Bowmen of England

The centuries-long history of the legendary and deadly English longbow is explored and explained in a “classic work . . . an engaging, enjoyable read” (De Re Military). From the twelfth to the fifteenth 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. It was the winning factor in every major battle from Morlaix in 1342 to Patay in 1429. This well-researched study of the English longbow from its early development until the Wars of the Roses offers fascinating insight into a game-changing tool of warfare and the men who wielded it in an age of courage, vitality, and endurance—culminating in an enthralling reconstruction of the engagement in which it was last used: in 1940 France at the outbreak of World War II.