Archery in Classical Warfare

[Carlton Bach]

Sean, I agree with you about the crossbow-halberdier. But where do you see a massive and important use of archery in the western world in the middle ages? I can think of Italian and German city militia with the use of crossbows in the 13th and 14th c. AD and the English with the "long"bow in the 14th and 15th c. AD. In the ancient times missiles were used in extense in defending fortified places too, so the crossbow was new but not the form of fighting. And the English were rather special, an exception, not the rule and btw only partly successful and not necessarily because of the massive use of archery (if you don't look only at the frequent victories in the Scots wars but also at the performance against the French and Swiss).

Archery formations, especially crossbowmen, were a common enough tactic earlier than the 14th century. Of course the proble is figuring out how exactly that came about (we know that it does not get mentioned much in early sources, and the Carolingian specification that every armed man of a certain rank should bring a bow and 12 arrows suggests hunting rather than serious combat archery). But sources from the crusading era already decribe infantry formations 'anchored' on crossbowmen supporting and protecting heavy cavalry.

My personal speculation (and I must say I am extremely wary of big-picture history, it is mostly done by people who don't care about details, so take this with a grain of salt): massed archery is the first manifestation of the reurbanisation of European civilisation. As the - for want of a better word - warrior elite with its resource-intensive form of warfare driven by personal advancement and gain is displaced by a rising body of part-time fighters, they need a way of war that plays to their srengths - numbers, cohesion, social discipline - and minimises their weaknesses - lack of training and morale, less expensive gear. If you studied Greek history, you know this story already, only this time instead of the hoplite, we get the balestrier.