Shooting AT THE MARKS - teach yourself medieval military longbow archery 

The arrow vs armour debate has led me to several letters that were discovered in France during the 1960’s and added to the Battle of Formigny journal but were never translated into English as far as I am aware. One is from the King himself, Charles VII, and reveals what I have suspected for sometime and all the Froissart illuminations tell us...archers aimed at the feet and legs and there is no historical basis for the 45 degree “arrow storm” and the only eye witness account who actually took part in the battle was wounded and disabled in the knee. CLOUT SHOOTING. In L’art de archerie (1515) first published as L’art de guerre, Chapter nine lays out a military training method “shooting under the screen” which actually describes clout shooting of which the origins the English seem to have lost and turned into a bit of sport while on the way to church. Each Clout association seems to have a different interpretation of the sports origins but none mention the very effective war tactic that it was. The word clout has several meanings taken from old German/Norse but the archery/boot clout comes from the French “clou a tete plat” a flat head nail used for clogs and boots to extend their sole life later to become a hobnail,. Clout is still used in Lancashire I believe. When heavy cavalry abandoned the mounted charge against archers around the 1350’s because archers targeted the horses they also abandoned their steel sabatons and wore thick leather boots. After walking through knee high grass and/or mud sabatons particularly those with lames, clogged with drying mud or trailing clumps of grass, become painful to wear so the boxers maxim, his best friend is his feet, would equally apply to a man at arms in the melee. The ‘English system’ established by the English armies in the 1330s and used throughout the Hundred Years War, in which the men-at-arms fought dismounted alongside the infantry bowmen, is well discussed in the literature of the military history of the period. in 1327, for Edward III’s campaign against the Scots, the English cavalry in an early warning order were instructed to “come prepared to fight on foot” which would involve a Pavis, good boots and and a half lance. Shooting arrows at shielded and plated men advancing at 40 metres a minute hoping for lucky shots was never an option as the throat to knee shields (Pavis) according to the Tower of London inventories 1320-1410 were either made of steel or were steel clad and not the leather/linen shield sometimes seen on the internet or at re-enactments and in recent tests on Utube penetrating armour at close range with a overpowered bow was very difficult, always forgeting that the enemy had shields of course.. This is the interesting part of the Kings letter in old French with an English translation of the critical part below. Lettre de Charles VIl à « ceulz de Paris ». Alençon, 18 aril [1450.] C'est la copie des lettres que le Roy escript de la bataille derrier escripte a ceulx de Paris. Tres chiers et bien amés. Nous avons presentemant receu lettres de beaux cousins le conte de Clarmont et le connestable par lesquelles avons sceu que eulx, beau cosin le conte de Castres, le mareschal de Loheac, l'admiral 1, le seneschal de Poitou et aultres de nous gens avec aucuno partie de nostre armee ont mercredi, environt huit heures de matin, ainsi que nous amciens ennemis les Anglois qui estoient de .v. a .vI. M. combatans cuidoient tirer du clouz de Coustantin a Bayeux et a Cain, rencontré nosdits ennemis et furent en bataille les ungs devant les aultres par l'espace de deux a trois heures. Et combien que nousdits ennemis se feussent fortifiez. de pieux et de fossez, nosdits gens les assaillirent d'ung costé et d'aultre et combatirent tellement que, graces Nostre Seigneur, nosdits ennemis furent desconffiz et sont demourés mors sur les chap / “,........ the Admiral 1, the seneschal of Poitou and others of us people with no part of our army have Wednesday, about eight o'clock in the morning, as well as us old enemies the English who were from .v. a .vi. M. archers would like to shoot the nails (clous) of Coustantin at Bayeux and at Caen, met our said enemies and were in battle the (ungs?) in front of the others by the space of two to three hours. And how much that we said enemies would have fortified themselves. stakes and ditches, our said people the attacked from one side and the other and fought so hard that, thanks Our Lord, our said enemies were discomfited and died on the battlefield...........” Coustantin is old French for Constantine the Roman emperor who Christianised the Roman empire and according to legend he had in his possession the three crucifixion nails. The longest, which was presumed to have pierced the feet of Christ, was incorporated into his crown/helmet which was believed to give him special powers. English war arrows being called “Constantine’s nails” is very compelling evidence as to where they were aimed. Charles