Updates? 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. [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. 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". As the mle developed, the French second line also joined the attack, but they too were swallowed up, with the narrow terrain meaning the extra numbers could not be used effectively. This use of stakes could have been inspired by the Battle of Nicopolis of 1396, where forces of the Ottoman Empire used the tactic against French cavalry. 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 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. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground. [68], Henry's men were already very weary from hunger, illness and retreat. 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 longbow. David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. 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. [124], The most famous cultural depiction of the battle today is in Act IV of William Shakespeare's Henry V, written in 1599. 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. [93] Entire noble families were wiped out in the male line, and in some regions an entire generation of landed nobility was annihilated. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019 with bachelor's degrees in English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew." It was often reported to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. And where does the distinction between one and two fingers come from? [38], The French army had 10,000 men-at arms[39][40][41] plus some 4,0005,000 miscellaneous footmen (gens de trait) including archers, crossbowmen[42] (arbaltriers) and shield-bearers (pavisiers), totaling 14,00015,000 men. [139] The museum lists the names of combatants of both sides who died in the battle. [76] Modern historians are divided on how effective the longbows would have been against plate armour of the time. A widely shared image on social media purportedly explains the historic origins of the middle finger, considered an offensive gesture in Western culture. This material may not be reproduced without permission. Apparently Henry believed his fleeing army would perform better on the defensive, but had to halt the retreat and somehow engage the French . Battle of Agincourt. [8] These included the Duke of York, the young Earl of Suffolk and the Welsh esquire Dafydd ("Davy") Gam. before a defensive battle was possible. Rogers suggested that the French at the back of their deep formation would have been attempting to literally add their weight to the advance, without realising that they were hindering the ability of those at the front to manoeuvre and fight by pushing them into the English formation of lancepoints. 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? 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. 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. [121] Mortimer notes the presence of noncombatant pages only, indicating that they would ride the spare horses during the battle and be mistakenly thought of as combatants by the English.[122]. The English Gesta Henrici described three great heaps of the slain around the three main English standards. [69] (The use of stakes was an innovation for the English: during the Battle of Crcy, for example, the archers had been instead protected by pits and other obstacles. 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. Kill them outright and violate the medieval moral code of civilized warfare? [89] A slaughter of the French prisoners ensued. King Charles VI of France did not command the French army as he suffered from psychotic illnesses and associated mental incapacity. The latter, each titled Henry V, star Laurence Olivier in 1944 and Kenneth Branagh in 1989. [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. 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. Image source 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. It was a disastrous attempt. This was not strictly a feudal army, but an army paid through a system similar to that of the English. 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. [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. Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415)Battle resulting in the decisive victory of the English over the French in the Hundred Years' War. Corrections? The French were commanded by Constable Charles d'Albret and various prominent French noblemen of the Armagnac party. 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. Winston Churchhill can be seen using the V as a rallying call. 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. Contemporary chroniclers did not criticise him for it. 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. [70]), The tightness of the terrain also seems to have restricted the planned deployment of the French forces. 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. [7] Barker, who believes the English were outnumbered by at least four to one,[120] says that the armed servants formed the rearguard in the battle. [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. Legend says that the British archers were so formidable that the ones captured by the French had their index and middle fingers cut off so that they . 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. 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. 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. [21] On 19 April 1415, Henry again asked the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed. The metallography and relative effectiveness of arrowheads and armor during the Middle Ages. giving someone the middle finger 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. [27], During the siege, the French had raised an army which assembled around Rouen. With Toby Merrell, Ian Brooker, Philip Rosch, Brian Blessed. King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415 by Sir John Gilbert, Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, Lancashire. After a difficult siege, the English forces found themselves assaulted by a massive French force. Turning to our vast classical library, we quickly turn up three references. In the song Hotel California, what does colitas mean? On February 1, 1328, King Charles IV of France died without an heir. It continued as a series of battles, sieges, and disputes throughout the 14th century, with both the French and the English variously taking advantage. Wikipedia. 33-35). 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. 138). Agincourt. 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. The number is supported by many other contemporary accounts. Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. 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. When the English won the battle the soldiers waved their middle fingers at the French in defiance, thus flipping the bird was born Details the English victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt. Barker, Sumption and Rogers all wrote that the English probably had 6,000 men, these being 5,000 archers and 9001,000 men-at-arms. Participating as judges were Justices Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The archers were commanded by Sir Thomas Erpingham, another elderly veteran. . 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"). [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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. Osprey Publishing. 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). 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. Despite the numerical disadvantage, the battle ended in an overwhelming victory for the English. 