Has anybody else been watching this series on PBS?  It's one of the few things on that network that interest me (others being The Red Green Show and Austin City Limits).

Good accounts of battles as the two hosts go to the historical sites and go over how the fights developed and turned out.

Those Brits have a pretty violent history, between the England/Wales/Scotland/Ireland fights and Protestant vs Cotholic rivalries.

No, but thanks for the heads up.  I'll try to catch it next time.

There has been a great show, produced by the BBC, on History International called "What did the Romans do for us" or "What did the Victorians do for us" etc.  Little 30 minute shows about how the world changed because of these people.

And then I saw a cool show on History Channel about the English Longbow like 2 days ago.  How they made them and such, and then talked about the Battle of Crecy.

Ok I'll shut up.

Quoted: Quoted: And then I saw a cool show on History Channel about the English Longbow like 2 days ago.  How they made them and such, and then talked about the Battle of Crecy.. Ah, the original Weapon of Mass (Phrench) Destruction... ANdy

I think we forget that all those characters from history were real people who had real lives.

And then the Brits took a ridge with the sun at thier back, the French had to manuver thru a small opening in the terrain (choke point).  The French had no archers, so they hired Genovese crossbowman, who they put at the front.  They started taking longbow fire but weren't in range to shoot back, so they went for a tactical retreat.  The French 'nobles' killed them for retreating, and lost all thier ranged attack ability  And it was all down hill from there.  Or rather, uphill, as they had to cross a valley and then charge up hill.

The English offically lost 2 knights and no nobles.  The French aristocracy and noblry were dessimated, I think half thier army (10 of the 20k) were killed.  

They showed a (modern) British dude shooting a 150 lbs draw bow too.

Quoted: Quoted: And then I saw a cool show on History Channel about the English Longbow like 2 days ago.  How they made them and such, and then talked about the Battle of Crecy.. Ah, the original Weapon of Mass (Phrench) Destruction... ANdy

A few years ago I was in England and toured Warwick Castle.  There was a medievel reenactor portraying a longbowman giving a demonstration.  You could tell this guy had practiced!

Afterward he had the audience come in close and he gave a telling of the Battle of Agincourt like he witnessed it.  It was great.  He started by asking people where they were from.  

"Anybody from England?"

A group of small children raised their hands and cheered.

"Anybody from Scotland?"

An elderly man, probably about 70, raised his hand.

The archer pulled out his dagger, gave a steely gaze, and said, "The French fought for the Scots, so I'll not mourn your death, but I will ravish your woman."  He was really in character.

After he was finished I struck up a conversation, having recently taken up archery with a 55# recurve.

He let me try his "lightest" bow - a 100 pound longbow.  I couldn't even get it to full draw, and he had shot a good 20+ arrows during his demo!

You gotta think, it was like the 50 cal of its day.

It gave you ranged attack, longer range than a crossbow, and a faster rate of fire up close.

The English had 5000 foot archers and 2500 mounted (good for skirmishing and running thru villages setting things on fire).  The show estimated that the 7500 Britons could have loosed 90,000+ arrows in 40 seconds.