Worshipful Company of Bowyers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Worshipful Company of Bowyers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, England.

[edit] History

Originally, the Bowyers (longbow makers) and Fletchers formed one organisation. However, in 1371, the Fletchers petitioned the Lord Mayor of the City of London to divide into their own Company.

The actual trade of the Bowyers, considering the development of guns, has disappeared entirely. The Company still remains, however, as a charitable institution, as do a majority of Livery Companies.

The Bowyers' Company ranks thirty-eighth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies, immediately above the Fletchers.

Its motto is Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt, a reference to the Battle of Crécy, the Battle of Poitiers, and the Battle of Agincourt, all battles between medieval England and France in the Hundred Years' War in which longbows and English longbows were used to great effect by English and Welsh archers.

HMS Northumberland is affiliated to it.