Editing English longbow (section)

== Social importance ==

The importance of the longbow in English culture can be seen in the legends of [[Robin Hood]], which increasingly depicted him as a master archer, and also in the "Song of the Bow", a poem from ''The White Company'' by Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]].<ref>{{harvnb|Conan Doyle|1997|loc=}} </ref>

During the reign of [[Henry III of England|Henry III]], the [[Assize of Arms of 1252]] required that all "citizens, burgesses, free tenants, villeins and others from 15 to 60 years of age" should be armed.<ref>{{harvnb|Kruschke|1985|p=31}}</ref> The poorest of them were expected to have a [[halberd]] and a knife, and a bow if they owned land worth more than £2.<ref>''The right to keep and bear arms: report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-seventh Congress, second session'', U.S. G.P.O., 1982 [https://books.google.com/books?id=babX_QDeTf4C&pg=PA46 p. 46] (see also: David T. Hardy, Partner in the Law Firm Sando & Hardy ''[http://www.guncite.com/journals/senrpt/senhardy.html#fn8 Historical Bases of the Right To Keep and Bear Arms])</ref> This made it easier for the King to raise an army, but also meant that the bow was a weapon commonly used by rebels during the [[Peasants' Revolt]]. From the time that the [[yeoman]] class of England became proficient with the longbow, the nobility in England had to be careful not to push them into open rebellion.<ref>{{Harvnb|Andrzejewski|2003|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qCA8EsnLmb4C&pg=PA65 p. 65]}} "It is surely not accidental that the only peasant revolt in England which succeeded took place at the time of the predominance of the longbow".</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Trevelyan|2008|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dhzdClLxMr8C&pg=PA18 p. 18]}} "The good yeoman archer 'whose limbs were made in England' was not a retrospective fancy of Shakespeare, but an unpleasant reality for French and Scots, and a formidable consideration for bailiffs and Justices trying to enforce servile dues or statutory rates of wages in the name of Law, which no one high or low, regarded with any great respect".</ref>

It has been conjectured that [[Taxus baccata|yew]] trees were commonly planted in English churchyards to have readily available longbow wood.<ref>{{cite web |title=Yew Trees in Churchyards |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/osc/osc74.htm |website = Internet Sacred Texts Archive |access-date = 17 August 2014}}</ref>