One of the more bizarre exams at Medical School was the dreaded "spot test" of recognizing and identifying anatomical structures on a prepared specimen. A pin would be placed at a specific part of an organ, and the student should note the correct latin name for that anatomical structure.
I got lucky; my specimen was part of an arm, and most structures had been removed leaving only a single muscle to identify. Preserved in formaldehyde, the muscle ran across the bones of the arm from the humerus near the shoulder to the radial styloid near the wrist. Only one muscle does that. I wrote down “Musculus Brachioradialis”, and I got my answer right.
The brachioradialis muscle is an extremely important muscle. You can win a war with this muscle.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Henry V [IV, 3, 56-67]
The Battle of Agincourt fought on 25th October 1415 is famed not only for the depiction in Shakespeare's play, but for the unexpected victory of a weakened and decimated English army against a well equipped and numerically superior French army. And for the superior use of the longbow.
During the Hundreds Years’ War, King Henry’s campaign in Normandy could have been disastrous. After a prolonged siege of Harfleur, the English army was weakened by disease, and Henry decided to retreat to the English-held stronghold of Calais. The French army blocked their way and expected an easy victory. French noblemen demanded to be placed in the front lines to earn glory. But King Henry had the advantage of choosing a battlefield, and he chose a defensive strategy at a site where the superior numbers of the French would not matter. The two armies met in a recently ploughed field hemmed in by woodlands, forcing the French to charge in a narrow file through deep mud. The English longbowmen were positioned at both flanks and met the French attack with a barrage of arrows. Within minutes the French had suffered immense losses, and the English king had the day.
The Battle of Agincourt - like the Battle of Crecy in 1346 - was won by the English longbowmen. Although the opposing forces had crossbows shooting at superior velocity, the English could release a huge number of arrows in a short time, covering their enemy in a hail of shots. The English longbow was the decisive weapon on the European battlefields for centuries.
To master the longbow, you need the brachioradialis muscle. You can identify it by flexing your elbow in a 90 degree angle from your body, like a villain pointing a gun in a gangster movie. Keep something heavy in your hand with your thumb pointing upward, and you will see brachioradialis stretching from your elbow to your wrist. It should be evident that this muscle is necessary in holding a longbow steady.
Neurophysiologic examinations of archers find the brachioradialis muscle crucial in stabilizing the bow and thereby hitting the target. It is the training of the brachioradialis that separates the professional archer from the amateur, and it takes years of practice.
The English archers fighting at Agincourt had had just that. King Henry’s great-grandfather Edward III was well aware of the necessity of the longbowmen and the need for practice, and he prohibited other sports like football, hockey and bowling. In 1363 a parliament ordinance instructed Englishmen to spend their Sundays shooting at the butts. Later statutes banned the possession of crossbows and handguns, promoting the use of the longbow. With these apparently peaceful and simple measures, English kings achieved a formidable army of expert longbow archers that could be called upon in time of war.
Edward III had claimed the French throne in 1337, triggering the Hundred Years’ War. Henry V had inherited this claim, as expressed by Shakespeare:
Unwind your bloody flag;
Look back into your mighty ancestors:
Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit.
Henry V [I, 2, 101-104]
He had also inherited the formidable army of longbowmen; archers with a well-trained brachioradialis muscle, capable of stabilizing the bow, shooting at high frequency, covering the French army in a hail of arrows, and winning the battle of Agincourt.
With the Treaty of Troyes, Henry V was recognized as the heir to the French throne, and with his marriages to the French princess Catherine of Valois, a union between England and France seemed possible. But with his early death in 1422, peace was again lost.
In the following centuries, the longbow would lose its importance. Battles would be fought with other weapons, wars would be won by other means. Archery is now a discipline of sports and friendly competition rather than bloody fighting in European mud.
Human anatomy and medical school exams are however unchanged, and you will still be able to identify the brachioradialis muscle by its insertion on the radial styloid. You might even recall it as the muscle that won the battle on Saint Crispin's day.
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Gunn S: Archery Practice in Early Tudor England. Past & Present. 2010.
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