.
