My wife tells me the real pull of the medieval longbow is
absolutely incredible, those acquired from the MaryRose (a sunken
galleon of HenryVIII of England) are on average 300lb pull bows, This
is against 40-60lbs which are commonly used today. The medieval archer
could keep on average 6 arrows in the air on the range of about 400
yards. At close ranges they would fire directly at the target.

At Agincourt (as at Crecy) the real effectiveness of Archers was
increased by the use of stakes which allowed them to fire straight at
the cavalry and the slow foot knights as they crossed this maze and
fatalities were between 85 and 90% pershot. (Amazingly high when
compared with AD&D). Also at Agincourt the x-bow was shown to be poorer
because of the ability to remove the strings, the English archers
removed the string in the morning rain before the battle, were as the
Flemish crossbow could not remove their strings because of the half day
needed to restring an X-bow. The X-bows were rendered useless because
of the rain as they became fissile in the wet.

Anyway, long live the Longbow.