archers

The Oxford Companion to Irish History | 2007 | 700+ words | Copyright

archers. Short bows, which were probably known in Ireland before the Anglo‐Norman intervention, were a main weapon of foot soldiers of both Gaelic and settler origin from the 12th century to the 16th. Gerald of Wales emphasized the value of the archers, some mounted, who accompanied the invaders from south Wales. By the 14th century the accounts of army paymasters distinguished between ordinary infantry raised in Ireland and the more expensive longbowmen (sagittarii), who were mostly in the retinues that governors brought from England. The Statute of Kilkenny (1366) enjoined archery practice on the settler population, but ‘English bows’ remained scarce even in the eastern counties.

Robin Frame

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