Subject:
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Re: Peasants and armies
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.castle
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Date:
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Thu, 16 Mar 2000 04:29:33 GMT
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Viewed:
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1541 times
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James Brown wrote:
> Archers were only more common because any old peasant can shoot a bow. (and
> make a bow, and own a bow...)
Well...I disagree with "any old peasant can shoot a bow". The rest is pretty
accurate, but as for the first, well, there's an old English saying: "If you
want to train an archer, start with his grandfather." During some periods in
English history, men were *required* to own and practice with bows at least
once a week.
Shooting a longbow well required lots of practice. (There's a reason guns
replaced them, despite being more complex, more fragile and susceptible to
weather, more expensive, slower...it's because they're so *easy* to use...)
Another fun fact: the (partial) wreck of the HMS Mary Rose, a ship
commissioned
by King Henry VIII of England, was found off the coast of England. I had the
opportunity to see it when I was in Portsmouth. The reason I bring this up is
because buried in the silt that preserved half of the ship, the archeologists
found several yew bowstaves encased in wax that preserved them. It took several
men to get one strung and none of them could draw it.
Several skeletons were also found in the wreckage. The researchers were able
to determine which men were archers, because the bones of their forearm and
their spine were actually noticably warped from the muscles it took to draw
their bows!
J
--
sakura@mediaone.net is Jeff Johnston http://www.io.com/~jeffj
My LEGO Web page has moved! Go to: http://people.ne.mediaone.net/sakura
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Peasants and armies
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| (...) That's cool... let me add my fact: I'm taking archery in Phys Ed right now. It hurts. 'Nuff said. <grin> I've been pitying those archers'o'mine... that's why I only made four... (j/k) -Shiri (25 years ago, 16-Mar-00, to lugnet.castle)
| | | Re: Peasants and armies
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| (...) Very true. In fact, Yew trees were planted on Church grounds so that the villagers always had the wood required to create longbows if they were called upon to defend the land. (...) Another fun fact: these weapons are the one of the few types (...) (25 years ago, 16-Mar-00, to lugnet.castle)
| | | Re: Peasants and armies
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| (...) Oh well, if you want them to shoot *well*, then yeah. :) But battle archery was very different from target archery. In battle archery, there was no aiming, there is 'point in the air' and shoot. The only real reason combat archery was (...) (25 years ago, 16-Mar-00, to lugnet.castle)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Peasants and armies
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| (...) Heh... we've all got this problem. (...) Well, the "proper" height of a claymore is "from the ground to the chin", including hilt, so the sliver swords are a teeny bit long for minifigs, but then again, compared to the wrenches and oilcans (...) (25 years ago, 15-Mar-00, to lugnet.castle)
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