4 ms·

"Across the country"? I thought that a lot of the production of the English warbow and its associated equipment was pretty centralized. Hunting equipment (both

by mhd 8y ago

"Across the country"? I thought that a lot of the production of the English warbow and its associated equipment was pretty centralized. Hunting equipment (both bows and arrows) as something entirely different (I think there's some evidence in found arrowheads). But yeah, the article also equates "metalworker" and "blacksmith" in the first sentence, which is a bit weird, considering how highly specialized professions often were. No such thing as a "full stack smith", especially in late medieval cities.

benj111 8y ago
Lords had quite a lot of power at the time, supplying soldiers (equipped) was basically one of their taxes to the king. I would be surprised if lords didn't maintain their own capability to produce arrows. Plus in a siege situation you would also want to be able to repair weapons and such. I don't think a full stack smith would have been that unusual. Certainly at the low end. The friendly local blacksmith would probably be expected to do just about everything. If you wanted a top end sword, that would be much more specialised. I don't have any idea about the relative size of the groups though.
NeedMoreTea 8y ago
My understanding is things like armour were highly specialised and centralised. Not sure about the basic armour for archers and men, which would have been needed in more quantity. Archery seems to have required a properly national effort, thanks to the escalation of military in the Hundred Years War. Levies on Lords and the peasantry in shires to provide men, wood, feathers, heads and what not. The assembly was, as I understand it, at least mostly centralised. There were levies to collect goose wing feathers from every goose to fill huge orders. I've no idea if Northern shires got off lightly thanks to distance. :) Ultimately there was a Keeper of the King's Arrows who was responsible for just managing it all and bringing in adequate stocks. Similar for bows. Earlier it wouldn't have needed that scale of effort, or management. I thought most came from the shires with the men going to the King, and was often quite variable as a result.
- hef19898 8y ago
  I never dug too deep into medival history, so thanks for pointing the Keeper of King's Arrows out to me. Definetly worth a deeper look or two. Quite interesting to see the first signs of "industrialisation" of war already that early. Usually that is put into much later periods. (With the notable exception of naval warfare, navies always required more management attention than armies).

by mhd 8y ago

benj111 8y ago

Lords had quite a lot of power at the time, supplying soldiers (equipped) was basically one of their taxes to the king. I would be surprised if lords didn't maintain their own capability to produce arrows. Plus in a siege situation you would also want to be able to repair weapons and such. I don't think a full stack smith would have been that unusual. Certainly at the low end. The friendly local blacksmith would probably be expected to do just about everything. If you wanted a top end sword, that would be much more specialised. I don't have any idea about the relative size of the groups though.

NeedMoreTea 8y ago

My understanding is things like armour were highly specialised and centralised. Not sure about the basic armour for archers and men, which would have been needed in more quantity. Archery seems to have required a properly national effort, thanks to the escalation of military in the Hundred Years War. Levies on Lords and the peasantry in shires to provide men, wood, feathers, heads and what not. The assembly was, as I understand it, at least mostly centralised. There were levies to collect goose wing feathers from every goose to fill huge orders. I've no idea if Northern shires got off lightly thanks to distance. :) Ultimately there was a Keeper of the King's Arrows who was responsible for just managing it all and bringing in adequate stocks. Similar for bows. Earlier it wouldn't have needed that scale of effort, or management. I thought most came from the shires with the men going to the King, and was often quite variable as a result.

hef19898 8y ago
I never dug too deep into medival history, so thanks for pointing the Keeper of King's Arrows out to me. Definetly worth a deeper look or two. Quite interesting to see the first signs of "industrialisation" of war already that early. Usually that is put into much later periods. (With the notable exception of naval warfare, navies always required more management attention than armies).