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battle of agincourt middle finger

[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. (Indeed, Henry V was heavily criticized for supposedly having ordered the execution of French prisoners at Agincourt. 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. They might also have deployed some archers in the centre of the line. King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415 by Sir John Gilbert, Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, Lancashire. The English numbered roughly 5,000 knights, men-at-arms, and archers. 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. It supposedly describes the origin of the middle-finger hand gesture and, by implication, the insult "fuck you". Barker, following the Gesta Henrici, believed to have been written by an English chaplain who was actually in the baggage train, concluded that the attack happened at the start of the battle. 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 struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. 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. . [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. Historians disagree less about the French numbers. On 25 October 1415, an army of English raiders under Henry V faced the French outside an obscure village on the road to Calais. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Fixed formatting. [107], Most primary sources which describe the battle have English outnumbered by several times. Made just prior to the invasion of Normandy, Olivier's rendition gives the battle what Sarah Hatchuel has termed an "exhilarating and heroic" tone, with an artificial, cinematic look to the battle scenes. 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. 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. And I aint kidding yew. 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. The battle probably lasted no longer than three hours and was perhaps as short as half an hour, according to some estimates. 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? And for a variety of reasons, it made no military sense whatsoever for the French to capture English archers, then mutilate them by cutting off their fingers. [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. There was no monetary reward to be obtained by capturing them, nor was there any glory to be won by defeating them in battle. At issue was the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown as well as the ownership of several French territories. 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. The delay allowed a large French force, led by the constable Charles dAlbret and the marshal Jean II le Meingre (called Boucicaut), to intercept him near the village of Agincourt on October 24. This symbol of rocking out is formed by tucking the middle and index finger and holding them in place with the thumb. During this battle, the medieval archers started ahead of the army and commenced the action. The historian Suetonius, writing about Augustus Caesar, says the emperor expelled [the entertainer] Pylades . 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 Participating as judges were Justices Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. [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. This would prevent maneuvers that might overwhelm the English ranks. The military aspects of this account are similarly specious. 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. Contemporary accounts [ edit] 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. 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. [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]. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. This claim is false. The Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. [54] To disperse the enemy archers, a cavalry force of 8001,200 picked men-at-arms,[55] led by Clignet de Brban and Louis de Bosredon, was distributed evenly between both flanks of the vanguard (standing slightly forward, like horns). 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. Another verse begins: You love to be sodomized, Papylus . [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. 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. Maybe it means five and was a symbol of support for Henry V? 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. The English and Welsh archers on the flanks drove pointed wooden stakes, or palings, into the ground at an angle to force cavalry to veer off. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019 with bachelor's degrees in English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies. [23] The army of about 12,000 men and up to 20,000 horses besieged the port of Harfleur. The French hoped to raise 9,000 troops, but the army was not ready in time to relieve Harfleur. By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. A labiodental fricative was no less "difficult" for Middle English speakers to pronounce than the aspirated bilabial stop/voiceless lateral combination of 'pl' that the fricative supposedly changed into, nor are there any other examples of such a pronunciation shift occurring in English. Send questions to Cecil via cecil@straightdope.com. [31] This entailed abandoning his chosen position and pulling out, advancing, and then re-installing the long sharpened wooden stakes pointed outwards toward the enemy, which helped protect the longbowmen from cavalry charges. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. 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. [56] Some 200 mounted men-at-arms would attack the English rear. 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. Some notable examples are listed below. [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. Omissions? 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. It sounds rather fishy to me. [89] A slaughter of the French prisoners ensued. T he battle of Agincourt, whose 600th anniversary falls on St Crispin's Day, 25 October, is still tabloid gold, Gotcha! The image makes the further claim that the English soldiers chanted pluck yew, ostensibly in reference to the drawing of the longbow. It was often reported to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. Its not known whether one displayed the digitus infamis in the same manner that we (well, you) flip the bird today. The archers were commanded by Sir Thomas Erpingham, another elderly veteran. Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. This was not strictly a feudal army, but an army paid through a system similar to that of the English. with chivalry. 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. 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. [39] Curry, Rogers[118] and Mortimer[42] all agree the French had 4 to 5 thousand missile troops. ), 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? The longbow. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. News of the contrivance circulated within Europe and was described in a book of tactics written in 1411 by. These numbers are based on the Gesta Henrici Quinti and the chronicle of Jean Le Fvre, the only two eyewitness accounts on the English camp. [104] Henry returned a conquering hero, seen as blessed by God in the eyes of his subjects and European powers outside France. Barker states that some knights, encumbered by their armour, actually drowned in their helmets.[64]. Soon after the battle started, it had thousands of English and French soldiers and horses running through it. The approximate location of the battle has never been disputed, and the site remains relatively unaltered after 600 years. [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. The insulting gesture of extending one's middle finger (referred to as digitus impudicus in Latin) originated long before the Battle of Agincourt. Singer Robbie Williams insults the viewer. 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. The puzzler was: What was this body part? [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. By most contemporary accounts, the French army was also significantly larger than the English, though the exact degree of their numerical superiority is disputed. 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 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. Clip from the 1944 movie "Henry V" (137 min). [Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.] The battle remains an important symbol in popular culture. Dear Cecil: Can you confirm the following? It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare 's play Henry V, written in 1599. Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415)Battle resulting in the decisive victory of the English over the French in the Hundred Years' War. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. 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. 