The battles of Cressy and Poictiers, however, were not entirely gained by the chivalry of England: the bow was a most important weapon in the English army. It had characterised the Normans, and been mainly instrumental in winning for them the battle of Hastings. It was afterwards used by the small landholder, the tenant in soccage, and the general mass of the people, while the lance was the weapon of the lord and the knight. The bow was the emblem of freedom, and the pre-eminence of our archers shows that the political condition of England was superior, in the fourteenth century, to that of any continental nation.[15] The arrow was of the remarkable length of a cloth-yard. The expression in the old ballad of Chevy-Chase, "An arrow of a cloth-yard long Up to the head drew he," marks the usage of our early ancestors; and that sentence of Lear, in Shakspeare's play, "Draw me a clothier's yard," shows that in the sixteenth century the national character had not been lost. It was fostered by every proper means: by royal command archery was practised in towns on holidays, after church; while coits, cock-fighting, and amusements with the ball, were strictly prohibited. Other nations drew the bow with strength of arm, but Englishmen with their whole vigour: they laid their body in the bow[16], as an old writer has forcibly expressed the usage; and when in amusement they were exercising their skill, eleven-score yards was the least distance at which the mark was set up. No one could better shoot an arrow than a yeoman in the days of Edward III.: they were the most powerful attendants which our knights could boast of. "A yeoman had he, and servants no mo, At that time, for him lust to ride so; And he was clad in coat and hood of green. A sheaf of peacocks' arwes bright and keen Under his belt he bare full thriftily. Well coude he dress his takel yemanly. His arwes drooped not with feathers lowe, And in his hand he bare a mighty bowe. A not-hed[17] had he with a brown visage. Of wood-craft coude he well all the usage. Upon his arm he bare a gay bracer, And by his side a sword and a bokeler; And on that other side a gay dagger, Harnessed well, and sharp as point of spere; A Cristofere on his breast of silver shene; An horn he bare, the baudrick was of green. A forster was he, soothly as I guess."[18]