The Archer

The Archer

King Henry VIII of England (1491-1547) primarily remembered for his 6 wives -2 beheaded - is also noted for his founding of the Royal Navy which gave England control of the seas for 400 years.
However, in 1545 an engagement with the French saw Henry's flagship, HMS Mary Rose, capsized and sunk
in shallow waters of the Solent just off England’s south coast.

                        Engagement on the Solent with the Mary Rose sunk and her two masts visible above the fort’s tower,
                                                          King Henry in his red robe rides in side-saddle to observe.

Just as the eruption of Vesuvius and the entombment of Pompeii in 79AD has given us a time capsule of a moment in Roman history, so the raising of the Mary Rose in 1982 has done the same for our knowledge of maritime warfare in Tudor England.

As the Mary Rose likely appeared on the seafloor. 437 years later only her right side that had become buried in silt was found. Dendrology showed her timbers to have been cut between 1478 and 1542.

Not volcanic ash but marine silt preserved half the hull and contents of the ship which now sit on exhibit in Portsmouth, England. Perhaps the most compelling display in the collection is a full skeleton of "The Archer".

Since the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 the longbow had been the machine gun of its age. At Agincourt 500,000 English arrows flew against the French cavalry in the first eight minutes. During this age each Sunday from age 7 to 60 English males would spend Sunday AM in church and PM at archery. Though a rifleman can learn to aim and shoot in twenty minutes, it took a longbowman ten years to develop his skill; a skill that would see an arrow fly every 2 to 3 seconds and hit an 18" square at 200 meters.

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                                                     Warbows, powerful weapons, six feet long and made of yew.

With the weakest pull on the string of a longbow at 75 pounds, going to180, (our present day bows are 20 to 40 pounds), the stress on the human body, especially the skeleton, over endless repetitions is extreme.

And so our Archer, from long ago and dredged from the deep, shows pelvic stress, a spine twisted and compressed, and shoulders with Os acromial or unfused and more pronounced on his left side due to him being a right handed archer.  In his twenties at time of death, he was found lying on a woolen blanket on top of the ballast in the ship's hold. He was wearing a leather jerkin and belt with dagger. Nearby was an archer's wristband decorated with the Royal Arms.

The Archer, a lad in his twenties, with skeletal deformities,
Under normal conditions his shoulders should have fused by age 18.

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