How the Medieval Longbow Cut Down a French Army in 1346 

Narrator: the forces of England's Edward the third "Shows the coat of arms of the holy roman empire"

Also i love how terrible the acting for the archer was. Like he just casually was able to draw his bow with it already pointed at his enemy. In reality it would take the entire body to draw back a 140lb war bow that would have started with him being in a hunched over position in order to utilize his back muscles to help draw the bow.

I'm guessing the advantage of the long bow over cross bow is that it offers greater rate of fire, more distance and cheaper to produce.

Don’t know if it’s true or not but the theory of the origin of a familiar curse is supposedly as follows: When an English longbow archer was captured, the French would cut off the third finger of their draw hand, rendering them unable to participate in combat. As a sign of defiance in battle, the archers would display their third fingers & exclaim “I can still pluck the yew” Taking the last three words, you can imagine what that morphed into Again, not sure it’s true but an interesting theory

some facts needing correction #1 bows should be made from YEW trimmed with red Oak #2 the correct length or height of the bow is the same height as the user. #3 the correct length of the arrow is measured from under the oxter (armpit) to the tip of the middle finger The arrow head is made and fixed by an arrow-smith and the flight is made and attached by a Fletcher #4 the rate of fire by an expert is about 20 per minute. However, you don't require a longbow or crossbow to shoot an arrow. A catapult with a bridge between the forks with a notch cut out of the center of the bridge will do just as well and surprisingly accurate because the arrow is not off center on one side of the bow

Without the rain turning the ground into mud, and also the stakes that protected the archers, the French knights could very well have mowed through the English formation

They received very well. It is better to give than to receive.

The French used to cut off the right hand middle and index fingers of English bowmen when captured. Preventing them ever to use a longbow again. The famous “ middle finger” sign developed from this.... showing yourself ready for business and up yours.

Mail armour doesn't hang loosly on ones body, that would be as good as wearing no armour at all. It needs to fit tight on the wearer's body in order to protect him, btw archers tense their longbows with three fingers, the way the actor was holding the string is ridiculous. Also, why do french knights look like crusaders?? By that time plate armour was at its peak, with the whole of the body being covered by steel plates, even english archers had some level of plate armour. Chainmail was obsolete by the XIV century.

The internet really shows how incompetent expert organizations are. The Smithsonian is a prestigious authority and these comments show how almost every scene has something inaccurate or just wrong.

The armor and heralrdry is all over the place lol

Literally everything about this video is incorrect, but I have no time to address it.

You would thing the Smithsonian could get the details correct

Like to know the draw a longbow of that poundage by pinching the arrow with thumb and forefinger!!

Also, there were many sizes and strengths of bow, not just a six-foot bow.

Long bow: to hit and crush the enemies.

Learning about medieval longbow history in one easy step: - Find a better channel

Then will we fight in the shade

I think literally everything in this video is at least partially inaccurate if not just completely wrong.

Did you know that when people found the skeletons of the archers on the old battlefields their spines where misshaped from all the hard work of pulling that bow over and over again and doing that for a lot of years

lol this segment is about the longbow yet all the actors are using regular bows...

The archer's bowstring grip is laughably wrong.

Years ago, I watched a documentary about the Battle of Agincourt. In it the claim was made that one of the most effective advantages the English long bowmen had wasn't so much how many of the enemy they killed on the battlefield, but more how many they killed through infections. Contrary to popular belief, the longbow men didn't draw arrows out of a quiver one at a time and fire them. They were in the habit of taking all of their arrows out and pushing the arrow head end into the ground near them. The arrow heads became contaminated with all sort of microbes in the soil. Added to that was the fact that a lot of the Englishmen were suffering from dysentery and, as they couldn't leave the field, they simple defecated where they stood. So, by the time the battle commenced, the English arrows had become biological weapons of war. I have read that the French casualties were estimated to have been around 6,000, but there is no real way of knowing how many more later died from tetanus, gangrene, gas gangrene, blood poisoning etc. Without modern antibiotics, even the slightest of wounds from one of those contaminated English arrows would have been a certain death sentence.

You know it’s going to be good when you can spot 6 different historical inaccuracies in the thumbnail alone.

I love how most of us have been brought up believing the Smithsonian, but they still get information wrong. The fact that single, small-time, youtubers can develop more accurate content is astounding

I can’t believe they didn’t mentioned the crazy range and precision of the longbow. That’s what was underestimated, yes the shots per minute was also crazy. But it’s the joining of those things that won them the battle. In the 13th century, accuracy at 300 yards is unheard of outside of siege equipment.

Why do the French have Prussian looking banners, I’m no expert but I wasn’t able to find any French coat of arms that looked anything like the one presented

“England claims the French throne”. I’ll be honest with you, my family back in those days were farmers, I’m sure they and many others didn’t give a flying @#$& about the French throne. Edward wanted the throne.

