[Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.] [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. 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. [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. According to research, heres the true story: Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Update [June 20, 2022]: Updated SEO/social. Wikipedia. [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. [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. Apparently Henry believed his fleeing army would perform better on the defensive, but had to halt the retreat and somehow engage the French 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. with chivalry. 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. The latter, each titled Henry V, star Laurence Olivier in 1944 and Kenneth Branagh in 1989. 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. Whether this was true is open to question and continues to be debated to this day; however, it seems likely that death was the normal fate of any soldier who could not be ransomed. A Short History of "Flipping the Bird" - OddFeed By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself. 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. 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. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare's play Henry V, written in 1599. It may be difficult to pinpoint exactly when the middle finger gesture originated, but some historians trace its roots to ancient Rome. Details the English victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt. The terrain favoured Henrys army and disadvantaged its opponent, as it reduced the numerical advantage of the French army by narrowing the front. Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. A Dictionary of Superstitions. After the initial wave, the French would have had to fight over and on the bodies of those who had fallen before them. Its origins can be traced back to 1066 . . [135] The battle also forms a central component of the 2019 Netflix film The King. Contents. Fighting commenced at 11:00 am, as the English brought their longbows within killing range and the first line of French knights advanced, led by cavalry. The English numbered roughly 5,000 knights, men-at-arms, and archers. |. Battle of Agincourt. Subject: Truth About the Finger In the film Titanic the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack, another character. Battle of Agincourt - English History Although the French initially pushed the English back, they became so closely packed that they were described as having trouble using their weapons properly. 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. The military aspects of this account are similarly specious. 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. [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. 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.'" [5] [b] Henry V 's victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army. Agincourt was a battle like no other but how do the French remember Materials characterization, 29(2), 111117. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. Bloomsbury Publishing. The city capitulated within six weeks, but the siege was costly. David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. 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 longbow. [50] Both lines were arrayed in tight, dense formations of about 16 ranks each, and were positioned a bowshot length from each other. As John Keegan wrote in his history of warfare: "To meet a similarly equipped opponent was the occasion for which the armoured soldier trained perhaps every day of his life from the onset of manhood. This was not strictly a feudal army, but an army paid through a system similar to that of the English. [106] This lack of unity in France allowed Henry eighteen months to prepare militarily and politically for a renewed campaign. False. 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? The traditional view of the years 131821 is one of domination by Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons". "[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. Historians disagree less about the French numbers. ", "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. 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. His men-at-arms were stationed in the centre, flanked by wedges of archers who carried longbows that had an effective range of 250 yards (229 metres). [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. 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. 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. [31], The precise location of the battle is not known. [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. One Of The Oldest Insults: The Origin Of The Middle Finger - Storypick The middle finger gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. 33-35). It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare 's play Henry V, written in 1599. 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. [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 effect of the victory on national morale was powerful. [56] Some 200 mounted men-at-arms would attack the English rear. 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. However, the lack of archaeological evidence at this traditional site has led to suggestions it was fought to the west of Azincourt. Jean de Wavrin, a knight on the French side wrote that English fatalities were 1,600 men of all ranks. Axtell, Roger E. Gestures: The Do's and Taboos of Body Language Around the World. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting. before a defensive battle was possible. Keegan, John. Moreover, if archers could be ransomed, then cutting off their middle fingers would be a senseless move. While the precise number of casualties is unknown, it is estimated that English losses amounted to about 400 and French losses to about 6,000, many of whom were noblemen. [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. There is a modern museum in Agincourt village dedicated to the battle. It established the legitimacy of the Lancastrian monarchy and the future campaigns of Henry to pursue his "rights and privileges" in France. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. 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? Agincourt 1415: The Triumph of the Longbow: Directed by Graham Holloway. Fighting ignorance since 1973. King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. 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 . 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. What it is supposed to represent I have no idea. The French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, Continue Reading 41 2 7 Alexander L giving someone the middle finger Shakespeare's version of the battle of Agincourt has been turned into several minor and two major films. The king received an axe blow to the head, which knocked off a piece of the crown that formed part of his helmet. [39] Curry, Rogers[118] and Mortimer[42] all agree the French had 4 to 5 thousand missile troops. 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. Do you return these prisoners to your opponents in exchange for nothing, thereby providing them with trained soldiers who can fight against you another day? This was an innovative technique that the English had not used in the Battles of Crcy and Poitiers. [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. 