Sentence examples for crossbowman from inspiring English sources

The first such aid of military significance was a hook suspended from the belt: the crossbowman could step down into a stirrup set in the front of the bow's stock, loop the bowstring over the hook, and by straightening up use the powerful muscles of his back and leg to cock the weapon.

He took no part in a skirmish at Alfarrobeira in May 1449, in which Pedro was killed by a chance shot from a crossbowman.

The crossbowman, unlike the archer, did not have to be particularly strong or vigorous, and his volume of fire was not as limited by fatigue.

A seafarer, a tennis player, a jockey, a mermaid with a seaweed crown, a crossbowman, a World War I doughboy, a boy with a slingshot, a fisherman — there is no other individualized sidewalk carving on this scale in New York.

The clay figures, once brightly painted with mineral colours, were grouped into a specific military formation a configuration of vanguard bowmen and crossbowmen, outer files of archers, groups of infantrymen and charioteers, and an armoured rear guard that followed the military prescriptions of the time.

It could be made high enough to frustrate improvised escalade and, unlike a wooden palisade, could be fitted with a parapet and crenellated firing positions along the top to give cover to defending archers and crossbowmen.

Gone were the days when one nation specialized in heavy cavalry, another in light cavalry, still another in pikemen, archers, or crossbowmen.

When town met town in a challenge of skill, the companies of crossbowmen and longbowmen marched behind the symbols of St . George St. Sebastian, and other patrons of the sport.

William disposed his army for attack archers and crossbowmen in the front line, his heavy infantry in the second, his knights in three divisions in the rear, Normans in the centre, Bretons and French on left and right, respectively.

Protruding towers also enabled defenders to bring flanking fire along the face and foot of the wall, and the towers were made higher than the wall to give additional range to archers and crossbowmen.

The signal victory of an outnumbered English army of longbowmen and dismounted men-at-arms over mounted French chivalry supported by mercenary Genoese crossbowmen at Crécy on Aug. 26, 1346, marked the end of massed cavalry charges by European knights for a century and a half.