European Steel Crossbow of 16th Century

This European reproduction closest resembles crossbows donated to the Norwegian museums, despite some features of historical inaccuracy. During the 16th century, the Norwegian peasant army used spears, short swords, and crossbows, resembling earlier warfare from the Viking age. Pikes are too long for the kind of defensive (guerilla-style) warfare that was common. Too much woodland and almost no cavalry. Guns were used, but not in large numbers until the 17th century. Even then the law stated that all free peasants should own a crossbow or a gun.

Regarding archeological evidence of steel prods:
One of the first recorded usage of Steel prods for military use was in the mid. 15th century (from the Burgundian army, source: Das Geschütz im Mittelalter Hardcover – 1 Jan. 1987).

Also seen from the "Padre Island bow" recovered in the 1970's from a 1554 Spanish shipwreck on Padre Island, one of those thin barrier-islands that run along the Texas coast from Galveston all the way to Mexico. There are many such bows in Spanish armories, as well as the castle at Valetta, on Malta and Italian armories as well. In the New World of America, the crossbow was still pretty useful. Spanish allies actually provided thousands of bolts. For example, when Cortes was planning the siege of Technotilan he gave the native allies towns around Texcoco examples of bolts and bolt tips and ordered each allied city to manufacture 8.000 copper bolt tips and 8.000 fletched shafts, receiving in only 8 days more than 50.000 crossbow bolts. Bernal Diaz del Castillo praised the quality of the bolt tips manufactured by the allies.

In North Africa, spaniards also used the crossbow for several decades. In the Algiers expedition of 1541, the absence of a crossbow corps was regretted because the "moors" made several attacks when the rain made impossible for the arquebusiers to fight. Still in 1560 in the planning of the Djerba expedition it was mentioned that it would be good to have some croosbowmen besides a large force of arquebusiers.

The "Maximilian" bow is based on a pair of 'Spanish' type bows that once belonged to Emperor Maximilian I, about 1490-1500. They're substantially larger and stronger than the little Padre Island model... indeed there's a lot of variation in size with Padre Island bows.

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Regarding this reproduction:
Inspired by 16th-century crossbows of the late medieval to renaissance era crossbows, this is a 20th-century reproduction of a crossbow made in the UK likely by Robin Knight. This is not a historical replica, primarily due to the steel nut, the stirrup design that's part of the bow irons, and the lock plates not inlaid into the stock. I believe this was intended as a crossbow used for medieval and renaissance fairs for England and SCA archery demonstration use.

170lb prod

With Linen String with Bow Irons and Goat's Foot Pin. Great size and weight for cavalry but the draw weight is low for military use, so better used as a lightweight recreational crossbow for target or hunting, not an arbalest.

I've asked Tod's Workshop and Andreas Bichler and they confirmed this is not their crossbow. Special thanks to the crossbowbuilders and arbalest guild community for guiding my research.

00:00 Intro
05:46 Roller Nut
08:27 Lock Plates
09:26 Steel Prod
10:35 Stirrup & Bow Iron
11:38 Ash Tiller
12:22 Shooting the crossbow