Having been in the infantry and known what it's like to live out of ones pack in the field, to me this is really fascinating. I know exactly how much thought each infantryman puts into his kit and seeing someone's equipment from the distant past really brings that person to life for me. Excellent presentation
Excellent Kevin, the things an Archer (soldier) carried. I too carried my little things in my butt pack (vietnam era) some coffee, some cocoa, some extra pieces of cardboard, and some soap and a razor for my face and a washcloth. In those days, pre kevlar, we washed our face in our helmet, before day light, shaved in the dark, and by day light were in chow line, getting our grub. In some ways all Armies alike, despite the centuries. God Bless you Kevin!
Gear has changed so much, that I don't even recognize sailor's uniforms anymore. I don't think they have butt packs anymore either. I think they use an M4 as the main rifle now.
I heard the a marine in WW2 cook, shaved and went to the bathroom in His M2 helmet, but cleaned it after every use. Mr. Hicks you are respected in my home for all your service, plus grandma thinks you're a bit funny too.
@@mwillblade A couple of years after I retired there was a nearby recruiting office... Those guys who years ago loved to see you have little time for us old salts. We might scare the troops. I was ex Airborne and he said, yeah yeah yeah... back when they had wooden parachutes. Got the message...now I am never going back... We old ones are just too hideous!!!
Dear Mr. Hicks Ive been with my Parents to Warwick Castle nearly 20 Years ago - and i remember quite dulm that there was an archer - and i was absolutely fascinated and started becoming interested in english and medieval history - anf now after all these years !! Im a grown man and find you again on youtube 🤩😍😍 its AMAZING !! KEEP UPNTHE GOOD WORK !!! Greetings from austria !
Hi Kevin, another informative vid. Your comments on your bow and arrows, especially the bow becoming firewood when broken, it took me awhile to not become emotionally attached to my arrows. At the start of my time with bow and arrow I would lose the odd one in the undergrowth and as I got better at hitting the target and trying for smaller and smaller groups I started breaking them. Cheers young man and keep them videos coming. My bow nowhere near as long as yours, mine 68” recurve take down.Peter R.
I remember seeing some vids of Kev demonstrating the poleaxe and falchion during the War of the Roses period a while back and how great they were in their authenticity. I happened on the channel randomly and have been hooked since. Excellent stuff.
Greetings once again from nova Scotia, thanks for another great film, I very much enjoyed your insight into the day to day life of a medieval archers, arguably the the backbone of any kind of fighting force from the start, or at least since we graduated from throwing stones....I really enjoyed this video, and I look forward to the next chapter in the story, I love your passion for history, and the ability to teach about it, you are a BORN teacher. Thanks again and as always best regards, Arthur
I read where a good bowman was well taken care of and trained continually from a young age for official duty.They interned many bodies where they found the right thumb and forfinger bones on the hands of these cadavers greatly enlarged due to so much use while using the bow!There was a curse old woman would throw at bowman by shaking their bow fingers(3 fingers) at the assaulting army when attacking the walls.It signified that they hoped the bowman would have his bow fingers cut off,. I think they would cut the fingers or hand of a good archer off if captured during a campaign Sir Kevin!
I always find this sort of stuff interesting.. My family tree goes back to archers and others in both Japan and Germany.. Same with North America and Ireland. Very mixed basically. I know some people frown on that a bit but I would not have it any other way. Related to a lot of interesting people.. I think my interest in archery started when I was around.. 13 or 14? Found out I had natural talent the first time I used one. Thank you for this bit of a sort of history lesson. A lot of it is really just logical thinking of what one would have for the time. Minus the dagger a lot I know would also carry.. Since for most archers in different places of the world... During a battle/war.. Most archers where given the task to deliver the death knell for fallen soldiers on the battlefield once it was over.. Grim task but it ended the suffering of those who at said time could not be saved.. If it was not for that grim task, these people would suffer greatly before they eventually would die.. Better quicker than dragged out.
Wouldn't you also have a waterproof cape (with a hood if possible) for those lovely summer days in England ??? Also spare shoes or boots. Love these fascinating historical (and realistic) videos; keep it up.
Wonderful video! If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get the lovely shooting glove from? I’m looking for a more historically shooting glove but can’t find a decent one anywhere! All I can find use velcro to tighten but yours looks to use a buckle.
@@thehistorysquad one more question if that’s ok! I’ve been looking at buying a decent archers pick, similar to the lovely one you’ve shown in other videos! However, it seems impossible to find one online. As you say yours was a gift, but do you know where from? If not, where would you recommend getting one? The closest I can find is an excellent bollock dagger by Tod Cutler but it’s not quite the archer’s pick!
