tyme my poore father was as diligent to teach me to shote as to learne
anye other thynge....He taught me how to drawe, how to laye my bodye
in my bowe, and not to drawe wyth strength of armes as other nacions
do, but wyth strength of the bodye. I had bowes broughte me accordyng
to my age and strength; as I encreased in them, so my bowes were made
bigger, and bigger, for men shal neuer shot well, excepte they be
broughte up in it." The advantage of this weapon over the steel
crossbow (used by the Genoese) lay in the fact that it could be
discharged much more rapidly, the latter being a cumbrous affair,
which had to be wound up with a crank for each shot. Hence the
English long bow was to that age what the revolver is to ours. It
sent an arrow with such force that only the best armor could withstand
it. The French peasantry at that period had no skill with this
weapon, and about the only part they took in a battle was to stab
horses and despatch wounded men.
Scott, in the Archery Contest in "Ivanhoe" (Chapter XIII), has
given an excellent picture of the English bowman.

239. Use of Cannon, 1346; Chivalry.

At Cre'cy (S238) small cannon appear to have been used for the first
time in field warfare, though gunpowder was probably known to the
English friar, Roger Bacon (S208), a hundred years before. The object
of the cannon was to frighten and annoy the horses of the French
cavalry. They were laughed at as ingenious toys; but in the course of
the next two centuries those toys revolutionized warfare (S270) and
made the steel-clad knight little more than a tradition and a name.

In its day, however, knighthood (S153) did the world a good service.
Chivalry aimed to make the profession of arms a noble instead of a
brutal calling. It gave it somewhat of a religious character.

It taught the warrior the worth of honor, truthfulness, and courtesy,
as well as valor,--qualities which still survive in the best type of
the modern gentleman. We owe, therefore, no small debt to that
military brotherhood of the past, and may join the English poet in his
epitaph on the order:

"The Knights are dust,
Their good swords rust;
Their souls are with the saints, we trust."[1]

[1] Coleridge; see Scott's "Ivanhoe."

240. Edward III takes Calais, 1347.

King Edward now marched against Calais. He was particularly anxious
to take the place: first, because it was a favorite resort of
desperate pirate