8/3/2023 0 Comments Medieval automatic crossbow![]() The Medieval Crossbow: What Made the “Arbalist” Such a Formidable Weapon After this time the crossbow as a personal weapon was not heard of in the West until about 950 ad, and only then in the context of a hunting tool. The vast increase in size, and the added manpower needed to operate it, meant that the weapon was no longer a viable foot soldier’s sidearm. This enlarged crossbow required a number of men to work it. First mentioned in Greek literature at the end of the 4th century bc, the simple, one-man portable weapon (called gastrophetes,or ‘belly-bow”) was transformed into a large siege engine based on the crossbow principle. While the Chinese embraced the value of the crossbow, the Greeks slowly got rid of it by improving it out of existence. The weapon changed the face of warfare in China. Three Chinese are drawing back the string of a huge crossbow. Coincidental with the wider use of the weapon, the Chinese approach to fighting came to emphasize maneuver and the exploitation of psychological advantage. More importantly, it transformed the Chinese method of making war. But the capacity of the crossbowmen to shoot through body armor and shields from a distance drove the Chinese chariot into obsolescence. Before crossbows, combat in China had been highly individualized and dominated by chariots. Quickly adopted as a personal battlefield weapon, the crossbow changed the character of Chinese warfare. Owing to its hitting power it might have given the Chinese an advantage over the bow-firing nomadic tribesmen threatening China’s northern border. From works produced during the Han Dynasty (206 bc-25 ad) it appears the crossbow was at the time the principal offensive arm of foot soldiers fighting on China’s far-flung frontiers. (Read more about the events and conflicts that came to define modern Europe inside the pages of Military Heritage magazine.) The Origins of the CrossbowĪncient Chinese manuscripts, such as the Shih chi written around 100 bc, document the extensive use of crossbows during the 4th century bc, notably at the Battle of Ma-ling in 341. It would come to later redefine war in the Middle Ages. The impetus for its creation was the desire to improve upon bows of the time. Thought to have been invented about the time of the First Crusade by western Europeans, the crossbow actually arose around 500 bc simultaneously in China and Greece. The unfortunate man who is struck by it dies without feeling the blow however strong the impact he knows nothing of it.” Such is the crossbow, a truly diabolical machine. ” Warming to her topic the princess related how “in the shooting, the string exerts tremendous violence and force, so that the missiles wherever they strike do not rebound in fact they transfix a shield, cut through a heavy iron breastplate and resume their flight on the far side, so irresistible and violent is the discharge. Anna Comnena, daughter of the Byzantium Emperor Alexius Comnenus, writing at about the time of the First Crusade (1096-1099), said of the medieval crossbow, a military tool new to her part of the world, “The crossbow is a weapon of the barbarians, absolutely unknown to the Greeks.
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