Customer Reviews

The Crooked Stick: A History of the Longbow (Weapons in History)

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The longbow, a pivotal technical development by mankind, had influenced the survival of humankind, as well as the outcome of battles from the earliest days of the medieval period, well into the period of Tudor monarchy till the opening of the 17th century. The longbow still the weapon of the people, required by statute law to own and use a bow with regularity, the skill of the Tudor yeoman archer firmly positioned in history, so feared that at one time they were compared to Attila's Huns (the Hunnish referring to the English and Welsh archers).

Hugh D.H. Soar's latest book, "The Crooked Stick" is a comprehensive study and presentation of the amazing history of the traditional longbow. Presenting evidence of the use of archery from Neolithic rock paintings from Cueva de la Arana, Valencia, Spain, of our forebears hunting game to the application of the bow in warfare described in an account of the battle of Crecy, August 26, 1346 in the chronicles, "Chroniques" by Jean Froissart, to its continued evolution and staying power as recreational archery, promoted by notables such as King Henry VIII, the archer king, shooting with the longbow at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520 to the creation of archery societies and guilds such as the Society of Finsbury Archers to modern associations active in many countries around the world. The expanse of the book included details on a concoction used to fabricate fire arrows based on an extensive recipe that included exotic materials such as Armeniac, an earthy material from Armenia, and bay salt from the Bay of Biscay. This and numerous other historic gems are invaluable in one developing an appreciation for archery.

His writing style is personable, humerous in places, and even a little irreverent at times, combined with his intimate knowledge of the longbow in-depth study, along with extensive notes and references makes this publication required reading for any archer interested in learning more about the context, its place in history and evolution of the longbow.

David M. Cvet
Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts

A comprehensive survey of the history of the longbow, it is laced with fine quotations, excellent sources, and wonderful insights from the author's own experience as not only an archer, but a bowyer and fletcher as well. With a pleasant, conversational writing style, he covers everything from the earliest beginnings of the longbow as a hunting weapon through the rise of the artillery, or war, bow to the present status of the longbow as a sporting and recreational weapon.

The main strength of this book is its completeness. Many books claim to be a history of the longbow, but in truth are a history of the great war bow that decided the outcome on the battlefields of Crecy and Agincourt. Rarely are the origins of the longbow and the post middle ages longbow ever considered in detail. Mr Soar doesn't make that mistake. This is probably the most complete survey of the subject you will find today.

If you know nothing about the English longbow besides what you have seen on tv or in the movies reading this book will tell you everything you want to know, and far more. If you are someone who has read every book ever written on the subject read this book also, because you will learn something you didn't know.

Hugh Soar's The Crooked Stick provides the exact information that military historians and historians of technology need. His knowledge is broad, his sources detailed, and his writing style is engaging. Too many persons who profess an interest in military history desire just the "blood and guts," but what makes Soar's book unique and essential is that he puts this important weapon--it dominated battlefields for an extraordinary two centuries--into full context. There are many accounts of battles where the longbow was deployed--including Soar's excellent "Of Bowmen and Battles"--but what I think makes The Crooked Stick one of the most important books on a weapon published in recent times is that he fully explores its origin, its physical details and construction (surprisingly, there are no extant medieval bows, so Soar's extensive knowledge is particularly appreciated here), its use on the battlefield, its demise, and its surprising legacy. The book is full of great close-in shots of antique longbows and other bow ephemera. The appendix that discusses the medieval arrowhead is also very good. There is, like all good history books, parts and passages that might not be exactly what you want for your specific interest--there are chapters on what happened to the medieval longbow and how its characteristics were luckily preserved through recreational archery--but if you want the best resource on the longbow, this is it.

A good, easy to read history of the longbow without getting bogged down in details.Some of the English terms could use a little explaining to us Americans

I read this book for a graduate course in medieval history.
Hugh Soar is a great historian of the longbow. "The Crooked Stick: A History of the Longbow," is a great comprehensive work for the history of this medieval weapon of mass destruction. In his book, Featherstone has meticulously researched the history of the longbow, from ancient history through its greatest impact in warfare during the Hundred Years' War; specifically, the battles of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt.

