Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415)Battle resulting in the decisive victory of the English over the French in the Hundred Years' War. 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. The earliest known photograph of "the finger," given by Charles "Old Soon after the battle started, it had thousands of English and French soldiers and horses running through it. [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. The archers were commanded by Sir Thomas Erpingham, another elderly veteran. The English were not in an ideal condition to fight a battle. 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. [107], Most primary sources which describe the battle have English outnumbered by several times. [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. 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. [85], The French men-at-arms were taken prisoner or killed in the thousands. Bloomsbury Publishing. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. 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. 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 Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . The French monk of St. Denis describes the French troops as "marching through the middle of the mud where they sank up to their knees. The English won in a major upset and waved the body part in question at the French in defiance. The play focuses on the pressures of kingship, the tensions between how a king should appear chivalric, honest, and just and how a king must sometimes act Machiavellian and ruthless. Historians disagree less about the French numbers. What's the origin of "the finger"? - The Straight Dope 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. [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. As the English were collecting prisoners, a band of French peasants led by local noblemen began plundering Henrys baggage behind the lines. The Battle of Agincourt was another famous battle where longbowmen had a particularly important . 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? 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. He contrasts the modern, English king and his army with the medieval, chivalric, older model of the French. Henry threatened to hang whoever did not obey his orders. The version that I tell explains the specific British custom of elevating two fingers as a rude gesture. Contemporary accounts [ edit] 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 terrain favoured Henrys army and disadvantaged its opponent, as it reduced the numerical advantage of the French army by narrowing the front. Its up there with heres something that they dont want you to know.. 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. T he battle of Agincourt, whose 600th anniversary falls on St Crispin's Day, 25 October, is still tabloid gold, Gotcha! Pluck yew - onlysky.media The Battle of Agincourt (720p) Watch on [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. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird". [51] Albret, Boucicaut and almost all the leading noblemen were assigned stations in the vanguard. At least one scholar puts the French army at no more than 12,000, indicating that the English were outnumbered 2 to 1. 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. [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. This was an innovative technique that the English had not used in the Battles of Crcy and Poitiers. Singer Robbie Williams insults the viewer. The city capitulated within six weeks, but the siege was costly. [32] In 2019, the historian Michael Livingston also made the case for a site west of Azincourt, based on a review of sources and early maps. 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. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew." They shadowed Henry's army while calling a semonce des nobles,[30] calling on local nobles to join the army. 78-116). 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. In the song Hotel California, what does colitas mean? [59], The field of battle was arguably the most significant factor in deciding the outcome. 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 ). 33-35). 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." [93] In all, around 6,000 of their fighting men lay dead on the ground. [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. [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. 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. ", "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. If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? [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. Loades, M. (2013). Corrections? What is Mudra, ancient times to modern classic and controversial [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 French knights were unable to outflank the longbowmen (because of the encroaching woodland) and unable to charge through the array of sharpened stakes that protected the archers. [127], Shakespeare's play presented Henry as leading a truly English force into battle, playing on the importance of the link between the monarch and the common soldiers in the fight. The 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. [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. The middle finger gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. When 5,000 British Archers Defeated Over 30,000 French Knights This article was. [70]), The tightness of the terrain also seems to have restricted the planned deployment of the French forces. The Face of Battle.New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. Didn't it originate at Agincourt? King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. 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. [8] These included the Duke of York, the young Earl of Suffolk and the Welsh esquire Dafydd ("Davy") Gam. 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. [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). 10+ True Battle Agincourt Facts That Will Make You Look Stupid 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. Thinking it was an attack from the rear, Henry had the French nobles he was holding prisoner killed. 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. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. 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. 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. [17] Two of the most frequently cited accounts come from Burgundian sources, one from Jean Le Fvre de Saint-Remy who was present at the battle, and the other from Enguerrand de Monstrelet. By 24 October, both armies faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. The Hundred Years' War. [citation needed]. 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 struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. 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. 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. Medieval Archers (Everything you Need to Know) - The Finer Times 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 lasted longer than Henry had anticipated, and his numbers were significantly diminished as a result of casualties, desertions, and disease. [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. 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. Barker states that some knights, encumbered by their armour, actually drowned in their helmets.[64]. The French monk of St. Denis says: "Their vanguard, composed of about 5,000 men, found itself at first so tightly packed that those who were in the third rank could scarcely use their swords,"[63] and the Burgundian sources have a similar passage. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. 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. He considered a knight in the best-quality steel armour invulnerable to an arrow on the breastplate or top of the helmet, but vulnerable to shots hitting the limbs, particularly at close range. But lets not quibble. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. The Battle Of Agincourt: What Really Happened? | HistoryExtra There was no monetary reward to be obtained by capturing them, nor was there any glory to be won by defeating them in battle. [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. Take on the burden and expense of caring for them? The traditional view of the years 131821 is one of domination by Henry V and the resumption of the Hundred Years War, That fought with us upon Saint Crispins day, https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Agincourt, World History Encyclopedia - Battle of Agincourt, Warfare History Network - Miracle in the Mud: The Hundred Years' War's Battle of Agincourt, Battle of Agincourt - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). The Battle of Agincourt originated in 1328. Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons". 1.3M views 4 months ago Medieval Battles - In chronological order The year 1415 was the first occasion since 1359 that an English king had invaded France in person. [19], Henry V invaded France following the failure of negotiations with the French. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. During this battle, the medieval archers started ahead of the army and commenced the action. Very quickly after the battle, the fragile truce between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions broke down. Wikipedia. Recent heavy rain made the battle field very muddy, proving very tiring to walk through in full plate armour.