The chap who made mine I believe has long passed away but I just found this one .... www.english-longbow.co.uk/largepics/archers%20pick.html @@loganfox2386
Hey Kevin, I really love your channel. I was wondering if you knew of archers who also were boyers? Obviously they knew about operation and maintenance of the bow, but would they have known how to build one too? Or is it like today, where us knuckle-draggers in the military knew how to operate and maintain an m-16 but not how to make it? Thanks again!
The production of bows and arrows was controlled by the guild system, so the guild of fletchers, bowyers etc., so I think it unlikely that an archer would have been a bowyer, unless he was a bowyer first and foremost (although that's not to say an archer might not have made an odd bow for himself, he just wouldn't have been a "bowyer"). A soldier certainly does know his weapons though 👍🏻
Always deeply appreciate your presentations. How’d they keep the water bottles cleanish? Did they purposely have any watertight or waterproof capability from bow string bag to “poncho?” Wet wool weighs a ton. Thank you again
Hi Jon, an interesting question. One way of waterproofing, which staggered me, was rubbing wet clay into the weave and weft of your woollen clothing, leaving it to dry then brushing it out, which apparently made it virtually waterproof. There was also such thing as oil cloth and of course waxed leather. 👍🏻
@@thehistorysquad thanks as always, I built a roughly 57mm scale castle out of foam core and shirt cardboard over 40 years ago, no fairy tail type Disney build but rough and real enough, am working on taking pics of it populated when I finally get it shot would you be interested in seeing pics? Also anything on the water bottles, I forget how we cleaned canteen inners? Best and thank you so much, your work really gives flesh to these people
@@jonrettich4579 Ooh, yes please for the pictures, you can email them via a link in the about us section here on YT. What I didn't say on the video was that I spent a stupid amount of money on two make-do foam core castle towers that simply melted when I tried to paint them. I was gutted, lesson learned. Hence making my own from card. As far as I know they just swilled the water bottles out.
Great video, I have been wondering about this question. Are the fastenings of the horn drilled? I made one myself a while ago but i fitted it with leather fastenings because I was uncertainn wether or not drilling in it would distort the sound.
It's a bit blurred to be honest, and there are differing opinions on this. I call myself a bowman. Collectively they would have been called archers (e.g. a group of archers)
@@thehistorysquad would it be a 'common' bowman and a 'professional' archer? Just running things around my head. If you worked for the Crown, an archer. But a man from the land a bowman... I love to think of family names. Smith, Bowyer, Archer, Fletcher and so on. Makes me wonder how the Rimmer's got their name in modern speak...
Love your work Kevin. I run D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) fantasy roleplaying games for a small group of family and friends. I watch yours, the Modern History channel and some others to lend a little spark of "realism" to my campaigns and adventure stories. It aids with the suspension of disbelief and helps the players get a feel for the setting; of a world without all of our modern conveniences, like fridges, supermarkets, GPS and vehicular travel.
On a similar note, I've always thought that most adventurers wouldn't want the heaviest armor. When I was in Iraq we started out with flak vests but were later issued plated ballistic vests. I hated them since it was just more weight to carry. Aragon had it right - save the heavy armor for when he knew he was going into battle.
@@philhelm1318 That's always been my thought. The more shit you bring, the more shit you have to carry. Especially back in the old days, only the rich had horses or wagons.
“Grandad, what is that hanging around your neck?” “Soil from Agincourt.” “It smells.” “Hey, this soil is sacred. I’ll have you know I saved the King himself from a French knight that day!” “Really? Did you shoot him with your bow?” “No, slipped on my dung just as he went in for the kill. Fell flat on his arse so he did.” “Gross.” “Yes,” remarked the old yeoman fondly as he clutched the foul vial round his neck. “It was.”
It's interesting to see what a bow man would have carried, its not miles away from what a modern soldier would carry. Another fantastic video! Thank you Kevin and the team.
Thanks again for this interesting excursion in history! Did the troops cook given rations (like Roman Legionares ) or did they recieve their food already prepared?
I have heard that during Anglo-Saxon times each levy would bring a side of salted pork that when finished would be approximately the time he owed his lord. Approximately 90 days
@@flak88gun That implies that he had to carry forty pounds or more of meat with him. Seems a bit much. Even if lumped in with the baggage train it still wouldn't keep well, out on campaign in summer. Preserved meats were usually just eaten over winter, before people could start on the runts of the spring litters and there were enough animals around to hunt.
@@RichWoods23 those are some off the reasons I prefenced with "I've heard". Perhaps just for winter if England was in danger or at a static defense construction project like a wall or Duke. Just something to look into.
