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[82], The surviving French men-at-arms reached the front of the English line and pushed it back, with the longbowmen on the flanks continuing to shoot at point-blank range. "[67] On top of this, the French were expecting thousands of men to join them if they waited. (Even if archers whose middle fingers had been amputated could no longer effectively use their bows, they were still capable of wielding mallets, battleaxes, swords, lances, daggers, maces, and other weapons, as archers typically did when the opponents closed ranks with them and the fighting became hand-to-hand.). This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew." Since pluck yew is rather difficult to say, like pheasant mother plucker, which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative f, and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. Image source Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . [b] The unexpected English victory against the numerically superior French army boosted English morale and prestige, crippled France, and started a new period of English dominance in the war that would last for 14 years until France defeated England in the Siege of Orlans in 1429. Details the English victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt. During World War II the symbol was adopted as a V for victory. The one-finger salute, or at any rate sexual gestures involving the middle finger, are thousands of years old. The French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, Continue Reading 41 2 7 Alexander L Bowman were not valuable prisoners, though: they stood outside the chivalric system and were considered the social inferiors of men-at-arms. Agincourt and the Middle Finger | First Floor Tarpley If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? One Of The Oldest Insults: The Origin Of The Middle Finger - Storypick Henry managed to subjugate Normandy in 1419, a victory that was followed by the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, which betrothed Henry to King Charles VIs daughter Catherine and named him heir to the French crown. The Burgundian sources have him concluding the speech by telling his men that the French had boasted that they would cut off two fingers from the right hand of every archer, so that he could never draw a longbow again. [23] The army of about 12,000 men and up to 20,000 horses besieged the port of Harfleur. The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory in the Hundred Years' War.The battle took place on Friday, 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) in the County of Saint-Pol, Artois, some. T he battle of Agincourt, whose 600th anniversary falls on St Crispin's Day, 25 October, is still tabloid gold, Gotcha! Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore [soldiers would] be incapable of fighting in the future. When the first French line reached the English front, the cavalry were unable to overwhelm the archers, who had driven sharpened stakes into the ground at an angle before themselves. [19], Henry V invaded France following the failure of negotiations with the French. Shakespeare's portrayal of the casualty loss is ahistorical in that the French are stated to have lost 10,000 and the English 'less than' thirty men, prompting Henry's remark, "O God, thy arm was here". According to contemporary English accounts, Henry fought hand to hand. By most contemporary accounts, the French army was also significantly larger than the English, though the exact degree of their numerical superiority is disputed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). And for a variety of reasons, it made no military sense whatsoever for the French to capture English archers, then mutilate them by cutting off their fingers. There is a modern museum in Agincourt village dedicated to the battle. Several heralds, both French and English, were present at the battle of Agincourt, and not one of them (or any later chroniclers of Agincourt) mentioned anything about the French having cut off the fingers of captured English bowman. But lets not quibble. Most importantly, the battle was a significant military blow to France and paved the way for further English conquests and successes. The Battle of Agincourt took place during the the Hundred Years' War, a conflict which, despite its name, was neither one single war nor did it last one hundred years. Winston Churchhill can be seen using the V as a rallying call. Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415), decisive battle in the Hundred Years War (13371453) that resulted in the victory of the English over the French. [92], The French had suffered a catastrophic defeat. In the ensuing campaign, many soldiers died from disease, and the English numbers dwindled; they tried to withdraw to English-held Calais but found their path blocked by a considerably larger French army. The French had originally drawn up a battle plan that had archers and crossbowmen in front of their men-at-arms, with a cavalry force at the rear specifically designed to "fall upon the archers, and use their force to break them,"[71] but in the event, the French archers and crossbowmen were deployed behind and to the sides of the men-at-arms (where they seem to have played almost no part, except possibly for an initial volley of arrows at the start of the battle). Rogers, Mortimer[117] and Sumption[41] all give more or less 10,000 men-at-arms for the French, using as a source the herald of the Duke of Berry, an eyewitness. I suppose that the two-fingered salute could still come from medieval archery, even if it didnt come specifically from the Battle of Agincourt, although the example that Wikipedia links to (the fourteenth-century Luttrell Psalter) is ambiguous. Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. In such a "press" of thousands of men, Rogers suggested that many could have suffocated in their armour, as was described by several sources, and which was also known to have happened in other battles. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991 ISBN 0-471-53672-5 (pp. Agincourt was a battle like no other but how do the French remember [101] The bailiffs of nine major northern towns were killed, often along with their sons, relatives and supporters. "[102], Estimates of the number of prisoners vary between 700 and 2,200, amongst them the dukes of Orlans and Bourbon, the counts of Eu, Vendme, Richemont (brother of the Duke of Brittany and stepbrother of Henry V) and Harcourt, and marshal Jean Le Maingre.[12]. The English account in the Gesta Henrici says: "For when some of them, killed when battle was first joined, fall at the front, so great was the undisciplined violence and pressure of the mass of men behind them that the living fell on top of the dead, and others falling on top of the living were killed as well."[62]. King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. [116] Rogers, on the other hand, finds the number 5,000 plausible, giving several analogous historical events to support his case,[112] and Barker considers that the fragmentary pay records which Curry relies on actually support the lower estimates. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. Agincourt 1415: The Triumph of the Longbow (Video 1993) - IMDb He told his men that he would rather die in the coming battle than be captured and ransomed. One final observation: any time some appeal begins with heres something that intelligent people will find edifying you should be suspicious. [62] Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. The Battle of Agincourt (/dnkr(t)/ AJ-in-kor(t);[a] French: Azincourt [azku]) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. Rather than retire directly to England for the winter, with his costly expedition resulting in the capture of only one town, Henry decided to march most of his army (roughly 9,000) through Normandy to the port of Calais, the English stronghold in northern France, to demonstrate by his presence in the territory at the head of an army that his right to rule in the duchy was more than a mere abstract legal and historical claim. When 5,000 British Archers Defeated Over 30,000 French Knights Despite the numerical disadvantage, the battle ended in an overwhelming victory for the English. [31] This entailed abandoning his chosen position and pulling out, advancing, and then re-installing the long sharpened wooden stakes pointed outwards toward the enemy, which helped protect the longbowmen from cavalry charges. Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons". Battle of Agincourt | Facts, Summary, & Significance | Britannica Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Barker, Sumption and Rogers all wrote that the English probably had 6,000 men, these being 5,000 archers and 9001,000 men-at-arms. This suggests that the French could have outnumbered the English 5 to 1. Historians disagree less about the French numbers. Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. with chivalry. "[129], The play introduced the famous St Crispin's Day Speech, considered one of Shakespeare's most heroic speeches, which Henry delivers movingly to his soldiers just before the battle, urging his "band of brothers" to stand together in the forthcoming fight. Im even more suspicious of the alleged transformation of p to f. PLUCK YEW!". Clip from the 1944 movie "Henry V" (137 min). In Nature Embodied: Gesture in Ancient Rome, Anthony Corbeill, Professor of Classics at the University of Kansas wrote: The most familiar example of the coexistence of a human and transhuman elementis the extended middle finger. . Inthe book,Corbeillpoints to Priapus, a minor deityhedatesto 400 BC, whichlater alsoappears in Rome as the guardian of gardens,according to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Greece and Rome( here ). [106] This lack of unity in France allowed Henry eighteen months to prepare militarily and politically for a renewed campaign. This battle is notable for the use of the English longbow in very large numbers, with the English and Welsh archers comprising nearly 80 percent of Henry's army. The terrain favoured Henrys army and disadvantaged its opponent, as it reduced the numerical advantage of the French army by narrowing the front. When did the middle finger become offensive? - BBC News The struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. [85], The French men-at-arms were taken prisoner or killed in the thousands. New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. A Dictionary of Superstitions. Why do some people have that one extra-long fingernail on the pinkie finger. A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415 by Sir John Gilbert, Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, Lancashire. Originally representing the erect phallus, the gesture conveyssimultaneously a sexual threat to the person to whom it is directed andapotropaicmeans of warding off unwanted elements of the more-than-human. ( here ). The French monk of St. Denis describes the French troops as "marching through the middle of the mud where they sank up to their knees. The French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, threatened to cut a certain body part off of all captured English soldiers so that they could never fight again. The Battle of Agincourt After the battle, the English taunted the survivors by showing off what wasn't cut off. [38], The French army had 10,000 men-at arms[39][40][41] plus some 4,0005,000 miscellaneous footmen (gens de trait) including archers, crossbowmen[42] (arbaltriers) and shield-bearers (pavisiers), totaling 14,00015,000 men. The pl sound, the story goes, gradually changed into an f, giving the gesture its present meaning. The version that I tell explains the specific British custom of elevating two fingers as a rude gesture. 