Soar turns his attention to the more detailed study of the longbow's genesis and development in Britain. It is definitively impossible to know when the longbow first came into existence in Britain. However, history does record several historical periods when we know that the longbow, or a weapon similar to it, was used and introduced by invaders of the British Isles. There is evidence that shows that the Germanic longbow made its way into Britain with the invasion of the Saxons in the fifth century. Viking law, from mid-tenth century, required that while aboard ship, fighting men must be equipped with bows and arrows as an addition to their other usual weapons that they employed in their raiding parties. One can still read Viking Sagas of the era extolling the use of bows and arrows as weapons. In 1055, Welsh bowmen while firing from hidden positions on mountain ridges, cut down the Earl of Hereford's Saxon cavalry with devastating effect. This action would be a great lesson lost on King Harold eleven years later, in his defeat at the battle of Hastings. King Harold did have some longbow men in the battle, if one takes the Bayeux Tapestry to be a true pictorial history of the Norman Conquest. Unfortunately, for the Anglo-Saxon army of King Harold, he had to travel very quickly over 250 miles south to engage the invading Normans, which prevented him from taking many archers on foot. In fact, the Bayeux Tapestry is famous for its depiction of King Harold being fatally shot in the eye by a Norman arrow, and thus, changing the course of British history forever.

It is during the fourteenth century in Britain that the longbow gains its reputation as a force multiplier in battle. In military terminology, a force multiplier denotes a factor, in this case, the longbow providing a technological factor, dramatically increasing the combat capability of a military force. In keeping with the theme of our course in comparing fourteenth century events to modern times, one can easily equate the importance of the longbow to fourteenth century warfare in the same way that one can compare the importance that the machine gun had on early twentieth century warfare-specifically during World War I. The longbow provided the English armies of Edward I, through the end of the Hundred Years' War, a distinct and singular advantage over the French armies and their cavalry forces.

Despite all of the early history of the longbow in Britain, it is Edward I who is the real progenitor of the longbow, as used in battle. Edward I keenly learned the tactics and logistics that were necessary to employ with great success the longbow on the battlefields of Wales and Scotland. He realized that the longbow was less expensive and awkward to use in battle then the crossbow, and with a moderate amount of practice, his Welsh bowmen could shoot more arrows in a given time then cross bowmen could. He worked hard at building a national army. In 1298, at the battle of Falkirk, most of his longbow men were Welsh. By 1346, most longbow men were English. They were well trained, well paid, and could be counted by the thousands. Longbow men where deemed so important to the army that they were given pardons for all types of offenses, including murder, in order to go off to France to fight. Their pay was comparable to that of master craftsmen. During the reign of Edward II, English military prowess was in decline. Although Edward II continued many of the recruiting and logistical policies of his father, his tactical decisions, and those of his commanders, were sorely lacking. He suffered an embarrassing defeat at the battle of Bannockburn at the hands of Robert the Bruce of Scotland. However, the lessons his son, Edward III, learned from that defeat put the British army in good stead for fighting in the Hundred Years' War. Those lessons, learned and used in such future battles as Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, were insuring good organization before battle and good discipline of soldiers during the fight. In addition, cavalry without longbow support was useless against enemy spearmen. Conversely, longbow men who were isolated on the battlefield without support, would easily fall prey to enemy cavalry attack.

