Peasant Bowmen

The Chivalric Code forbids a knight the bow, and so the bow belongs to the peasants. By ancient ducal law every village keeps its archery butts in repair, and on every feast day the young men shoot for coppers and the right to boast; the best of them go to war with a longbow, a skinning knife, and a bundle of fire-hardened stakes.

Bowmen fight the arithmetic war their masters ignore. Massed volleys thin a charge before it strikes, staked ground turns cavalry onto the men-at-arms' polearms, and a lit brazier makes every arrow a small falling torch. When the day is won the songs will be about the lance. The bowmen, many of whom learned their trade poaching deer in their own lord's forest, are well used to going unmentioned.