The Crossbow: the weapon of the invaders and the defenders of Vilnius Castle (the late 14th- early 15th centuries)

• RCIN (Digital Repository of the Scientifics Institutes): straipsnio tekstas

ENMissile weapons were despised by knights and widely deemed dishonourable. Therefore while recording the deeds of their clients, the chroniclers, who directly described fights in Lithuania, paid little attention to the virtues of shooters of humble origin. More comprehensive information about the crossbow used in wars against the Lithuanians can be derived from in-ventories of Teutonic Knights' castles, which con-tain a number of peculiarities of the historical de-velopment of Lithuania as well of other outlying areas of this European cultural region. Here the data from written sources are complementary to the information obtained during archaeological excavations. In the Western European wars of the 14th-15th centuries, the crossbow competed with the long-bow (or the English longbow). Despite the posi-tive qualities of the longbow, in Continental Europe, crossbows gained in popularity, because long training was unnecessary to learn how to work them. During assaults on castles and towns and while defending them, a crossbow could be drawn and held in tension for a relatively long time. [Extract, p. 59]

• Istorija / History
• Archeologija / Archaeology