The metallography and relative effectiveness of arrowheads and armor during the Middle Ages. 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. The effect of the victory on national morale was powerful. This claim is false. (Indeed, Henry V was heavily criticized for supposedly having ordered the execution of French prisoners at Agincourt. Juliet Barker quotes a contemporary account by a monk from St. Denis who reports how the wounded and panicking horses galloped through the advancing infantry, scattering them and trampling them down in their headlong flight from the battlefield. The key word for describing the battle of Agincourt is mud . This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. The original usage of this mudra can be traced back as far as the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. As the English were collecting prisoners, a band of French peasants led by local noblemen began plundering Henrys baggage behind the lines. David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. The Face of Battle.New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. Updates? 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]. By 24 October, both armies faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. [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. 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. [101] The bailiffs of nine major northern towns were killed, often along with their sons, relatives and supporters. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. [49], The French vanguard and main battle numbered respectively 4,800 and 3,000 men-at-arms. [93] Entire noble families were wiped out in the male line, and in some regions an entire generation of landed nobility was annihilated. [c], The English made their confessions before the battle, as was customary. [135] The battle also forms a central component of the 2019 Netflix film The King. [21] On 19 April 1415, Henry again asked the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed. 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.'" 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. [citation needed], The French responded with what they considered the generous terms of marriage with Catherine, a dowry of 600,000 crowns, and an enlarged Aquitaine. Dear Cecil: Can you confirm the following? It sounds rather fishy to me. 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. 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. 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. [46] Many lords and gentlemen demanded and got places in the front lines, where they would have a higher chance to acquire glory and valuable ransoms; this resulted in the bulk of the men-at-arms being massed in the front lines and the other troops, for which there was no remaining space, to be placed behind. Corrections? The insulting gesture of extending one's middle finger (referred to as digitus impudicus in Latin) originated long before the Battle of Agincourt. Giving the Finger - 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 Battle of Agincourt was another famous battle where longbowmen had a particularly important . Soon after the battle started, it had thousands of English and French soldiers and horses running through it. A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). 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. 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. [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. [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. [84] The exhausted French men-at-arms were unable to get up after being knocked to the ground by the English. [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. Some historians trace its origins to ancient Rome. The Battle of Agincourt is an iconic moment in English military history. [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. It. 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 decorative use of the image of Priapusmatched the Roman use ofimages of male genitalia for warding off evil. Didn't it originate at Agincourt? [citation needed], Immediately after the battle, Henry summoned the heralds of the two armies who had watched the battle together with principal French herald Montjoie, and they settled on the name of the battle as Azincourt, after the nearest fortified place. Although the victory had been militarily decisive, its impact was complex. 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. The main part of the speech begins "This day is called the feast of . Wikipedia. There is a modern museum in Agincourt village dedicated to the battle. [33], Early on the 25th, Henry deployed his army (approximately 1,500 men-at-arms and 7,000 longbowmen) across a 750-yard (690m) part of the defile. Subject: Truth About the Finger In the film Titanic the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack, another character. Fixed formatting. This is the answer submitted by a listener: Dear Click and Clack, Thank you for the Agincourt 'Puzzler', which clears up some profound questions of etymology, folklore and emotional symbolism. After the battle, the English taunted the survivors by showing off what wasn't cut off. [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 contemporary English accounts, Henry fought hand to hand. This famous weapon was made of the . This article was. If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? 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 . 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. Inthe book,Corbeillpoints to Priapus, a minor deityhedatesto 400 BC, whichlater alsoappears in Rome as the guardian of gardens,according to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Greece and Rome( here ). [48] On account of the lack of space, the French drew up a third battle, the rearguard, which was on horseback and mainly comprised the varlets mounted on the horses belonging to the men fighting on foot ahead. [72], The French cavalry, despite being disorganised and not at full numbers, charged towards the longbowmen. Unable to cross the Somme River because of French defenses, he was forced to take a detour inland and cross farther upstream. Thinking it was an attack from the rear, Henry had the French nobles he was holding prisoner killed. The military aspects of this account are similarly specious. Image source 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. [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. ), And even if killing prisoners of war did not violate the moral code of the times, what would be the purpose of taking archers captive, cutting off their fingers, and then executing them? After the initial wave, the French would have had to fight over and on the bodies of those who had fallen before them. 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! False. |. Im even more suspicious of the alleged transformation of p to f. [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. [85], The French men-at-arms were taken prisoner or killed in the thousands. 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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Without a river obstacle to defend, the French were hesitant to force a battle. "[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. After several decades of relative peace, the English had resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French. The puzzler was: What was this body part? Winston Churchhill can be seen using the V as a rallying call. