Archers

A corps of archers using the long bow (between five and six feet long) and arrows or the crossbow and bolts supported the knights. (In modern terms, they were the infantry.) Fast and maneuverable, longbowmen were very effective in the open field. Working as a team, they could shoot thousands of arrows almost simultaneously. A skilled English archer could shoot between twelve and fifteen arrows a minute with a range of over 300 yards. Men using the slow but more powerful crossbow, with its deadly armor-piercing bolts, had to fire from a shielded position. A crossbowman could shoot only a single bolt to the longbowman’s five or six arrows. The crossbow had a range of 370 to 380 yards, although modern claims have been made for shots of 450 yards.