After the victory, Henry continued his march to Calais and arrived back in England in November to an outpouring of nationalistic sentiment. |. As John Keegan wrote in his history of warfare: "To meet a similarly equipped opponent was the occasion for which the armoured soldier trained perhaps every day of his life from the onset of manhood. [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). 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. This was an innovative technique that the English had not used in the Battles of Crcy and Poitiers. The English Gesta Henrici described three great heaps of the slain around the three main English standards. Band of Brothers: Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt 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]. [125] Shakespeare illustrates these tensions by depicting Henry's decision to kill some of the French prisoners, whilst attempting to justify it and distance himself from the event. The Battle of Agincourt Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. It lasted longer than Henry had anticipated, and his numbers were significantly diminished as a result of casualties, desertions, and disease. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare 's play Henry V, written in 1599. The French could not cope with the thousands of lightly armoured longbowmen assailants (who were much less hindered by the mud and weight of their armour) combined with the English men-at-arms. Im even more suspicious of the alleged transformation of p to f. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. 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 French nobility, weakened by the defeat and divided among themselves, were unable to meet new attacks with effective resistance. 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". [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. To meet and beat him was a triumph, the highest form which self-expression could take in the medieval nobleman's way of life." [106] This lack of unity in France allowed Henry eighteen months to prepare militarily and politically for a renewed campaign. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019 with bachelor's degrees in English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies. This would prevent maneuvers that might overwhelm the English ranks. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. 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.'" [139] The museum lists the names of combatants of both sides who died in the battle. During World War II the symbol was adopted as a V for victory. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. When did the middle finger become offensive? - BBC News It supposedly describes the origin of the middle-finger hand gesture and, by implication, the insult "fuck you". 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. This symbol of rocking out is formed by tucking the middle and index finger and holding them in place with the thumb. 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. Moreover, if archers could be ransomed, then cutting off their middle fingers would be a senseless move. 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. ", "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. Jean de Wavrin, a knight on the French side wrote that English fatalities were 1,600 men of all ranks. The English were not in an ideal condition to fight a battle. England had been fraught with political discord since Henry IV of the house of Lancaster (father of Henry V) had usurped the throne from Richard II in 1399. [34] It is likely that the English adopted their usual battle line of longbowmen on either flank, with men-at-arms and knights in the centre. Contemporary chroniclers did not criticise him for it. 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. [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. [8] These included the Duke of York, the young Earl of Suffolk and the Welsh esquire Dafydd ("Davy") Gam. Very quickly after the battle, the fragile truce between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions broke down. The image makes the claim that the gesture derives from English soldiers at the Battle of Agincourt, France in 1415. Medieval Archers (Everything you Need to Know) - The Finer Times 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. The approximate location of the battle has never been disputed, and the site remains relatively unaltered after 600 years. 42 Share 3.9K views 4 years ago There is an old story that allegedly gives the background of how we came to use the middle finger as an insult along with the alleged origin of the "F-word". They shadowed Henry's army while calling a semonce des nobles,[30] calling on local nobles to join the army. 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 another of his books Morris describes a variety of sexual insults involving the middle finger, such as the middle-finger down prod, the middle-finger erect, etc., all of which are different from the classic middle-finger jerk. 78-116). Battle of Agincourt, 1415 (ALL PARTS) England vs France Hundred [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]. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. Image source The Battle of Agincourt (720p) Watch on [48] On account of the lack of space, the French drew up a third battle, the rearguard, which was on horseback and mainly comprised the varlets mounted on the horses belonging to the men fighting on foot ahead. Contemporary accounts [ edit] [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". Rogers suggested that the French at the back of their deep formation would have been attempting to literally add their weight to the advance, without realising that they were hindering the ability of those at the front to manoeuvre and fight by pushing them into the English formation of lancepoints. Battle of Agincourt and the origin of Fu#K | Origin story of middle I admit that I bring this story up when I talk about the Hundred Years War only to debunk it. 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. October 25, 1415. Its origins can be traced back to 1066 . The Battle Of Agincourt: What Really Happened? | HistoryExtra "[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. Nicolle, D. (2004). Wikipedia. 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. 