@@flak88gun The fyrd would only be raised at times of war, though, and that means summer because it's the campaigning season: in winter the roads are impassable and the cold would quickly sap everyone's strength unless they could find proper shelter at least every other night. All the fighting normally takes place in May, June and July, because it's too wet in March and April, and everyone is needed in the fields and orchards for harvest in August and September. There are are a handful of campaigns known to have taken place in September and October, where the aggressor plans to grab all the grain stores and take and then occupy a town for winter, but for that they use professional soldiers, the huscarls, not the fyrd who are just extra mouths to feed. For the same reasons construction projects stop in winter, just like they can do even today (you can't get much done when your mortar freezes).
Had these videos been around when I was a kid in school, it may very well have changed my career path. The way you tell stories from history is amazing and your passion for it is infectious. Thanks for making this channel!
Kevin, another insightful bit! A couple of quick questions: Would almost all archers have carried the same things or did it come down to wealth? Would archers perceive other archers as better or worse than themselves (skill wise) by what they carried?
Hi Smosh, from my understanding yes they would most likely have carried very similar things. However when it came to better bowmen, these were often household bowmen and would wear livery colours and carry better quality kit and equipment. So yes I think the perception would be there 👍🏻
It's a bit of both, when you break it down archers from vastly different cultures and time periods are still humans and require the same things to survive and fight effectively. So all would have carried some rations, some means of cooking them, clothing, shelter, weapons, etc. But the quality and type of things they'd take would indeed depend on status, culture, etc. For example the bottle Kevin showed here, or the differing kit displayed by various men at arms.
The kit of soldiers hasn't changed much, really. If you have to lug everything by foot for hundreds of miles, you take what is essential for survival, and that hasn't changed much since man first started fighting ;-)
Others have already pointed out that it would be very similar with some differences largely based on wealth. Besides that there's obviously a difference between the essentials such as your bowl, cutlery, clothing and whatever you carry your water in, compared to the more miscelaneous trinkets which in this example included some superstitious items and a flute among other things. Clearly the latter category would have been more personalised than the former, and Kevin showed some common examples but naturally not every archer would have brought a flute. Perhaps another person might carry a dice set or some wood to carve as entertainment instead. Still, while the form it takes would differ per soldier, you can expect nearly every soldier would have brought something for entertainment and some (potentially useless) trinkets of sentimental and/or religious value to them, as shown in this film.
During the napoleonic war, after a battle British soldiers would regularly pillage and loot the enemy dead. When it came to the enemy, rank didn't matter. A common private could loot the body of a Marshall, providing he got to him first. What I would like to know though. During the hundred years war, could a common English archer do the same to a French nobleman who had been slain. Or would he face disciplinary action or even hanging for desecrating a noblemens body?
Hi Jack, bowmen could loot, but when it came to prisoners and ransom, there was the rule of thirds. If I understand correctly a third to your master/commander, a third to the King and a third to you. So they could get quite rich on plunder but ransom was a different thing.
Honestly, that ampule of soil from Agincourt gave me an idea for a minor magical item for Dungeons and Dragons. Nice little content. I always love the smaller details that get overlooked. The little trinkets and things people would have carried, and the superstitions around them. Makes for great inspiration for fantasy settings.
I just started reading - again - Bernard Cornwells Grail-Quest Series about Archer Thomas of Hookton and I'll finish them off with Azincourt. It's great to see what personal objects an Archer carried besides the obvious, because these things are never shown in books, or at least I never came across one where they talked about it.
LOL, and interesting thing for you is that Bernard and I met on a few occasions and he actually used me as some of his research material for the Grail Quest series. I love them, they're great reads 👍🏻
@@thehistorysquad - Me too, I do love a book were the "hero" is not a knight in shining armour but a simple (or not so simple) Archer. Another series I really like is fromToby Clements the 4 part "Kingmaker" Series. And from Michael Jecks "The Vintener Trilogy".
Bernard is a master in drawing you into the Agincourt Battle action, often had to force myself to breathe when reading the Agincourt volume. Many thanks to Bernard to have brought so much joy iwith medieval history during lockdown period. Wonder whether the archers were carrying some kind of fletchtite and spare points on them to mend their arrows, oh and some dices to kill the time, which is what war mostly was/ is: dreadful waiting...
