Dear Mr Cornwell – having read and much enjoyed many of your novels (the only ones i have not finished reading to date are the Sharpe series, although i love the character and have watched the films many times over) its obvious we share the same respect for the role of the Longbowmen in the battle line. My question is – since the french obviously recognised the threat of the yew bow, why didn’t they begin training young peasants as longbowmen? the fighting between England France went on for centuries, so why did they continue to rely on crossbowmen instead? Best Wishes, Matthew Williams