Crécy is emblematic of the successes that the British enjoyed at the battles of Poitiers and Agincourt. It was the sight of the first major battle of The Hundred Years' War and was a rousing success for the invading British army of Edward III and his sixteen-year-old son, Edward, also known as the Black Prince. Edward III had 12,000 men arrayed against a French force of between 30,000 to 40,000 combatants. Although heavily outnumbered, Edward's longbow men were the force multiplier that garnered a stunning victory for the British over the French. The record shows that the English longbow men were capable of firing ten arrows in a minute. Most estimates of the longbow tactics used in the battle, state that the over one-half million arrows fired by the British, easily cut down the French armored cavalry. The longbow, and the brilliant way in which it was employed, were responsible for the lopsided casualty figures of the battle. Although casualty figures are somewhat unreliable, most sources put the French losses at one-third of the French nobility-about 12,000 men in all, against the British losses of 150 to 1,000 total. In the battle, longbow men comprised anywhere from between five to one, upwards to three to one, of the English invading force. Soar states in his book, "They were some of the finest, most highly trained and militarily efficient troops that any nation ever put into the field of battle." So, why did the French when seeing the efficient destructive power of the longbow, not learn from the advantage it could afford them and emulate the English? Soar postulates a few reasons, such as, the French culture of class snobbery made it difficult for the nobles to accept peasants as equals on the battlefield. In addition, cavalry and chivalry were too hard for French nobles to give up. Another reason was that the French King did not have the power to field a national army in the same way that his English counterparts did. French kings had to rely on their nobles and Italian mercenaries to prosecute their wars during this time; thus, they could not enforce regular training regimens, nor standardized battlefield logistics and tactics. In fact, the longbow reigned supreme on the battlefield until the mid-sixteenth century. By this time, other technologies such as better-tempered armor, cannon, and musketry, overtook the effectiveness of the longbow.

In conclusion, I highly recommend Soar's book to any serious student of medieval history. "The Crooked Stick: A History of the Longbow," is an excellent introductory work for understanding the significance that the weapon had during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It is well written and appointed with plenty of illustrations. The book is a very enjoyable read for anyone with even a casual interest in the longbow or the Hundred Years' War.

Recommended reading for those interested in medieval history, and military history.

I have just finished reading "The Crooked Stick" and have found it an interesting if pedantic history of the great English long bow (the deadliest military weapon of its day) and the general field of archery since that time. I now know more about archery than I ever did but was left wanting more. I would like to see a greatly expanded glossary and index. Soar seems to be writing to the archery crowd who are already familiar with arcane archery terms, but the general reader is left in a bit of a fog.

This is a very excellent book on the subject out done only by his subsequent book on the English War Bow. He is a most knowledgeable! Both of his books are MUST haves!

In The Crooked Stick, Hugh Soar provides historically sound and wonderfully entertaining information about diverse aspects of the history of the longbow. Though he gives appropriate attention to the much-studied use of the longbow in the Hundred Years War, Soar begins his book with fascinating chapters about the early development of the bow and the place of the bow in the elaborate ritual of medieval hunting. After continuing through an excellent discussion of the English war bow, Soar moves on to the less familiar ground of the development of recreational and social archery in England, including the rise of the archery societies in the Victorian period.

Throughout the book Soar maintains a pleasant, somewhat conversational style. The reader can easily imagine that he is listening to Mr. Soar as he gives a talk to one of the longbow societies in which he is well known. The combination of this agreeable tone with the well selected historical information makes for a thoroughly pleasurable and rewarding read. The Crooked Stick should be read by anyone with even a casual interest in the longbow, and should be added to the library of anyone with a deeper interest.

Great book by Mr. Soar. It left me wanting to read more. Very knowledgeable author and tons of information on the History of the famous and feared English weapon.

In its day, the longbow changed history. Strong English arms and yew longbows slaughtered the flower of armored, mounted chivalry. Now relegated to hunting game and target shooting, the longbow nonetheless offers endless enjoyment to those who would, as the author says, "enjoy its unending tussle with simple stick and string."

I shoot bare stickbows, and enjoy target archery for itself, so I like the author's standpoint that you don't have to be "dedicated to forcing personal excellence through the medium of ever more sophisticated technical advance." Okay, I have to go down the ravine once in a while to fetch an arrow that overshot the backdrop, but to me, that's more fun than clickers, sights, and shock absorbers.

Soar (a great name for an archer!) writes with authority, wit, and charm, as in the sentence where he says one particular archer "avoided" the target. A tactful man! I enjoyed reading this book immensely, and I think that all archers, especially stickbow archers, will enjoy this too.