The "middle finger" gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Battle of Agincourt and the origin of Fu#K | Origin story of middle Since the French had many more men-at-arms than the English, they would accordingly be accompanied by a far greater number of servants. [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. 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. 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. A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). (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.) Soon after the victory at Agincourt, a number of popular folk songs were created about the battle, the most famous being the "Agincourt Carol", produced in the first half of the 15th century. Despite the numerical disadvantage, the battle ended in an overwhelming victory for the English. Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, they said, "See, we can still pluck yew! The next line of French knights that poured in found themselves so tightly packed (the field narrowed at the English end) that they were unable to use their weapons effectively, and the tide of the battle began to turn toward the English. Loades, M. (2013). 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. [124], The most famous cultural depiction of the battle today is in Act IV of William Shakespeare's Henry V, written in 1599. 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. 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". 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. 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. 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 . [97] According to the heralds, 3,069 knights and squires were killed,[e] while at least 2,600 more corpses were found without coats of arms to identify them. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [citation needed], Immediately after the battle, Henry summoned the heralds of the two armies who had watched the battle together with principal French herald Montjoie, and they settled on the name of the battle as Azincourt, after the nearest fortified place. He told his men that he would rather die in the coming battle than be captured and ransomed. The longbow. 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. [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. Bowman were not valuable prisoners, though: they stood outside the chivalric system and were considered the social inferiors of men-at-arms. The Face of Battle. [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. 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. It was often reported to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. PDF THE ENGLISH VS FRENCH - Carolina Traditional Archers [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. 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. When that campaign took place, it was made easier by the damage done to the political and military structures of Normandy by the battle. [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. If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? The Battle of Agincourt was another famous battle where longbowmen had a particularly important . It. The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground. [107], Most primary sources which describe the battle have English outnumbered by several times. 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. 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. 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. 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. [62] [93] Entire noble families were wiped out in the male line, and in some regions an entire generation of landed nobility was annihilated. Kill them outright and violate the medieval moral code of civilized warfare? 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. [citation needed], The French responded with what they considered the generous terms of marriage with Catherine, a dowry of 600,000 crowns, and an enlarged Aquitaine. The English numbered roughly 5,000 knights, men-at-arms, and archers. 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. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew." [Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.] Battle of Agincourt - HISTORY [22], Henry's army landed in northern France on 13 August 1415, carried by a vast fleet. 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. [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. before a defensive battle was possible. The Roman gesturemadeby extending the third finger from a closed fist, thus made the same threat, by forming a similarly phallic shape. King Charles VI of France did not command the French army as he suffered from psychotic illnesses and associated mental incapacity. 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. 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. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. The number is supported by many other contemporary accounts. [34][d] The French apparently had no clear plan for deploying the rest of the army. It goes on to state thatafter an unexpected victory, the English soldiersmocked thedefeatedFrenchtroopsbywavingtheir middle fingers( here ). [44] There was a special, elite cavalry force whose purpose was to break the formation of the English archers and thus clear the way for the infantry to advance. Thinking it was an attack from the rear, Henry had the French nobles he was holding prisoner killed. The terrain favoured Henrys army and disadvantaged its opponent, as it reduced the numerical advantage of the French army by narrowing the front. [45] A second, smaller mounted force was to attack the rear of the English army, along with its baggage and servants. The version that I tell explains the specific British custom of elevating two fingers as a rude gesture. 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 [72], The French cavalry, despite being disorganised and not at full numbers, charged towards the longbowmen. Rogers says each of the 10,000 men-at-arms would be accompanied by a gros valet (an armed, armoured and mounted military servant) and a noncombatant page, counts the former as fighting men, and concludes thus that the French in fact numbered 24,000. 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. 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. Battle of Agincourt: English victory over the French | Britannica 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. There is no evidence that, when captured in any scenario,archers had their finger cut off by the enemy( bit.ly/3dP2PhP ). 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. Unable to cross the Somme River because of French defenses, he was forced to take a detour inland and cross farther upstream. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. 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. Humble English archers defeated the armoured elite of French chivalry, enshrining both the longbow and the battle in English national legend. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". To meet and beat him was a triumph, the highest form which self-expression could take in the medieval nobleman's way of life." [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. [76] Modern historians are divided on how effective the longbows would have been against plate armour of the time. Its not known whether one displayed the digitus infamis in the same manner that we (well, you) flip the bird today. The French hoped to raise 9,000 troops, but the army was not ready in time to relieve Harfleur. 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. This symbol of rocking out is formed by tucking the middle and index finger and holding them in place with the thumb. Without a river obstacle to defend, the French were hesitant to force a battle. The puzzler was: What was this body part? (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.). Early in the morning on October 25 (the feast day of St. Crispin), 1415, Henry positioned his army for battle on a recently plowed field bounded by woods. This claim is false. [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. But lets not quibble. 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 English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. When the French rejected Henrys substantial territorial demands, he arrived in Normandy in August 1415 with a force of about 12,000 men and laid siege to the city of Harfleur. 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. Longbowmen and "The Finger" - (on 'TheBeckoning') This was an innovative technique that the English had not used in the Battles of Crcy and Poitiers. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. 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. 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 'middle finger salute' did not derive from the defiant gestures of English archers whose fingers had been severed at the Battle of Agincourt. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. 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. The one-finger salute, or at any rate sexual gestures involving the middle finger, are thousands of years old. They were blocking Henry's retreat, and were perfectly happy to wait for as long as it took. [8] These included the Duke of York, the young Earl of Suffolk and the Welsh esquire Dafydd ("Davy") Gam. How different cultures perceive emojis in workplace communication And I aint kidding yew. [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. Why not simply kill them outright in the first place? Apparently Henry believed his fleeing army would perform better on the defensive, but had to halt the retreat and somehow engage the French Common estimates place the English army at about 6,000, while the French army probably consisted of 20,000 to 30,000 men. One popular "origin story" for the middle finger has to do with the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. During this battle, the medieval archers started ahead of the army and commenced the action. The Battle of Agincourt - The European Middle Ages Increasingly, they had to walk around or over fallen comrades. This was not strictly a feudal army, but an army paid through a system similar to that of the English. Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. Recent heavy rain made the battle field very muddy, proving very tiring to walk through in full plate armour. 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. [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. Henry threatened to hang whoever did not obey his orders. [34] The rearguard, leaderless, would serve as a "dumping ground" for the surplus troops. 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. Its up there with heres something that they dont want you to know.. 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. At issue was the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown as well as the ownership of several French territories. It was a disastrous attempt. The archers were commanded by Sir Thomas Erpingham, another elderly veteran. One Of The Oldest Insults: The Origin Of The Middle Finger - Storypick 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 trial ranged widely over whether there was just cause for war and not simply the prisoner issue. [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. Battle of Agincourt - Wikipedia What is Mudra, ancient times to modern classic and controversial 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. New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. Another verse begins: You love to be sodomized, Papylus . Some historians trace its origins to ancient Rome. The Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. It lasted longer than Henry had anticipated, and his numbers were significantly diminished as a result of casualties, desertions, and disease. On February 1, 1328, King Charles IV of France died without an heir. 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. 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. [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. 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". Battle of Agincourt - The English Really Should Have Lost, But They Won [84] The exhausted French men-at-arms were unable to get up after being knocked to the ground by the English. 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). Agincourt 1415: The Triumph of the Longbow: Directed by Graham Holloway. 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. This famous weapon was made of the . 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. In the song Hotel California, what does colitas mean? [17] Two of the most frequently cited accounts come from Burgundian sources, one from Jean Le Fvre de Saint-Remy who was present at the battle, and the other from Enguerrand de Monstrelet.