Archery, the practice or art of shooting with a bow and arrow, has played an important part in English history, being the main weapon of the foot-soldier and instrumental in winning many battles in wars with the French - with whom we seemed to be constantly at war during the Middle Ages. The English favored the longbow over the short bow and the crossbow, the latter being the main firearm of militaries on the European continent. The crossbow fired a metal bolt released by a trigger, rather like a gun, and had the longest range of any of the bows, but the main advantage of the longbow was its accuracy. The importance placed on archery is illustrated by the fact that medieval kings in England encouraged the practice and one of them, Edward III, went so far as to ban all sports on Sundays and holidays except archery. Because there were no standing armies in those days, and in the event of war rulers had to call on the populace, everything was done to make sure there were large numbers of competent, if not expert archers, to recruit.