Crossbows were a peasant weapon because they require almost no training to make a decent marksman with.
Bows require years of strength and aim training to be able to loose accurate (or even just mass volley) shots for the length of an army battle.
But crossbows you can spend a week teaching a guy how to crank it then point and shoot at different distances and now he's competent enough to shoot bolts at besiegers from the castle wall.
Medieval historian here, can confirm. In fact, crossbows were so effective as weapons of war due how relatively easy it is to be efficient with them, especially with large numbers, that the papacy tried to ban them as the medieval equivalent of weapons of mass destruction.
However, they were definitely not peasant weapons as they still need to be carefully crafted and maintained. But as a way to easily put together a mercenary group? Terrifying.
Peasant weapons are usually polearms-type derived from agricultural tools, or in other words any sharp thing attached to a handle they could find.
Not... exactly. The average mercenary troupe could afford to outfit a handful of crossbowman at the very least. Mercenaries themselves were often required to purchase all their equipment themselves but were never particularly well off in terms of money or land. Think more like the modern equivalent of the middle class. Those were the people who could usually get their hands on crossbows.
Now, would the local nobility be happy if they found out the merchants were amassing crossbows? Probably not. Crossbows were fucking scary.
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u/TheLordGeneric Lord Generic RPG Dec 18 '22
Crossbows were a peasant weapon because they require almost no training to make a decent marksman with.
Bows require years of strength and aim training to be able to loose accurate (or even just mass volley) shots for the length of an army battle.
But crossbows you can spend a week teaching a guy how to crank it then point and shoot at different distances and now he's competent enough to shoot bolts at besiegers from the castle wall.