Much of England's success in the Hundred Years War is attributed to England's use of large infantry formations made up of commoners armed with the longbow. A variety of factors including the Black Death and the amalgamation of several cultures, created a society in England with a relatively high degree of social mobility. The demands of war against a much larger opponent combined with England's relative social mobility made it possible for England to incorporate low born archers into their professional military community which previously only included the aristocracy and the gentry. The success of these common archers on the battlefield continued to increase the level of social mobility available to low born men. English "Yeoman Archers," as they came to be known, became the embodiment of a new social order in which ability was more prized than birth. They had a dramatic impact on the character of warfare in the fourteenth century and the development of the western way of war as we know it today.

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