Probably the most famous style of wooden bow is the yew English Longbow or Warbow.  An artefact found in Scotland, the Rotten Bottom Bow, dated at 5040 B.P. is fairly similar in design to the modern longbow, as are several finds from Europe from the Neolithic era.  The true longbow as it recognised now, though, is thought to have been developed by the native Welsh population of the British Isles.  Having been effectively used by them against the English, the English adopted the weapon as their own.  The English design was intended to accurately shoot a very thick, heavy arrow for several hundred yards, with enough punch to pierce the full plate armour of mounted knights.  They would draw to well over 100 lbs, meaning that those who used them would have had to train from a very young age.  During the Hundred Years War, between England and France (1337-1453), longbow training was made compulsory in England - in 1363 King Edward III declared: "Whereas the people of our realm, rich and poor alike, were accustomed formerly in their games to practise archery – whence by God's help, it is well known that high honour and profit came to our realm, and no small advantage to ourselves in our warlike enterprises... that every man in the same country, if he be able-bodied, shall, upon holidays, make use, in his games, of bows and arrows... and so learn and practise archery", and passed The Archery Law, which "forbade, on pain of death, all sport that took up time better spent on war training especially archery practise" (emphasis added).  This meant that every able-bodied man in England was obliged to practise archery regularly, providing the King with a solid body of well trained longbowmen.  These common yeomen were used to great effect against the French, forming up to 85% of any one English army.  They secured battles such as Sluys (1340), Crécy (1346), and Poitiers (1356) for the English, not to mention the famous victory in Agincourt (1415).  The French were dismayed that England would send their yeomen to fight in battles against knights, as this was considered to break the unwritten rules of honourable, chivalric warfare.

     By 1350, English yew supplies were dwindling quickly, and private landowners were ordered to allow the Royal bowyers to extract any yew they chose from their land.  By the mid 1400s, English yew was so scarce that any ship docking therein was required to land four yew bow staves for every tun of other cargo - by the mid 1480s, this was increased to ten staves per tun.

     The skeletons of English longbowmen, such as those recovered from the Mary Rose, sunk in 1545, clearly show adaptations resulting from the sustained use of longbows: their bow arms are generally larger and more developed, with very dense, thick bones, commonly showing bone spurs in the shoulder and wrist, and in the string fingers on the other hand.

     Longbows were also used throughout Europe as a very effective hunting tool, although the average hunting longbow would have drawn closer to 60lbs.  While unlikely to pierce plate steel, this weight of longbow would certainly take down all but the biggest game, and send an arrow well over 150 yards.  This is the style of longbow favoured in modern times, as the physical strain placed on the body by a warbow does not comply with modern health & safety standards. ;-)