The puzzler was: What was this body part? [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. 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. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. The decorative use of the image of Priapusmatched the Roman use ofimages of male genitalia for warding off evil. [34][d] The French apparently had no clear plan for deploying the rest of the army. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. They shadowed Henry's army while calling a semonce des nobles,[30] calling on local nobles to join the army. [84] The exhausted French men-at-arms were unable to get up after being knocked to the ground by the English. 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. [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). A widely shared image on social media purportedly explains the historic origins of the middle finger, considered an offensive gesture in Western culture. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare 's play Henry V, written in 1599. 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. (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.). Wikipedia. The English finally crossed the Somme south of Pronne, at Bthencourt and Voyennes[28][29] and resumed marching north. [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. [87] Whether this was part of a deliberate French plan or an act of local brigandage is unclear from the sources. Nonetheless, so many readers have forwarded it to us accompanied by an "Is this true?" 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. 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 If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? 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. It was often reported to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. 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. 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 one-finger salute, or at any rate sexual gestures involving the middle finger, are thousands of years old. The battle probably lasted no longer than three hours and was perhaps as short as half an hour, according to some estimates. It. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and so the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking yew". He considered a knight in the best-quality steel armour invulnerable to an arrow on the breastplate or top of the helmet, but vulnerable to shots hitting the limbs, particularly at close range. The military aspects of this account are similarly specious. 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. (Storyline based on the play by William Shakespeare "The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Batt. [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. 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. The Battle of Agincourt originated in 1328. 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 . French knights, charging uphill, were unseated from their horses, either because their mounts were injured on the stakes or because they dismounted to uproot the obstacles, and were overpowered. The city capitulated within six weeks, but the siege was costly. Clip from the 1944 movie "Henry V" (137 min). Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. There is no evidence that, when captured in any scenario,archers had their finger cut off by the enemy( bit.ly/3dP2PhP ). Dear Cecil: Can you confirm the following? The English won in a major upset and waved the body part in question at the French in defiance. The English numbered roughly 5,000 knights, men-at-arms, and archers. [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. When the English won the battle the soldiers waved their middle fingers at the French in defiance, thus flipping the bird was born [19], Henry V invaded France following the failure of negotiations with the French. The Battle of Agincourt was another famous battle where longbowmen had a particularly important . Apparently Henry believed his fleeing army would perform better on the defensive, but had to halt the retreat and somehow engage the French 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 . The Battle of Agincourt (720p) Watch on Its origins can be traced back to 1066 . Increasingly, they had to walk around or over fallen comrades. The Gesta Henrici places this after the English had overcome the onslaught of the French men-at-arms and the weary English troops were eyeing the French rearguard ("in incomparable number and still fresh"). [76] Modern historians are divided on how effective the longbows would have been against plate armour of the time. [101] The bailiffs of nine major northern towns were killed, often along with their sons, relatives and supporters. The play focuses on the pressures of kingship, the tensions between how a king should appear chivalric, honest, and just and how a king must sometimes act Machiavellian and ruthless. The "middle finger" gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. [39] Curry, Rogers[118] and Mortimer[42] all agree the French had 4 to 5 thousand missile troops. On the morning of 25 October, the French were still waiting for additional troops to arrive. 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. Moreover, with this outcome Henry V strengthened his position in his own kingdom; it legitimized his claim to the crown, which had been under threat after his accession. I thought the French threatened to cut off the primary finger of the English longbowmen (the middle finger was neeed the most to pull the bowstring). [8] These included the Duke of York, the young Earl of Suffolk and the Welsh esquire Dafydd ("Davy") Gam. Take on the burden and expense of caring for them? With 4,800 men-at-arms in the vanguard, 3,000 in the main battle, and 1,200 in the infantry wings. The fact that Winston Churchill sometimes made his V-for-victory gesture rudely suggests that it is of much more recent vintage. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". When the first French line reached the English front, the cavalry were unable to overwhelm the archers, who had driven sharpened stakes into the ground at an angle before themselves. Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . 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. .). 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. David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. 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. Probably each man-at-arms would be accompanied by a gros valet (or varlet), an armed servant, adding up to another 10,000 potential fighting men,[7] though some historians omit them from the number of combatants. 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]. [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. Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. 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. Henry V's victory in the mud of Picardy remains the . Kill them outright and violate the medieval moral code of civilized warfare? In the other reference Martial writes that a certain party points a finger, an indecent one, at some other people. While numerous English sources give the English casualties in double figures,[8] record evidence identifies at least 112 Englishmen killed in the fighting,[103] while Monstrelet reported 600 English dead. Henry threatened to hang whoever did not obey his orders. The metallography and relative effectiveness of arrowheads and armor during the Middle Ages. 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 ). Axtell, Roger E. Gestures: The Dos and Taboos of Body Language Around the World.New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991 ISBN 0-471-53672-5 (pp. 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. King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415 by Sir John Gilbert, Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, Lancashire. 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 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. . 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! Soon after the battle started, it had thousands of English and French soldiers and horses running through it. [104] Henry returned a conquering hero, seen as blessed by God in the eyes of his subjects and European powers outside France. 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. ", "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. This famous weapon was made of the . [70]), The tightness of the terrain also seems to have restricted the planned deployment of the French forces. [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. [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. It established the legitimacy of the Lancastrian monarchy and the future campaigns of Henry to pursue his "rights and privileges" in France. Very quickly after the battle, the fragile truce between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions broke down. 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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. [68], Henry's men were already very weary from hunger, illness and retreat. 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. [92], The French had suffered a catastrophic defeat. . Although the French initially pushed the English back, they became so closely packed that they were described as having trouble using their weapons properly. The campaign season was coming to an end, and the English army had suffered many casualties through disease.

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