4 ms·

> English longbowman wasn't the usual 'peasant' stereotype, given that they were generally landowners Can you elaborate. I thought serfdom was still around in

• barry-cotter 6y ago
  Serfdom was on its last legs in England by this stage. I believe there were plenty of landowners who practiced the longbow but a majority would have been yeomen who were tenants of big solid farms, not themselves landowners. England was almost the first place to get rid of serfdom and a peasantry both, though the Netherlands may have it beat. Remember we’re on the verge of the Reformation. These are quite urbanized bourgeois societies by the 1400s.
• jaggederest 6y ago
  As far as I am aware, most longbowmen at the time were yeomen, a sort of middle class between the landed gentry and the serf class, where they owned their land and thus had the free time and energy to practice and hunt with a longbow.
• bashmelek 6y ago
  "If you want to train a longbowman, start with his grandfather." Being a longbowman took extensive training and practice.