I decided, during a break in work, to do a bit of light reading about Norman (as in the people from Normandy circa 1066) tack. I thought it would be neat to make a set of Norman tack for a horse.
In reading, I found this passage in
Festivals, Games & Amusements, Ancient & Modern by Horace Smith (Amazon link):
"During a siege," says this ancient writer, "it happened that two soldiers running in haste towards a tower situated at a little distance from them, were attacked with a number of arrows from the Welsh; which being shot with prodigious violence, some penetrated through the oak doors of a portal, although they were the breadth of four fingers in thickness."
Yes, that's about a hand of penetration through an oak door. From this, I think it's safe to say these bows were more than just a little deadly. According to the Mythbusters, four inches of penetration in a human can be considered potentially lethal, so four inches through an oak door means there's more than enough force to go clean through a human.
What followed was not particularly shocking, in light of the previous passage.
"It happened also in a battle at the time of William de Breusa (as he himself relates), that a Welshman having directed an arrow at a horse-soldier of his who was clad in armour, and had his leather coat under it, the arrow, besides piercing the man through the hip, struck also through the saddle, and mortally wounded the horse on which he sat."
Yikes! That's pretty hard to imagine going through. You've got an arrow in your well-armored hip, you're pinned to your saddle, and your horse just went down under you. You'd think that's a worst case scenario, right?
Wrong!
"Another Welsh soldier having shot an arrow at one of his horsemen, who was covered with strong armour in the same manner as the before-mentioned person, the shaft penetrated through his hip, and fixed in the saddle; but what is most remarkable is, that as the horseman drew his bridle aside in order to turn round, he recieved another arrow in his hip on the opposite side, which passing through it, he was firmly fixed to the saddle on both sides."
Where to begin? Ouch that had to hurt? Or man that guy has rotten luck?
As a historian, and a former joust squire, I find this stuff fascinating, so I thought I'd share it too. It's topical, isn't it? It's horsey, kind of, and it was found while researching for model horse tack.
