The topic of nobles and archery came up in Toupellon today. Gustav Kuriga (plays Henzo Kuriga in Toupellon) posted this link:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/war-archery-and-social-status.pdf It's a quite long paper prepared by someone in the SCA on the use of archery in warfare by nobility. I thought it was quite interesting. It specifically focuses on warfare, and not the ever-so-frequently-requested "archery tournaments". It has extensive sources and footnotes.
I particularly liked this account of King Richard I:
For this purpose, he caused to be made a hurdle, commonly called a
circleia, put together firmly with a complication of interweaving, and
made with the most subtle workmanship. This the king intended to be
used for crossing over the trench outside the city. Under it he placed
his most experienced arbalesters, and he caused himself to be carried
thither on a silken bed, to honour the Saracens with his presence, and
animate his men to fight; and from it, by using his arbalest, in which
he was skilled, he slew many with darts and arrows.
