I’m with Sir Thomas Elyot who, in 1531, wrote that
“foote balle, where in is nothing but beastlie furie and extreme violence, whereof procedeth hurte and consequently rancour and malice do remaine with them that be wounded, wherefore it is to be put in perpetuall silence”
He thought everyone should train with longbows instead (the noble arte of Shootynge), cos that teaches you noble virtues and is good exercise, innit.
(Seriously though, everyone do archery, it’s awesome).
Not to mention leaving you fit to be plucked away from home and led into a foreign war that your side started.
The noble virtue of empowering the peasant classes to be able to slay the gentry from great distance.
(Anybody who hasn’t read Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror really should. A lovely look at the way some people adjusted and some people didn’t, through the 1300s, to the notion that the tin-plated bloke on the horse was no longer the ultimate battlefield weapon, and if you worked out how to use other forces you could do impressive things with them.)
I know very little about this time period except that a load of French Nobles who believed they LITERALLY couldn’t be killed by peasants found out about longbow physics the hard way.
The training to develop the strength to draw a longbow was very lengthy, and there was a whole industry involved to churn out sufficient arrows for a battle/campaign. The rate of fire from a longbow was around 10-12 shafts a minute, with an effective range of 350 yards.
I always find it interesting to consider the longbow in relation to black powder eras - the longbow was arguably more accurate and more deadly than musket armed troops with a far greater rate of fire, but the cultural structures required to have a trained body of men and supporting industry were too archaic.
Sorry, I digress from the topic!
I have only the most passing understanding of what the Super League is, but my reflexive thought is of the XFL, an extremely poorly-thought-out American football league founded by professional wrestling madman Vince McMahon, with a specific mandate that players wouldn’t be allowed to kneel for the national anthem. Its first season lasted five games, the league promptly filed for bankruptcy, and is now owned by… checks Wikipedia Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
I mean, it’s not like I want to support monolithic sports organizations plagued by corruption, but why is it that when a new one of these sprouts out of the ground, it’s always for a seemingly terrible reason?
I suspect because a good reason, “we’re going to play the game without all that big money knocking around”, immediately crashes into “even if we don’t pay the players much, it takes quite a bit of money to rent a stadium”.
Currently it seems that many of the organizations involved are plotting their countermoves. UEFA executives have suggested those proposed ESL clubs involved in the Champions League semi-finals be kicked out (which may happen on Friday), the “other” 14 English Premier League clubs are no doubt coordinating a response but some of their chairmen and owners have already stated their disgust, and the UK government is considering what actions they can take to prevent the defection, which could take many forms.
All simmering nicely. Shame there aren’t any fans in the stadium for tonight’s Leeds v Liverpool match but, if they are allowed into the Carabao Cup Final between Tottenham and Manchester City this coming Sunday, things could be fruity!
For anyone still following this story, it seems that it is all over bar the resignations of the executives involved in the project. After another day of outrage, statements and press conferences from affected football organizations, rival clubs, current and former players, media groups and fans, at least two clubs have pulled out (or are looking to withdraw) and two more are waivering, plus at least one Chief Executive of one of the other “Dirty Dozen” clubs has resigned.
Oh well: most likely back to the same old, same old in a day or two - when football will become dull again. Still, it was tremendous fun while it lasted.
My favourite element have been the minor teams offering shirt exchanges to all the disillusioned fans.
I’m less impressed by the speed of the backing down. Both Chelsea and Man City are almost crying that the bigger boys made them do it; they didn’t want to miss out, although they knew it wasn’t a good idea…
Nothing like people getting blinded by the opportunity and failing to consult the opinions of those they need to carry with them. Admittedly amusing from the outside, not so fun from the inside.
Shooting arrows at 350 yards towards armoured troops is wasting them. Even with a war bow.
True, penetrating armour even with a bobkin arrow at that range was unlikely, but not everything was armoured (warhorses, levies etc.). But yes, you’d likely wait for the enemy to be closer. The morale effect of an arrow storm shouldn’t be dismissed either, or the force of impacts simply knocking armoured knights down, adding exhaustion and disarray to formations.
As I said, I like the thought exercise of imagining how say Napoleonic line infantry would fare against the longbows of the 100 Years War. A smooth bore musket was pretty inaccurate, with most soldiers not taught to aim but just volley fire. The British were somewhat unusual in allowing their infantry spare ammunition to practice firing, rather than just drilling the procedure. Smooth bore musket had a range of 50-100 yards, with 3 shots a minute a pretty good rate of fire.
So on paper it looks like no contest at all. But when you factor in what it takes to create a longbow archer, you can see why they went out of favour. Also interesting to consider that it wasn’t as though the French could not replicate the longbow as a weapon during the 100 Years War. What they could not replicate was the societal and cultural aspects of the training required.
Don’t forget the smoke and terrifying sound of a musket volley.
Of course, regarding an arrow volley, the point I was bringing was the “effective reach”. A musket can have a a much higher reach, but it was often used in such a way that increased the likelihood of being lethal, and demoralising.
I have shot a 95 pound longbow at about 200 yards (180 m), and it is no small feat. And that when I only shot for a few years in my teens, and lately a few more times in my late 30s and 40s.
But I would definitely prefer if I was back then serving in with a group of archers to wait for a 100 yards or so to start pelting the enemy. As you say, there are many parts of the armour that are weaker, or enemies with less armour on, and just the barrage of splinters that could hit horses and exposed body parts after breaking against armour is no small feat, but I’d rather wait. You’d be surprised how quickly you can go through a full quiver.
I recommend you to have a look in YouTube at Todd Cutlers videos. He is doing some interesting experiments with arrows.
I think some of the longbows recovered from the Mary Rose had around 150 pound draw. That speaks volumes about the physicality of the men that could use such a weapon, as shown in the distorted skeletons of archers with one side very over developed.
(Again with the digression- apologies!)
Back on topic, it didn’t take long for all the English clubs to back away from the ESL.
Ooops, sorry. Might have to take it to another topic. Got carried away.
It’s not THAT far off-topic, given that the King had to make laws 4-5 times between 1363 and the 1600s to remind people they had to practice with the longbow on Sundays by law (including children from the age of 7), because they were too busy playing football and (later) cricket! 
Yes - showing a combination of lack of conviction, cowardice, incompetence or ignorance in their planning. More to follow today - as there may be ramifications in the Premier League, no doubt more fallout among the organizational structure of the six English clubs - and we’re still awaiting news on the Italian and Spanish clubs, who are in massive debt themselves and may have needed this projected income to stay afloat for their push to stay competitive…