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 . Why is showing the middle finger offensive? When, how, and - Quora The Burgundians seized on the opportunity and within 10 days of the battle had mustered their armies and marched on Paris. According to contemporary English accounts, Henry fought hand to hand. [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. When the archers ran out of arrows, they dropped their bows and, using hatchets, swords, and the mallets they had used to drive their stakes in, attacked the now disordered, fatigued and wounded French men-at-arms massed in front of them. [22], Henry's army landed in northern France on 13 August 1415, carried by a vast fleet. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991 ISBN 0-471-53672-5 (pp. Battle of Agincourt | Facts, Summary, & Significance | Britannica The English had very little food, had marched 260 miles (420km) in two and a half weeks, were suffering from sickness such as dysentery, and were greatly outnumbered by well-equipped French men-at-arms. 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. [34] The rearguard, leaderless, would serve as a "dumping ground" for the surplus troops. [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. Most importantly, the battle was a significant military blow to France and paved the way for further English conquests and successes. [91] Such an event would have posed a risk to the still-outnumbered English and could have easily turned a stunning victory into a mutually destructive defeat, as the English forces were now largely intermingled with the French and would have suffered grievously from the arrows of their own longbowmen had they needed to resume shooting. 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 . Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. Thinking it was an attack from the rear, Henry had the French nobles he was holding prisoner killed. Why not simply kill them outright in the first place? The Hundred Years War was a discontinuous conflict between England and France that spanned two centuries. 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 ). [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. [54] To disperse the enemy archers, a cavalry force of 8001,200 picked men-at-arms,[55] led by Clignet de Brban and Louis de Bosredon, was distributed evenly between both flanks of the vanguard (standing slightly forward, like horns). The struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. [72], The French cavalry, despite being disorganised and not at full numbers, charged towards the longbowmen. Loades, M. (2013). Increasingly, they had to walk around or over fallen comrades. What's the origin of "the finger"? - The Straight Dope 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. [50] Both lines were arrayed in tight, dense formations of about 16 ranks each, and were positioned a bowshot length from each other. [56] Some 200 mounted men-at-arms would attack the English rear. [85], The French men-at-arms were taken prisoner or killed in the thousands. [87] Whether this was part of a deliberate French plan or an act of local brigandage is unclear from the sources. [121] Mortimer notes the presence of noncombatant pages only, indicating that they would ride the spare horses during the battle and be mistakenly thought of as combatants by the English.[122]. 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 Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. 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. 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. Barker states that some knights, encumbered by their armour, actually drowned in their helmets.[64]. What it is supposed to represent I have no idea. 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 Eventually the archers abandoned their longbows and began fighting hand-to-hand with swords and axes alongside the men-at-arms. Axtell, Roger E. Gestures: The Do's and Taboos of Body Language Around the World. 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. Although an audience vote was "too close to call", Henry was unanimously found guilty by the court on the basis of "evolving standards of civil society".[136][137][138]. Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. The battle repeated other English successes in the Hundred Years War, such as the Battle of Crcy (1346) and the Battle of Poitiers (1356), and made possible Englands subsequent conquest of Normandy and the Treaty of Troyes (1420), which named Henry V heir to the French crown. The decorative use of the image of Priapusmatched the Roman use ofimages of male genitalia for warding off evil. 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 ). 138). The effect of the victory on national morale was powerful. The number is supported by many other contemporary accounts. PDF THE ENGLISH VS FRENCH - Carolina Traditional Archers [93] Entire noble families were wiped out in the male line, and in some regions an entire generation of landed nobility was annihilated. [49], The French vanguard and main battle numbered respectively 4,800 and 3,000 men-at-arms. Although the French initially pushed the English back, they became so closely packed that they were described as having trouble using their weapons properly. 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. (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.). While the precise number of casualties is unknown, it is estimated that English losses amounted to about 400 and French losses to about 6,000, many of whom were noblemen. .). Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. False. [18] A recent re-appraisal of Henry's strategy of the Agincourt campaign incorporates these three accounts and argues that war was seen as a legal due process for solving the disagreement over claims to the French throne. They were successful for a time, forcing Henry to move south, away from Calais, to find a ford. [34][d] The French apparently had no clear plan for deploying the rest of the army. The origins of the sign aren't confirmed, but popular folklore suggests that its original meaning, packed with insult and ridicule, first appeared in the 20th century in the battle of Agincourt. Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . The Most Famous, Bloodiest Medieval Battle - AGINCOURT - Full - YouTube The cavalry force, which could have devastated the English line if it had attacked while they moved their stakes, charged only after the initial volley of arrows from the English. [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. [69] (The use of stakes was an innovation for the English: during the Battle of Crcy, for example, the archers had been instead protected by pits and other obstacles. 