A Dictionary of Superstitions. By contrast, Anne Curry in her 2005 book Agincourt: A New History, argued, based on research into the surviving administrative records, that the French army was 12,000 strong, and the English army 9,000, proportions of four to three. 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. 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. Loades, M. (2013). The key word for describing the battle of Agincourt is mud . [c], The English made their confessions before the battle, as was customary. The Duke of Brabant (about 2,000 men),[65] the Duke of Anjou (about 600 men),[65] and the Duke of Brittany (6,000 men, according to Monstrelet),[66] were all marching to join the army. [133] Branagh's version gives a longer, more realist portrayal of the battle itself, drawing on both historical sources and images from the Vietnam and Falkland Wars.[134]. Fixed formatting. with chivalry. The struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. 78-116). 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. 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. [39] Curry, Rogers[118] and Mortimer[42] all agree the French had 4 to 5 thousand missile troops. "[67] On top of this, the French were expecting thousands of men to join them if they waited. Henry would marry Catherine, Charles VI's young daughter, and receive a dowry of 2million crowns. Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. It was often reported to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. Another verse begins: You love to be sodomized, Papylus . Since then there had been tension between the nobility and the royal house, widespread lawlessness throughout the kingdom, and several attempts on Henry Vs life. And I aint kidding yew. Mortimer also considers that the Gesta vastly inflates the English casualties 5,000 at Harfleur, and that "despite the trials of the march, Henry had lost very few men to illness or death; and we have independent testimony that no more than 160 had been captured on the way". [106] This lack of unity in France allowed Henry eighteen months to prepare militarily and politically for a renewed campaign. The point is, the middle-finger/phallus equation goes back way before the Titanic, the Battle of Agincourt, or probably even that time Sextillus cut off Pylades with his chariot. Barker states that some knights, encumbered by their armour, actually drowned in their helmets.[64]. One of the most renowned. Moreover, if archers could be ransomed, then cutting off their middle fingers would be a senseless move. giving someone the middle finger When Henry V acceded to the English throne in 1413, there had been a long hiatus in the fighting. [34] The rearguard, leaderless, would serve as a "dumping ground" for the surplus troops. After several decades of relative peace, the English had resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French. 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. Keegan, John. It did not lead to further English conquests immediately as Henry's priority was to return to England, which he did on 16 November, to be received in triumph in London on the 23rd. . [53] A further 600 dismounted men-at-arms stood in each wing, with the left under the Count of Vendme and the right under the Count of Richemont. This use of stakes could have been inspired by the Battle of Nicopolis of 1396, where forces of the Ottoman Empire used the tactic against French cavalry. Soon after the battle started, it had thousands of English and French soldiers and horses running through it. Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415), decisive battle in the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) that resulted in the victory of the English over the French. [130] Critic David Margolies describes how it "oozes honour, military glory, love of country and self-sacrifice", and forms one of the first instances of English literature linking solidarity and comradeship to success in battle. Upon hearing that his youngest brother Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester had been wounded in the groin, Henry took his household guard and stood over his brother, in the front rank of the fighting, until Humphrey could be dragged to safety. Fighting ignorance since 1973. Departing from Harfleur on October 8, Henry marched northward toward the English-held port of Calais, where he would disembark for England, with a force of 1,000 knights and men-at-arms and 5,000 archers. However, a need to reassert his authority at home (as well as his own ambition and a sense of justice) led Henry V to renew English claims in France. The Battle of Agincourt was dramatised by William Shakespeare in Henry V featuring the battle in which Henry inspired his much-outnumbered English forces to fight the French through a St Crispin's Day Speech, saying "the fewer men, the greater share of honour". The Battle of Agincourt was immortalized by William Shakespeare in his play Henry V. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. Thinking it was an attack from the rear, Henry had the French nobles he was holding prisoner killed. The Battle of Agincourt was another famous battle where longbowmen had a particularly important . The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground. Why not simply kill them outright in the first place? By most contemporary accounts, the French army was also significantly larger than the English, though the exact degree of their numerical superiority is disputed. 