Infantry in the Middle Ages heavy toll on the English invaders of their lands. Adapted by the English, the longbow was nevertheless a difficult weapon to master, requiring long years of use and practice. Even bow construction was extended, sometimes taking as much as four years for seasoned staves to be prepared and shaped for final deployment. A skilled longbowman could shoot 12 arrows a minute, a rate of fire superior to competing weapons like the crossbow or early gunpowder weapons. The nearest competitor to the longbow was the much more expensive crossbow or Arbalest, used often by urban militias and mercenary forces. It required
Morning star (weapon) Morning star (weapon) A morning star is any of several medieval club-like weapons consisting of a shaft with an attached ball adorned with one or more spikes. Each used, to varying degrees, a combination of blunt-force and puncture attack to kill or wound the enemy. The morning star first came into widespread use around the beginning of the fourteenth century, particularly in Germany where it was known as "Morgenstern". The term is often confused with the military flail ("fléau d'armes" in French and "Kriegsflegel" in German), which consists of a wooden shaft joined by a length of chain to one