Just regarding the restringing of crossbows, that's a bit of a myth we can blame the French for. A few medieval French chroniclers, who had no idea about crossbows, got it into their heads that the Genoese failed at Crécy because they couldn't unstring their crossbows in time and the strings became wet. This then got picked up in the 19th century and has become canon. Tellingly, French and Italian authors familiar with crossbows (eg: Villani and the anonymous author of the Cronique du Normandie) make no mention of the rain effecting the crossbowmen's performance and point to a lack of equipment, ammunition and being outnumbered by more than 3:1 as the reasons for their defeat. It's not actually that difficult to destring or restring a crossbow, you just need a bastard string, which goes on the outside of the limb. You just use your spanning device to pull the bastard string back into the nut, then string/destring the crossbow and use the spanning device to ease off the tension. It might not be as quick as with a longbow, but can be done in far less than a minute. There's even a medieval illumination showing both the bastard string and the crossbow cord together: manuscriptminiatures.com/4523/7233. Otherwise, fantastic video!
Hi Hegrim, thanks for the visit and comment. Just a note, with my lightweight crossbow I can use a bastard string, but my own experience with my heavy crossbow it's just not possible. Although I imagine more experienced crossbowmen of the day would have an easier time than me.
So, whilst I'm aware that this is the internet and anyone can say anything, so I suppose my question is, why did that become the prevailing theory? was it to save face? plain old ignorance? I'm just curious as to why something so seemingly small and minute in terms of details could've snowballed into such a huge myth. (Not super familiar with them, more of an archer, but had heard it myself!)
@@thehistorysquad Good to know! I don't have any experience with windlass/cranequin crossbows and just assumed they'd be the same. In hindsight, the shorter draw length of steel crossbows might make a bastard string unusable as well.
@@Raldazzar2 It's hard to know where Jean de Venette and the author of the Grandes Chroniques heard about it happening or why they chose it as an explanation, but the reason it became so prominent is that Froissart repeated it, and Froissart was for a very long time the ultimate medieval authority for both English and French scholars. Additionally, some uncommon but very valuable works like the Chronique Normandie weren't edited and published until the late 19th century, by which time the idea had become fully entrenched. I suspect that the detail in Venette of the archers putting their strings under their caps to keep them dry also appeared to be a detail from an eyewitness or someone in the know, even though Venette and Froissart say that it made the crossbow cords tighten rather than slacken. Other authors, like Payne-Gallwey, made the assumption that crossbow strings of the time weren't waxed and lent some credence to the theory, but we now know that crossbow strings of the time were waxed, so even long term immersion in water wouldn't be a serious issue for them.
Very informative! Though i'am from the Netherlands i have always been very interested in the hundred years war. And the eighties years war that we had to go thru here in the Netherlands and that was the birth of our nation...
Awesome stuff as usual and just a whisker away from 70k subs. Watching your subs increasing each video is almost as exciting as your videos. Thanks again for educating us all
Interesting! I was just looking at a book on this very subject and comparing my gear with his and I was surprised to find that his kit was so familiar to me as a bowman. 👍🏻
I enjoyed this, Sir. If we ever meet one day, I'd like to compare notes. I am an archer, but I shoot a horsebow with the thumb. I represent your counterpart from the opposite side of the world, and we have our own stuff with us. They are quite similar to what you carry in many ways.
That would be an interesting comparison for sure did horse archers ride their mounts continuously or only in battle? I’m sure that plays a huge part in how much and what they carried
@@johnherman1174 it would depend on which horse archers you are talking about for instance Mongolian horse archers ride the horses into battle and faught from horseback shooting and harrying the enemy from a distance, but don't forget that many horse archery cultures also hunted on horseback it wasn't all about warfare, in comparison, English horse archers would ride into battle positions and then dismount to shoot, they could shoot from horseback but this was not preferable, and in England hunting on horseback was done with the spear or lance not so much with the bow, most of the differences between coaches came down to the train over which they fort and Hunted in northern Europe for instance most land was heavily wooded or arable, where as steppe tends to be, and still is vast open grasslands😎🏹🙏
@@johnherman1174 It depended on circumstances. Horse warriors in nomadic lands often also used their horses to herd cattle. The Mongol hordes went to war with livestock and whole communities on the hoof.
Hello Kevin. I read somewhere that the training began young and was constant for the bowmen to develop the necessary strength to pull back those 150lb.+ draw bows. Long-dead long-bowmen can still be recognized by the way their scapula or shoulder bones. Wow, great video, very informative.
hell of a drop off that cliff behind chepstow castle,, i remember taking my aunty up there about 10 yrs ago, she loved it... i was trying to imagine where the archers would place emselves,, it would have been a grand building back in its day & tbh it still is! it was a lovely day as i remember , just like today,, the weathers not so bad!!!
Do you know anything about Japanese history like the samurais for instance? Would be fascinating to learn about their archers and if they did anything differently or unique as opposed to us. (The English.)