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. [62] Le Fvre and Wavrin similarly say that it was signs of the French rearguard regrouping and "marching forward in battle order" which made the English think they were still in danger. Osprey Publishing. Although the French initially pushed the English back, they became so closely packed that they were described as having trouble using their weapons properly. This article was. On 25 October 1415, an army of English raiders under Henry V faced the French outside an obscure village on the road to Calais. [93] In all, around 6,000 of their fighting men lay dead on the ground. 1.3M views 4 months ago Medieval Battles - In chronological order The year 1415 was the first occasion since 1359 that an English king had invaded France in person. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. Sumption, thus, concludes that the French had 14,000 men, basing himself on the monk of St. Denis;[119] Mortimer gives 14 or 15 thousand fighting men. The English numbered roughly 5,000 knights, men-at-arms, and archers. During World War II the symbol was adopted as a V for victory. Do you return these prisoners to your opponents in exchange for nothing, thereby providing them with trained soldiers who can fight against you another day? It goes on to state thatafter an unexpected victory, the English soldiersmocked thedefeatedFrenchtroopsbywavingtheir middle fingers( here ). It seems to me that the single upturned middle finger clearly represents an erect penis and is the gestural equivalent of saying f*ck you! As such, it is probably ancient Wikipedia certainly thinks so, although apparently it became popular in the United States in the late nineteenth century under the influence of Italian immigration, replacing other rude gestures like thumbing the nose or the fig sign. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991 ISBN 0-471-53672-5 (pp. This suggests that the French could have outnumbered the English 5 to 1. [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. The English won in a major upset and waved the body part in question at the French in defiance. The French monk of St. Denis says: "Their vanguard, composed of about 5,000 men, found itself at first so tightly packed that those who were in the third rank could scarcely use their swords,"[63] and the Burgundian sources have a similar passage. Made just prior to the invasion of Normandy, Olivier's rendition gives the battle what Sarah Hatchuel has termed an "exhilarating and heroic" tone, with an artificial, cinematic look to the battle scenes. Probably each man-at-arms would be accompanied by a gros valet (or varlet), an armed servant, adding up to another 10,000 potential fighting men,[7] though some historians omit them from the number of combatants. Battle of Agincourt. [123] Other ballads followed, including "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France", raising the popular prominence of particular events mentioned only in passing by the original chroniclers, such as the gift of tennis balls before the campaign. Winston Churchhill can be seen using the V as a rallying call. [5] [b] Henry V 's victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army. They had been weakened by the siege at Harfleur and had marched over 200 miles (more than 320 km), and many among them were suffering from dysentery. The idea being that you need two fingers to draw a bow, which makes more sense, and thus links up a national custom with a triumphant moment in national history! The Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. [26] He also intended the manoeuvre as a deliberate provocation to battle aimed at the dauphin, who had failed to respond to Henry's personal challenge to combat at Harfleur. People who killed their social betters from a distance werent very well liked, and would likely have paid with their lives as did all the French prisoners, archers or otherwise, whom Henry V had executed at Agincourt, in what some historians consider a war crime. 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 Hundred Years War was a discontinuous conflict between England and France that spanned two centuries. .). Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Many people who have seen the film question whether giving the finger was done around the time of the Titanic disaster, or was it a more recent gesture invented by some defiant seventh-grader. [citation needed], In any event, Henry ordered the slaughter of what were perhaps several thousand French prisoners, sparing only the highest ranked (presumably those most likely to fetch a large ransom under the chivalric system of warfare). [85], The French men-at-arms were taken prisoner or killed in the thousands. The impact of thousands of arrows, combined with the slog in heavy armour through the mud, the heat and difficulty breathing in plate armour with the visor down,[83] and the crush of their numbers, meant the French men-at-arms could "scarcely lift their weapons" when they finally engaged the English line. The approximate location of the battle has never been disputed, and the site remains relatively unaltered after 600 years. [37], Henry made a speech emphasising the justness of his cause, and reminding his army of previous great defeats the kings of England had inflicted on the French. 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. His men-at-arms were stationed in the centre, flanked by wedges of archers who carried longbows that had an effective range of 250 yards (229 metres). He told his men that he would rather die in the coming battle than be captured and ransomed. [49], The French vanguard and main battle numbered respectively 4,800 and 3,000 men-at-arms. The town surrendered on 22 September, and the English army did not leave until 8 October. The latter, each titled Henry V, star Laurence Olivier in 1944 and Kenneth Branagh in 1989. before a defensive battle was possible. 