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what lbs makes it a warbow insted of a longbow

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bow-toxo:

--- Quote from: alanesq on May 20, 2009, 04:58:14 pm ---I think the term "warbow" comes from or at least was made popular by Robert Hardy's book "The Great Warbow"

I don't think lighter bows should be ignored but I think we need to distinguish between them and the bows which would have been used for war as they are very different and I think even now some people believe that the 40lb bow they have is a replica of the bows used at Agincourt  (although things have improved a lot in this respect even in the 3 years I have been interested in archery)


--- End quote ---

    My impression has been that the 'livery' [issued by the crown or lord] such as the MR longbows differed from other longbows in that they were stronger and longer versions, and were otherwise the same, arrow length etc.. If you know of other differences, I would appreciaate the information. If I am right, considering the "warbow"as a separate beast leaves out mediaeval and Tudor information about longbows and leaves us with very little information about "warbows' which were not mentioned by that title. Of course a 40 lb bow would not have been used at Agincourt, it would have been used to teach archery to a child.

alanesq:
Honestly; I think there are a lot of people who really believe their 40lb target longbow is apart from not being a self bow just like the bows used at Agincourt
seeing some of the re enactments done and t.v. programs you can understand why - how often do we see a T.V. program talking of "the mighty longbows of Agincourt" then see someone twang a little butt bow as a demonstration

As I say, even in the last 3 years there has been a big change in this and the idea of shooting a very heavy bow is starting to be accepted as maybe not that insane after all

so its not been so much a matter of ignoring lighter longbows as trying to get people to accept the idea that heavy ones existed at all!

backgardenbowyer:
I think bow-toxo is right about the meaning of "livery" - it normally refers to uniform issued to a servant or retainer. When applied to a bow it would simply mean "standard/government issue".  I doubt if this implied a particular style of bow, probably it just meant one that was issued from store rather than something bespoke for the individual archer.

Yeomanbowman:
That's right.  An issued bow would have been for war and not for recreation/hunting so any livery bow was a 'warbow'.  There must have been personal bows used for war that were, obviously, not livery bows.  During the medieval/Tudor period in England there simply was not the plethora of bows we have now so everyone largely knew what a bow was simply by that term.

bow-toxo:

--- Quote from: Yeomanbowman on May 22, 2009, 05:34:57 am ---That's right.  An issued bow would have been for war and not for recreation/hunting so any livery bow was a 'warbow'.  There must have been personal bows used for war that were, obviously, not livery bows.  During the medieval/Tudor period in England there simply was not the plethora of bows we have now so everyone largely knew what a bow was simply by that term.

--- End quote ---

Before the Hundred Years War in the feudal system. levys could be used only in homeland defense and only for a limited time while foreign mercenaries were used in foreign wars . In that period , personal bows may have been used in the levys. Edward III changed the system to one of locally recruited and paid archers, so at the beginning of the Hundred Years War the crown began to order [livery] bows and arrows to be made in huge numbers for the war. Any personal bows used in war after that time must have been few in niumber. Bow terminology at that time included "crossbow", "hand bow", "long bow"[two words}, "livery bow" and "small bow". No mention of "warbow" that I can find. 

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