BOWMEN OF ENGLAND (Pen & Sword Military Classics) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Bowmen of England By Donald Featherstone
The classic account of the English Longbowmen written by Donald Featherstone over thirty five years ago still has relevance today. The Bowmen of England is one of the most approachable accounts of the longbow from its development to its last use. From this a more then basic knowledge of the weapon, made famous by its use in the Hundred Years War, can be gained.
Featherstone makes several points with his book. The longbow's origins can be traced to Wales. Its ancestor may have been the Welsh bows that were used for hunting in the valleys and mountains. These bows were slightly larger then the normal hunting bows of the time. The bows were made from wych elm. This was the only type of wood that grew in the mountains that was suitable to bow making. The Welsh bows were four feet long. These bows were known to have a better range and penetration power than any other type of bow at the time. Featherstone believes that these bows were the origins of the English longbow. The nature of the borders in this region would have permitted the traveling of these bows into England. This idea, that the bow originated in Wales is very likely. The English, who were always fighting with or against the Welsh, could have noticed the difference in the bows.
The accounts in the book of the Welsh Wars of Edward I are how Featherstone introduces the tactics of the longbow. He puts forth the idea that the familiar tactics of the longbow in France came from these battles with the Welsh who also had large numbers of bowmen in their armies. Edward I developed these tactics when dealing with the Welsh defensive formations of spearmen in a "hedgehog". This was a semi circular phalanx type formation with the spears facing outwards in all threatened directions. Edward discovered that the archers could cover the advance of the cavalry by disrupting these formations with arrows. From this the principle that the effectiveness of the longbow was much greater when combined in the offense with cavalry came about. The use of the longbow in this fashion against the Scots and their large numbers of pike men seem to prove that the tactics were from before this war.

The most interesting point that Featherstone makes is that the longbow's use ended before its useful life was over. Several facts support this idea. The longbow was not used as a major military weapon after the early Sixteenth Century. At this time the armies of Europe were beginning to switch over to firearms on a large scale. The longbow could fire three or four times for every time of a musket. This was evident until Eighteenth Century. The effective and accurate range of a long bow was nearly 250 yards. This was far greater then the effective range of a musket which was around 100 hundred yards. An arrow was much heaver then a lead shot from a musket and had a greater ability to kill or main a soldier. With this said the need for lifelong training was one of the largest draw backs for the longbow. Firearms training could be effective after a few weeks. Weather also had a greater effect on bows then on firearms. While rain and water could affect both, if the powder was kept dry a firearm could function in the rain. However a bow has a more difficult time. Wind also had a much greater impact on archery than on shooting a firearm. The properties that the arrow uses to fly a stable projectory make it very susceptible to wind. For these reasons the switch to firearms was inevitable.
There are several major weaknesses with The Bowmen of England. Donald Featherstone spends a great deal of the book on the military use of the longbow. He does this by using major and a few minor battles as examples of their use. He spends a great deal of time narrating the story of the battle. However he lacks a useful description of the direct use of the longbow. The tactics and logistics of the English armies in these battles would greatly benefit the reader. One of the more important problems of the text is his 'use' of citations. The lack of any citations in the book greatly hurts the reader's ability to track down the sources of some of his information. The bibliography in the book in useful, but it does not give an account of the source of specific information. At times the book seems to use the descriptions of C.W.C. Oman's The Art of War in the Middle Ages. Some of the passages of both books are remarkably similar. It may not be the case but it is difficult to prove one way or another because of the lack of any type of citation.
The book is well written, easy to read and is a useful resource as a one stop source for the history of the longbow. Other histories of the longbow are often incomplete. Hugh Soar's The Crooked Stick spends a great deal of time with the history of the recreational use of the longbow. Featherstone covers the information that is often overlooked regarding the years under Edward I, the connection with Wales and the later uses of the longbow in the Scottish inter clan struggles. The book is a useful one, but should be used with caution. There are many questions that need to be asked regarding the source of some information as well as the light treatment of the longbow in the battle histories. In all Featherstone is a good source for a different look at the Hundred Years War.
Jamison Clark and Dr. Carl Edwin Lindgren
American Military University


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From the 12th to 15th centuries the longbow was the weapon that changed European history more than any other. In the skilled hands of English and Welsh archers it revolutionized all the medieval concepts and traditions of war. No other weapon dominated the battlefield as it did, and it was the winning factor in every major battle from Morlaix in 1342 to Patay in 1429. Donald Featherstone's study of the English longbow from its early development until the Wars of the Roses is an inspiring and authentic reconstruction in human terms in an age of courage, vitality and endurance. He provides an enthralling footnote to the history of the longbow by recording the engagement in which it was last used - in France in 1940.

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