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hesir — The Crossbow
Published: 2004-07-21 17:08:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 2192; Favourites: 34; Downloads: 27
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Description
A Norman Crossbowman firing out of an embrasure (which is badly drawn here, and inaccurate) while another uses his belt loops to draw the heavy drawstring back using the crossbows foot stirrup for leverage... The bolts are also inaccurate... everything else is so-so... There are elements of these images that I like and so much that niggles...Thats why its in my scraps gallery...
h.
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Comments: 7
For the most part, the arbalestier (crossbowmen) are accurate representations of a late Norman nobleman and perhaps his squire... They wear their hair longer than the Normans of William the Conquerers time, taking their lead from the indigenous Anglo-Saxons... The lord is wearing a mailsurcoat and a padded coat beneath that... the squire just his regular tunic.
The real inacuracies are in the feeble thickness of the cross cut window in the embrasure... It's just badly drawn and fanciful... The normans were superb builders, especially of fortifications and any architect who suggested this would have been laughed out of town... (hangs head in shame)… The wider part of the firestep (for want of a better term) itself is based on several found in Norwich Castle…
The narrow part of the embrasure should however have been more of this kind of sturdyness…
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or even this
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The crossbow itself is fine and based on a working on I’d seen… An example of an early crossbow or arbalest can be found here… [link]
But that’s again where I drift off, for some reason I left him in possession of Archers arrows rather than bolts or quarrels…
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and the archers bags and quiver filled with arrows, though accurate enough, should have been replaced with quarrel pouches like these…
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All in all it was just sloppy research… but I know better now…
Hope that answers your question… Always happy to talk about this stuff.
h.
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ah, i see. hmm, cool ref pics, thanks!
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No problem... I was at a jousting event today at Hedingham Castle (25 mins walks from my house) and took a few more ref pics... [link] you can see two narrow loop hole windows on the exterior of the building on the far left, one above the other...
h.
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