Archery, medieval style.

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© Companions of the Longbow

The Longbow & English Law by Mark Tustian

Introduction

 

Every once in a while the light hearted subject of bygone laws crops up in the popular media.  With their original intent lost in the mists of time these old laws now seem so absurd that they help raise a bit of a laugh.  Some of the usual chestnuts I’ve noticed regularly making an appearance are:

 

It’s illegal to impersonate a Chelsea pensioner.

If you are a freeman of the City of London you are allowed

to take a flock of sheep across London Bridge without being charged a toll and drive geese down Cheapside.

London taxis/hackney carriages must carry a bail of hay.

It’s illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour.

And (a personal favourite) it’s legal to shoot a Welshman in Chester with a bow as long as it’s after sunset.

 

But before you reach for your bow, your arrows and your return train ticket to Chester, that last one is apparently an urban myth rooted in a local byelaw which no longer offers protection.  There are similar variants about shooting Scotsmen in York too but it’s probably best not to take chances and leave the whole shooting people with a longbow to your traffic jam induced fantasies.

 

There were of course laws covering practicing on Sundays and compulsory ownership of a longbow, most of which no longer apply (okay, none of them apply any more).  This article is going to very briefly cover these laws and go into a subject that always seems a bit hazy for your modern archer … the ownership of the longbow in modern law today.

 

First, A Health Warning

 

I’m not member of the legal profession and my interpretation of the modern law could be just plain wrong.  I don’t believe I’ve got things wrong but hopefully the recommendations should be common sense even if  what I’ve written is a load of old cobblers .  But if you’re really, really worried about it, seek proper legal advice.

 

Secondly please note, this is specifically about English law because the Companions of the Longbow are based in Swindon (England, the United Kingdom, Europe, the World, the Universe etc).   Despite having a separate legal system Scotland’s laws with reference to the longbow aren’t that different from the English (& Welsh & Northern Ireland) ones, however there are slight differences so it’s worth double checking if you’re going north of the border (for example, Scotland hasn’t got anything similar to a Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 which has introduced some changes to legal age of ownership for crossbows).  (Click here to go straight to Page 2 which covers the applicable modern laws.)

 

But if you’re ready, let’s hold fast and go back about nine hundred odd years.

 

Hold Fast

 

During the medieval period there was a huge concern that the great unwashed were a slovenly lot that preferred to spend their free time playing football, drinking, playing bowls, gambling on dice games and playing cards rather than practicing their archery.  As a result a number of laws and edicts were passed over a four hundred year period that were designed to compel people to practice the longbow for “the benefit of the realm”.

 

“The Crooked Stick” by Hugh DH Soar states that one of the first recorded English laws to do with archery was implemented during the reign of Henry I (who reigned from 1100 to 1135) and was designed to offer protection from punishment if an archer killed someone while practicing archery.  Now some of you might have recognised a potential loophole in the murder law here but fortunately there was a pre-requisite for the archer before immunity was offered.  The archer had to have shouted a warning at the poor soul who might’ve wandered onto the archer’s practice range.  The warning was the command “hold fast” which is still used as a command on the modern archery field today in its abbreviated form of “fast” (although it’s now a command to stop shooting rather than a command shouted at a feckless member of the public).

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Assize of Arms – The Requirement to Own A Bow

 

An Assize of Arms was basically a military shopping list, based on income, that detailed the equipment required to be purchased and maintained by a person under feudal law.  Henry II’s Assize of Arms in 1181 hadn’t mentioned the bow (although his continental version did) but by the time his grandson was on the throne Henry III’s 1252 Assize of Arms stipulated that all able bodied men aged between 15 and 60 had own a bow and sufficient arrows.  It also purportedly “forbade, on pain of death, all sport that took up time better spent on war training especially archery practise”.

