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why are histories so skewed?

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stuckinthemud:
It's no secret that I love medieval crossbows almost as much as I love archery and that I am also Welsh, so suffer from a huge conflict of interest and a  certain amount of leg-pulling.  I've been up to a major festival in which there were a small core of medieval reenacters who were keen war-bow guys, one shooting a 130lb yew war-bow.  Discussion turned to crossbows; quoth the archer, "the English did not use cross-bows unless they hired in Genoese mercenaries"  - blatantly untrue, the English used a huge number of military crossbows and not only in the Navy but with land troops and castle assault/defense.  Equally most argue that continental militias only used crossbows but in fact the majority of citizens turned out with bows as most couldn't afford crossbows.  Also, the vast majority of crossbows were wooden not composite.  So, why are our histories so skewed that even really knowledgeable historians can't get it right??

Hawkdancer:
Mostly lack of proper research, also a certain amount of bias towards a specific point of view.  This situation invades history in general, especially since the losers seldom write history >:D (lol)!  There are also many who merely accept what is said or written without question, as well.
Hawkdancer

Russ:
+1 for hawk. history is very biased and even now historians only believe what they think is true.

Del the cat:
There is a lack of critical thought.
Classic is "Arrow slits" in the walls of a castle. I'd say that almost all would be impossible to shoot out of, generally due to low ceilings and the fact that a flexing arrow would have trouble getting out. But they would protect from arrows coming in.
I won't comment much on the crossbows, but they would certainly have been used from castles probably as a snipers weapon.
Del

JW_Halverson:

--- Quote from: Del the cat on July 28, 2019, 04:14:07 pm ---There is a lack of critical thought.
Classic is "Arrow slits" in the walls of a castle. I'd say that almost all would be impossible to shoot out of, generally due to low ceilings and the fact that a flexing arrow would have trouble getting out. But they would protect from arrows coming in.
I won't comment much on the crossbows, but they would certainly have been used from castles probably as a snipers weapon.
Del

--- End quote ---

Just saw this last night on a series called "Timeline". They argued the different merits and drawbacks of both longbow and crossbow.  In a besieged castle the crossbowman has the luxury of taking time to span his machine and the bolts/quarrels don't wigglewaggle like a clothyard shaft. So the slits worked great to limit shots coming in, allowing sniping at anyone approaching the wall.

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