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Long Bow Accuracy

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WillS:
Good point!

I dunno enough about the details of medieval warfare to know, so I can only assume stuff, but I don't think they'd be marching expecting ambush etc.  I think on the scale of the England/France campaign it was primarily pitched battles? 

Del the cat:
Indeed I agree they appear to be primarily set piece battles, but there would doubtless be the odd squirmish (as Sarah Palin would say ;) ) e.g advance parties sent ahead to check fords, villages, progress of those dastardly English etc. Dunno if the French went in for hit and run tactics, I have read that we did... maybe they were too much into their knights and chivalry. If I'd been them I have used the crossbows more wisely.
Del

DC:
Maybe the bows that were packed away were spares. Any that were on deck or in use would have floated away when the ship sank.

PatM:
That's what I think.

WillS:
Interesting idea, although the reason so many items and artefacts were found on the ship, and the reason almost the entire crew died, is because there was netting covering the entire deck.  It was designed to stop attackers boarding the ship, but sadly ended up causing all the casualties.  That's why everything stayed on the ship, despite it sinking - they couldn't float away.

I think it's important to remember that the Mary Rose was sailing out into open conflict.  It wasn't going to be landing anywhere, until it was victorious and returned home, or sank.  It sank partly because it had too many men onboard in the first place.  Weapons and equipment would have been kept to the bare minimum they needed - why carry heavy solid wooden boxes of expensive weaponry and ammunition if it wasn't going to be used in that particular attack?  Doesn't make any sense.  As far as I'm concerned everything on that ship was there to be used. 

We still don't quite know how the bows were issued to archers, but I firmly believe in the theory that the reoccurring "bowyers" marks you can see on most of the MR bows actually relate somehow to the class or draw weight of the bow.  It's very simple to open a crate of warbows, find one that matches your draw weight, and take it out to use it.  Otherwise we have to expect that each individual archer went on board with their own bow (which doesn't compute, because a huge amount of the bows have identical marks, so why would so many archers be carrying individual bows that share the same markings?) and spend their time below decks trying to manoeuvre a 7ft warbow despite not being able to fully stand up themselves. 

IMO it's far more likely that archers on the Mary Rose and (as is the point of this discussion) during the HYW campaigns would simply open a case of government issued bows, find one that suited him and use it.  Just like the arrows.

I'm basing ALL of that on personal opinion, not historical evidence ('cos we don't have any!) I just think it makes more sense.  To me, anyway.

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