History of Archery

Article Source: http://www.olympics.org.uk/sporthistory.aspx

Since man first created weapons with which to hunt for food and wage war, target competitions have become part of human culture. Just as competitive genetics make people want to run faster, throw longer and jump higher than anyone else, so to do they want to prove their ability to aim more accurately and shoot straighter than anyone else.

Historians suspect that the use of primitive bows and arrows – one of man’s first mechanical inventions – could date back as far as Stone Age man in 20,000BC. They know for sure, however, that archery was widely used by the armies of many of the classic ancient civilizations that inhabited Europe and the Middle-East around 5000 years ago.

Although the archers weren’t always the mainstay of an army, they were an important part of a nation’s military might, and the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Hittites, Assyrians and Chinese all used archery as a weapon of combat to great effect, with the very best archers celebrated and acclaimed as great warriors and heroes.

In the Middle Ages, archery was widely used in wars across Europe, but as the properties of gunpowder became more widely known from China through Asia and the Middle East to Europe, archery’s effectiveness in combat and hunting became less and less significant.

It remained a popular pastime, though, particularly with royalty and nobility, though and in the middle of the 16th century, the first clubs and competitions began to spring up in England. King Henry VIII founded the first archery club in England – the Brotherhood of St George – in 1537, while the first recognised formal archery competition took place in Finsbury, England, in 1583, with over 3000 participants turning up to test their aim.

Up until the present day, archery has remained a popular sport – a popularity that has increased significantly since it joined the Olympic schedule in 1900.

Olympic History

Image source: www.olympics.org.uk

Archery was a sporadic part of the modern Olympic schedule through the early 1900s, with events in the 1900, 1904, 1908 and 1920 Summer Games. In archery’s early years, competitors were allowed to compete in a more than one event, allowing them to win a multitude of medals. One of the best was Belgian Hubert Van Innis, who won six golds and nine archery medals in total in both team and individual competitions.

After a hiatus of 52 years, archery returned to take a full-time place in the rosta of Summer Games sports in Munich, Germany, in 1972. Team archery for three-strong squads was added to the events list for the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea.

One of the best archers of recent times is South Korean Soo-Nyung Kim, who wowed the crowds at her home Olympics in 1988 by scoring gold in both the women’s individual and team events at the age of 17. After another individual gold medal-winning performance in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992 she retired from the sport at the age of 21, but returned to Olympic competition in Sydney, Australia, in 2000 to win a fourth gold in the team event.

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Archery in History

Battle of Hastings

Image and Article source: http://en.wikipedia.org

The Battle of Hastings was the decisive Norman victory in the Norman conquest of England. The location was a hill approximately six miles north of Hastings, on which an abbey was subsequently erected.

The battle took place on October 14, 1066, between the Norman army of Duke William of Normandy, and the Saxon army led by King Harold II. Harold was killed in the battle; traditionally, it is believed he was shot through the eye with an arrow. Although there was further Saxon resistance for some time to come, this battle is seen as the point at which William gained control of England.

The famous Bayeux Tapestry depicts the events of the battle.

The English Longbow

Image Source National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff

The English longbow, also called the Welsh longbow, was a powerful type of medieval longbow (a tall bow for archery) about 2.0 m (6 ft 6 in) long used by the English and Welsh, both for hunting and as a weapon of war. English use of longbows was effective against the French during the Hundred Years' War, particularly at the start of the war in the battles of Crecy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), and most famously at the Battle of Agincourt (1415).

The Battle of Agincourt (IPA pronunciation: [/ɑːʒɪn'kuːʁ/]) was fought on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day), in northern France as part of the Hundred Years' War.

The armies involved were those of the English King Henry V and Charles VI of France. Charles did not command his army himself, as he was incapacitated. The French were commanded by the Constable Charles d'Albret and various prominent French noblemen of the Armagnac party. The battle is notable for the use of the English longbow, which the English used in very large numbers, with longbowmen forming the vast majority of their army. The battle was also immortalised by William Shakespeare as the centrepiece of his play Henry V.

Image: A period illustration of the Battle of Crécy. English longbowmen figure prominently in the foreground at right where they drive away the French crossbowmen.

Sagitarrii

Article Source: Wikipedia

Sagittarii were auxiliary archers. Despite the longstanding contacts with, and several defeats by, Parthians and other Eastern nations for whom horse archery was tactically important, there is no definite mention of horse archers in Roman armies until the Notitia Dignitatum, after contact with the Huns. Horsed skirmishers with javelins, however, are often mentioned. Presumably, before that time, most regular Roman archers were infantry.  The normal weapon of Roman archers, both infantry and cavalry units, was the composite bow,although Vegetius recommends training recruits "arcubus ligneis", with wooden bows, which may have been made in the northern European longbow tradition. It has been suggested that most Roman composite bows may have been asymmetric, with lower limbs shorter than the upper.
By the 5th century, there were numerous Roman cavalry regiments trained to use the bow as a supplement to their swords and lances, but the sagittarii appeared to have used the bow as their primary rather than supplemental weapon. According to the Notitia Dignitatum, most units of sagittarii, especially equites sagittarii, were in the Eastern empire or in Africa. Possibly some of the other cavalry regiments there carried bows as back-up weapons, but were not the dedicated mounted archers that the sagittarii were. The use of bows as a primary weapon probably originated in the East in the later 4th and earlier 5th centuries to help the Roman Army counter Persian and Hunnic bow-armed cavalry. By the time of Procopius's histories and Maurikios's Strategikon, the main effective field arm of Roman armies was cavalry, many of them armed with bows. After the fall of the Western empire, Eastern Roman armies maintained their tradition of horse archery for centuries.