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. Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, they said, "See, we can still pluck yew! [113] Barker opined that "if the differential really was as low as three to four then this makes a nonsense of the course of the battle as described by eyewitnesses and contemporaries".[110]. [23] The army of about 12,000 men and up to 20,000 horses besieged the port of Harfleur. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". 138). Loades, M. (2013). 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. 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! 030223 - Musings From Leroy Dear Cecil: Can you confirm the following? During World War II the symbol was adopted as a V for victory. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. [91] Such an event would have posed a risk to the still-outnumbered English and could have easily turned a stunning victory into a mutually destructive defeat, as the English forces were now largely intermingled with the French and would have suffered grievously from the arrows of their own longbowmen had they needed to resume shooting. 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. [107], Most primary sources which describe the battle have English outnumbered by several times. The battlefield was a freshly plowed field, and at the time of the battle, it had been raining continuously for several days. PLUCK YEW!". (Storyline based on the play by William Shakespeare "The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Batt. [139] The museum lists the names of combatants of both sides who died in the battle. 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. A widely shared image on social media purportedly explains the historic origins of the middle finger, considered an offensive gesture in Western culture. Eventually the archers abandoned their longbows and began fighting hand-to-hand with swords and axes alongside the men-at-arms. 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 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. [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. The Face of Battle.New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. 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. 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 ). According to contemporary English accounts, Henry fought hand to hand. "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? 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. Poitiers 1356: The capture of a king (Vol. The historian Suetonius, writing about Augustus Caesar, says the emperor expelled [the entertainer] Pylades . [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". (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.). Agincourt, Henry V's famous victory over the French on 25 October 1415, is a fascinating battle not just because of what happened but also because of how its myth has developed ever since. Its not known whether one displayed the digitus infamis in the same manner that we (well, you) flip the bird today. On February 1, 1328, King Charles IV of France died without an heir. One of the most renowned. Kill them outright and violate the medieval moral code of civilized warfare? 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. By 24 October, both armies faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. 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. When that campaign took place, it was made easier by the damage done to the political and military structures of Normandy by the battle. Participating as judges were Justices Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 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. Another verse begins: You love to be sodomized, Papylus . The key word for describing the battle of Agincourt is mud . Military textbooks of the time stated: "Everywhere and on all occasions that foot soldiers march against their enemy face to face, those who march lose and those who remain standing still and holding firm win. 10+ True Battle Agincourt Facts That Will Make You Look Stupid Why is the missionary position called that? [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. 33-35). "[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]. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [101] The bailiffs of nine major northern towns were killed, often along with their sons, relatives and supporters. Common estimates place the English army at about 6,000, while the French army probably consisted of 20,000 to 30,000 men. 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. 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. The Battle of Agincourt - The European Middle Ages Agincourt 1415: The Triumph of the Longbow (Video 1993) - IMDb [84] The exhausted French men-at-arms were unable to get up after being knocked to the ground by the English. Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . The Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. French history myths: The 'two fingers' insult comes from the Battle of 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. The Battle of Agincourt (/dnkr(t)/ AJ-in-kor(t);[a] French: Azincourt [azku]) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. The 'middle finger salute' did not derive from the defiant gestures of English archers whose fingers had been severed at the Battle of Agincourt. The army was divided into three groups, with the right wing led by Edward, Duke of York, the centre led by the king himself, and the left wing under the old and experienced Baron Thomas Camoys. [51] Albret, Boucicaut and almost all the leading noblemen were assigned stations in the vanguard. The Battle of Agincourt is an iconic moment in English military history. In Gestures: Their Origins and Distribution, Desmond Morris and colleagues note that the digitus infamis or digitus impudicus (infamous or indecent finger) is mentioned several times in the literature of ancient Rome. 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. 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. They were blocking Henry's retreat, and were perfectly happy to wait for as long as it took. The Battle of Agincourt was another famous battle where longbowmen had a particularly important . [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. Send questions to Cecil via cecil@straightdope.com. 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. The battle remains an important symbol in popular culture. It supposedly describes the origin of the middle-finger hand gesture and, by implication, the insult "fuck you". . Although an audience vote was "too close to call", Henry was unanimously found guilty by the court on the basis of "evolving standards of civil society".[136][137][138]. (Its taking longer than we thought.) 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. The Battle of Agincourt 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 . Battle of Agincourt and the origin of Fu#K | Origin story of middle Idiom Origins - Middle finger - History of Middle finger 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. At issue was the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown as well as the ownership of several French territories. What Is the History of the Middle Finger? | Snopes.com 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.
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