But the English long bow was deadlier than the crossbow, because it took so long to crank
up the crossbow. Remember Agincourt and Crécy. I remember reading that at one of those
battles, the French crossbow men, who had to use both ands to draw the bowstring back
with the bow held against the ground by their feet, were seriously hampered by ground
being muddy. The longbow could shoot perhaps six arrows in the time the crossbow could fire one.
Incidentally, I wonder what the "yew", which was the preferred wood, looked like. I had
evergreen yews almost twenty feet tall in my yard, but none of them would have had straight
grain necessary for a six foot bow, unless laminated, which I doubt that longbows were.