A blog post in which I restate what other people have restated about stuff that is worth restating in the world of late 14th century warfare, in particular, the never-ending debate on arrows vs armor ...

This is a great GIF, but back in the day these two stalwarts never would have flailed around with raised visors ...

I was down in the YouTube rabbit hole looking for blog inspiration when I happened upon a newish post from Matt Easton of Scholagladiatoria. And his video was a rather lengthy piling-on of a previous video made by Tod's Workshop, in which a renowned bowyer/fletcher and archer see what arrows can do against a cuirass made by a renowned armorer, all while a renowned professor provided commentary. In short, the arrows lost. The cuirass endured. The point being, knights encased in plate armor during the Hundred Years' War were nearly invulnerable ... At least, their cuirasses were.

This is the point Matt Easton makes in his (kind of lengthy but interesting) video. He brought up a few other good ones, too. The whole 'arrow storm' or massed volley theory has been discounted as being ineffective due to the massive drop-off in velocity and penetrating power of heavy war arrows. Archery at Crecy and Poitiers and Agincourt was up-close and personal. And just because knights had really effective cuirasses didn't mean archers would target them there. A smart archer shot the knight's horse. Or rang the knight's bell with a shot to the head. Or incapacitated with arrows shot into arms and legs.

Another good point brought up by Easton is, the majority of combatants in Hundred Years' War armies were not armored as heavily as knights. Arrows were highly effective against gambeson, aketon, mail, and brigandine. A previous video I shared from Tod's Workshop showed how effective arrows were against shields. I mean, I would not have wanted to be a common foot soldier trying to close the English lines when the arrows started coming in from fifty yards away. Makes you feel for the Genoese crossbowmen at Poitiers.

Enough from me. I'll let Matt Easton do the talking ...