Value of the Boiv in English Wars 1 1 5 



Philip de Comines ^ styles them ' milice redou- 

 table la fleur des archers du monde.' And in the 

 Chronicle of Berlrand dn Gnesclin, English archers 

 are thus commended : * et sans les bons archers 

 du bon pays Anglais.' ^ 



The Irish do not seem to have been much 

 acquainted with the use of the bow until the time 

 of Edward iv., who enforced the practice amongst 

 the English residents and their Irish servants. 



In England, the general use of it is shown by a 

 statement of Pennant,^ 'that in 1397, Richard 11. 

 holding a parliament in a temporary building, on 

 account of the wretched state of Westminster Hall, 

 surrounded it with 4000 Cheshire archers, armed 

 with tough yew bows, to ensure freedom of 

 debate.' 



Froissart* thus describes the prowess of the 

 English archers at Poictiers : ' Then the battle 

 began on all parts, and the battles of the marshals 

 of France approached, and they set forth that they 

 were appointed to break the array of the archers. 

 They entered a-horseback into the way where the 

 great hedges were on both sides set full of archers. 

 As soon as the men of arms entered, the archers 

 began to shoot on both sides, and did slay and hurt 

 horses and knights, so that the horses, when they 



^ Hist, de France (torn. iii. p. 873). 



"^ Meyrick, Ancient Armoiiy, vol. iii. Glossary. 



^ London, 2nd ed. p. 39. ■* Chronicles. 



