(Its taking longer than we thought.) The image makes the further claim that the English soldiers chanted pluck yew, ostensibly in reference to the drawing of the longbow. In the Battle of Agincourt, the French threatened the English Soldiers that they would cut off their fingers and when they failed the Englishmen mocked them by showing their fingers. 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. 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. [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]. 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". 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. 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. . Agincourt 1415: The Triumph of the Longbow: Directed by Graham Holloway. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here . [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. The version that I tell explains the specific British custom of elevating two fingers as a rude gesture. The trial ranged widely over whether there was just cause for war and not simply the prisoner issue. Image source 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 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"). [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. French chroniclers agree that when the mounted charge did come, it did not contain as many men as it should have; Gilles le Bouvier states that some had wandered off to warm themselves and others were walking or feeding their horses. It supposedly describes the origin of the middle-finger hand gesture and, by implication, the insult "fuck you". The approximate location of the battle has never been disputed, and the site remains relatively unaltered after 600 years. This symbol of rocking out is formed by tucking the middle and index finger and holding them in place with the thumb. The struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. Its up there with heres something that they dont want you to know.. [76] Modern historians are divided on how effective the longbows would have been against plate armour of the time. In the other reference Martial writes that a certain party points a finger, an indecent one, at some other people. Send questions to Cecil via cecil@straightdope.com. The image makes the claim that the gesture derives from English soldiers at the Battle of Agincourt, France in 1415. Nonetheless, so many readers have forwarded it to us accompanied by an "Is this true?" 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. Apparently Henry believed his fleeing army would perform better on the defensive, but had to halt the retreat and somehow engage the French [70]), The tightness of the terrain also seems to have restricted the planned deployment of the French forces. They might also have deployed some archers in the centre of the line. 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. [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. Agincourt came on the back of half a century of military failure and gave the English a success that repeated victories such as Crcy and Poitiers. 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. Humble English archers defeated the armoured elite of French chivalry, enshrining both the longbow and the battle in English national legend. Wikipedia. Upon his death, a French assembly formed to appoint a male successor. 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. [107], Most primary sources which describe the battle have English outnumbered by several times. The "middle finger" gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The Face of Battle.New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. [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". A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). The deep, soft mud particularly favoured the English force because, once knocked to the ground, the heavily armoured French knights had a hard time getting back up to fight in the mle. 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. . Shakespeare's version of the battle of Agincourt has been turned into several minor and two major films. [19], Henry V invaded France following the failure of negotiations with the French. 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! 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. [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] 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. Most importantly, the battle was a significant military blow to France and paved the way for further English conquests and successes. 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. King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. He claimed the title of King of France through his great-grandfather Edward III of England, although in practice the English kings were generally prepared to renounce this claim if the French would acknowledge the English claim on Aquitaine and other French lands (the terms of the Treaty of Brtigny). Tudor re-invention, leading to the quintessential Shakespearean portrayal of "we happy few", has been the most influential, but every century has made its own accretions. 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. Fixed formatting. 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. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. [27], During the siege, the French had raised an army which assembled around Rouen. [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. 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. Its origins can be traced back to 1066 . Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons". 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? 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". Some notable examples are listed below. [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. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. According to contemporary English accounts, Henry fought hand to hand. After the battle, the English taunted the survivors by showing off what wasn't cut off. Participating as judges were Justices Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Loades, M. (2013). By 24 October, both armies faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. 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. 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. [124], The most famous cultural depiction of the battle today is in Act IV of William Shakespeare's Henry V, written in 1599. A widely shared image on social media purportedly explains the historic origins of the middle finger, considered an offensive gesture in Western culture. There is no evidence that, when captured in any scenario,archers had their finger cut off by the enemy( bit.ly/3dP2PhP ). After several decades of relative peace, the English had resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French. What it is supposed to represent I have no idea. A Dictionary of Superstitions. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say (like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker", which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows), the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'f', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. [56] Some 200 mounted men-at-arms would attack the English rear. Moreover, if archers could be ransomed, then cutting off their middle fingers would be a senseless move. The military aspects of this account are similarly specious. It goes on to state thatafter an unexpected victory, the English soldiersmocked thedefeatedFrenchtroopsbywavingtheir middle fingers( here ). For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting. Although the French initially pushed the English back, they became so closely packed that they were described as having trouble using their weapons properly. [86], The only French success was an attack on the lightly protected English baggage train, with Ysembart d'Azincourt (leading a small number of men-at-arms and varlets plus about 600 peasants) seizing some of Henry's personal treasures, including a crown. The Burgundians seized on the opportunity and within 10 days of the battle had mustered their armies and marched on Paris. 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). 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". The Battle of Agincourt is well documented by at least seven contemporary accounts, three from eyewitnesses. Sumption, thus, concludes that the French had 14,000 men, basing himself on the monk of St. Denis;[119] Mortimer gives 14 or 15 thousand fighting men. The battlefield was a freshly plowed field, and at the time of the battle, it had been raining continuously for several days. They were blocking Henry's retreat, and were perfectly happy to wait for as long as it took. with chivalry. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. The historian Suetonius, writing about Augustus Caesar, says the emperor expelled [the entertainer] Pylades . 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 ). Update [June 20, 2022]: Updated SEO/social. Subject: Truth About the Finger In the film Titanic the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack, another character. 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. And I aint kidding yew. The Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. [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). The Agincourt Carol, dating from around this time and possibly written for Henrys reception in London, is a rousing celebration of the might of the English. Jones, P. N. (1992). See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. [62] 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. [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. 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. With Toby Merrell, Ian Brooker, Philip Rosch, Brian Blessed. [53] A further 600 dismounted men-at-arms stood in each wing, with the left under the Count of Vendme and the right under the Count of Richemont. He contrasts the modern, English king and his army with the medieval, chivalric, older model of the French. There was no monetary reward to be obtained by capturing them, nor was there any glory to be won by defeating them in battle. [135] The battle also forms a central component of the 2019 Netflix film The King. Omissions? On February 1, 1328, King Charles IV of France died without an heir. It did not lead to further English conquests immediately as Henry's priority was to return to England, which he did on 16 November, to be received in triumph in London on the 23rd. The Battle of Agincourt (/dnkr(t)/ AJ-in-kor(t);[a] French: Azincourt [azku]) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. 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. 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. giving someone the middle finger However, the lack of archaeological evidence at this traditional site has led to suggestions it was fought to the west of Azincourt. The situation in England, coupled with the fact that France was weakened by its own political crisisthe insanity of Charles VI had resulted in a fight for power among the nobilitymade it an ideal moment for Henry to press his claims.
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