I wrote up a profile of what recruitment for English longbow archers during the Hundred Years War was like in this comment. Longbows were made out of yew (imported from continental Europe), with the nocks on the end made of horn. Men would embark on campaign with their own personal arms, but the price of bows was subject to strict royal price controls. That became a problem later on in the Tudor years when archery was on the decline and archery suppliers everywhere were losing business! The logistics of supplying arrows for major campaigns were very complicated and preparations therefore began years in advance of when the army would actually be gathered and deployed.

Other equipment carried by archers varied depending on individual wealth of a given soldier. Some could afford swords and bucklers, there are references to longbowmen armed with hand axes and hatchets, and, perhaps most famously, big ol' mallets were also in use. Every archer, rich or poor, would carry a dagger for knifing wounded men on the ground. Standard English tactics were to use archers as a flanking force once they had either run out of arrows or the enemy had advanced too close to shoot effectively. The possession of bows for free men was mandatory as far back as 1252, but it was Edward III in 1363 who established legal penalties for able-bodied men who did not practice their archery on holidays. Enforcement of these laws varied depending on the locality, current political situation, and time period, but men were prosecuted for it until the end of the 16th century. Hope that answered your questions!

hi! not discouraging other replies, but here are several posts to get you started:

training:

• I am an English longbow archer at Agincourt. How did I join the army, how was I trained, and when do I get to go home after the battle?

• Why did no other nation adopt the use of longbowmen?

• People always say that it takes years to train a good archer. How do we know that? Where did that information come from?

• What were the military advantages and disadvantages of the Welsh/English Longbow?

• Did English longbowmen have significant advantages over other archers with good training/professionalism? (e.g., Saracens of Lucera, Magyar archers, Byzantine psiloi, Turkish Azaps, etc)

• Was the Welsh/English longbow itself really all that special?

equipment:

• A friend made this statement to me a couple of days ago, "The English Longbow was a superior missile weapon to everything up until the American Civil War when repeating rifles started showing up." Was he right?

• How effective really was the 14th century English longbow in combat?