So valued did the longbow become in Norman eyes that in 1251, Henry III ordered all men in England to practice at archery on Sundays. Despite being ridiculed by the other military powers, English faith in the longbow was proven in the battlefields of France, and even convinced the Portuguese to use the same tactics as their English allies, allowing them to maintain independence from Spain. The wreck of the Mary Rose (lost in 1545CE) was found to have contained many longbows as well as hundreds of arrows. Although firearms proved their worth in ease of use despite being inaccurate and unwieldly, the English colonists in Virginia even considered longbows for use — the reason why the English then didn't use them wasn't simply because they had firearms, but because they didn't want the native