Description

Peasant Bowmen are the most basic support infantry fielded by the armies of Bretonnia. It is customary within Bretonnia for every peasant to learn, willing or not, how to use a longbow. This custom is usually enforced by a local Bretonnian Lord as a means of training their peasantry should the call to war be sounded. Once war is upon the horizon, every able-bodied peasant is encouraged to serve in the armies of Bretonnia as a dedicated holding force.^[1a]

On many occasions, peasants are simply pressed into service alongside the more adequately equipped standing companies of Men-at-Arms, bulking out ranks thinned by casualties or sickness. However, most are employed as levies of longbowmen who are expected to engage enemies unworthy of a knight’s attention. Though the tenets of the chivalric honour forbid a knight to use any kind of missile weapon, there is, of course, no such restriction on the peasants who are not expected to know better.^[1a]