The approximate location of the battle has never been disputed, and the site remains relatively unaltered after 600 years. 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). [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. This was an innovative technique that the English had not used in the Battles of Crcy and Poitiers. [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. Wikipedia. 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. 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 battle remains an important symbol in popular culture. This was not strictly a feudal army, but an army paid through a system similar to that of the English. 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. There was no monetary reward to be obtained by capturing them, nor was there any glory to be won by defeating them in battle. In such a "press" of thousands of men, Rogers suggested that many could have suffocated in their armour, as was described by several sources, and which was also known to have happened in other battles. 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 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! The Roman gesturemadeby extending the third finger from a closed fist, thus made the same threat, by forming a similarly phallic shape. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting. Unable to cross the Somme River because of French defenses, he was forced to take a detour inland and cross farther upstream. If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? 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. [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. A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). 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. The battle repeated other English successes in the Hundred Years War, such as the Battle of Crcy (1346) and the Battle of Poitiers (1356), and made possible Englands subsequent conquest of Normandy and the Treaty of Troyes (1420), which named Henry V heir to the French crown. [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. Common estimates place the English army at about 6,000, while the French army probably consisted of 20,000 to 30,000 men. Maybe it means five and was a symbol of support for Henry V? [92], The French had suffered a catastrophic defeat. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [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. [110][111][112] Ian Mortimer endorsed Curry's methodology, though applied it more liberally, noting how she "minimises French numbers (by limiting her figures to those in the basic army and a few specific additional companies) and maximises English numbers (by assuming the numbers sent home from Harfleur were no greater than sick lists)", and concluded that "the most extreme imbalance which is credible" is 15,000 French against 8,0009,000 English. Contents. The Battle of Agincourt is well documented by at least seven contemporary accounts, three from eyewitnesses. Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. 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. [27], During the siege, the French had raised an army which assembled around Rouen. In March 2010, a mock trial of Henry V for the crimes associated with the slaughter of the prisoners was held in Washington, D.C., drawing from both the historical record and Shakespeare's play. Thepostalleges that the Frenchhad planned to cut offthe middle fingers ofall captured English soldiers,to inhibit them fromdrawingtheir longbowsin futurebattles. A BBCNews Magazinereportsimilarlytracesthe gesture back toAncient Greek philosophers ( here ). Contemporary chroniclers did not criticise him for it. This famous weapon was made of the . Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons". The . [68], Henry's men were already very weary from hunger, illness and retreat. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. 33-35). As the English were collecting prisoners, a band of French peasants led by local noblemen began plundering Henrys baggage behind the lines. Agincourt. The effect of the victory on national morale was powerful. During this battle, the medieval archers started ahead of the army and commenced the action. 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. [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. [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. Why is the missionary position called that? One popular "origin story" for the middle finger has to do with the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. [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. By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself. However, the lack of archaeological evidence at this traditional site has led to suggestions it was fought to the west of Azincourt. [76] Modern historians are divided on how effective the longbows would have been against plate armour of the time. [123] Other ballads followed, including "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France", raising the popular prominence of particular events mentioned only in passing by the original chroniclers, such as the gift of tennis balls before the campaign. 33-35). 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. Soon after the battle started, it had thousands of English and French soldiers and horses running through it. PLUCK YEW!". 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). [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. Shakespeare's portrayal of the casualty loss is ahistorical in that the French are stated to have lost 10,000 and the English 'less than' thirty men, prompting Henry's remark, "O God, thy arm was here". The "middle finger" gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. 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. [8] These included the Duke of York, the young Earl of Suffolk and the Welsh esquire Dafydd ("Davy") Gam. On February 1, 1328, King Charles IV of France died without an heir. [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 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. . [47] Although it had been planned for the archers and crossbowmen to be placed with the infantry wings, they were now regarded as unnecessary and placed behind them instead. [52] The dukes of Alenon and Bar led the main battle. 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. The 'middle finger salute' is derived from the defiant gestures of English archers whose fingers had been severed by the French at the Battle of Agincourt. 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? Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured soldiers. Subject: Truth About the Finger In the film Titanic the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack, another character. 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 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. 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. 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. Omissions? [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. Nonetheless, so many readers have forwarded it to us accompanied by an "Is this true?" [135] The battle also forms a central component of the 2019 Netflix film The King. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. The English men-at-arms in plate and mail were placed shoulder to shoulder four deep. Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, they said, "See, we can still pluck yew! The French nobility, weakened by the defeat and divided among themselves, were unable to meet new attacks with effective resistance. When Henry V acceded to the English throne in 1413, there had been a long hiatus in the fighting. The 'middle finger salute' did not derive from the defiant gestures of English archers whose fingers had been severed at the Battle of Agincourt. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the gesture is known as giving the bird. And yew all thought yew knew everything! Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). The English eyewitness account comes from the anonymous author of the Gesta Henrici Quinti, believed to have been written by a chaplain in the King's household who would have been in the baggage train at the battle. 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 originated in 1328. After Henry V marched to the north, the French moved to block them along the River Somme. 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. 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." Singer Robbie Williams insults the viewer. This suggests that the French could have outnumbered the English 5 to 1. [82], The surviving French men-at-arms reached the front of the English line and pushed it back, with the longbowmen on the flanks continuing to shoot at point-blank range. [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 be incapable of fighting in the future. The battlefield was a freshly plowed field, and at the time of the battle, it had been raining continuously for several days. 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. [93] In all, around 6,000 of their fighting men lay dead on the ground. . 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. [60][61], Accounts of the battle describe the French engaging the English men-at-arms before being rushed from the sides by the longbowmen as the mle developed. [25] The siege took longer than expected. 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. It lasted longer than Henry had anticipated, and his numbers were significantly diminished as a result of casualties, desertions, and disease. [45] A second, smaller mounted force was to attack the rear of the English army, along with its baggage and servants. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare 's play Henry V, written in 1599. 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. By contrast, Anne Curry in her 2005 book Agincourt: A New History, argued, based on research into the surviving administrative records, that the French army was 12,000 strong, and the English army 9,000, proportions of four to three. It seems clear, however, that the English were at a decided numerical disadvantage. 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. News of the contrivance circulated within Europe and was described in a book of tactics written in 1411 by. 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. The Battle of Agincourt was another famous battle where longbowmen had a particularly important . Some historians trace its origins to ancient Rome. David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. After a difficult siege, the English forces found themselves assaulted by a massive French force. 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. [59], The field of battle was arguably the most significant factor in deciding the outcome. Henry threatened to hang whoever did not obey his orders. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. King Charles VI of France did not command the French army as he suffered from psychotic illnesses and associated mental incapacity. [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]. Probably each man-at-arms would be accompanied by a gros valet (or varlet), an armed servant, adding up to another 10,000 potential fighting men,[7] though some historians omit them from the number of combatants. The 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Nicolle, D. (2004). 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 Face of Battle. French knights, charging uphill, were unseated from their horses, either because their mounts were injured on the stakes or because they dismounted to uproot the obstacles, and were overpowered. . [96] Of the great royal office holders, France lost its constable (Albret), an admiral (the lord of Dampierre), the Master of Crossbowmen (David de Rambures, dead along with three sons), Master of the Royal Household (Guichard Dauphin) and prvt of the marshals. Clip from the 1944 movie "Henry V" (137 min). "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? 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. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. On the morning of 25 October, the French were still waiting for additional troops to arrive. 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. After several decades of relative peace, the English had resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French. The historian Suetonius, writing about Augustus Caesar, says the emperor expelled [the entertainer] Pylades . It sounds rather fishy to me. 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. Take on the burden and expense of caring for them? This material may not be reproduced without permission. 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. When the English won the battle the soldiers waved their middle fingers at the French in defiance, thus flipping the bird was born The English account in the Gesta Henrici says: "For when some of them, killed when battle was first joined, fall at the front, so great was the undisciplined violence and pressure of the mass of men behind them that the living fell on top of the dead, and others falling on top of the living were killed as well."[62]. Wikipedia. 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. [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. [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. The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground. 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. The city capitulated within six weeks, but the siege was costly. .). [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". 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. On 25 October 1415, an army of English raiders under Henry V faced the French outside an obscure village on the road to Calais. [84] The exhausted French men-at-arms were unable to get up after being knocked to the ground by the English. [43], The French were organized into two main groups (or battles), a vanguard up front and a main battle behind, both composed principally of men-at-arms fighting on foot and flanked by more of the same in each wing. [26] He also intended the manoeuvre as a deliberate provocation to battle aimed at the dauphin, who had failed to respond to Henry's personal challenge to combat at Harfleur. It supposedly describes the origin of the middle-finger hand gesture and, by implication, the insult "fuck you". The Battle of Agincourt took place during the the Hundred Years' War, a conflict which, despite its name, was neither one single war nor did it last one hundred years. I admit that I bring this story up when I talk about the Hundred Years War only to debunk it. It may be difficult to pinpoint exactly when the middle finger gesture originated, but some historians trace its roots to ancient Rome. (Its taking longer than we thought.) 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. 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. 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. 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].

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