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. 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. In 1999, Snopesdebunked more of the historical aspects of the claim, as well as thecomponent explaininghow the phrase pluck yew graduallychanged form to begin with an f( here ). "[129], The play introduced the famous St Crispin's Day Speech, considered one of Shakespeare's most heroic speeches, which Henry delivers movingly to his soldiers just before the battle, urging his "band of brothers" to stand together in the forthcoming fight. Very quickly after the battle, the fragile truce between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions broke down. Didn't it originate at 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. One final observation: any time some appeal begins with heres something that intelligent people will find edifying you should be suspicious. By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself. 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. It goes on to state thatafter an unexpected victory, the English soldiersmocked thedefeatedFrenchtroopsbywavingtheir middle fingers( here ). 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. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The pl sound, the story goes, gradually changed into an f, giving the gesture its present meaning. [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. With 4,800 men-at-arms in the vanguard, 3,000 in the main battle, and 1,200 in the infantry wings. 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. The middle finger gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Contemporary accounts [ edit] They were blocking Henry's retreat, and were perfectly happy to wait for as long as it took. Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415), decisive battle in the Hundred Years War (13371453) that resulted in the victory of the English over the French. Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, they said, "See, we can still pluck yew! 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). 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. 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. [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. [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. Im even more suspicious of the alleged transformation of p to f. 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. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". Without a river obstacle to defend, the French were hesitant to force a battle. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. Common estimates place the English army at about 6,000, while the French army probably consisted of 20,000 to 30,000 men. The French could not cope with the thousands of lightly armoured longbowmen assailants (who were much less hindered by the mud and weight of their armour) combined with the English men-at-arms. Loades, M. (2013). It supposedly describes the origin of the middle-finger hand gesture and, by implication, the insult "fuck you". I admit that I bring this story up when I talk about the Hundred Years War only to debunk it. The fact that Winston Churchill sometimes made his V-for-victory gesture rudely suggests that it is of much more recent vintage. Clip from the 1944 movie "Henry V" (137 min). [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. 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. [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 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. And I aint kidding yew. The one-finger salute, or at any rate sexual gestures involving the middle finger, are thousands of years old. By 24 October, both armies faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. Although the victory had been militarily decisive, its impact was complex. 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. King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. [93] In all, around 6,000 of their fighting men lay dead on the ground. The version that I tell explains the specific British custom of elevating two fingers as a rude gesture. The battle probably lasted no longer than three hours and was perhaps as short as half an hour, according to some estimates. This was an innovative technique that the English had not used in the Battles of Crcy and Poitiers. [54] To disperse the enemy archers, a cavalry force of 8001,200 picked men-at-arms,[55] led by Clignet de Brban and Louis de Bosredon, was distributed evenly between both flanks of the vanguard (standing slightly forward, like horns). During this battle, the medieval archers started ahead of the army and commenced the action. [45] A second, smaller mounted force was to attack the rear of the English army, along with its baggage and servants. [92], The French had suffered a catastrophic defeat. Its origins can be traced back to 1066 . 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. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. This article was. 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. These numbers are based on the Gesta Henrici Quinti and the chronicle of Jean Le Fvre, the only two eyewitness accounts on the English camp. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. In the ensuing campaign, many soldiers died from disease, and the English numbers dwindled; they tried to withdraw to English-held Calais but found their path blocked by a considerably larger French army. 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. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. Why not simply kill them outright in the first place? Keegan also speculated that due to the relatively low number of archers actually involved in killing the French knights (roughly 200 by his estimate), together with the refusal of the English knights to assist in a duty they saw as distastefully unchivalrous, and combined with the sheer difficulty of killing such a large number of prisoners in such a short space of time, the actual number of French prisoners put to death may not have been substantial before the French reserves fled the field and Henry rescinded the order. Poitiers 1356: The capture of a king (Vol. The French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, Continue Reading 41 2 7 Alexander L Keegan, John. The Hundred Years' War. The point is, the middle-finger/phallus equation goes back way before the Titanic, the Battle of Agincourt, or probably even that time Sextillus cut off Pylades with his chariot. This claim is false. The 'middle finger salute' did not derive from the defiant gestures of English archers whose fingers had been severed at the Battle of Agincourt. And although the precise etymology of the English word fuck is still a matter of debate, it is linguistically nonsensical to maintain that that word entered the language because the "difficult consonant cluster at the beginning" of the phase 'pluck yew' has "gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'f.'" The 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 December 1414, the English parliament was persuaded to grant Henry a "double subsidy", a tax at twice the traditional rate, to recover his inheritance from the French. The French nobility, weakened by the defeat and divided among themselves, were unable to meet new attacks with effective resistance. [19], Henry V invaded France following the failure of negotiations with the French. If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? 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. When that campaign took place, it was made easier by the damage done to the political and military structures of Normandy by the battle.

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