What is it that’s so fascinating about medieval history. I’m not even from England but whenever I see a video like this I’m like “holy shit fuck yeh medieval archery”
Amazing work, Kevin! Just ran across your channel and your quality is top-tier. Keep teaching history like this and this generation may turn around for the better!
The custom of a person having a spoon that's theirs & nobody else's is preserved in the German euphemism for death, "to give up the spoon". It has survived in modified form in our family, not with spoons, but instead with silver napkin rings. Upon coming of age, each member of our family is assigned a napkin ring. When someone dies, it goes on the dresser to be reassigned the next time someone comes of age. The napkin rings all bear the initials of family members from generations ago.
Great video👍👍I trully enjoyed it. I was hoping to see you mention body armor, I like to read and watch anything about the medieval era, always thought mail or gambeson was the archers standrd armor, but lately I found a post on that mail in 14th century was more expensive than coats of plates which confused me little, so again I hope to see a video about infantry armor in high and late medieval era.
Hey, I saw a video. It's you. You introduced the British longbow. Today, RU-vid recommended this video to me. I found that you have your own channel. Thank God I found this channel. I like your accent. It's really cool
There’s a great series on Robin Hood from Steven A Lawhead called Hood. You might not like it as much though Kevin, because it’s about a welsh Robin. But it’s still a great read. You would be called Bran ap Brychan in welsh for Robin Hood.
I absolutely adore this channel. and I hope you take this in the right spirit, I think you would do wonders with a 'co-host' or somebody to 'play off' maybe do some Q and A bits? Also, a question if I may, Why would the bracer not be a more malleable material? I know its smallish, but still, feels like needlessly restricting potential twists and turns where layered cloth/leather would suffice ?
I find it quite interesting how a bowmans kit from so long ago is very very similar to what a slodier carries today. Though it was the humble archer that our modern soldier was modeled after.
Fantastic Kevin What kind of weight would that all be? Looks very practical and functional set of kit. I had the pleasure of walking around Agincourt back in 97 as part of a battlefields in France tour... Great present from your mate 👍
Id love to know about any sort of bushcraft element to bowmans survival, i know they ate shellfish in Henry V's campaign but what else would they eat from the land and would they have some sort of tarp for shelter and more on firelighting and stuff
Perfect! I am working on a novel where my main character, a prince, decides to tag allong with a group of scouts as they go to take a peek at a group of enemy scouts to see who they're dealing with. This will be very valuble for my work. Thanks!
Absolutely love your work, Mr. Hicks! I just found your youtube channel after seeing various clips you have done over the years. As a former soldier, I really enjoy seeing what those who came before carried and why! I also perform stage combat so it also helps to keep costumes accurate!
I wonder, if we were to introduce a rule, maybe not in reënactments of historical battles with a foreknown outcome, but in competitive larping, that what a larper has on their person is fair game for plunder. If you would mind losing something, don't bring it into war. Then there would be various artefacts in circulation around the local competitive larping community. It will give people a motive to fight hard, a sort of jeopardy, gambling if you like, & they could choose to vary the stakes for themselves by bringing items of greater or less value. Even without this rule, were I organising a larping tournament & a man on my field took something off another, I would ask him to return it, but I would rather not contact the police simply because "don't get the authorities involved, they ruin everything they touch". Oh, and it should go without saying, only in the white heat of battle; don't go around pilfering stuff in the camp, you cowards. You want to plunder, go & do some actual fighting; sing for your supper.
Cogitó, fíat regulus, vel non historicálum pugnárum cum præscító éventó réënáctamentís, at certatibus de larping, ut licitæ rapínæ sint quæ certantí corporí. Quó prívárí nólit, non fert belló miles. Tum fíant circulátióní inter commúnitátem certatuum larping locí artefacta dívorsa. Afferant ita milites sibi dépugnátum concitábulum, áleam et bravíum, scílicet, etiam mútent per optiónem sibi pignora, per bona majóris minórisve prétií ferre. Quoque sine regulá tále, órdinem dímicátiónem larping, in meó campó spoliet miles alium, reddere procem eum, quamvís nólim arcessere vigiliam quod príscé "scéptrum totum quod tangit vástat". Taceátur; in pugnæ candidó æstú sólum; fúrantor in castró núllam rem, inertés. Raptáre velint, in campum euntó et bellantó; canuntó cénátum.
It is an ethical anachronism that somebody pinched your tinderbox, furtively, in the camp, & got away with it, whereas if he were to have robbed you of it in the open, in the field, he would've most likely been severely punished. In mediæval armies, the former would've been considered a disgraceful deed utterly unworthy of a warrior, while the latter was just a normal part of war.
