English Longbow System

Timeline

1. 1415–1450Agincourt and French battlefields · Pas-de-CalaisHundred Years' War battles such as Agincourt (1415) established longbow volley tactics: archers sheltered behind stakes, suppressing heavy cavalry at a rate of over ten arrows per minute. The yew bow was about six feet long with a draw of up to thirty-two inches; armor-piercing arrows could penetrate plate armor at close range.
2. 1461Towton, Yorkshire · YorkshireAt the Battle of Towton in 1461, archers on both sides exchanged fire for hours in a blizzard with heavy casualties. It is estimated that Yorkists and Lancastrians each fielded over ten thousand archers; the longbow system retained its Hundred Years' War tactical core status in a civil war setting.
3. 1465–1470England · EnglandIn the late 1460s the longbow was still the mainstay of retinue infantry, but European hand cannons and light artillery appeared on the margins of the battlefield. Archers still made up a high proportion of English army organization, yet improved plate armor and the spread of firearms began to erode the overwhelming advantage of pure archery volleys, and the longbow system entered a period of slow transition.