Hi my name's Kevin Hicks welcome to my YouTube channel The History Squad,
now today's video has been voted in by my Patreon members. Hey guys thanks
a million. The subject is accidents with the bow and arrow, accidents with archery,
some modern stories, some personal stories and of course some stories from history.
So accidents with archery. I remember getting my first real bow I was very young probably nine or
around about that age but I lived in a house I think what they call nowadays social housing
they were council estates when I was a kid and your back gardens were, were not that big really
and I've been given a bow for Christmas, three arrows, and I've gone out into the backyard and
straight away I realized that the yard isn't long enough and I thought, I've got to shoot
it. So I point my bow up, draw it as far back as I can and release the arrow and up it went.
Straight away this little kid, Kevin, suddenly goes ‘oh it's coming back down’ so I step in
to our doorway and I noticed the woman opposite in her backyard she's hanging out the washing. It was
only a matter of seconds and the arrow came down what a whoosh. I'm sure she'd have felt the air
rush past as it missed her by inches, stuck in the ground almost in between her legs as she was stood
there pegging her washing out and little Kevin watched, anxious that she didn't step back and
snap his arrow. Now I'd forgotten all about that really until I'm in the Royal Military Police and
we've gone to our museum and we're going through forensics, uh different cases through history and
one of them was of a Kenyan lady and they got a copy of her skull, I think it was a copy,
and it had a neat tiny little hole through the top and we, you know, ‘what caused the wound?’ that's
what they're asking. Well nobody got a clue you know, a bullet or whatever and what had happened
to this unfortunate lady was she was walking along with her bundle of washing on her head
along a hedgerow on the other side of the hedge was a bunch of young lads who had bows and arrows
and one of them, just like Kevin did, let one go up in the air then realize it's coming down they
dive for cover and they never knew where it went. The poor unfortunate woman was found lying dead in
the track, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her until they tried to remove her washing
and goods that were on her head, it was pinned to her skull. The arrow had come down with such force
that it had gone through the clothing and into her skull and into her brain, killing her instantly.
Now I don't know the ins and outs of this, I don't know if those boys ever found out, the fact is,
messing about just like I did with a bow and arrow, but this time it killed a woman and boy
did it remind me of the lady in the backyard from us, with her washing hanging out and my arrow just
literally just behind her. But there's a sad one as well, uh and this was a young British soldier,
beyond despair, he's going to commit suicide and he must have had second thoughts because
he's dialed the emergency number and one of our guys is on the other end of the phone
and he's trying to talk him down, and this chap bless him has got a handheld crossbow,
one of these tiny little crossbows and he's threatening to shoot himself and the military
police on their way around uh they're keeping him on the phone they're talking him down. He
says ‘right I'm going to sit, I'm going to watch the television for a little while.’
The military police go in, they had to break in, and they find the guy kneeling down with
his finger on the button of the TV it's in the old days when he had to press the
on off button and this poor lad was as dead as a doornail. What he didn't realize is he'd
actually pressed the trigger. The crossbow bolt, this tiny little bolt had gone straight through.
It must have been done when he was on the phone, it must have gone off by accident and
when he leaned forward, so I read in the report, as he moved his arm forward he must have touched
something in his brain which finished him off. Accidents with arrows, the misfortune you just
never know, you have to be so careful. Well at Warwick Castle, well one or two stories to tell.
So my time at Warwick Castle, I've got to be honest with you how on earth I didn't
pin somebody to the ground I just don't know. Courting couples coming out the bushes when
I'm practicing long after closing time, you name it, these different things could happen,
but fortunately thank God, touch a bit of wood, I went through all those years without seriously
injuring anybody. Well a couple of knights but that's by the by. But one day I'm right at the
front of the castle, I'm drawing my bow I'm really concentrating and the arrow shattered on the bow.
A piece of the arrow went straight off inside my lip into this part of the
inside of my mouth and gushed blood. I turn around, pulled this splinter of the arrow out
and the audience behind me went ‘Wow isn't that realistic do you see what he did?’
They thought it was all part of the act, but actually you don't have to shoot anybody to
have an accident with a bow and arrow. I had the fletchings of an arrow come loose and go
through the back of my hand and then up through the finger, that actually hurt.
I've also had a bow explode and hit me in the forehead, gave me a bit of concussion but hey
those are just things that happen when you shoot long enough, but whilst I was at Warwick Castle,
I was in touch with people all over the country, archery clubs, people reporting back and something
I hated as a bowman was having somebody down the other end the butts, the target area.