This is what happens when an american channel gets involved into european history

The French made a serious tactical error when they decided not to bring the M2 Browning that day.

It is not true that the arrows rained down, the were shot horizontally. Read, Mike Loads “The English Longbow”.

typical error when referring to archery, arrows are shot or more correctly 'loosed', firing was for FIREarms which invovled gunpowder

Narrator: His *French* antagonist *Proceeds to shows the COA of The Holy Roman Empire*

Yeah, Everybody wants to speak Frénch until the English V I B E arrows with their longbow.

Too bad the bowman they kept showing didn't know how to actually shoot a bow. You don't hold the string between your thumb and forefinger. It's three fingers on the string. No way you could pull a 140 pound pull bow back like that.

This is incorrect. The war bow was an accurate weapon. In the hands of archers who who trained daily over years. The archers were actually deformed because of the severe heavy training. These archers were serious ķillers with and without a bow. Azincourt is an example of that.

Who would win? A wooden stick with strings vs Several thousand heavily armoured knights on warhorses charging at you full speed

Historian: "The longbow is not a precision instrument" Lars Andersen: *Laughs in split arrows*

This is way oversimplified, if you want the truth do some research

Commenting as a longbow archer shooting a 35 & 50lbs bow, the later is considering reasonably heavy but very light in the 14th century. The longbows at Crecy and Agincourt were specialised war bows of a poundage developed specifically for war and specifically to defeat armour.

Are we still doing the exposed throat mail coif in 2020? Seriously

“Not a precision weapon”. The Medieval English long bow. It was the most precision weapon they had.

Many of the archers were, in fact, Welsh...

Seriously thumb draw with 10lb bow? Come on

Here we go again, it wasn’t an English army , what about the six hundred Welsh archers, Welsh archers fought at Crecy ,Agencourt, and Poitiers, and all through the hundred year war , the long bow was developed in South Wales, if it wasn’t for them would the English have won those battles, I don’t think so , and there’s no mention of them

Wow they managed to get everything just slightly wrong

“Requires up to 140lbs of force” obviously uses a very low weight bow. Unless these guys have superhuman grip on those arrows

Welsh

The french coat of arms is the fleur de lies not the German eagle historically inaccurate

The bows in the video are far too short. A long bow is a big bow and takes huge strength and technique to draw it to its full extent. The archers are said to have had deformed backs and shoulders from years of practice.

Ugh. Where to begin? They didn't fire volleys in 45 degree angles like that. Not a single painting or drawing that was actually created during the 100 Years War portrays this tactic unless they were firing up at a castle wall. They fired straight ahead or were positioned on the flanks to enfilade (which was what happened at Agincourt). They drew the bow using as many of their back muscles as possible, not just the rear deltoid, because of the crazy draw weight, so they are often portrayed by contemporary sources as standing in a sort of weird leaning forward position; this activates the lats, rear delt, rhomboids, and traps.

1:05 I didn't know there were black people in the english army

Really Teutonic !!! Actually Welsh Bowmen !!! Perhaps the Horses were English !!! Some Mercenaries, Mostly not Soldiers !!! Feel sorry for the Farmers' Widows √√√

The late great English actor Robert Hardy was a recognised expert on medieval archery, he has written a book on the subject I believe. Some years ago he did an outstanding documentary on BBC 2 TV - not sure if available on DVD, but worth acquiring if it appears. Many of the "English" bowmen across the middle ages were Welsh.

I love how he mentioned that french army used crossbows and were outranged, the main reason of the victory. It's also good how me mentions that the longbows took so much years to train, the main reason why england had less men. Oh wait he didn't mention none.

Typical “historical” documentary. You’ve got guys shooting with thumb draws and two fingers on the string, and they’re not even shooting English longbows, they’re shooting long American flat bows. Also the narrator says “almost 6 feet long, also wrong, the shortest WERE 6 feet, most of them were nearly 7 feet long. Also, at very long ranges the goal was to fire as many arrows into the enemy crowd, but at Crecy they weren’t even that far away, at 100-50 meters English archers could have easily hit what they were aiming for very consistently. These “documentaries” don’t even do any extensive research into what they’re about. All they would have to do is call up someone (probably on RU-vid) who actually knows something about the subject. Just message Ian Sturgess or Joe Gibbs or Tod Cutler about this stuff. SERIOUSLY!

What about Patay, a few years later, when the swift French cavalry trampled the slow line of English Longbow to never come again ? You need a full life to make a longbowman, and one minute to stomp him.

The English where on French soil yet the french are the antagonists?

One day, they’ll show archers actually shooting in front of them rather than in the sky.

The archers depicted are not using longbows and their grip is absolutely wrong! Worst!!!!

Did that so called expert actually say ‘fire volleys of arrows’ at 01.46?

Don't you just love it when the so called experts said the arrows were fired.