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. The battlefield was a freshly plowed field, and at the time of the battle, it had been raining continuously for several days. Military textbooks of the time stated: "Everywhere and on all occasions that foot soldiers march against their enemy face to face, those who march lose and those who remain standing still and holding firm win. The middle finger gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. After the initial wave, the French would have had to fight over and on the bodies of those who had fallen before them. The pl sound, the story goes, gradually changed into an f, giving the gesture its present meaning. During this battle, the medieval archers started ahead of the army and commenced the action. A complete coat of plate was considered such good protection that shields were generally not used,[75] although the Burgundian contemporary sources distinguish between Frenchmen who used shields and those who did not, and Rogers has suggested that the front elements of the French force used axes and shields. Omissions? [23] The army of about 12,000 men and up to 20,000 horses besieged the port of Harfleur. Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. After a difficult siege, the English forces found themselves assaulted by a massive French force. You would think that anything English predating 1607, such as the language, Protestantism, or the Common Law, would have been a part of Americas patrimony. By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself. Contemporary accounts describe the triumphal pageantry with which the king was received in London on November 23, with elaborate displays and choirs attending his passage to St. Pauls Cathedral. Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, they said, "See, we can still pluck yew! Singer Robbie Williams insults the viewer. [47] Although it had been planned for the archers and crossbowmen to be placed with the infantry wings, they were now regarded as unnecessary and placed behind them instead. The English eyewitness account comes from the anonymous author of the Gesta Henrici Quinti, believed to have been written by a chaplain in the King's household who would have been in the baggage train at the battle. By 24 October, both armies faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. Recent heavy rain made the battle field very muddy, proving very tiring to walk through in full plate armour. [116] One particular cause of confusion may have been the number of servants on both sides, or whether they should at all be counted as combatants. 33-35). [27], During the siege, the French had raised an army which assembled around Rouen. Without the middle finger it would be impossible for the English soldiers to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore incapable of fighting in the future. The deep, soft mud particularly favoured the English force because, once knocked to the ground, the heavily armoured French knights had a hard time getting back up to fight in the mle. |. 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. Wikipedia. Keegan also speculated that due to the relatively low number of archers actually involved in killing the French knights (roughly 200 by his estimate), together with the refusal of the English knights to assist in a duty they saw as distastefully unchivalrous, and combined with the sheer difficulty of killing such a large number of prisoners in such a short space of time, the actual number of French prisoners put to death may not have been substantial before the French reserves fled the field and Henry rescinded the order. [7] Barker, who believes the English were outnumbered by at least four to one,[120] says that the armed servants formed the rearguard in the battle. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019 with bachelor's degrees in English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies. 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. . [101] The bailiffs of nine major northern towns were killed, often along with their sons, relatives and supporters. [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. It. "[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. Moreover, with this outcome Henry V strengthened his position in his own kingdom; it legitimized his claim to the crown, which had been under threat after his accession. There is a modern museum in Agincourt village dedicated to the battle. This moment of the battle is portrayed both as a break with the traditions of chivalry and as a key example of the paradox of kingship. [25] The siege took longer than expected. [113] Barker opined that "if the differential really was as low as three to four then this makes a nonsense of the course of the battle as described by eyewitnesses and contemporaries".[110]. 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. In a book on the battle of Agincourt, Anne Curry, Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the University of Southampton, addressed a similar claim prescribed to the V-sign, also considered an offensive gesture: No chronicle or sixteenth-centuryhistory says that English archers made any gesture to the French after the battle in order to show they still had their fingers. T he battle of Agincourt, whose 600th anniversary falls on St Crispin's Day, 25 October, is still tabloid gold, Gotcha! . Agincourt, Henry V's famous victory over the French on 25 October 1415, is a fascinating battle not just because of what happened but also because of how its myth has developed ever since. In 1999, Snopesdebunked more of the historical aspects of the claim, as well as thecomponent explaininghow the phrase pluck yew graduallychanged form to begin with an f( here ). The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. Contemporary chroniclers did not criticise him for it. