Arbalasts

[Awellesley]

Does anyone have a reliable history of the arbalast? When it was introduced, what factions/areas used it, when it faded out and why? Any insight would help.

[bɑne]

Sorry for this not beeing a direct answer (btw you seem to have found one of the few topics where google doesn't help much at all) but as I had to look up what you where refering to I'd thought I'll post a quick info for others that might have to do the same here:

The arbalest (also arblast) was a late variation of the medieval European crossbow. A larger weapon, the arbalest had a steel prod ("bow"). Since an arbalest was much larger than earlier crossbows, and because of the greater tensile strength of steel, it had a greater force. The strongest windlass-pulled arbalests could have up to 22 kN (5000 lbf) strength and be accurate up to 500 m. A skilled arbalestier (arblaster) could shoot two bolts per minute. Arbalests were sometimes considered inhumane or unfair weapons, since an inexperienced arbalestier could use one to kill a knight who had a lifetime of training.

The term arbalest is sometimes used interchangeably with crossbow. 'Arbalest' is Medieval French corruption from the Roman name arcuballista for crossbow; Modern French uses the word arbalète, which is linguistically one step further from the stem (disappearance of the s phoneme in the last syllable before t). The word applies for both crossbow and arbalest (the latter may be referred to as heavy crossbow, but an actual heavy crossbow may not be the same as an arbalest). In some cases, the word has been used to refer to the people who actually used the weapon.

[Awellesley]

(btw you seem to have found one of the few topics where google doesn't help much at all)

I know. Weird huh? That's why I asked on here. Sometimes people on here surprise you with their obscure military knowledge.

[bɑne]

For the phasing out and to get this thing rolling:

1503 CE --- First of a succession of English laws restricting the use of crossbows.
1520 --- Crossbow discontinued as a military weapon in Sweden. (Wilkinson-Latham, p. 168)

So far I found the late 14th as a introduction date (thanks to machine translated german wikipedia) which is vaguely supported by

1373 CE --- Earliest illustration of the cranequin or rack.
15 th. century --- Cranequin first documented

I might have/find something on/in Medieval Scandinavian Armies: 1300-1500 - fingers crossed...