 

If we now move forward over a hundred years to 1363, Edward III (who reigned from 1327 to 1377) now felt that archery practice across the realm was rather lax.  Edward III was particularly aware of the tactical benefits offered by the longbow on the battle field having been at Crécy (1346) and the commander at Poitiers (1356).  He therefore issued a specific law compelling compulsory archery practice on Sundays and holidays as well as prohibiting certain pastimes;

 

Whereas the people of our realm, rich and poor alike, were accustomed formerly in their games to practise archery - whence by God's help, it is well known that high honour and profit came to our realm, and no small advantage to ourselves in our warlike enterprises - and that now skill in the use of the bow having fallen almost wholly into disrepute, our subjects give themselves up to the throwing of stones and of wood and of iron; and some to handball and football and hockey; and others to coursing and cock-fights, and even to other unseemly sports less useful and manly; whereby our realm - which God forbid - will soon, it would appear, be void of archers:

 

We, wishing that a fitting remedy be found in this matter, do hereby ordain, that in all places in your country, liberties or no liberties, wheresoever you shall deem fit, a proclamation be made to this effect: that every man in the same country, if he be able-bodied, shall, upon holidays, make use, in his games, of bows and arrows… and so learn and practise archery.  Moreover we ordain that you prohibit under penalty of imprisonment all and sundry from such stone, wood and iron throwing; handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games.

 

'Edward the Third 1363'

 

This law was upheld by subsequent monarchs and expanded.  During Richard II’s reign (1377 to 1399) the Statute of Cambridge (1388) stated that all artisans and labourers should shoot at the butts every Sunday and on every feast day.  This statute was re-issued in 1410 during Henry IV’s reign (1399-1413).

The Unlawful Games Act 1541

 

However the last law that actually stipulated the requirement to practice the longbow and banned games that took time away from archery practice was issued by Henry VIII and was called the Unlawful Games Act of 1541.  The Unlawful Games Act of 1541 was formulated from earlier 1512 legislation and banned such "new and crafty games a logetting in the fields and slide-thrift, otherwise called shove-groat".  (That’s the coin called the groat by the way.  Shove goat is a whole different kind of fun.)

 

Apparently these activities (along with popular weekend distraction of football of course) were so popular that "divers [many] bowyers and fletchers, for lack of work, had gone and inhabit themselves in Scotland and other places out of this realm, there working and teaching their science to the puisance [power] of the same, to the great comfort of estrangers and the detriment of this realm".

 

This act allowed for the closure of houses where such games were being played as well as heavy fines imposed on the players.  Backgammon, dice, tennis, cards, bowls and other “unlawful games” were apparently banned.  I’m originally from the city of Plymouth and so I’ve grown up hearing the story of Sir Francis Drake in 1588 playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe before going out to fight the Spanish Armada.  Of course the story was probably apocryphal, but it does raise some questions over how rigorously enforced the Unlawful Games Act really was.

 

It was in the 1590’s that the longbow was removed from the official list of weapons used by the English army, so the military requirement to practice the longbow had now gone.  However it took three hundred years before the Unlawful Games Act 1541 was repealed by the Gaming Act of 1845 and the Gaming Houses Act 1854.  In turn these acts were replaced by the section 15 of the Betting and Gaming Act 1960.

Medieval Restrictions on the Longbow

 

With all these laws about compulsory ownership and practice there were places where ownership of longbow could get you into a lot of hot water if you weren’t careful; these places were Royal Forests.  There’s already an article about Forest Law and Bow Hunting on the Companions website (click here to go to it) but basically, and for obvious reasons, there were restrictions on bow use in an areas where the prospect of game being poached was quite real.  To protect these areas certain limitations were stipulated such as anyone passing through a forest was required to carry their bow with their arrows bound to the limbs with the bowstring.

 

If you read the linked article on forest law you’ll learn that the area the law covered not only included wooded areas, but sometimes whole towns and villages.  So the obvious quandary is which law were you required to follow and when – the forest laws that restricted the carrying of bows or the common law that required regular practice with the bow?  The Assize of Arms of 1230 stated that those with chattels worth 20 shillings or under were to equip themselves with bow and arrows unless they resided in the forest, in which case they were to have an axe or lance.  There must have been some mechanism in place to allow archery practice in forest areas but truth be told I’ve yet to find any reference to one.  If you know, drop me a line at webadmin@companionsofthelongbow.co.uk.