VII was a soldier king who transformed the French feudal system into Europes first professional standing army which dominated Europe for the next 200 years and would have been quite comfortable using military terms and jargon. Nailing the shoe, clouting the shoe, cloutage le sabot or shooting nails what ever the term when an 80g arrow travelling at 120fps went through your your foot and 20 cm into the soil you were nailed. In a sense history repeated itself in France 1940 when the under gunned British tanks found their small shells ineffective against german armour except for the odd lucky shot and were ordered to aim at the vulnerable tracks which like the human knee, ankle and foot had many small but vital parts and were not well protected. Another indication is the famous Crecy illumination from the Froissart chronicles. The illumination is a montage of several facets of the battle and should be viewed as individual stories rather than an overview. Although it was painted several years after the event it is apparent the painter is under instruction from from a military man who probably was not at the battle but related what he knew of other battles. The artist was told that the English archers spaced their arrows in the ground in front of them, he has painted them spaced ON the ground. All the archers are aiming down at the feet, this is a recurring feature on all medieval battle paintings of the time unless there is a castle in the background, the Genoese crossbowmen all have arrows in their legs which is ironical as unusually this battle began with a long range exchange of arrows at about one hundred and fifty yards with both the crossbowmen and long bowmen unarmoured and in the case of the Genoese shieldless as their pavis’s had been lost in the French baggage train. The bowman in the foreground is intriguing as he is shooting “enfilade” which maximises his hits on the legs, leg armour is at it’s thinnest and widest on the sides and makes the target vulnerable to “ankle tapping”. In a battle situation the archer captains would be shouting fire control orders to their companies as the two sides would not be exactly parallel with different distances along the line. At about 25 yards apart the bowmen would shoot 30 degrees to the right (enfilade) into the unshielded side of the bodies. Now they would use their ground spaced arrows by sliding the bow down the shaft onto the nock straightening, drawing loosing in one movement, then repeat. Ten arrows in 30 seconds then retire behind the Men at arms and look for targets of opportunity. An advancing knight laden with over 45 Kgs of armour and equipment, like all of us walking, is balanced on one leg 48% of the time and is vulnerable to being tripped. This of course is conjecture as there is no evidence of minor tactics of the time or an eyewitness account of the battle but it is more than likely it is was a low level arrow storm shooting under the shield disabling tripping and upsetting armoured men in the slippery mud that was responsible for the disproportionately large number of prisoners at the beginning of Azincourt. It is interesting to see tribal memory at work in that clout associations shoot at the clout flag that was once a piece of cloth on a stick but not knowing why. The cloths on sticks were ranging marks which would have been paced out from the front line in probable increments of 50 paces (35 yards) with each archer company responsible for their frontage. Ranging marks have been used by British (and French) infantry from this time until right up to the Boer war and unusually this little bit of military minutiae, which usually goes unrecorded, was shown in the film Zulu Dawn. So far from being a quaint slightly eccentric form of archery that developed by bored bowmen going to church clouting the shoe/cloutage le sabot was the raison d’etre of the bowmans very existence. .....or so a long dead French king told us. BIBLIOGRAPH Tower of London inventories 1320-1410 etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3919/1/Thom_Richardson_thesis_final.pdf Nouveaux documents sur la bataille de Formigny. In: Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes. 1966, tome 124, livraison 1. pp. 273-280; doi : doi.org/10.3406/bec.1966.449719 www.persee.fr/doc/bec_0373-6237_1966_num_124_1_449719 L’Art de Archery 1515 / Gallice www.archerylibrary.com/books/gallice/

good info. have fun. thank yew

Imagine training every week for 10+ years just to be told to shoot in the clouds.

Might give this style a go this weekend, seems like fun 😅

Great song too 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

🏹

What would You recommend as the minimum draw weight for shooting at the marks?

How do you develop the strength for the heavier bows? If I may ask. 👍

In America we shoot Styrofoam animals. Sometimes you have to hike stage to stage.

In the UK this is usually called 'Clout Shooting'.

Do you accept french archers ? uh uh !!

This video would be way cooler if you were English. Just saying, lol