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. 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. The legend that the "two-fingered salute" stems from the Battle of Agincourt is apocryphal Although scholars and historians continue to debate its origins, according to legend it was first. According to most chroniclers, Henry's fear was that the prisoners (who, in an unusual turn of events, actually outnumbered their captors) would realise their advantage in numbers, rearm themselves with the weapons strewn about the field and overwhelm the exhausted English forces. [c], The English made their confessions before the battle, as was customary. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Agincourt came on the back of half a century of military failure and gave the English a success that repeated victories such as Crcy and Poitiers. [88] In some accounts the attack happened towards the end of the battle, and led the English to think they were being attacked from the rear. In the Battle of Agincourt, the French threatened the English Soldiers that they would cut off their fingers and when they failed the Englishmen mocked them by showing their fingers. - New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. What does DO NOT HUMP mean on the side of railroad cars? 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. 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. [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. with chivalry. Battles were observed and chronicled by heralds who were present at the scene and recorded what they saw, judged who won, and fixed names for the battles. News of the contrivance circulated within Europe and was described in a book of tactics written in 1411 by. The English numbered roughly 5,000 knights, men-at-arms, and archers. [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. Tudor re-invention, leading to the quintessential Shakespearean portrayal of "we happy few", has been the most influential, but every century has made its own accretions. [68], Henry's men were already very weary from hunger, illness and retreat. 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. These numbers are based on the Gesta Henrici Quinti and the chronicle of Jean Le Fvre, the only two eyewitness accounts on the English camp. A Short History of "Flipping the Bird" - OddFeed [135] The battle also forms a central component of the 2019 Netflix film The King. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. 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). 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. Clip from the 1944 movie "Henry V" (137 min). Upon his death, a French assembly formed to appoint a male successor. 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". One final observation: any time some appeal begins with heres something that intelligent people will find edifying you should be suspicious. Plucking The Yew - Jerry Pournelle 030223 - Musings From Leroy The traditional view of the years 131821 is one of domination by 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). One Of The Oldest Insults: The Origin Of The Middle Finger - Storypick 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. Battle of Agincourt - Wikipedia When that campaign took place, it was made easier by the damage done to the political and military structures of Normandy by the battle. Henry V's victory in the mud of Picardy remains the . Details the English victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt. Contents. After several decades of relative peace, the English had resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French. 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. 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. Thepostalleges that the Frenchhad planned to cut offthe middle fingers ofall captured English soldiers,to inhibit them fromdrawingtheir longbowsin futurebattles. Why do some people have that one extra-long fingernail on the pinkie finger. David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. Wikipedia. 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. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". [45] A second, smaller mounted force was to attack the rear of the English army, along with its baggage and servants. query that we are duty bound to provide a bit of historical and linguistic information demonstrating why this anecdote couldn't possibly be accurate: The 'Car Talk' show (on NPR) with Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers have a feature called the 'Puzzler', and their most recent 'Puzzler' was about the Battle of Agincourt. The f-word itself is Germanic with early-medieval roots; the earliest attested use in English in an unambiguous sexual context is in a document from 1310. At issue was the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown as well as the ownership of several French territories. What Is the History of the Middle Finger? | Snopes.com (Its taking longer than we thought.) A widely shared image on social media purportedly explains the historic origins of the middle finger, considered an offensive gesture in Western culture. According to research, heres the true story: 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. Modern test and contemporary accounts conclude that arrows could not penetrate the better quality steel armour, which became available to knights and men-at-arms of fairly modest means by the middle of the 14th century, but could penetrate the poorer quality wrought iron armour. Subject: Truth About the Finger In the film Titanic the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack, another character. Keegan, John. 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. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the gesture is known as giving the bird. And yew all thought yew knew everything! . The Roman gesturemadeby extending the third finger from a closed fist, thus made the same threat, by forming a similarly phallic shape. [114][115] Curry and Mortimer questioned the reliability of the Gesta, as there have been doubts as to how much it was written as propaganda for Henry V. Both note that the Gesta vastly overestimates the number of French in the battle; its proportions of English archers to men-at-arms at the battle are also different from those of the English army before the siege of Harfleur.