@tom.fitzgerald13: How devastating was the English longbow and how strong would you have to be to use one? Most of the bows we’ve recovered, especially from the Mary Rose, sit somewhere between 100 and 160 pounds draw weight. That’s not “hard.” That’s a lifetime of conditioning. These men trained from childhood and laws literally forced them to practice on Sundays. And it wasn’t just a battlefield tool either. Kings like Richard II and later Henry V didn’t only rely on knights. Longbowmen were common men, paid wages, loyal to the crown, and terrifying when organised. Everyone knew what they could do. They were loosing six to ten arrows a minute, hour after hour, in mud, rain, and exhaustion. Although they would still have had breaks. So That isn’t brute strength alone. That’s pain tolerance, repetition, and discipline stacked on top of each other for decades. Further reading: Matthew Strickland & Robert Hardy - The Great Warbow Toby Capwell - The Armour of the English Knight

Tom Fitzgerald

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Thursday 15 January 2026 10:05:52 GMT