Quote:
Originally Posted by GloucesterChief
Most people don't understand exactly what a longobws purpose was. It wasn't to kill knights, though if it penetrated a gap or weak point in the armor it certainly could. It was meant to kill horses thus unmounting the knight at least if not trapping, crippling, or killing them outright.
Once the opposing armies charge was swarmed under a rain of arrows as the longbow had both range and rate of fire, the real killing would be done by the English knights who usually fought dismounted, billmen with their bill hooks with could easily penetrate armor, or the yeoman bowman themselves using long daggers to stab through gaps and weak points in the armor.
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Longbows certainly took out horses, but I wouldn't say that was their intention; they existed long before cavalry was even used to great effect, and the Welsh and English used them to great effect against both cavalry and infantry. They rose to prominence because they were easy to make and allowed a ridiculous range and rate of fire. What's more, its power and the development of the bodkin arrowhead made it absolutely devastating against all but the heaviest armor - one case had a long bow arrow penetrate mail armor, the wearer's leg, the other side of the mail armor, the leather saddle, the wooden saddle frame, and well into the horse. This was from several hundred yards away.
Of course, super-wealthy knights clad in the heaviest plate could sustain many shots (imagine wearing a trash can and getting hit with a ball-peen hammer; it'll hurt, but you'll live), so yeah, it worked out nicely that it killed the horses. Agincourt, with its huge slop of mud that the French knights were nice enough to thunder right into, was particularly ripe for this. A lot of the French nobles were quite surprised to find out that the usual expectations of mercy and a quick ransom were not being followed by the English any more.