Keegan, John. The situation in England, coupled with the fact that France was weakened by its own political crisisthe insanity of Charles VI had resulted in a fight for power among the nobilitymade it an ideal moment for Henry to press his claims. 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". Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here . The Most Famous, Bloodiest Medieval Battle - AGINCOURT - Full - YouTube Its up there with heres something that they dont want you to know.. 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. A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). [96] Of the great royal office holders, France lost its constable (Albret), an admiral (the lord of Dampierre), the Master of Crossbowmen (David de Rambures, dead along with three sons), Master of the Royal Household (Guichard Dauphin) and prvt of the marshals. Upon his death, a French assembly formed to appoint a male successor. 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. The basic premise that the origins of the one-finger gesture and its association with the profane word "fuck" were an outgrowth of the 1415 battle between French and English forces at Agincourt is simple enough to debunk. 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.'" Barker states that some knights, encumbered by their armour, actually drowned in their helmets.[64]. 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. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. 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. 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. [39] Curry, Rogers[118] and Mortimer[42] all agree the French had 4 to 5 thousand missile troops. The king received an axe blow to the head, which knocked off a piece of the crown that formed part of his helmet. 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? 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. The military aspects of this account are similarly specious. Osprey Publishing. [93] Entire noble families were wiped out in the male line, and in some regions an entire generation of landed nobility was annihilated. Bloomsbury Publishing. With Toby Merrell, Ian Brooker, Philip Rosch, Brian Blessed. Longbowmen and "The Finger" - (on 'TheBeckoning') (Its taking longer than we thought.) [72], The French cavalry, despite being disorganised and not at full numbers, charged towards the longbowmen. 138). [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. [62] Henry threatened to hang whoever did not obey his orders. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019 with bachelor's degrees in English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies. [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". But lets not quibble. [34] The rearguard, leaderless, would serve as a "dumping ground" for the surplus troops. The two candidates with the strongest claims were Edward III of England, who was the son of Charles's sister, and Philip, Charles's paternal . [citation needed]. What it is supposed to represent I have no idea. 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. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. A Short History of "Flipping the Bird" - OddFeed Contents. There is no evidence that, when captured in any scenario,archers had their finger cut off by the enemy( bit.ly/3dP2PhP ). 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. 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). . The French nobility, weakened by the defeat and divided among themselves, were unable to meet new attacks with effective resistance. 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. 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). The English Gesta Henrici described three great heaps of the slain around the three main English standards. . with chivalry. The historian Suetonius, writing about Augustus Caesar, says the emperor expelled [the entertainer] Pylades . 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. [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. . Battle of Agincourt - Wikipedia During World War II the symbol was adopted as a V for victory. 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. Recent heavy rain made the battle field very muddy, proving very tiring to walk through in full plate armour. [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. [34][d] The French apparently had no clear plan for deploying the rest of the army. French history myths: The 'two fingers' insult comes from the Battle of Why is the missionary position called that? 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. Battle of Agincourt and the origin of Fu#K | Origin story of middle Humble English archers defeated the armoured elite of French chivalry, enshrining both the longbow and the battle in English national legend. Although the French initially pushed the English back, they became so closely packed that they were described as having trouble using their weapons properly. [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. PDF THE ENGLISH VS FRENCH - Carolina Traditional Archers 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! Your opponent is not going to pay you (or pay you much) for the return of mutilated soldiers, so now what do you do with them? Singer Robbie Williams insults the viewer. [93] Among them were 90120 great lords and bannerets killed, including[95] three dukes (Alenon, Bar and Brabant), nine counts (Blmont, Dreux, Fauquembergue, Grandpr, Marle, Nevers, Roucy, Vaucourt, Vaudmont) and one viscount (Puisaye), also an archbishop. The town surrendered on 22 September, and the English army did not leave until 8 October. The Roman gesturemadeby extending the third finger from a closed fist, thus made the same threat, by forming a similarly phallic shape. [93] In all, around 6,000 of their fighting men lay dead on the ground. (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.). It was often reported to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. When the English won the battle the soldiers waved their middle fingers at the French in defiance, thus flipping the bird was born King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured soldiers. 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. The English finally crossed the Somme south of Pronne, at Bthencourt and Voyennes[28][29] and resumed marching north. Materials characterization, 29(2), 111117. 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. 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. The recently ploughed land hemmed in by dense woodland favoured the English, both because of its narrowness, and because of the thick mud through which the French knights had to walk. New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. How different cultures perceive emojis in workplace communication Wikipedia. It seems clear, however, that the English were at a decided numerical disadvantage. The terrain favoured Henrys army and disadvantaged its opponent, as it reduced the numerical advantage of the French army by narrowing the front. 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. 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 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. [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. After the victory, Henry continued his march to Calais and arrived back in England in November to an outpouring of nationalistic sentiment. 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. 030223 - Musings From Leroy [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. 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. 