How did the medieval longbow change warfare?

Answer 1

By perfecting the change from close-combat to missile weapons. Before the 14th century most missile weapons were comparatively feeble. A Classical bow, for example, gave a range of about 60 yards and little penetrating power. Great for rabbits, not much use on armoured, or even leather-clad men. The first significant development was the crossbow, which had a range of 200+ yards and the power to penetrate light armour. the problem with the crossbow, however, was that it took a long time to reload, having to be wound up with handles or levers. The Welsh longbow, in practised hands, permitted volleys of arrows, very accurate at 200 yards, between six and ten times a minute. When first seriously deployed, by the English at Crécy and Agincourt, the longbow proved devastating. Nothing equalled its fire power until the advent of breech-loading rifles in the late nineteenth century. There was, however, a problem with the longbow; it could only be used by experts. merely to draw the thing, which used (like modern weight-lifting) the whole body rather than just the arms, required intensive training from an early age; and the achievement of accuracy took years. All sorts of laws were made to force young men to practise Archery and to preserve the yew trees from which the bows were made; but once the urgency of the long war diminished, the supply of expert bowmen began to dry up; especially in the labour shortages after the Black Death, young men had more profitable things to do with their time. Armies began to adopt firearms simply because, though they were more cumbersome and took longer to load, any fool could use one after a few weeks' practice. nevertheless, it is worth pointing out that if Wellington had had expert bowmmen at Waterloo instead of clods with musklets, the whole thing would have been over much, much sooner.

Answer 2

they were used for all types of warfare if you needed one you used one

Answer 3

it provided shelter and it just did

Answer 4

it didn't