battle of agincourt middle finger battle of agincourt middle finger

(Indeed, Henry V was heavily criticized for supposedly having ordered the execution of French prisoners at Agincourt. The main part of the speech begins "This day is called the feast of . [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 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). On February 1, 1328, King Charles IV of France died without an heir. [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. 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. 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. The Battle of Agincourt (October 25, 1415) was a pivotal battle in the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), resulting in an English victory over the French. 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. During World War II the symbol was adopted as a V for victory. I suppose that the two-fingered salute could still come from medieval archery, even if it didnt come specifically from the Battle of Agincourt, although the example that Wikipedia links to (the fourteenth-century Luttrell Psalter) is ambiguous. [108] While not necessarily agreeing with the exact numbers Curry uses, Bertrand Schnerb, a professor of medieval history at the University of Lille, states the French probably had 12,00015,000 troops. Archers were not the "similarly equipped" opponents that armored soldiers triumphed in defeating -- if the two clashed in combat, the armored soldier would either kill an archer outright or leave him to bleed to death rather than go to the wasteful effort of taking him prisoner. Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Upon hearing that his youngest brother Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester had been wounded in the groin, Henry took his household guard and stood over his brother, in the front rank of the fighting, until Humphrey could be dragged to safety. Nicolle, D. (2004). The English men-at-arms in plate and mail were placed shoulder to shoulder four deep. 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? [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. 78-116). 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. 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. The insulting gesture of extending one's middle finger (referred to as digitus impudicus in Latin) originated long before the Battle of Agincourt. [72], The French cavalry, despite being disorganised and not at full numbers, charged towards the longbowmen. 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". It sounds rather fishy to me. The key word for describing the battle of Agincourt is mud . [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. [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. With Toby Merrell, Ian Brooker, Philip Rosch, Brian Blessed. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. At least one scholar puts the French army at no more than 12,000, indicating that the English were outnumbered 2 to 1. 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? [74], The plate armour of the French men-at-arms allowed them to close the 1,000 yards or so to the English lines while being under what the French monk of Saint Denis described as "a terrifying hail of arrow shot". The Battle of Agincourt is an iconic moment in English military history. In pursuit of his claim to the French throne, Henry V invaded Normandy with an army of 11,000 men in August 1415. The Burgundians seized on the opportunity and within 10 days of the battle had mustered their armies and marched on Paris. 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. "[102], Estimates of the number of prisoners vary between 700 and 2,200, amongst them the dukes of Orlans and Bourbon, the counts of Eu, Vendme, Richemont (brother of the Duke of Brittany and stepbrother of Henry V) and Harcourt, and marshal Jean Le Maingre.[12]. [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. [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). 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. Apparently Henry believed his fleeing army would perform better on the defensive, but had to halt the retreat and somehow engage the French 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. [84] The exhausted French men-at-arms were unable to get up after being knocked to the ground by the English. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". The ransoming of prisoners was the only way for medieval soldiers to make a quick fortune, and so they seized every available opportunity to capture opponents who could be exchanged for handsome prices. [36] Henry, worried about the enemy launching surprise raids, and wanting his troops to remain focused, ordered all his men to spend the night before the battle in silence, on pain of having an ear cut off. Jones, P. N. (1992). When the English won the battle the soldiers waved their middle fingers at the French in defiance, thus flipping the bird was born 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. 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. 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. People who killed their social betters from a distance werent very well liked, and would likely have paid with their lives as did all the French prisoners, archers or otherwise, whom Henry V had executed at Agincourt, in what some historians consider a war crime. 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 English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. [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. 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. 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. 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. [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 English King Henry V and his troops were marching to Calais to embark for England when he was intercepted by forces which outnumbered his. 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. [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. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). 138). 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. As the English were collecting prisoners, a band of French peasants led by local noblemen began plundering Henrys baggage behind the lines. Humble English archers defeated the armoured elite of French chivalry, enshrining both the longbow and the battle in English national legend. If the one-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, as the graphic suggests, then at what point did it get transformed into two fingers in England? The . 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. 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 Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. A widely shared image on social media purportedly explains the historic origins of the middle finger, considered an offensive gesture in Western culture. Historians disagree less about the French numbers. It seems it was purely a decision of Henry, since the English knights found it contrary to chivalry, and contrary to their interests, to kill valuable hostages for whom it was commonplace to ask ransom. [93] In all, around 6,000 of their fighting men lay dead on the ground. Battle of Agincourt. . The battlefield was a freshly plowed field, and at the time of the battle, it had been raining continuously for several days. It goes on to state thatafter an unexpected victory, the English soldiersmocked thedefeatedFrenchtroopsbywavingtheir middle fingers( here ). 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. 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. After the initial wave, the French would have had to fight over and on the bodies of those who had fallen before them. The approximate location of the battle has never been disputed, and the site remains relatively unaltered after 600 years. October 25, 1415. The version that I tell explains the specific British custom of elevating two fingers as a rude gesture. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. And where does the distinction between one and two fingers come from? 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. By most contemporary accounts, the French army was also significantly larger than the English, though the exact degree of their numerical superiority is disputed. 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 pl sound, the story goes, gradually changed into an f, giving the gesture its present meaning. What it is supposed to represent I have no idea. 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. [126], Shakespeare's depiction of the battle also plays on the theme of modernity. The Roman gesturemadeby extending the third finger from a closed fist, thus made the same threat, by forming a similarly phallic shape. Increasingly, they had to walk around or over fallen comrades. 