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
Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources were issued. In 2018 a three-volume consolidated edition was published incorporating additions and corrections, including those previously published, into the text. In 2016 the whole DMLBS was published online, under licence from the British Academy. The Logeion version is free and is searchable by headword only. The Brepols version, available by subscription, is more fully searchable. Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources ("DMLBS") is a lexicon of Medieval Latin published by the British Academy. The dictionary is not founded upon any earlier dictionary, but derives from original research. After decades of