[MR] BBC: 600 Year-Old Yew Tree in England

[Garth Groff]

M'Lord Stefan,

Possibly the French could have tried to stop the trade in yew staves, 
but this is something I've never seen mentioned. The French sometimes 
had a navy of sorts, and there were no doubt French pirates and 
privateers active in the channel, just like the English. It is doubtful 
if much of this import traffic went by land across France itself though, 
especially given the frequent wars there. The more likely routes were 
direct from Italy or Spain (which was an English ally at that time), or 
through Flanders for staves from central Europe.

The French nobles were never comfortable in arming their peasants, 
fearing (with good reason, even then) that those weapons would be turned 
against them. French armies were always deficient in archers. Instead, 
they usually hired Genoese crossbowmen. Some of the French kings during 
the 100 Years' War tried to introduce the bow to their peasants, using 
the English model of practice after church. The nobles refused to 
enforce this law and the plan was eventually dropped. Some of those 
nobles later died from English arrows.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, The Archer of Mallard Lodge

On 1/3/2012 6:30 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Lord Mungo Napier said:
> <<< Finally, we archers have, or should have, deep
> respect for the yew, since yew staves were used for the great English
> longbow. Set aside for a moment the fact that English yew is twisty and
> doesn't make good bows, and that nearly all yew bows started with
> continental wood, it reminds us of how valuable this slow-growing and
> rare tree was.>>>
>
> So does this mean that the French could have saved themselves a whole 
> lot of trouble if they'd just kept yew imports from reaching England?
>
> Stefan
>
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
> StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****