Arbalest

The arbalest is a heavy medieval crossbow that used a steel prod, or bow arm, in place of the wood or composite prods of earlier crossbows, requiring a mechanical spanning device such as a cranequin or windlass to draw the much stronger steel bow, and it became a significant medieval European infantry weapon from roughly the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries. Its steel construction and mechanical drawing system gave it considerably greater power and penetrating force than a hand-drawn crossbow or contemporary bow, capable of piercing plate armor at effective range, but the slow reload time imposed by the spanning mechanism left an arbalestier vulnerable during the reloading process and limited its practical rate of fire compared with a longbow in skilled hands. The Second Lateran Council of 1139 attempted to ban the crossbow, including weapons of this type, as too lethal for use among Christians, a prohibition that was widely ignored and had little lasting effect on the weapon's continued use in European warfare through the late medieval period.