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. By 24 October, both armies faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. [c], The English made their confessions before the battle, as was customary. [87] Whether this was part of a deliberate French plan or an act of local brigandage is unclear from the sources. The metallography and relative effectiveness of arrowheads and armor during the Middle Ages. (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.). [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. [23] The army of about 12,000 men and up to 20,000 horses besieged the port of Harfleur. Bloomsbury Publishing. 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. Some historians trace its origins to ancient Rome. The trial ranged widely over whether there was just cause for war and not simply the prisoner issue. Very quickly after the battle, the fragile truce between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions broke down. 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. [106] This lack of unity in France allowed Henry eighteen months to prepare militarily and politically for a renewed campaign. This was not strictly a feudal army, but an army paid through a system similar to that of the English. .). . Maybe it means five and was a symbol of support for Henry V? 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. [citation needed], In any event, Henry ordered the slaughter of what were perhaps several thousand French prisoners, sparing only the highest ranked (presumably those most likely to fetch a large ransom under the chivalric system of warfare). 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. [85], The French men-at-arms were taken prisoner or killed in the thousands. King Charles VI of France did not command the French army as he suffered from psychotic illnesses and associated mental incapacity. This head-lowered position restricted their breathing and their vision. When Henry V acceded to the English throne in 1413, there had been a long hiatus in the fighting. 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. David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. before a defensive battle was possible. 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. The English were not in an ideal condition to fight a battle. Rogers, Mortimer[117] and Sumption[41] all give more or less 10,000 men-at-arms for the French, using as a source the herald of the Duke of Berry, an eyewitness. 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"). 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. After a difficult siege, the English forces found themselves assaulted by a massive French force. 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. The historian Suetonius, writing about Augustus Caesar, says the emperor expelled [the entertainer] Pylades . 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. 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. One of the most renowned. Osprey Publishing. However, the lack of archaeological evidence at this traditional site has led to suggestions it was fought to the west of Azincourt. The puzzler was: What was this body part? 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. Updates? [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. Despite the numerical disadvantage, the battle ended in an overwhelming victory for the English. The Face of Battle. 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. 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. 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. 33-35). Agincourt 1415: The Triumph of the Longbow: Directed by Graham Holloway. The French nobility, weakened by the defeat and divided among themselves, were unable to meet new attacks with effective resistance. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. [139] The museum lists the names of combatants of both sides who died in the battle. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. [52] The dukes of Alenon and Bar led the main battle. [20] He initially called a Great Council in the spring of 1414 to discuss going to war with France, but the lords insisted that he should negotiate further and moderate his claims. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare's play Henry V, written in 1599. 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. [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". She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019 with bachelor's degrees in English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies. Its not known whether one displayed the digitus infamis in the same manner that we (well, you) flip the bird today. Keegan, John. By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself. 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 . In the other reference Martial writes that a certain party points a finger, an indecent one, at some other people. [101] The bailiffs of nine major northern towns were killed, often along with their sons, relatives and supporters. "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? One final observation: any time some appeal begins with heres something that intelligent people will find edifying you should be suspicious. [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. 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. [21] On 19 April 1415, Henry again asked the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed. After the battle, the English taunted the survivors by showing off what wasn't cut off. T he battle of Agincourt, whose 600th anniversary falls on St Crispin's Day, 25 October, is still tabloid gold, Gotcha! It supposedly describes the origin of the middle-finger hand gesture and, by implication, the insult "fuck you". 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. This famous weapon was made of the . In his 2007 film adaptation, director Peter Babakitis uses digital effects to exaggerate realist features during the battle scenes, producing a more avant-garde interpretation of the fighting at Agincourt. Materials characterization, 29(2), 111117. One popular "origin story" for the middle finger has to do with the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. These heralds were not part of the participating armies, but were, as military expert John Keegan describes, members of an "international corporation of experts who regulated civilized warfare." The king received an axe blow to the head, which knocked off a piece of the crown that formed part of his helmet. 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. Take on the burden and expense of caring for them? Originally representing the erect phallus, the gesture conveyssimultaneously a sexual threat to the person to whom it is directed andapotropaicmeans of warding off unwanted elements of the more-than-human. ( here ). Clip from the 1944 movie "Henry V" (137 min). 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. The archers were commanded by Sir Thomas Erpingham, another elderly veteran. Turning to our vast classical library, we quickly turn up three references. [133] Branagh's version gives a longer, more realist portrayal of the battle itself, drawing on both historical sources and images from the Vietnam and Falkland Wars.[134]. [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. The 'middle finger salute' did not derive from the defiant gestures of English archers whose fingers had been severed at the Battle of Agincourt. An account purporting to offer the historical origins of the obscene middle-finger extended hand gesture (varously known as "flipping the bird," "flipping someone off," or the "one-finger salute") is silly, and so obviously a joke that shouldn't need any debunking. It. The "middle finger" gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. [130][131] Partially as a result, the battle was used as a metaphor at the beginning of the First World War, when the British Expeditionary Force's attempts to stop the German advances were widely likened to it.[132]. After the victory, Henry continued his march to Calais and arrived back in England in November to an outpouring of nationalistic sentiment. [37], Henry made a speech emphasising the justness of his cause, and reminding his army of previous great defeats the kings of England had inflicted on the French. Loades, M. (2013). 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. 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". Participating as judges were Justices Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The effect of the victory on national morale was powerful. 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.