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other than its historical application, what is an English war bow?

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WillS:
ELB is more an American term for sporting longbows with a D section.  It's never really used here in the UK as we either have "longbows" or "warbows". 

Personally I don't care for all the definitions of what makes a warbow - the ones we have to copy and base them on are so varied in their weight, cross section, shape, size and tiller shapes that I just think of a "warbow" as anything made of indigenous wood that can shoot a heavy military arrow far enough and hard enough to do damage at 240 yards or so.

WillS:
As an example, if you were to make a very heavy hazel bow in the 150, 160lb range you'd more than likely end up with a reverse D section - very flat belly and rounded back.  This would never fit the "D section" classification of a "longbow/warbow" but it would be arguably acceptable as either.

stuckinthemud:
and just to be really truly picky, the Normans were Vikings, or at least of Viking descent.......as far as the ancient ancestry of the long bow is concerned, I was under the impression that long, heavy, bows were found throughout Europe, and that they most likely were developed by the native British peoples (Celtic/Romano-British and then the Welsh)- as opposed to the Anglo-Saxon arrivals?

WillS:
Look at Otzi's bow.  It's like a carbon copy of the Mary Rose bows, just inside out.  I know people insist it wasn't finished, but I think that's daft.  Either way, it was a long, damn heavy bow.  And that was from 3200 BC!

The Ballinderry bow is another almost identical bow to the MR ones, from the 10th Century in Ireland.  For as long as we can go back, people have been using whacking great bows. 

Lucasade:

--- Quote from: WillS on April 03, 2017, 01:58:24 pm ---For as long as we can go back, people have been using whacking great bows.

--- End quote ---

People being people, I would imagine that when we first came down from the trees there would be the 'I can throw this further than you' thing going on...  (=)

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