Talked to you about Sharpe (armed soccer mobs) and Stonehenge (thoroughly unpleasant people). With regard to The Archer: Encountered The Great War Bow by Strickland and Hardy. Fabulous, good for scholars and general public. It appears that the last versions had pulls up to 150 pounds. The book’s authors had a pro who said the physical results of working up to 150 were unpleasant. Indeed, some of the guys up from the Mary Rose seemed to have had bad backs from unbalanced torque–heavy-draw bows, apparently. Robert Low thinks the archers came from locals learning the bow for keeping deer out of the fields and so forth. I don’t see a 150-lb-pull bowman coming from the farms. He’s a full time pro. That’s a lot of guys to be maintained on the public purse. A puzzle, if not a story, there. And, at the end, the formations had everybody mounted, the heavy-armored knights, the men at arms, and the archers. A version of a panzergrenadier division. When I was a grunt, I didn’t worry about who was paying for my noisier diversions. But somebody had to. Interesting about why these guys were maintained at public expense. Some real or perceived threat. Like what? Richard Aubrey