As far as I'm concerned no nobody should be there. If they are marshalls because I'm doing a show
they have to be well out of range and they have to be ready just in case an arrow bounces, anything.
But what happened, two occasions is just kind of beyond me. Apparently a chap was marking where
somebody was shooting on a roving mark, that means shooting long distance at a very small target
and he's running out and he's waving and he's pointing to where the arrow had landed
and then the next one went straight through his shoulder, right the way through. Now I heard this
second hand obviously but it wasn't the story of how he got shot, that was incidental,
the story was how did they get him into the ambulance because there was a yard of arrow
sticking right through him? Apparently they sat him upright and then strapped him to the corner of
the ambulance so he couldn't move until they got him to hospital and when they got him to hospital
they fetched in surgeons from all around so they could all come and have a look and see
how did you get the arrow out of somebody. So I find that amusing you know, dangerous of course,
but amusing. But the next one isn't amusing at all and it just goes to show how dangerous
it is to go to the other end, the sharp end. A chap had lost an arrow. Arrows can be expensive,
it was modern archery the chap was shooting long distance with sights and all of that,
and they'd searched and searched for this arrow and the shooter says ‘could you stand to one side
and watch where the arrow lands, I'll shoot on exactly the same line on the mark and see if I
can replicate the shoot and we'll see if we can find my arrow?’ Now I know it can be frustrating
when you've lost arrows, I've lost countless, and this guy is down the bottom, the sharp end,
and he is watching his friend watching for the arrow and he stepped out to point apparently to
where the arrow had gone when the next arrow went straight through his head.
He was dead. I don't care what you're shooting gun, crossbow or longbow,
if you're at the far end you're either the enemy or you're in mortal danger to be shot
by your friend. But there are cases in history of accidental death with a bow and an arrow.
So one of the famous, the most famous, accidental shooting dead of a person is the killing of
William II, King of England. Rufus was his nickname because apparently he had a ruddy,
very red complexion when he was a kid so they called him Rufus. 2nd of August, 1100. He's out in
the New Forest hunting away, Walter Tyrrell he's there, he's one of the noblemen. So Walter is an
absolute crack shot apparently with the longbow, these guys are hunting stags and the King receives
an arrow straight to the chest which goes through his lung. This would be the kind of arrowhead that
had gone into him but there is a bit of an eyewitness account, well I say eyewitness,
it was written after the fact, but it's from the time pretty much so let's have a little read and
see what they say in their words, and then I'll add a little bit to it. “The sun was now declining
when the King, drawing his bow and letting fly an arrow slightly wounded a stag which passed
before him. The stag was still running. The king followed it a long time with his eyes holding up
his hand to keep off the power of the sun's rays. At this instant Walter Tyrrell decided to kill
another stag. Oh gracious God, the arrow pierced the King's breast. On receiving the wound, the
king uttered not a word but breaking off the shaft of the arrow where it projected from his body this
accelerated his death. Walter Tyrrell immediately ran up but as he found the King senseless, he
leapt upon his horse and escaped with the utmost speed. Indeed they were none to pursue him.”
So basically what happened, the King was hunting and there appears to have been a cross shot and
he’s shot through the chest, breaks the arrow off, tumbles from his horse, he's dead. All of the
noblemen simply have it on their toes, they run away. Walter Tyrell, he's gone. Apparently he died
on pilgrimage in penance for what he'd done, but he was terrified, he'd killed the King. Some say
there was a bit of a murder plot because William II Rufus was a successful King, but as a person
he had many, many different vices, he was not a pleasant man. But I think it was an accident, a
good shot straight through the chest. If it would have been a murder surely they'd have shot him in
the back. Anyway one of the most famous cases of accidental death with an arrow in history.
Another famous incident with an arrow, well actually it was a crossbow bolt was the killing
of Richard the Lionheart, Coeur de Lion on 26th of March 1199 at the siege of Chalus in France,
a tumble down little fortress. Now although he wasn't killed by accident, he put himself up as a
target. He was wandering around the outside of the battlements with Mercadier, his mercenary captain
inspecting this little fortress which was expected to fall at any time. Now one of the stories I read
was that he was waving at the crossbowman as they missed, but one young lad Peter Bue had
a bit of an axe to grind because it was Richard's troops who had killed, allegedly, Peter's father
and brothers so Peter had a go. He shot the King, with a crossbow bolt through the left shoulder.
Now there's a bit of a problem with the crossbow bolt, I'll explain it for you.
