crossbow of one foot, two foot and 'a tour'

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Micke D

I don't belive this to be true at all.
I will reconsider it when someone can show me a convincing stirrup that you can but two feet in and draw a crossbow.
Another thing to think about is that the draw weight of the two foot crossbow will be way to high to span with just the body.

Perhaps if you go back in the crossbow timeline you recognize that the strenght of primitive examples was no great deal, and the use of the two feet to span them was more a practicality issue than that of applied power; also to remember that the stirrup was a later "invention". That would be the blend for reasoning on the two feet (rather than foot=length) subject. I found that browsing on this subject in french is more fruitfull than in english ... or portuguese. A zillion French websites mention that the use of two feet applied to the bow of medieval (non stirruped) light crossbows was a current situation.

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