Short update and a brief look at 15th century English Bowmen news - Dell'Arte Della Guerra (DADG) mod for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

Hello again, and welcome back to yet another blog for Dell’Arte Della Guerra. We have been quite quiet on this front for the past few months, but that does not mean that we haven’t been making progress and many of you have probably seen the many new scenes that our talented 3d artists have made. Unfortunately we will still not be able to provide you with any ETA, and as much as we know you’d love to play the mod we also want to ensure that we will provide an unforgettable experience.

Let us however have a brief overlook of what is probably the most famous aspect of medieval English warfare - the famous english longbowman, and a bit of the history behind them.

England was of course not unique in fielding bowmen in the medieval period. So why is it that the English ones are especially notable? The answer can be explained with two main things. The first of these are the sheer amount of bowmen that England fielded on occasion. The idea of massed bowmen as a central part of the English army was inspired by the Welsh and took hold in the 14th century. In the mid-14th century royal decrees were ordered that each freeman should practice with the bow on sundays, a tradition which kept up for the next 200 years. While not everyone followed this law enough did for England to train up a force of bowmen which exceeded that of other contemporary Western European powers, and could be called upon when it was needed. This also meant that there arose a huge industrial focus on making bows and arrows, as thousands of bows and tens or even hundreds of thousands of arrows could be needed for a campaign. This was very costly and time-consuming and without the reorganization of the economy to support this way of warfare it would not have been sustainable.

The other factor is that the English way of fielding their bowmen during the Hundred Years War was rather unique, because they were backed up by dismounted men-at-arms (men-at-arms in this case referring to armoured horsemen, the battlefield role which knights would be a part of). The ratios of bowmen to men-at-arms started off pretty even, but bowmen became more and more prevalent up to the point where the ratio at agincourt is estimated to have been four archers per man-at-arms.

These two factors make the English bowmen far more notable to their continental counterparts. Moreover the English bowmen were not just a ranged unit. They were trained in melee as well, often carrying swords and bucklers or other sidearms alongside them, getting into the thick of it when needed. Sometimes there’s mentions of them carrying larger two-handed weapons as well, which they presumably dropped on the ground while shooting and picked up when they needed to fight in melee. Mentions of these are often lead mauls, though sometimes also other polearms.

By the time of the Wars of the Roses however, things had changed. The earlier way of fighting as was seen in the Hundred Years War had been revamped and the large numbers of longbowmen backed up by dismounted men-at-arms had given way to more continental tactics of mounted men-at-arms and dedicated infantry. While the English longbowmen are still a force to be reckoned with, we don’t see them fielded in quite as many numbers as earlier on in the century.

In terms of armour and equipment, the archers do not differ much from the infantry. Textile jacks are a very popular form of armour for the less well equipped, even as with the infantry there are always people who show up without any armour at all. Brigandines are also a popular pick for the more well-off soldiers, as the flexibility of these around the shoulder area lends itself well to archery. The well-off archers of a retinue could be armoured very heavily with plate arm and leg harnesses as long as these were designed in a manner not to impede shooting. Breastplates and cuirasses might’ve been worn by some and you will see this in the mod as well, but they are not quite as comfortable for archery and thus will be very limited in number compared to brigandines. Besides this each archer carries a sword and a buckler, or an axe or mallet.

We hope you enjoyed reading this brief historical overlook of the English archers. As always if you have something to point out, such as inaccuracies or missed details feel free to comment on these, though we would prefer if any claims made about historical accuracy have reputable sources to back them up.

Until next time, take care and we wish you all well! - the DADG Team