Improvements to the release mechanism and to the bolt also added to the efficiency of the
weapon. By the early 13th century, castles were being designed with openings for
arbalètes and ships were being outfitted with the weapon, and during the reign of Philip
the Fair the offices of master and clerk of crossbowmen were established to oversee the
military organization and pay of these troops. The master of crossbowmen who
eventually became the military leader over the entire infantry was often not a professional
soldier, and the units of French or mercenary crossbowmen frequently in battle were
confused, disorganized, and at odds with the other infantry or cavalry troops.
By the mid-14th century, crossbows were being replaced in defense of castles by
small-caliber cannons, and a decline in the craft was also apparent. Steps were taken to
halt this decline—Charles V in 1384 prohibited the playing of any game except with bow
or crossbow, and Charles VII in the 1440s set up companies of franc-archers who used
the weapon—but ultimately the arbalète could not survive the late 15th-century influx of
handguns. By 1550, the weapon had disappeared from the battlefield.
Kelly DeVries
[See also: ARCHER/BOWMAN]
Bradbury, Jim. The Medieval Archer. New York: St. Martin, 1985.
Contamine, Philippe. War in the Middle Ages, trans. Michael Jones. London: Blackwell, 1984.
Foley, V., G.Palmer, and W.Soedel. “The Crossbow.” Scientific American 252(1985): 104–10.
Nicolle, David C. Arms and Armour of the Crusading Period, 1050–1350. 2 vols. White Plains:
Kraus, 1988.
Payne-Gallwey, Ralph. The Crossbow. London: Longmans, 1903.
CRUSADE CYCLE
. This group of chansons de geste about the First and Third Crusades dates from the 12th,
13th, and 14th centuries. It is usually divided into two parts, a First Crusade and a Second
Crusade Cycle; the poems of the second cycle are a partly revised, extended version of
the first. (A state intermediate between the two cycles also has been preserved.) The texts
are all in twelve-syllable rhymed laisses; they vary from about 2,000 lines to 10,000 and
more. In its most developed form, the cycle counts some 60,000 lines. It has come under
extensive critical scrutiny only recently.
Thirteen separate poems, or branches, are usually counted in the First Crusade Cycle.
Their chronological order is roughly as follows: Chanson d’Antioche (late 12th c.);
Chanson de Jerusalem, Chétifs, Chevalier au Cygne, Enfances Godefroi de Bouillon,
Naissance du chevalier au Cygne (Les Enfants-Cygnes) (all probably early 13th c.); Fin
d’Elyas, Retour de Cornumaran (13th c.); and the continuations of the Chanson de
Jérusalem: Chrétienté [i.e., conversion of] Corbaran, Prise d’Acre, Mort Godefroi,
Chanson des rois Baudouin, and the “Second Continuation,” which has several forms and
brings the story of the Crusades down to the time of Saladin; the latter branches are
known in varying versions from the late 13th or early 14th century. There are also two
abbreviated prose versions of parts of the First Crusade Cycle, one from the late 13th
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