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Archery in Folklore

ROBIN HOOD AND THE GOLDEN ARROW

Image: Errol Flynn in the The Adventures of Robin Hood (Warner Bros 1938)

Article Source: http://www.boldoutlaw.com

From The English and Scottish Popular Ballads
by Francis James Child, 1888.

[Robin Hood is well known for his archery. There have been tales of Robin shooting for a gold and silver arrow since at least the 15th century in the early ballad A Gest of Robyn Hode. In other versions Robin's identity is either known or discovered at the match and he has to fight his way to safety. Variations on this story have become a fixture in most Robin Hood books and films. It later tellings, Robin Hood splits his opponent's arrow in the centre, a development that was likely borrowed from Sir Walter Scott's 1818 novel Ivanhoe or possibly a recently rediscovered version of the Robin Hood and Queen Catherin ballad.]

1 When as the sheriff of Nottingham
Was come, with mickle grief,
He talkd no good of Robin Hood,
That strong and sturdy thief.
Fal lal dal de

2 So unto London-road he past,
His losses to unfold
To King Richard, who did regard
The tale that he had told.

3 'Why,' quoth the king, 'what shall I do?
Art thou not sheriff for me?
The law is in force, go take thy course
Of them that injure thee.

4 'Go get thee gone, and by thyself
Devise some tricking game
For to enthral yon rebels all;
Go take thy course with them.'

5 So away the sheriff he returnd,
And by the way he thought
Of the words of the king, and how the thing
To pass might well be brought.

6 For within his mind he imagined
That when such matches were,
Those outlaws stout, without [all] doubt,
Would be the bowmen there.

7 So an arrow with a golden head
And shaft of silver white,
Who won the day should bear away
For his own proper right.

8 Tidings came to brave Robin Hood,
Under the green-wood tree:
'Come prepare you then, my merry men,
We'll go yon sport to see.'

9 With that stept forth a brave young man,
David of Doncaster:
'Master', said he, 'be ruld by me,
From the green-wood we'll not stir.

10 'To tell the truth, I'm well informed
Yon match is a wile;
The sheriff, I wiss, devises this
Us archers to beguile.'

11 'O thou smells of a coward,' said Robin Hood,
'Thy words does not please me;
Come on't what will, I'll try my skill
At yon brave archery.'

12 O then bespoke brave Little John:
Come, let us thither gang;
Come listen to me, how it shall be
That we need not be kend.

13 Our mantles, all of Lincoln green,
Behind us we will leave;
We'll dress us all so several
They shall not us perceive.

14 One shall wear white, another red,
One yellow, another blue;
Thus in disguise, to the exercise
We'll gang, whateer ensue.

15 Forth from the green-wood they are gone,
With hearts all firm and stout,
Resolving [then] with the sheriff's men
To have a hearty bout.

16 So themselves they mixed with the rest,
To prevent all suspicion;
For if they should together hold
They thought [it] no discretion.

17 So the sheriff looking round about,
Amongst eight hundred men,
But could not see the sight that he
Had long expected then.

18 Some said, If Robin Hood was here,
And all his men to boot,
Sure none of them could pass these men,
So bravely they do shoot.

19 'Ay,' quoth the sheriff, and scratchd his head,
'I thought he would have been here;
I thought he would, but, tho he's bold,
He durst not now appear.'

20 O that word grieved Robin Hood to the heart;
He vexed in his blood;
Eer long, thought he, thou shalt well see
That here was Robin Hood.

21 Some cried, Blue jacket! another cried, Brown!
And the third cried, Brave Yellow!
But the fourth man said, Yon man in red
In this place has no fellow.

22 For that was Robin Hood himself,
For he was cloathd in red;
At every shot the prize he got,
For he was both sure and dead.

23 So the arrow with the golden head
And shaft of silver white
Brave Robin Hood won, and bore with him
For his own proper right.

24 These outlaws there, that very day,
To shun all kind of doubt,
By three or four, no less no more,
As they went in came out.

25 Until they all assembled were
Under the green-wood shade,
Where they report, in pleasant sport,
What brave pastime they made.

26 Says Robin Hood, All my care is,
How that yon sheriff may
Know certainly that it was I
That bore his arrow away.

27 Says Little John, My counsel good
Did take effect before,
So therefore now, if you'll allow,
I will advise once more.

28 'Speak on, speak on,' said Robin Hood
'Thy wit's both quick and sound;
[I know no man amongst us can
for wit like thee be found.']

29 'This I advise,' said Little John;
'That a letter shall pend,
And when it is done, to Nottingham
You to the sheriff shall send.'

30 'That is well advised,' said Robin Hood,
'But how must it be sent?'
'Pugh! when you please, it's done with ease,
Master, be you content.

31 'I'll stick it on my arrow's head,
And shoot it into the town;
The mark shall show where it must go,
When ever it lights down.'

32 The project it was full performed;
The sheriff that letter had;
Which when he read, he scratchd his head,
And rav'd like one that's mad.

33 So we'll leave him chafing in his grease,
Which will do him no good;
Now, my friends, attend, and hear the end
Of honest Robin Hood.

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