For more than three centuries the longbow was the dominant weapon in
English military thinking, and England's archers were a force to be
reckoned with on battlefields across Europe. From the famous battles of
Crecy and Agincourt to forgotten skirmishes in Norfolk no serious fight
was complete without the hum of the bow string. The study of the history
of English archery could not be complete without reference to the vast
bank of primary sources, documents written in the medieval and Tudor
periods, which speak of the lives of the archers, their equipment,
conditions, pay, and experiences. This book contains transcripts of 51
primary sources including, for the first time, all 23 parliamentary
statutes relating to archery and the manufacture of bows and arrows
passed between 1285 and 1571, miscellaneous primary sources from
letters, household accounts, and medieval chronicles, and three extracts
from larger sixteenth-century works arguing over the supremacy of guns
or bows at a time when the military use of the bow was in terminal
decline. Together these sources offer a glimpse into archers and archery
during the Hundred Years' War, the Wars of the Roses, and the Tudor
campaigns.
