Given the numbers from the tests in
The Great Warbow, reading
Weapons of Warre caught me by surprise. However, it's worthwhile to remember both that Roger Ascham considered asp (poplar) arrows inferior for war, that heavy arrows probably had little place on a military ship in 1545, and that it's unclear how much the arrows deteriorated. The English crown apparently favor availability and cost over performance in opting for poplar over the ash Ascham recommended as flying faster and hitting harder. Interestingly, a 1993 MRA4 replica bow test listed in
Weapons of Warre aligns with Ascham's claims, as a 56.7g ash arrow managed virtually the same speed - 62.2 vs. 64.6 m/s - as a 42.5g poplar arrow. This strikes me as another case of low-quality mass-munitions provisioning. We similarly know that some plate armor consisted of slag-filled wrought iron and that Sir Roger Williams complained about the poor metal used to make common bills and halberds.
I don't know of any firm sources for English arrows in the quarter-pound range - I guess the Charles I quotation is the closest to it - but we can reasonably speculate that the conditions of land war in the fifteen century, for example, would differ from those of naval combat in the sixteenth. I tend to agree with Matthew Strickland, Robert Hardy, and company that the overall weight of the evidence points to 150+lb bows and massive arrows. For instance, during the first half of the fifteenth century, the Burgundian gentleman Bertrandon de la Broquière expressed respect for strength of Turkish bows but considered Turkish arrows weak in comparison to their European counterparts. Assessment of Turkish bows and arrows by Adam Karpowicz indicate an average draw weight of 111lbs and arrow weight of about 20-40g. While the 60-70g birch arrows estimated from the Mary Rose specimens could perhaps explain de la Broquière's evaluation, heaver shafts on the European side would heighten its force. The martial ranges specified in sixteenth-century texts such as Sir Roger Williams and Sir John Smythe stand consistent with the idea of heavier arrows. Williams wrote that few if any archers could do much damage at 240-280 yards. Smythe describe good archers as potentially able to shoot 400-480 yards with flight arrows but considered engaging at even 360 yards laughable. Instead he preferred 160-240 yards.
Going farther afield, numerous extant examples attest to the fact that Manchu archers often used war arrows
weighing 80g to over 100g. In an intriguing parallel, poplar and birch appear as the most popular arrow woods. Apart from the heavier war and hunting arrows, many come in the 45-65g range estimated for the Mary Rose.
