Editing English longbow (section)

=== Draw weights ===
Estimates for the draw of these bows varies considerably. Before the recovery of the ''Mary Rose'', Count M. Mildmay Stayner, Recorder of the British Long Bow Society, estimated the bows of the medieval period drew {{convert|90|–|110|lb-f|N|lk=on|abbr=off}}, maximum, and W. F. Paterson, Chairman of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries, believed the weapon had a supreme draw weight of only {{convert|80|–|90|lb-f|N|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Kaiser|1980}} Other sources suggest significantly higher draw weights. The original draw forces of examples from the ''Mary Rose'' are estimated by [[Robert Hardy]] at {{convert|150|–|160|lb-f|N|abbr=on}} at a {{convert|30|in|cm|1|adj=on}} draw length; the full range of draw weights was between {{convert|100|–|185|lb-f|N|abbr=on}}.<ref name=Strickland-17>{{harvnb|Strickland|Hardy|2005|p=17}}</ref> The {{convert|30|in|cm|1|adj=on}} draw length was used because that is the length allowed by the arrows commonly found on the ''Mary Rose''.

A modern longbow's draw is typically {{convert|60|lb-f|N|abbr=on}} or less, and by modern convention measured at {{convert|28|in|cm|1|}}. Historically, hunting bows usually had draw weights of {{convert|50|–|60|lb-f|N|abbr=on}}, which is enough for all but the very largest game and which most reasonably fit adults can manage with practice. Today, there are few modern longbow archers capable of using {{convert|180|–|185|lb-f|N|abbr=on}} bows accurately.{{sfn|Strickland|Hardy|2005|pp=13, 18}}<ref>A review of ''The Great Warbow'' "The power of a bow is measured in its draw-weight, and these days few men can pull a bow above 80lb... and skeletons retrieved from the wreck show spinal distortions, indicating just what it took to be a proper archer" {{harv|Cohu|2005}}.</ref><ref>In the English language there is the expression that someone "was not pulling their weight". This is thought to infer that someone was using a longbow that had a draw weight that was less than that person's body weight.</ref>

A record of how boys and men trained to use the bows with high draw weights survives from the reign of Henry VII.

{{Blockquote|[My yeoman father] taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow ... not to draw with strength of arms as divers other nations do ... I had my bows bought me according to my age and strength, as I increased in them, so my bows were made bigger and bigger. For men shall never shoot well unless they be brought up to it.|Hugh Latimer.{{sfn|Trevelyan|2008|loc=pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dhzdClLxMr8C&pg=PA18 18], [https://books.google.com/books?id=dhzdClLxMr8C&pg=PA88 88]}} }}

What Latimer meant when he describes laying his body into the bow was described thus:

{{quote|the Englishman did not keep his left hand steady, and draw his bow with his right; but keeping his right at rest upon the nerve, he pressed the whole weight of his body into the horns of his bow. Hence probably arose the phrase "bending the bow", and the French of "drawing" one.|W. Gilpin.<ref>{{harvnb|Trevelyan|2008|p=18}} quoting W. Gilpin (1791) ''Forest Scenery''</ref>}}