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. [5] [b] Henry V 's victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army. [34] It is likely that the English adopted their usual battle line of longbowmen on either flank, with men-at-arms and knights in the centre. The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory in the Hundred Years' War.The battle took place on Friday, 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) in the County of Saint-Pol, Artois, some. The battle probably lasted no longer than three hours and was perhaps as short as half an hour, according to some estimates. 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. News of the contrivance circulated within Europe and was described in a book of tactics written in 1411 by. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird". The Roman gesturemadeby extending the third finger from a closed fist, thus made the same threat, by forming a similarly phallic shape. . The Hundred Years' War. 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. [39] Curry, Rogers[118] and Mortimer[42] all agree the French had 4 to 5 thousand missile troops. 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. The Face of Battle. I admit that I bring this story up when I talk about the Hundred Years War only to debunk it. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and so the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking yew". Henry would marry Catherine, Charles VI's young daughter, and receive a dowry of 2million crowns. The town surrendered on 22 September, and the English army did not leave until 8 October. 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. It continued as a series of battles, sieges, and disputes throughout the 14th century, with both the French and the English variously taking advantage. Some notable examples are listed below. [59], The field of battle was arguably the most significant factor in deciding the outcome. 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. A BBCNews Magazinereportsimilarlytracesthe gesture back toAncient Greek philosophers ( here ). Many folkloric or etymological myths have sprung up about its origin, especially the widely quoted one about the interplay between the French and English soldiery at the battle of Agincourt 1415, where the French threatened to amputate the middle fingers of the English archers to prevent them from drawing their bows, which of course is absolute It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare 's play Henry V, written in 1599. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. [62] [31], The precise location of the battle is not known. [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. Rather than retire directly to England for the winter, with his costly expedition resulting in the capture of only one town, Henry decided to march most of his army (roughly 9,000) through Normandy to the port of Calais, the English stronghold in northern France, to demonstrate by his presence in the territory at the head of an army that his right to rule in the duchy was more than a mere abstract legal and historical claim. Increasingly, they had to walk around or over fallen comrades. By most contemporary accounts, the French army was also significantly larger than the English, though the exact degree of their numerical superiority is disputed. Course Hero uses AI to attempt to automatically extract content from documents to surface to you and others so you can study better, e.g., in search results, to enrich docs, and more. 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. In Nature Embodied: Gesture in Ancient Rome, Anthony Corbeill, Professor of Classics at the University of Kansas wrote: The most familiar example of the coexistence of a human and transhuman elementis the extended middle finger. At least one scholar puts the French army at no more than 12,000, indicating that the English were outnumbered 2 to 1. In the other reference Martial writes that a certain party points a finger, an indecent one, at some other people. 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. Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415)Battle resulting in the decisive victory of the English over the French in the Hundred Years' War. The Battle of Agincourt is well documented by at least seven contemporary accounts, three from eyewitnesses. [139] The museum lists the names of combatants of both sides who died in the battle. [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. [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. Barker states that some knights, encumbered by their armour, actually drowned in their helmets.[64]. 78-116). 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. The pl sound, the story goes, gradually changed into an f, giving the gesture its present meaning. The version that I tell explains the specific British custom of elevating two fingers as a rude gesture. 33-35). [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". Keegan, John. ", "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. 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." Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. As the story goes, the French were fighting with the English and had a diabolical (and greatly advertised) plan of cutting off the middle fingers of any captured English archers so they could never taunt the French with arrows plucked in their . Contemporary chroniclers did not criticise him for it. 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. After the victory, Henry continued his march to Calais and arrived back in England in November to an outpouring of nationalistic sentiment. When that campaign took place, it was made easier by the damage done to the political and military structures of Normandy by the battle. There is no evidence that, when captured in any scenario,archers had their finger cut off by the enemy( bit.ly/3dP2PhP ). Certainly, d'Azincourt was a local knight but he might have been chosen to lead the attack because of his local knowledge and the lack of availability of a more senior soldier. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019 with bachelor's degrees in English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies. 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. (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.). [27], During the siege, the French had raised an army which assembled around Rouen. On October 25, 1415, during the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) between England and France, Henry V (1386-1422), the young king of England, led his forces to victory at the Battle of . The 'middle finger salute' did not derive from the defiant gestures of English archers whose fingers had been severed at the Battle of Agincourt. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. 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. [51] Albret, Boucicaut and almost all the leading noblemen were assigned stations in the vanguard. [19], Henry V invaded France following the failure of negotiations with the French. 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.
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