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. The image makes the further claim that the English soldiers chanted pluck yew, ostensibly in reference to the drawing of the longbow. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. "Guardian newspaper:French correction: Henry V's Agincourt fleet was half as big, historian claims, 28 July 2015", "Living Dictionary of the French Language", "Limitations imposed by wearing armour on Medieval soldiers' locomotor performance", "High Court Rules for French at Agincourt", "High Court Justices, Legal Luminaries Debate Shakespeare's 'Henry V', "The Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War", "Historians Reassess Battle of Agincourt", The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, "Henry V's Greatest Victory is Besieged by Academia", The Little Grey Horse Henry V's Speech at Agincourt and the Battle Exhortation in Ancient Historiography, "The Battle of Agincourt: An Alternative location? After the battle, the English taunted the survivors by showing off what wasn't cut off. In his 2007 film adaptation, director Peter Babakitis uses digital effects to exaggerate realist features during the battle scenes, producing a more avant-garde interpretation of the fighting at Agincourt. Whether this was true is open to question and continues to be debated to this day; however, it seems likely that death was the normal fate of any soldier who could not be ransomed. Its up there with heres something that they dont want you to know.. Humble English archers defeated the armoured elite of French chivalry, enshrining both the longbow and the battle in English national legend. The Face of Battle. Many folkloric or etymological myths have sprung up about its origin, especially the widely quoted one about the interplay between the French and English soldiery at the battle of Agincourt 1415, where the French threatened to amputate the middle fingers of the English archers to prevent them from drawing their bows, which of course is absolute The French nobility, weakened by the defeat and divided among themselves, were unable to meet new attacks with effective resistance. There is no evidence that, when captured in any scenario,archers had their finger cut off by the enemy( bit.ly/3dP2PhP ). Fighting commenced at 11:00 am, as the English brought their longbows within killing range and the first line of French knights advanced, led by cavalry. Its not known whether one displayed the digitus infamis in the same manner that we (well, you) flip the bird today. In the ensuing negotiations Henry said that he would give up his claim to the French throne if the French would pay the 1.6million crowns outstanding from the ransom of John II (who had been captured at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356), and concede English ownership of the lands of Anjou, Brittany, Flanders, Normandy, and Touraine, as well as Aquitaine. [127], Shakespeare's play presented Henry as leading a truly English force into battle, playing on the importance of the link between the monarch and the common soldiers in the fight. The puzzler was: What was this body part? The . 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). Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [81] In any case, to protect themselves as much as possible from the arrows, the French had to lower their visors and bend their helmeted heads to avoid being shot in the face, as the eye- and air-holes in their helmets were among the weakest points in the armour. The effect of the victory on national morale was powerful. I thought the French threatened to cut off the primary finger of the English longbowmen (the middle finger was neeed the most to pull the bowstring). [23] Thomas Morstede, Henry V's royal surgeon,[24] had previously been contracted by the king to supply a team of surgeons and makers of surgical instruments to take part in the Agincourt campaign. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare's play Henry V, written in 1599. 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. This famous English longbow was . In the words of Juliet Barker, the battle "cut a great swath through the natural leaders of French society in Artois, Ponthieu, Normandy, Picardy. The archers were commanded by Sir Thomas Erpingham, another elderly veteran. They shadowed Henry's army while calling a semonce des nobles,[30] calling on local nobles to join the army. Increasingly, they had to walk around or over fallen comrades. Without a river obstacle to defend, the French were hesitant to force a battle. And although the precise etymology of the English word fuck is still a matter of debate, it is linguistically nonsensical to maintain that that word entered the language because the "difficult consonant cluster at the beginning" of the phase 'pluck yew' has "gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'f.'" Eventually the archers abandoned their longbows and began fighting hand-to-hand with swords and axes alongside the men-at-arms. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The delay allowed a large French force, led by the constable Charles dAlbret and the marshal Jean II le Meingre (called Boucicaut), to intercept him near the village of Agincourt on October 24. 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. But lets not quibble. There was no monetary reward to be obtained by capturing them, nor was there any glory to be won by defeating them in battle. The image makes the claim that the gesture derives from English soldiers at the Battle of Agincourt, France in 1415.