|Wild Captain by Richard Breton 1567|
Bracers, that is a piece of stiff material worn on the bow arm to protect said limb from the impact of the bow string are known from archaeology. Made from archaeologically visible substances such as stone and bone. One only needs to be struck once in the arm to realise the utility of such an item, being struck on the arm with a full weight warbow would be potentially damaging. Self bows having a low brace height (distance of string to bow) and quite commonly strike the archer on the tendons of the wrist. While recurve archers are more likely to be struck on the upper part of the arm.
Modern bracers are made of leather or plastic while medieval examples look like leather with a horn or bone plate providing the protection for the vulnerable tendons. Far more minimalist than modern "medieval bracers" medieval designs show the limitations of the material available to them and the general thrift of people in the past. The amount of leather considered to have been worn in medieval times is more a result of the limits of Hollywood prop designers minds than agricultural reality. Leather was available but was required for a very wide variety of uses all he way from belts and shoes to drinking vessels. Horn and bone also provide much better protection against the frightening force of English warbows. Tales abound of modern warbow users doing themselves injuries including injuring the wrist tendons.Ascham
|Note the bracers|
There is far less evidence for hand protection, Roger Ascham in Toxophilus considers hand protection useful, not vital and indeed mentions that some archers shot barehanded. A shooting glove was ordered for Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII "Bowys, Arrowys, shafts, brode hedds, bracer and shooting glove" and an example of a shooting tab is known from about 1500. It was made from pig skin and is thought to have been made for a child.
rub the skyn of there fingers. For this there be
.ii. remedyes, one to haue a goose quyll splettyd and sewed againste the nockynge,
betwixt the lining and the
ledder, whyche shall helpe the shoote muche to, the other waye is to haue some roule of ledder
sewed betwixt his fingers at
the setting on of the fingers, which shall kepe his fingers so in sunderTo me the Ascham source suggests that protection for hands was ad-hoc, a good idea perhaps not generally practised. Certainly a glove would be an expensive item, though tabs would be well within the means and ability of all.
Back quivers are extremely hard to access and slow to use (films use CGI to get fluidity and speed) when you bend over the arrows fall out, if you are carrying different types of arrows it can be hard to find the one you need. Lastly arrows carried on the back snag on trees all the time. Most importantly there is no evidence at all that arrows were carried in back quivers in Europe.
|17th Century Archer|
hip quiver largely depicted being suspended from the waist. Certainly for the battles described in some highland histories a means of carrying arrows would be required, while in prepared ambushes arrows could be set in the ground. I suspect that in larger engagements arrows were supplied by the state, king or clan as they were for English armies. Arrows cannot really be carried in great quantity so for large engagements some form of re-supply would be required. For highlanders the end of the supply of arrows characteristically meant the beginning of hand to hand combat.
Quivers were likely made from linen canvas or leather.Medieval and
|Linen Quiver by Head Longbows|
- leather or canvas
- hip quiver suspended from belt of baldric
- simple tube shaped design
|Archer from Knockmoy|