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]. If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? Battle of Agincourt | Facts, Summary, & Significance | Britannica 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). On the morning of 25 October, the French were still waiting for additional troops to arrive. The campaign season was coming to an end, and the English army had suffered many casualties through disease. David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. Agincourt 1415: The Triumph of the Longbow: Directed by Graham Holloway. 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. One final observation: any time some appeal begins with heres something that intelligent people will find edifying you should be suspicious. They shadowed Henry's army while calling a semonce des nobles,[30] calling on local nobles to join the army. After the initial wave, the French would have had to fight over and on the bodies of those who had fallen before them. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.] As the English were collecting prisoners, a band of French peasants led by local noblemen began plundering Henrys baggage behind the lines. 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. [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. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. They might also have deployed some archers in the centre of the line. Dear Cecil: Can you confirm the following? [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. A labiodental fricative was no less "difficult" for Middle English speakers to pronounce than the aspirated bilabial stop/voiceless lateral combination of 'pl' that the fricative supposedly changed into, nor are there any other examples of such a pronunciation shift occurring in English. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting. Contemporary accounts [ edit] The English and Welsh archers on the flanks drove pointed wooden stakes, or palings, into the ground at an angle to force cavalry to veer off. A list of English archers killed at Agincourt, as recorded in the village's museum, The story of the battle has been retold many times in English, from the 15th-century, Dates in the fifteenth century are difficult to reconcile with modern calendars: see, The first known use of angled stakes to thwart a mounted charge was at the Battle of Nicopolis, an engagement between European states and Turkish forces in 1396, twenty years before Agincourt. At issue was the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown as well as the ownership of several French territories. This was an innovative technique that the English had not used in the Battles of Crcy and Poitiers. - It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare's play Henry V, written in 1599. [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. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. The original usage of this mudra can be traced back as far as the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Why do some people have that one extra-long fingernail on the pinkie finger. 33-35). The Battle of Agincourt was another famous battle where longbowmen had a particularly important . There had even been a suggestion that the English would run away rather than give battle when they saw that they would be fighting so many French princes. This battle concluded with King Harold of England dying at the hands of the Norman King William, which marked the beginning of a new era in England. Its not known whether one displayed the digitus infamis in the same manner that we (well, you) flip the bird today. [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. [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. [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. Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. The struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. Didn't it originate at Agincourt? Common estimates place the English army at about 6,000, while the French army probably consisted of 20,000 to 30,000 men. The third line of the French army, recoiling at the pile of corpses before them and unable to make an effective charge, was then massacred swiftly. At least one scholar puts the French army at no more than 12,000, indicating that the English were outnumbered 2 to 1. ), 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? [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 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. [124], The most famous cultural depiction of the battle today is in Act IV of William Shakespeare's Henry V, written in 1599. This symbol of rocking out is formed by tucking the middle and index finger and holding them in place with the thumb. [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. [128] The original play does not, however, feature any scenes of the actual battle itself, leading critic Rose Zimbardo to characterise it as "full of warfare, yet empty of conflict. [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. Shakespeare's version of the battle of Agincourt has been turned into several minor and two major films. However, the lack of archaeological evidence at this traditional site has led to suggestions it was fought to the west of Azincourt. [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. Certainly, d'Azincourt was a local knight but he might have been chosen to lead the attack because of his local knowledge and the lack of availability of a more senior soldier. 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 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. [43], The French were organized into two main groups (or battles), a vanguard up front and a main battle behind, both composed principally of men-at-arms fighting on foot and flanked by more of the same in each wing. In the song Hotel California, what does colitas mean? 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. The battlefield was a freshly plowed field, and at the time of the battle, it had been raining continuously for several days. 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. The main part of the speech begins "This day is called the feast of . It lasted longer than Henry had anticipated, and his numbers were significantly diminished as a result of casualties, desertions, and disease. French chroniclers agree that when the mounted charge did come, it did not contain as many men as it should have; Gilles le Bouvier states that some had wandered off to warm themselves and others were walking or feeding their horses. October 25, 1415. The Battle of Agincourt (/dnkr(t)/ AJ-in-kor(t);[a] French: Azincourt [azku]) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. Agincourt was a battle like no other but how do the French remember .). 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. 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. The next day the French initiated negotiations as a delaying tactic, but Henry ordered his army to advance and to start a battle that, given the state of his army, he would have preferred to avoid, or to fight defensively: that was how Crcy and the other famous longbow victories had been won. "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? Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . 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. [135] The battle also forms a central component of the 2019 Netflix film The King. [21] On 19 April 1415, Henry again asked the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed. The English men-at-arms in plate and mail were placed shoulder to shoulder four deep. [110][111][112] Ian Mortimer endorsed Curry's methodology, though applied it more liberally, noting how she "minimises French numbers (by limiting her figures to those in the basic army and a few specific additional companies) and maximises English numbers (by assuming the numbers sent home from Harfleur were no greater than sick lists)", and concluded that "the most extreme imbalance which is credible" is 15,000 French against 8,0009,000 English.