[Lafayette C Curtis]

What kind of crossbow would be most appropriate for a mid- to late-15th century crossbowman--say, from the 1440s to the 1490s? I'd be especially grateful if anybody can post pictures to the specific crossbow(s) in question. Even slightly out-of-period iconography (late 14th, early 15th, or early 16th-century?) might be useful with the help of a little extrapolation.

[Sean Flynt]

Crossbows are all over artwork of the period. Try searching for paintings of St. Sebastian (Hl. Sebastian). I don't know how many bows I've seen here:

http://www.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/realonline/

It takes a little effort to search this vast database, but it's incredibly rewarding. I've seen lots of bows here in depictions of the guards at the resurrection of Jesus.

There's a very nice series of images of a reconstructed bow and man-at-arms in the gallery at http://www.olofsgillet.org/

[Sean Flynt]

This is one of the best views I've run across at the site mentioned above:

The first date of provenance for this painting is 1495

[Leo Todeschini]

If you mean mounted in that they loaded and shot from horseback, then the only option would be cranequin and a bow pretty much shown as above, except with a steel bow.

If they get to battle dismount and then deploy then windlass would be the way to go as it acheived pretty much what a cranequin did, but much cheaper so more suited to a man at arms.

Tod

[Randall Moffett]

By the 15th you see composite crossbows used with Goats foot levers from horseback. I am trying to think of a durer picture with it but cannot remember its proper name.

RPM

[Sean Flynt]

You should get this book if you don't already have it.

http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.php?ASIN=3791319914

It shows at least two mounted crossbowmen.

[Sean Flynt]

Here's some candy for you, some mounted, some dismounted, all 1440-1500.

[Sean Flynt]

More. Write your own captions for the last image :lol

[Jean-Carle Hudon]

Write your own captions:
''When you're finished with it, can I have my bolt back?''

[Richard Hare]

Caption;


..."Just look at your new armour!......I Told you to be careful playing with those things!"

Or;

"I guess it shoots low, ...I was aiming at the apple...."

Very good pics, Sean.

I'd really like to make a crossbow of this type, but proably a steel prod would make things easier.

Richard.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

That's a lot of eye candy indeed. I'm actually tempted to re-title this thread "Crossbow pr0n"....

[James R.Fox]

Sirs-I have heard of light crossbows with the goatsfoot lever attached to the tiller of the bow. That's all I can think of, I've never seen one illustrated. That sounds practical for a horseman, and most of your illustrations would be French,as the English didnt use crossbows much. They used mounted longbowmen who got down to fight. The French were equally attached to the crossbow ,most ly mercenaries hired from Genoa, particularly the Grimaldis of Monaco, which was then part of Genoa(They also hired out war galleys, which were not terribly effctive in the Atlantic,except as coast guards.)

[Randall Moffett]

James,

On the contrary the French employed well more of their own home grown french crossbowmen than genoese. Typically Genoese were hired for a specific purpose and time frame while you could get French crossbowmen anywhere and raise them for the army at will. Gascons also were well known as soldiers and crossbowmen in specific and much of gascony was French so this provided a useful recruitment ground as well. The reason people think the genoese were the French crossbow arm is just good PR

RPM

[Lafayette C Curtis]

And the Gascons were in English employ for quite a long while during the Hundred Years' War....

Anyway, returning to the topic, my cursory browsing through the database (and some other image galleries) seems to show that crossbows were more common among mounted men-at-arms than I had originally expected. All right, I was already thinking that the crossbow was more common than is usually thought, but I hadn't expected it to be that common. This thing raised two more questions in my head:

1. Does anybody have any ideas about whether that "more common" thing is real or just a statistical artifact of my search?

2. Some of those pictures leave me wondering about how the crossbow is attached (if at all) to the saddle or to the horseman. Any recommendations about where I should look for more information about these attachment methods?

[Lafayette C Curtis]

I've still had no luck with looking for the attachment method that a mounted crossbowman would have used to secure his crossbow when it's not held in his hands. It seems like such a method would have been necessary since at least some troops of mounted crossbowmen were supposed to engage in hand-to-hand combat (see Seldeneck) and I doubt that they were instructed to club their enemies with their crossbow tillers. But even greatly zoomed-in views of the medieval images I've found (both through this thread and elsewhere) isn't really producing any leads yet.

I hope it's not one of those things that medieval artists considered too obvious to be worth the bother of representing them....

[Nathan Quarantillo]

did they unstring medieval crossbows? if they did, then how? also, what are some good reproducions out there? anyone got any experience w/ hollow earth crossbows? and, is 3/4 plate good for a crossbowman (man-at-arms)? what helms did they use (late 15th cent early 16th cent.) and lastly, did the mounted crossbowman have a form or paviase or other shield w/ him?

[Jason Daub]

Lafayette,
Sean linked to the book "Venus and Mars-The World of the Medieval Housebook" earlier, mentioning two mounted crossbowmen. If you look at 21v22r, one of the bows is shown in a case at the saddlebow, the actual attachment to the saddle is not shown but it appears as if it may be strapped on. It isn't much to go on, and I don't recall any other images of mounted crossbowmen who were not holding the weapon.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Yeah. I haven't bought that book yet, hence my cluelessness. Since you pointed to a specific illustration that may give me a bit more clue than I already have, though, it has moved up several places on my to-buy list.

[Benjamin H. Abbott]

When Sir John Smythe promoted mounted crossbowers at the end of the sixteenth century, he wanted them equipped gaffles or goat's-foot levers. He noted how mounted crossbowers had seen considerable service in earlier European warfare. I don't know of any evidence that much/anything came of Smythe's attempts to revive the mounted crossbower, though.

[Mark T]