A longbow is a tall, powerful bow made from a single piece of wood, traditionally as tall as the archer using it. Unlike shorter bows, a longbow requires great strength to pull back its string, but it can launch arrows with tremendous force and accuracy over long distances.

English longbowmen were legendary warriors in medieval Europe. At battles like Crécy and Agincourt in the 1300s and 1400s, English archers using longbows could shoot arrows that pierced armor from hundreds of yards away. A skilled archer could fire ten or twelve arrows per minute, turning the sky dark with volleys of arrows. This gave England a huge military advantage for centuries.

Learning to use a longbow took years of practice. English law once required men to practice archery regularly, and archers developed incredibly strong arms and shoulders from pulling back the heavy bowstring thousands of times. Archaeologists can actually identify medieval archers' skeletons because their arm and shoulder bones show signs of this intense, lifelong training.

Though guns eventually replaced longbows in warfare, people still practice longbow archery today as a sport and to connect with this remarkable piece of history.