As soon as I heard an American accent I knew the facts wouldn't be right, sure enough. Try Welsh Longbowmen. Try to hold and fire the bow correctly too. Shame on the Smithsonian

Inaccurate video

What's wrong with this is the idea of loosing arrows into the sky wlly nilly. At Cressy, Poitiers and Azincourt, the English tactic was to advance to about 150 yards from the massed French mounted knights, then either dig ankle breakers (holes) or plant stakes, to about 30 yards out. As the English always occupied the hig ground in those battles, they waited until the French charged. At 100 yards the English loosed straight into the front rank of French knights. As they went down, taking the second rank and some of the third with them, the second English volley was loosed into the third and fourth ranks. All three battles were fought after very wet weather, so the field was muddy and sodden. After two or three volleys, the English archers pounced forward and knifed the helpless Frenchmen caught under their dead or dying horses. Then they returned to their ranks to await the next charge. As you can see, this video is hopelessly wrong.😊

Those are Welsh Long-Bows you fool.

Cringe thumbnail.....That’s not how a warbow is drawn.

Where are the longbows on the footage ? I don't see any

We already know those informations. Where is the more rare information? It's just an explanation of bowmen. No questions answered.

"England even claims the French throne" That is anachronistic bs of the highest order. The House of Plantagenet claimed the throne of the French Kingdom from the House of Valois after the House of Valois had conquered the Duchy of Aquitaine from the Plantagenet.

this is why i love playing as Briton,in age of empires

Shouldn't those archers be wearing more gambeson and less mail?

Just to correct the expert you do not fire arrows, there is no gunpowder involved as in firearms an arrow is loosed, released, shot never fired.

Everybody Gangster until they come across an English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿longbow. 😂

Alright kids, are ya ready for some kids who've played a total war game to tell you how historically inaccurate this video is?

Longbows are no match for Joan of Arc.

Well that was rubbish.

England didn't claim the French throne. The English king did based on descent through his mother. French nobility refused to recognize matrininal descent in Edward's case. That led eventually to war.

It didn’t become prominence during 1347. Far earlier in fact and famously played a huge roll in defeating the Scottish army at the Battle of Falkirk 1298, where Edward I crushed us. Roll on 1314 😜💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Americans just have a laughable perception of medieval history

try the Mongolian horse then, see how many arrow does it take to take one horse down. Do you know, in the 13th century, the Mongolian conquerer most of Asia by using their horse as an access to drive through the enemy lines and they can stand through many different kind of environment. Specially they are way smaller than the European horse but has a higher strength.

Thats how I pulled my toy bow string when I was a kid ! L.O.L.

I cannot believe that so much poor information can be contained in a single short clip. Absolutely lazy and badly executed reporting....shame on you.

You'd think they'd use shots of soldiers actually using longbows. And are they seriously suggesting that the peasant longbowmen and footsoldiers all wore expensive full chain mail protection, new boots and matching uniforms?

Why did the Kingdom of French fly banners of HRE?

That's why you send some battle rams first with some skirms to sponge the arrows before the cav... clearly the french player was a noob...

A friend, a former NFL defensive lineman, has his compound bow set at 90 pounds. And I thought he was strong.

so much of this was so laughably wrong, I'm no historian or expert of anything, but anyone with even the most basic understanding of archery can debunk most of this (also it never said how they cut down a French army in 1346, it just said they did.)

The English used Welsh longbow men! Apparently (so I heard somewhere), the rude "2 finger salute" came from the middle ages! The longbow men would stick their 2 fingers up at the French, taunting them because apparently if the French caught one, they would cut off the fingers they used to draw the bow! It was a gesture letting the frogs know that they still had their fingers to draw their bows! Don't know if it's true, but heard it years ago!

It was English law that every man had to practice the longbow from an early age . The eagle heraldry was used with Carolingian noblemen not just the Romans!

Every French knights gangsta til England Archers start using Multishot enchanted bows

Lol pause at 1:12 and you see all the background archers have one dude's face pasted on

Back when England behaved like China today....

Where's the padding beneath those coifs? 1/50 inaccuracies probably.

I read somewhere that skeletons of English Archers dug up showed they were deformed because of Longbow practice since early childhood. So much force was needed to shoot them, the Archers needed a LOT of strength

It wasnt called the longbow back in those days , it's was known as the War bow or English Bow

How? How can anyone - in less than 2.5 minutes - make so many glaring mistakes? I’m gobsmacked…….. even the bloke who said “…..the longbow isn’t an accurate weapon” was either edited badly or has no knowledge of the longbow. Yes accuracy was surrendered to volume in volleys, but in the right, trained over years hands, it was - and still is - an accurate tool. Poor show. Poor show indeed….

632 French Knights disliked this video

Ahhh the usual smithsonian antics..... it’s 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿THE ENGLISH LONGBOW🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿.

The "french" knights waving the holy roman empire banner without even wearing helmets. Difficult to be less accurate