Was the bow a common weapon of war in the Middle Ages?

Some countries did. You couldn't just give a man a longbow and send him into battle. As King Edward III is supposed to have said, "If you want to train a longbowman, start with his grandfather." The law sometimes required the English to practice with the bow and arrow. They also hunted and protected themselves with them. Other nations did not want a population capable of shooting full arrows at their lords if they had a grievance against them. They often issued crossbows to their soldiers. You can train someone to use a crossbow fairly quickly and collect them at the end of the war. Crossbows are faster, less likely to break, and the bowman can make new bows fairly quickly with hand tools, as long as he doesn't make compound bows like the Mongols. Crossbows require a lot of repairs by blacksmiths.

Wouldn't a medieval bow (probably a short one) risk breaking if used to defeat someone? Along the same lines, would it make a good tool to defeat someone?

This is a bad idea for a string bow. It's already under a lot of stress, so using it to rock someone will only make it worse and may increase the tension on the string to break the bow. The bow can be used as a rocker, but not if tensioned.

How effective would a longbow be if it was made in the Middle Ages? A longbow is a hybrid between a longbow and a crossbow, with a 70cm crossbow section and a longbow section that fires two types of bolts: regular bolts and long bolts.

Congratulations, you just invented the Chinese crossbow.

The answer is why?

A bow is nothing more than a machine that converts the body's muscular energy into the kinetic energy of a projectile, and the prod (or stinger in the case of a crossbow) simply stores the energy before releasing it. It's easy to see that the length of the prod contributes very little to the energy storage - it just illustrates the length of the draw. Conversely, by making the *** stiffer, more energy can be stored at a smaller draw.

The two main differences between European and Chinese crossbows are the size of the bow and the trigger mechanism. Also note that Chinese crossbows do not have the prominent stirrups found on European crossbows.

By using an anchor driver to pull your crossbow, you may have a very powerful crossbow with a short stinger.

Were true crossbows more mainstream than bows in the Middle Ages?

In the Middle Ages, crossbows were a more accessible technology for a large number of men. Sure, they were slower, but they had the advantage that once cocked, they required no effort to keep pulling. Once it starts firing, anyone can point it and pull the trigger. They're great because they can penetrate armor and have excellent range, but don't require years of training to use. While they are difficult to use in maneuvers due to load times, they are great for defending a fixed position from a siege, or shooting from a fixed position while behind a bunk. Like many other technologies, it allows money to be used to make up for skill deficiencies. By purchasing crossbows, armies were able to counter the skill threat of British archers with technology. I'm not sure they were "mainstream",

Besides the longbow, what other bows were used in warfare in the 12th-15th centuries? What was their draw strength and how did they compare to the longbow?

Besides the longbow, what other bows were used in warfare in the 12th-15th centuries? What were their draw strengths, and how did they compare to the longbow?

Recurve compound bows dominated until artillery and cannons took over in the 16th century. Crossbows replaced both types of bows in numbers, but compound bows had less of an impact because they were better on horseback. Crossbows are part of archery, and crossbowmen are a type of archer.

In the 14th century, the recurve compound bow transitioned from a straight to a curved siyah design. Like these Mongolian bows and replicas. Around 1300 years ago, bows from Korea to Poland were similar to the top type. After that, the bottom type.

The Chinese, Mongols, Cumans, Turks, Moors, Mamluks, Hungarians and Slavs used bows similar to these. Long, straight siyahs (tips) with composite limbs of tendon, wood and horn.

Bows similar to these Turkish and Tatar bows were used by the same people 1300 years later.

Strong men are strong across time and cultures. The draw of recurve war bows is similar. The heaviest longbows found on the English ship Mary Rose had estimated draws between 80 and 185 pounds, with most between 140 and 160 pounds. Archers on horseback ranged from 80 to 133 and up to 240 on foot. Turkish bows in the Topkapi Palace series are estimated to have had a draw weight of up to 240 pounds. Chinese and Mongolian bows are recorded between 166-240 pounds.

Turkish/Mongolian war arrows were lighter than English longbow war arrows. They were faster off the bow and traveled 100 yards. They performed well and helped defeat Western knights in the best mail and plate armor battles of the 13th to 16th centuries, such as Legnica, Moshi, Rafubi, Nikopolis, Ankara, Varna, and Mohacs.

Some French knights were unfortunate enough to lose to the recurve Turkish bow at Nicopolis in 1396 and the English longbow at Agincourt in 1415. And in almost the same way. Holy Blue!

Tartar bows were optimized to shoot heavier arrows, and at the same pull they could shoot equally heavy English war arrows faster and farther. Like the 170-pound tartar bow Adam Karpowicz made for champion longbowman Joe Gibbs. If he uses a thumb draw and hard rings, he'll squeeze out more frames and yards.

At the Battle of Ankara in 1402, Timur had roughly 10 times as many recurve bow archers on the battlefield as Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt longbow archers combined. He defeated the Ottoman Turks and their European vassals in mail and plate armor.

What a battle! 80,000 Turks! 140,000 Timur! Makes anything in Europe look like a skirmish. Walking archers, horses and elephants! A river diverted! The Sultan was arrested!

They were accurate, too. Mounted archers were not pinned to their saddles. They could and did dismount and use their bows on foot. The bows were lighter in the saddle and heavier on foot. It is easier to carry two bows when the horse carries them.

They hunted big and small game from the saddle with their war bows; lions and tigers and wild boars, for goodness sake!

They even hit birds in flight. Prince Maximilian, the future Holy Roman Emperor, hunted birds with a recurve bow.

By the way, compound bows worked well in Western Europe, even wet England. Make them properly, seal them with lacquer, varnish, paint or birch bark, and look after them to thrive. The Romans used them in Britannia for centuries. The Britons made and used compound bows and arrows for their heavy (> 200 lb) crossbows. Compound bows are used year-round in the Gobi Desert, the Siberian forests, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Russian steppes. However, if you don't need a short bow that you can lengthen, a longbow can easily do the job.

Wooden crossbows can reach 200 pounds, and composite and steel crossbows can reach 1500 pounds. They require belts with claws, levers, anchors and cranes to pull. There are also things that can be hidden between shots. The heaviest guy might be able to do 8 shots in 5 minutes, compared to a good foot/mounted shooter who is also more nimble and harder to hit before he hits you, and 30-40 shots.

Due to the shorter draw/power stroke of the European crossbows, the 1250-pound crossbow has slightly less range and power than a 150-pound longbow or a recurve bow with a heavy 1350 grain war arrow/bolt (235 v 250 yards).

Crossbows and castles wreaked havoc on the Mongols in the second and third invasions of Hungary and Poland in 1287-88.

The Crusaders used more crossbows than longbows in their crusades. In any case, they were eventually sent home.

Large magazine-fed repeating crossbows were mounted on walls and ships. This one is Korean.

Mounted archers remained popular and served longer than the longbows of Western Europe or the crossbows of Eastern Europe and Asia. They were used until the 19th century, when the Russians captured Paris in 1814 with Bashkir archers on horseback.

Mongolian warriors in Qing/Manchu service in the late 19th century, armed with spears, swords, bows, arrows, and rifles.