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 . The Battle of Agincourt (/dnkr(t)/ AJ-in-kor(t);[a] French: Azincourt [azku]) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. . The pl sound, the story goes, gradually changed into an f, giving the gesture its present meaning. 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. [21] On 19 April 1415, Henry again asked the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed. Subject: Truth About the Finger In the film Titanic the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack, another character. Battle of Agincourt. [76] Modern historians are divided on how effective the longbows would have been against plate armour of the time. 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. 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 . 33-35). 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. In pursuit of his claim to the French throne, Henry V invaded Normandy with an army of 11,000 men in August 1415. [106] This lack of unity in France allowed Henry eighteen months to prepare militarily and politically for a renewed campaign. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. 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. False. Departing from Harfleur on October 8, Henry marched northward toward the English-held port of Calais, where he would disembark for England, with a force of 1,000 knights and men-at-arms and 5,000 archers. What it is supposed to represent I have no idea. Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, they said, "See, we can still pluck yew! [27], During the siege, the French had raised an army which assembled around Rouen. "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? As the mle developed, the French second line also joined the attack, but they too were swallowed up, with the narrow terrain meaning the extra numbers could not be used effectively. The French nobility, weakened by the defeat and divided among themselves, were unable to meet new attacks with effective resistance. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting. [59], The field of battle was arguably the most significant factor in deciding the outcome. Osprey Publishing. With Toby Merrell, Ian Brooker, Philip Rosch, Brian Blessed. The image makes the claim that the gesture derives from English soldiers at the Battle of Agincourt, France in 1415. Originally representing the erect phallus, the gesture conveyssimultaneously a sexual threat to the person to whom it is directed andapotropaicmeans of warding off unwanted elements of the more-than-human. ( here ). To meet and beat him was a triumph, the highest form which self-expression could take in the medieval nobleman's way of life." [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. Didn't it originate at Agincourt? Some historians trace its origins to ancient Rome. It continued as a series of battles, sieges, and disputes throughout the 14th century, with both the French and the English variously taking advantage. Despite the numerical disadvantage, the battle ended in an overwhelming victory for the English. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". 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. One final observation: any time some appeal begins with heres something that intelligent people will find edifying you should be suspicious. 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). They were successful for a time, forcing Henry to move south, away from Calais, to find a ford. 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). 78-116). Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. [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. [45] A second, smaller mounted force was to attack the rear of the English army, along with its baggage and servants. There is a modern museum in Agincourt village dedicated to the battle. 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. Shakespeare's version of the battle of Agincourt has been turned into several minor and two major films. 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. According to contemporary English accounts, Henry fought hand to hand. 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. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). This famous weapon was made of the . 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. 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. Unable to cross the Somme River because of French defenses, he was forced to take a detour inland and cross farther upstream. 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. 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. 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. [126], Shakespeare's depiction of the battle also plays on the theme of modernity. 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 terrain favoured Henrys army and disadvantaged its opponent, as it reduced the numerical advantage of the French army by narrowing the front. 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. Although the victory had been militarily decisive, its impact was complex. In the other reference Martial writes that a certain party points a finger, an indecent one, at some other people. After a difficult siege, the English forces found themselves assaulted by a massive French force. 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. [87] Whether this was part of a deliberate French plan or an act of local brigandage is unclear from the sources. The "middle finger" gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. During World War II the symbol was adopted as a V for victory. After the victory, Henry continued his march to Calais and arrived back in England in November to an outpouring of nationalistic sentiment. Common estimates place the English army at about 6,000, while the French army probably consisted of 20,000 to 30,000 men. The Burgundians seized on the opportunity and within 10 days of the battle had mustered their armies and marched on Paris. Jones, P. N. (1992). After Henry V marched to the north, the French moved to block them along the River Somme. [23] Thomas Morstede, Henry V's royal surgeon,[24] had previously been contracted by the king to supply a team of surgeons and makers of surgical instruments to take part in the Agincourt campaign. Poitiers 1356: The capture of a king (Vol. 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 ). 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. 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. Image source King Charles VI of France did not command the French army as he suffered from psychotic illnesses and associated mental incapacity. The Battle of Agincourt is well documented by at least seven contemporary accounts, three from eyewitnesses. The effect of the victory on national morale was powerful. The French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, threatened to cut a certain body part off of all captured English soldiers so that they could never fight again. [25] The siege took longer than expected. 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". 78-116). 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. 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. When that campaign took place, it was made easier by the damage done to the political and military structures of Normandy by the battle. The French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, Continue Reading 41 2 7 Alexander L New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. Bowman were not valuable prisoners, though: they stood outside the chivalric system and were considered the social inferiors of men-at-arms. The English men-at-arms in plate and mail were placed shoulder to shoulder four deep. [34][d] The French apparently had no clear plan for deploying the rest of the army. Henry would marry Catherine, Charles VI's young daughter, and receive a dowry of 2million crowns. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare's play Henry V, written in 1599. [50] Both lines were arrayed in tight, dense formations of about 16 ranks each, and were positioned a bowshot length from each other. [c], The English made their confessions before the battle, as was customary. In the ensuing negotiations Henry said that he would give up his claim to the French throne if the French would pay the 1.6million crowns outstanding from the ransom of John II (who had been captured at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356), and concede English ownership of the lands of Anjou, Brittany, Flanders, Normandy, and Touraine, as well as Aquitaine. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird". Jean de Wavrin, a knight on the French side wrote that English fatalities were 1,600 men of all ranks. One of the most renowned. [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. [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. He contrasts the modern, English king and his army with the medieval, chivalric, older model of the French.

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