78-116). . The English were not in an ideal condition to fight a battle. The puzzler was: What was this body part? [44] There was a special, elite cavalry force whose purpose was to break the formation of the English archers and thus clear the way for the infantry to advance. As the story goes, the French were fighting with the English and had a diabolical (and greatly advertised) plan of cutting off the middle fingers of any captured English archers so they could never taunt the French with arrows plucked in their . [21] On 19 April 1415, Henry again asked the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird". A truce had been formally declared in 1396 that was meant to last 28 years, sealed by the marriage of the French king Charles VIs daughter to King Richard II of England. In Gestures: Their Origins and Distribution, Desmond Morris and colleagues note that the digitus infamis or digitus impudicus (infamous or indecent finger) is mentioned several times in the literature of ancient Rome. 138). On October 25, 1415, during the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) between England and France, Henry V (1386-1422), the young king of England, led his forces to victory at the Battle of . [90] In his study of the battle John Keegan argued that the main aim was not to actually kill the French knights but rather to terrorise them into submission and quell any possibility they might resume the fight, which would probably have caused the uncommitted French reserve forces to join the fray, as well. When the French rejected Henrys substantial territorial demands, he arrived in Normandy in August 1415 with a force of about 12,000 men and laid siege to the city of Harfleur. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". False claim: "Middle finger" gesture derives from English soldiers at The city capitulated within six weeks, but the siege was costly. [33], Early on the 25th, Henry deployed his army (approximately 1,500 men-at-arms and 7,000 longbowmen) across a 750-yard (690m) part of the defile. The Battle of Agincourt is well documented by at least seven contemporary accounts, three from eyewitnesses. Humble English archers defeated the armoured elite of French chivalry, enshrining both the longbow and the battle in English national legend. Axtell, Roger E. Gestures: The Dos and Taboos of Body Language Around the World.New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991 ISBN 0-471-53672-5 (pp. The Roman gesturemadeby extending the third finger from a closed fist, thus made the same threat, by forming a similarly phallic shape. First of all, the word pluck begins with the blend pl, which would logically become fl if the voiceless bilabial plosive p has actually transformed into the labiodentalfricative f, which is by no means certain. The Battle of Agincourt was another famous battle where longbowmen had a particularly important . The 'middle finger salute' is derived from the defiant gestures of English archers whose fingers had been severed by the French at the Battle of Agincourt. It may be in the narrow strip of open land formed between the woods of Tramecourt and Azincourt (close to the modern village of Azincourt). Before the battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French proposed cutting the middle finger off of captured English soldiers rendering them incapable of shooting longbows. The fighting lasted about three hours, but eventually the leaders of the second line were killed or captured, as those of the first line had been. The battlefield was a freshly plowed field, and at the time of the battle, it had been raining continuously for several days. The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground. The Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. Some historians trace its origins to ancient Rome. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say (like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker", which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows), the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'f', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. The battle probably lasted no longer than three hours and was perhaps as short as half an hour, according to some estimates. Nicolle, D. (2004). [22], Henry's army landed in northern France on 13 August 1415, carried by a vast fleet. They were successful for a time, forcing Henry to move south, away from Calais, to find a ford. Barker states that some knights, encumbered by their armour, actually drowned in their helmets.[64]. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. [25] The siege took longer than expected. 78-116). Despite the lack of motion pictures and television way back in the 15th century, the details of medieval battles such as the one at Agincourt in 1415 did not go unrecorded. After Henry V marched to the north, the French moved to block them along the River Somme. Henry would marry Catherine, Charles VI's young daughter, and receive a dowry of 2million crowns. The body part which the French proposed to cut off of the English after defeating them was, of course, the middle finger, without which it is impossible to draw the renowned English longbow. October 25, 1415. Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, they said, "See, we can still pluck yew! Poitiers 1356: The capture of a king (Vol. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Corrections? He claimed the title of King of France through his great-grandfather Edward III of England, although in practice the English kings were generally prepared to renounce this claim if the French would acknowledge the English claim on Aquitaine and other French lands (the terms of the Treaty of Brtigny). This would prevent maneuvers that might overwhelm the English ranks. This was an innovative technique that the English had not used in the Battles of Crcy and Poitiers. One popular "origin story" for the middle finger has to do with the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The key word for describing the battle of Agincourt is mud . because when a spectator started to hiss, he called the attention of the whole audience to him with an obscene movement of his middle finger. Morris also claims that the mad emperor Caligula, as an insult, would extend his middle finger for supplicants to kiss. [50] Both lines were arrayed in tight, dense formations of about 16 ranks each, and were positioned a bowshot length from each other. As the mle developed, the French second line also joined the attack, but they too were swallowed up, with the narrow terrain meaning the extra numbers could not be used effectively. giving someone the middle finger Dear Cecil: Can you confirm the following? Battle of Agincourt: English victory over the French | Britannica This famous weapon was made of the . It. Updates? Giving the Finger - Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. [86], The only French success was an attack on the lightly protected English baggage train, with Ysembart d'Azincourt (leading a small number of men-at-arms and varlets plus about 600 peasants) seizing some of Henry's personal treasures, including a crown. [88], Regardless of when the baggage assault happened, at some point after the initial English victory, Henry became alarmed that the French were regrouping for another attack. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019 with bachelor's degrees in English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies. The English finally crossed the Somme south of Pronne, at Bthencourt and Voyennes[28][29] and resumed marching north. It seems clear, however, that the English were at a decided numerical disadvantage. The number is supported by many other contemporary accounts. ", "Miracle in the Mud: The Hundred Years' War's Battle of Agincourt", The Agincourt Battlefield Archaeology Project, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Agincourt&oldid=1137126379, 6,000 killed (most of whom were of the French nobility), Hansen, Mogens Herman (Copenhagen Polis Centre), This page was last edited on 2 February 2023, at 23:13. The Hundred Years' War. Its up there with heres something that they dont want you to know.. [93] Entire noble families were wiped out in the male line, and in some regions an entire generation of landed nobility was annihilated. [77][78][79][80] Rogers suggested that the longbow could penetrate a wrought iron breastplate at short range and penetrate the thinner armour on the limbs even at 220 yards (200m). Axtell, Roger E. Gestures: The Do's and Taboos of Body Language Around the World. [97] According to the heralds, 3,069 knights and squires were killed,[e] while at least 2,600 more corpses were found without coats of arms to identify them. [124], The most famous cultural depiction of the battle today is in Act IV of William Shakespeare's Henry V, written in 1599. Medieval warriors didn't take prisoners because by doing so they were observing a moral code that dictated opponents who had laid down their arms and ceased fighting must be treated humanely, but because they knew high-ranking captives were valuable property that could be ransomed for money. . Upon his death, a French assembly formed to appoint a male successor. [76] Modern historians are divided on how effective the longbows would have been against plate armour of the time. In March 2010, a mock trial of Henry V for the crimes associated with the slaughter of the prisoners was held in Washington, D.C., drawing from both the historical record and Shakespeare's play. One of the most renowned. (There is an Indo-European connection between the p-sound and f-sound see the distinction between the Latin pater and the Germanic Vater/father but that split occurred a long time ago.) Battle of Agincourt - English History [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. [109] Juliet Barker, Jonathan Sumption and Clifford J. Rogers criticized Curry's reliance on administrative records, arguing that they are incomplete and that several of the available primary sources already offer a credible assessment of the numbers involved. [5] [b] Henry V 's victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army. [45] A second, smaller mounted force was to attack the rear of the English army, along with its baggage and servants. [94][10][11] The list of casualties, one historian has noted, "read like a roll call of the military and political leaders of the past generation". Two are from the epigrammatist Martial: Laugh loudly, Sextillus, when someone calls you a queen and put your middle finger out., (The verse continues: But you are no sodomite nor fornicator either, Sextillus, nor is Vetustinas hot mouth your fancy. Martial, and Roman poets in general, could be pretty out there, subject-matter-wise.