I've recently been in a ongoing debate with coworkers over the effectiveness of the English longbow in comparison with crossbows of the time. To sum down the entire discussion, my coworkers, archery enthusiasts, do not believe a crossbow had greater range than a English Longbow during the high point of the longbow's use. I counter with sources saying that crossbows generally had a slightly greater range. But the problem comes in that said sources wildly vary on statistics for either or both weapons. In addition, there are many variables that come into play when comparing the two weapons; such as the draw strength of the bows, materials in construction, and so on and so forth. I ask, can someone give a comparison in statistics of the English Yew Longbow and the crossbow equivalent in the field? If a time frame would be needed, I was starting with 1346 after the Battle of Crecy and onward. In addition, for both my coworkers and I, what are some good books or sources to further educate ourselves on this subject?
Thank you for any answers that might help settle this intense debate of ours. Or for any that further it.
At the time of the Battle of Crecy (in which the crossbows used were not the usual heavy crossbows, but even so) the range and effectiveness of the Longbow was far superior to any crossbow. This continued for a while but crossbows slowly became more and more ranged. In the 15th century a crossbow could launch a bolt over 370 yards, whilst a high but common distance for a Longbow would be around 350 (distances of over 450 could be achieved with both weapons in good conditions).
Despite all this, range isn't the most important factor. Longbows had long thin arrows with large fletchings. They would fly true for the whole of that 350 yard distance and kill a man in armour when they hit, this combined with the rate of fire and excessive training needed to use one (which would increase accuracy) would make the Longbow a very effective weapon
Crossbows on the other hand have short fat bolts, great for punching through someone's chestplate as they walk along the battlements, but as you get close to the maximum range of the crossbow the bolt gets very unreliable. It's shape makes it tumble out of control and at best become very inaccurate (losing lots of kinetic energy along the way), and usually it won't even hit point first, the equivalent of throwing a stick at a man in full plate
To summarise: