the hobelar

[nathan]

hi all
i want to know all i can on these soldiers and what they look like. i have tried to reseach this but come up with vague accounts and a big lack of any visual accounts of these troops they were around for a good while but there is a lack of information on them probably due to preference of dealing with knights can anyone help me with this?

[Dave Mooney]

There was an article on the Hobelar done in Slua Ghairm Vol2 Issue 2 Page 8. By Mick Wallace. http://livinghistory.ie/downloads/slua/Slua2-2.pdf

[the_power]

Closest I've ever seen to a photo of a Hobelar is; http://livinghistory.ie/~valen/reenactm ... s/1399.jpg - and that's 200 years after its heyday.

john

[kevin714]

Thats a great newsletter can you post more of them?

[nathan]

good newsletter this was the only source i was told of in picture form http://www.wargaming.pl/pliki/art/art041.jpg
but are the guys portrayed actually hobelars in this?
aslo excellent article on them here http://www.scottishhistory.com/articles ... obelar.htm
he highlights that they were faded out over preference for the mounted archer does this mean that they ever adopted bows themselves? just seems likely but im not hugely familiar with irish bows so can anyone help englighten me to irish bows. i know a bit on the longer bows but did they ever use shorter bows of any type?
thanks for the help guys

[Dave Mooney]

Thats a great newsletter can you post more of them?

All she wrote is available at http://livinghistory.ie/downloads/slua/

[the_power]

good newsletter this was the only source i was told of in picture form http://www.wargaming.pl/pliki/art/art041.jpg
but are the guys portrayed actually hobelars in this?

That's 200 years later than the usual use of the word "hobilar", but gives some idea. Hobilar were usually described as unarmoured.

aslo excellent article on them here http://www.scottishhistory.com/articles ... obelar.htm
he highlights that they were faded out over preference for the mounted archer does this mean that they ever adopted bows themselves?

So, a hobilar was mounted infantry. They were (somewhat) replaced by mounted archers; kinda indicates that they either learned to shoot or just got rid of the horse.

just seems likely but im not hugely familiar with irish bows so can anyone help englighten me to irish bows. i know a bit on the longer bows but did they ever use shorter bows of any type?

Seems there was a decent range of bows in use here after the 12thC; seems norse and english bows were the main influence. Halpin's recent book on weapons and armour in Viking & Medieval Dublin describes a lot of the bow finds.

John

[claimhteoir]

http://www.geocities.com/na_degadmediev ... pment.html