On 25 October 1415, an army of English raiders under Henry V faced the French outside an obscure village on the road to Calais. Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. 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. Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . 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". [92], The French had suffered a catastrophic defeat. Wikipedia. Maybe it means five and was a symbol of support for Henry V? [60][61], Accounts of the battle describe the French engaging the English men-at-arms before being rushed from the sides by the longbowmen as the mle developed. 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. (Storyline based on the play by William Shakespeare "The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Batt. Contemporary accounts [ edit] 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. Send questions to Cecil via cecil@straightdope.com. 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. It was often reported to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. (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.) When the English won the battle the soldiers waved their middle fingers at the French in defiance, thus flipping the bird was born . Bowman were not valuable prisoners, though: they stood outside the chivalric system and were considered the social inferiors of men-at-arms. 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. [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]. The Battle of Agincourt forms a key part of Shakespeare's Henry V. Photo by Nick Ansell / POOL / AFP) Myth: During the Hundred Years War, the French cut off the first and second fingers of any. To meet and beat him was a triumph, the highest form which self-expression could take in the medieval nobleman's way of life." Im even more suspicious of the alleged transformation of p to f. Some historians trace its origins to ancient Rome. News of the contrivance circulated within Europe and was described in a book of tactics written in 1411 by. John Keegan argues that the longbows' main influence on the battle at this point was injuries to horses: armoured only on the head, many horses would have become dangerously out of control when struck in the back or flank from the high-elevation, long-range shots used as the charge started. This suggests that the French could have outnumbered the English 5 to 1. As the English were collecting prisoners, a band of French peasants led by local noblemen began plundering Henrys baggage behind the lines. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew." 33-35). 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). Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The field that the French had to cross to meet their enemy was muddy after a week of rain and slowed their progress, during which time they endured casualties from English arrows. 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. [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. [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. 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? Last, but certainly not least, wouldn't these insolent archers have been bragging about plucking a bow's string, and not the wood of the bow itself? [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. Its origins can be traced back to 1066 . [Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.] This article was. with chivalry. The puzzler was: What was this body part? 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. 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. 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. Course Hero uses AI to attempt to automatically extract content from documents to surface to you and others so you can study better, e.g., in search results, to enrich docs, and more. Since the French had many more men-at-arms than the English, they would accordingly be accompanied by a far greater number of servants. The king received an axe blow to the head, which knocked off a piece of the crown that formed part of his helmet. [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. ), And even if killing prisoners of war did not violate the moral code of the times, what would be the purpose of taking archers captive, cutting off their fingers, and then executing them? King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415 by Sir John Gilbert, Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, Lancashire. Updates? Omissions? 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. Keegan, John. And I aint kidding yew. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as plucking the yew. Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew! Over the years some folk etymologies have grown up around this symbolic gesture. 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. Recent heavy rain made the battle field very muddy, proving very tiring to walk through in full plate armour. The battlefield was a freshly plowed field, and at the time of the battle, it had been raining continuously for several days. The effect of the victory on national morale was powerful. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting. In December 1414, the English parliament was persuaded to grant Henry a "double subsidy", a tax at twice the traditional rate, to recover his inheritance from the French. Nicolle, D. (2004). [135] The battle also forms a central component of the 2019 Netflix film The King. [68], Henry's men were already very weary from hunger, illness and retreat. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. [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]. [19], Henry V invaded France following the failure of negotiations with the French. The English were not in an ideal condition to fight a battle. 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: Directed by Graham Holloway. Osprey Publishing. This is the answer submitted by a listener: Dear Click and Clack, Thank you for the Agincourt 'Puzzler', which clears up some profound questions of etymology, folklore and emotional symbolism. 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 ). It. Axtell, Roger E. Gestures: The Do's and Taboos of Body Language Around the World. Without a river obstacle to defend, the French were hesitant to force a battle. Then they had to walk a few hundred yards (metres) through thick mud and a press of comrades while wearing armour weighing 5060 pounds (2327kg), gathering sticky clay all the way. [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. Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons". The "middle finger" gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. [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. The Battle of Agincourt (720p) Watch on 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. The Battle of Agincourt is one of England's most celebrated victories and was one of the most important English triumphs in the Hundred Years' War, along with the Battle of Crcy (1346) and Battle of Poitiers (1356). The Face of Battle. 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. Legend says that the British archers were so formidable that the ones captured by the French had their index and middle fingers cut off so that they . The English Gesta Henrici described three great heaps of the slain around the three main English standards. [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. 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. Thepostalleges that the Frenchhad planned to cut offthe middle fingers ofall captured English soldiers,to inhibit them fromdrawingtheir longbowsin futurebattles. Jones, P. N. (1992). The Hundred Years' War. 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. [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. 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. 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. The English numbered roughly 5,000 knights, men-at-arms, and archers. It is unclear whether the delay occurred because the French were hoping the English would launch a frontal assault (and were surprised when the English instead started shooting from their new defensive position), or whether the French mounted knights instead did not react quickly enough to the English advance. There is no evidence that, when captured in any scenario,archers had their finger cut off by the enemy( bit.ly/3dP2PhP ). The number is supported by many other contemporary accounts. If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? This was not strictly a feudal army, but an army paid through a system similar to that of the English. Adam Koford, Salt Lake City, Utah, Now for the facts. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. It lasted longer than Henry had anticipated, and his numbers were significantly diminished as a result of casualties, desertions, and disease. 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.'" 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 archers were commanded by Sir Thomas Erpingham, another elderly veteran. 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. Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415)Battle resulting in the decisive victory of the English over the French in the Hundred Years' War. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). [89] A slaughter of the French prisoners ensued. [citation needed]. The Agincourt Carol, dating from around this time and possibly written for Henrys reception in London, is a rousing celebration of the might of the English. [72], The French cavalry, despite being disorganised and not at full numbers, charged towards the longbowmen. The brunt of the battle had fallen on the Armagnacs and it was they who suffered the majority of senior casualties and carried the blame for the defeat. The Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. 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]. 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. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare's play Henry V, written in 1599. (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.). But lets not quibble. It was a disastrous attempt. 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. 138). A BBCNews Magazinereportsimilarlytracesthe gesture back toAncient Greek philosophers ( here ). The English won in a major upset and waved the body part in question at the French in defiance. Subject: Truth About the Finger In the film Titanic the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack, another character. King Charles VI of France did not command the French army as he suffered from psychotic illnesses and associated mental incapacity. 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). 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". 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 French knights were unable to outflank the longbowmen (because of the encroaching woodland) and unable to charge through the array of sharpened stakes that protected the archers. This material may not be reproduced without permission. 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.
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