My New Workshop for Northern

<We're dating ourselves with the D&D refs>
(smiles)
My young adult sons (under 21) and their friends play D&D at least once a week. So maybe we're not so dated...

DM: Roll to save against fairism.
Dre: I got a 13.
DM: Not good enough, so this guy is wearing a foxtail and he's staring at you.
Dre: I say, "Well met, our subject."
DM: He just stares at you. Then says, "What do thou wanteth?"
Dre: Painful! Ow!!! Where's my guard?! Where's my guard? Is my guard nearby? I'll just have Gordon eat him.
DM: (rolling dice) No, your guard is at least 25 yards away mass wooing a skinny 14 year old with bad teeth.
Dre: What!? A 14 year old?!
DM: (shrug) It's your guard.
Dre: Okay, I'll have Willoughby "accidentally" stab him.
DM: Willoughby is making out with one of the maids of honor.
Dre: I'm going to have them both horsewhipped. Do I have a hairbrush I can throw? (checks sheet) no, darnit. It's in the other basket.
DM: Right now? Let me see your character sheet. . . you don't have a horsewhip.
Dre: Someone else will horsewhip them. I need someone to get the guy with the foxtail.
DM: (rolling dice) Oh, looks like you got a wandering monster.
Dre: What is it?!
DM: (consults chart) Danse Macabre.
Dre: Argh!
DM: Roll saving throw against Loss of Focus.
Dre: 6! Damn.
DM: Okay, so Danse has your focus.
Dre: I'm going to cast a spell.
DM: Which one?
Dre: Summon Molly.
DM: You can only do that once a day, or--
Dre: --she invokes "Stay in Trailer with Air Conditioning." Yes, I know.
DM: Okay, and it takes a few moments, usually. Roll 2 D6.
Dre: 7. That's enough, I have a bonus.
DM: How high is your Faire Schmooze Factor?
Dre: I have a FSF of 18.
DM: That's worth a +3 on Summon Molly. Okay, yeah, it works.
Dre: Is the guy still there?
DM: Yeah, and he's putting on his archery bracers.
Dre: No!
DM: But your guard is returning now. And so is the 14 year old. It seems the 14 year old is the guy's girlfriend.
Dre: The Guard won't fight him, then. If only Tess were here!
DM: She has that Commedia Geas on her.
Dre: A lot of the good actors have that. It's like a disease.
DM: You're not going to cast, "badmouth show" now, are you?
Dre: No, no, I save that for the Poets.
DM: Okay, well, the foxtail is casting a spell, you detect it, it's "copy this costume." You notice several of the actors are purchasing foxtails down the street.
Dre: Crap! Where's Molly?
DM: Not here yet.
Dre: She's probably in the middle of a spell like "sarcastic reply to people who just don't get it, do they?" Damnit, I might have to get creative and use the "Pretend the sovereign has to pee" spell, though if it backfires...
DM: Yeah, then you risk "Summon costumer," and without any protective runes, you're a goner.

I'm a little confused as to why archers would need more than one bracer (the forward arm being the one that could get "twanged")... unless they are shooting ambidextrously?

I was going to go there, but wanted somebody else to be the killjoy.

Some sort of shared delusion among historians, Pasha?

I'm no expert on matters military, but rather focus me on matters of foolery (though I claim no expertise but experience there) but it's my understanding that there are essentially two forces of "Archers" in question here.

One variety were professional soldiers such as those aboard the Mary Rose when she went down. What they do all day is the same as any soldier does all day, drills, training, and some other peacetime job to fill the hours between outings where they actually get to shoot someone. Just as modern artillerists are not spending all day shooting at things with their howitzers. They have other tasks to fill the times between the moments spent shooting at things. But by Elizabeth's time there were precious few of these, apparently, which I will get to shortly...

The other force of 'archers' are the militias. Think of these as national guardsmen. In times of peace, they are cobblers, inkeepers, tanners, bookbinders, etcetera when they have not been called to an active status to defend the realm against some threat (foreign or domestic).

A footnote from an article I was reading on British History Online sheds light on this: "Edmund Yorke, when directed by Queen Elizabeth in 1588 to organize the defences of the City, after specifying the number of halberdiers, pikemen, musketeers, and arquebusiers required, adds that no archers were to be included, because 'on an alarm the multitude will come armed with such weapons' and 'there would be no use in teaching art what is known by nature'; Stow, Surv. of Lond. (ed. Strype), ii, bk. v, 453."

And yes, there were a good many .laws governing the practice and proficiency of the proud English longbowmen. At one point in the first decade of our century, arbalests (crossbows) were actually outlawed in Britain to keep them from supplanting the longbow. There was also a law enacted by royal decree in 1363 by Edward III that mandated Sunday archery practice for all men (actually, what it did was ban all other forms of recreation, which amounts to the same thing). I cannot find the exact text of the decree, but I'm still looking. Regardless, see: "Law Courts and Lawyers in the City of London 1300-1550" by Penelope Tucker for more details on how this and later repetitions of the decree were enforced (or not). There's a searchable review at Googlebooks.

books.google.com/books

All of that's a little vague and I have yet to find the actual text of the decree, though I have found it quoted here and there. When I find a digitized version, I shall post it. In the meantime, the House of Lords has a great website with their journals posted over at British History Online and we can say from that that in February & March of 1542 they discussed the reinforcement of archery practice to distract young men from dicing and other less savory endeavors. Bills were thence presented before the House of Commons for the setting and maintenance of archery grounds without the towns.

www.british-history.ac.uk/search.aspx
archive.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/200...html

Henry VIII was particularly fond of archery and confirmed and revived the old laws with passage of the Archery Act of 1511 and the Cros-Bows Act of the same year.

"An Act concerning Shooting in Long Bows. ALL Sorts of Men under the Age of Forty Years shall have Bows and Arrows, and use Shooting; certain Persons excepted", &c. Unlawful Games "shall not be used."

Full Parliamentary Records prior to 1660 are not online yet - such as they exist since the fire of 1666 destroyed much - but this nice SCAdian fellow was kind enough to photocopy and copy out some of what does exist pertinent to your question...
www.archery.mysaga.net/archlaws.html

And an excellent article is to be found here touching on this subject...
www.archerylibrary.com/books/..._1.html