An arrow flies through the air, it actually flexes, if you could see a slowed down film as
it hits the target it goes [boing], that kind of thing. Crossbow bolts nothing like that,
it's a solid stick. Some of them I've seen have been made of oak, this is a heavyweight crossbow
look at that, crossbow bolt, you look at that point when it hits you and it goes into your
body and then stops against the bone or inner bone it then judders and rips open the wound
inside, so poor old Coeur de Leon thinks he's been wounded quite slightly and he tries to pull the
crossbow bolt out of his shoulder but he can't. So he goes to the surgeons and the surgeons have a
great deal of trouble removing the crossbow bolt. Perhaps if they’d have seen one of my earlier
videos they have known how to remove a crossbow bolt. However they messed it up. The wound must
have been horrendous. The King dies of septicemia so they say, he died 12 Days later, 6th of April
and uh on his deathbed he forgives Peter Bue. Well the King dies and then look at
the air has the young Peter arrested and what happens next is absolutely horrendous.
They flay Peter alive, that means they skin him alive, and they could do this and keep you alive.
They then hanged him, this was in revenge for killing the King.
Vicious times. And if that King had stayed out of range, if that king would have done
things differently the entire history of England may have been different.
So I've come across a couple of incidents from the Tudor times, in fact Elizabethan times, quite late
on in the Tudor period and boy did I hit close to home because I could have been the shooter in any
one of these, because I have had near misses with both of these kind of incidents. People walking
out in front of the arrows, people lounging near the target. Wow. So I've got to thank
Scholagladiatoria, I found this at this site on YouTube, and they put me onto this, the coroner's
record. 4th of August 1566 Matthew Perry has fell asleep in a ditch at Limehouse butts, he's
fast asleep, it's in the afternoon between two and three o'clock. Who knows why he was there, was he
drunk, was he hiding from his wife? You've got all of the excuses, the fact is it's a summer's day
and he's fast asleep and Matthew snoring his head off doesn't know that William Beckett is now upon
the mark, he's looking at his target and he shoots away and as can happen sometimes an arrow skids
on the side of the target, hits the ground, skids along the ground and hit Matthew in the forehead.
He was badly hit and he lingered for two weeks, he died on the 19th of August
shot in the fore of the head. What on Earth was he doing kipping
near the butts. It's like when we're in the Army was somebody going to sleep down at the butts
where we were shooting? Well it happened and it cost poor Matthew his life. The next report from
the coroners is 26th of September 1566 and I can so relate to this, people watching the archery.
They go to the butts, to the mark, call you what you like and they will watch the arrows flying
down. The mark nowadays it's where you stand, the butts is where the arrow, the target normally is,
and people were standing down there and I've had this time and time again people wanting
to stand close to the target so they can see the arrows going in. I've actually had a film company,
filming the arrows thudding in and I've looked down to pick an arrow out of my arrow bag,
as I've started to draw it the cameraman and the director are actually leaning across the target,
and if you want the honest truth I felt like letting one go just to see if I could have pinned
both of them to the target, when they turned round and saw me they were they were shocked. But people
don't get it do they? And this is what happened on that 26th of September all that time ago 1566
we have William Barnes, he's a shoemaker, he's down at Spitalfields at the mark there. I think
the butts were called 12 Score Pricks, we have no idea why, but Francis Ellman was there with his
longbow and people are watching and Francis shoots an arrow off. It goes, and it's happened to me,
a gust of wind especially if it's long distance has pushed the arrow off course. People are
shouting at William to watch out but he doesn't hear them and the arrow hits him in the head.
He died a few days later killed because he was too close to that target.
But you don't have to be at the sharp end to be injured by an arrow. I had an incident while
shooting on television at Dudley Castle years ago and what I didn't realize I'd shot a couple of
arrows and one arrow had split another arrow. This is what had happened, it was a bodkin and I didn't
notice that I had two lengths of arrows sticking out of the target. So Kevin being Kevin, I'm
chatting away walking towards the target, when the arrow hit me in the corner of the eye giving me a
splendid black eye. It was all captured by the TV crews who thought it was hilarious, till I turned
round and they went ‘Oh, maybe not so funny.’ But if anybody ever says to you can you split
an arrow? There is a Bodkin head through the back of a medieval arrow, he didn't slice the arrow in
half, it just got stuck in and then got stuck into Kevin's eye. Accidents, they will happen.
Well I hope you enjoyed that little video of ours, if you did like share and subscribe and if
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