battle of agincourt middle finger

Moreover, if archers could be ransomed, then cutting off their middle fingers would be a senseless move. He contrasts the modern, English king and his army with the medieval, chivalric, older model of the French. 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 ). They were successful for a time, forcing Henry to move south, away from Calais, to find a ford. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Henry threatened to hang whoever did not obey his orders. Henry managed to subjugate Normandy in 1419, a victory that was followed by the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, which betrothed Henry to King Charles VIs daughter Catherine and named him heir to the French crown. The struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. "[102], Estimates of the number of prisoners vary between 700 and 2,200, amongst them the dukes of Orlans and Bourbon, the counts of Eu, Vendme, Richemont (brother of the Duke of Brittany and stepbrother of Henry V) and Harcourt, and marshal Jean Le Maingre.[12]. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. The main part of the speech begins "This day is called the feast of . 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". [76] Modern historians are divided on how effective the longbows would have been against plate armour of the time. 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. There was no monetary reward to be obtained by capturing them, nor was there any glory to be won by defeating them in battle. [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. 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. In pursuit of his claim to the French throne, Henry V invaded Normandy with an army of 11,000 men in August 1415. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. 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. The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Jean de Wavrin, a knight on the French side wrote that English fatalities were 1,600 men of all ranks. [21] On 19 April 1415, Henry again asked the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed. Upon his death, a French assembly formed to appoint a male successor. Dear Cecil: Can you confirm the following? Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . [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. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. Do you return these prisoners to your opponents in exchange for nothing, thereby providing them with trained soldiers who can fight against you another day? Although the victory had been militarily decisive, its impact was complex. The original usage of this mudra can be traced back as far as the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. 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. [70]), The tightness of the terrain also seems to have restricted the planned deployment of the French forces. The French could not cope with the thousands of lightly armoured longbowmen assailants (who were much less hindered by the mud and weight of their armour) combined with the English men-at-arms. 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. The Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. The English Gesta Henrici described three great heaps of the slain around the three main English standards. 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. [19], Henry V invaded France following the failure of negotiations with the French. A truce had been formally declared in 1396 that was meant to last 28 years, sealed by the marriage of the French king Charles VIs daughter to King Richard II of England. [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. [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. [34] The rearguard, leaderless, would serve as a "dumping ground" for the surplus troops. The battle probably lasted no longer than three hours and was perhaps as short as half an hour, according to some estimates. He claimed the title of King of France through his great-grandfather Edward III of England, although in practice the English kings were generally prepared to renounce this claim if the French would acknowledge the English claim on Aquitaine and other French lands (the terms of the Treaty of Brtigny). I thought the French threatened to cut off the primary finger of the English longbowmen (the middle finger was neeed the most to pull the bowstring). New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. 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. [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. Shakespeare's version of the battle of Agincourt has been turned into several minor and two major films. Contemporary accounts describe the triumphal pageantry with which the king was received in London on November 23, with elaborate displays and choirs attending his passage to St. Pauls Cathedral. Kill them outright and violate the medieval moral code of civilized warfare? 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. The English finally crossed the Somme south of Pronne, at Bthencourt and Voyennes[28][29] and resumed marching north. The f-word itself is Germanic with early-medieval roots; the earliest attested use in English in an unambiguous sexual context is in a document from 1310. They shadowed Henry's army while calling a semonce des nobles,[30] calling on local nobles to join the army. Thinking it was an attack from the rear, Henry had the French nobles he was holding prisoner killed. [citation needed]. Nonetheless, so many readers have forwarded it to us accompanied by an "Is this true?" This battle is notable for the use of the English longbow in very large numbers, with the English and Welsh archers comprising nearly 80 percent of Henry's army. 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). After the initial wave, the French would have had to fight over and on the bodies of those who had fallen before them. [68], Henry's men were already very weary from hunger, illness and retreat. [45] A second, smaller mounted force was to attack the rear of the English army, along with its baggage and servants. [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). By most contemporary accounts, the French army was also significantly larger than the English, though the exact degree of their numerical superiority is disputed. [106] This lack of unity in France allowed Henry eighteen months to prepare militarily and politically for a renewed campaign. 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 remains an important symbol in popular culture. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and so the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking yew". . [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. People who killed their social betters from a distance werent very well liked, and would likely have paid with their lives as did all the French prisoners, archers or otherwise, whom Henry V had executed at Agincourt, in what some historians consider a war crime. [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. The French had originally drawn up a battle plan that had archers and crossbowmen in front of their men-at-arms, with a cavalry force at the rear specifically designed to "fall upon the archers, and use their force to break them,"[71] but in the event, the French archers and crossbowmen were deployed behind and to the sides of the men-at-arms (where they seem to have played almost no part, except possibly for an initial volley of arrows at the start of the battle). 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. [107], Most primary sources which describe the battle have English outnumbered by several times. It did not lead to further English conquests immediately as Henry's priority was to return to England, which he did on 16 November, to be received in triumph in London on the 23rd. The Roman gesturemadeby extending the third finger from a closed fist, thus made the same threat, by forming a similarly phallic shape. On 25 October 1415, an army of English raiders under Henry V faced the French outside an obscure village on the road to Calais. [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. Why do some people have that one extra-long fingernail on the pinkie finger. 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. 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. [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. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. 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 . What does DO NOT HUMP mean on the side of railroad cars? It seems clear, however, that the English were at a decided numerical disadvantage. [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). [135] The battle also forms a central component of the 2019 Netflix film The King. 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. [36] Henry, worried about the enemy launching surprise raids, and wanting his troops to remain focused, ordered all his men to spend the night before the battle in silence, on pain of having an ear cut off. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here . [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. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. Archers were not the "similarly equipped" opponents that armored soldiers triumphed in defeating -- if the two clashed in combat, the armored soldier would either kill an archer outright or leave him to bleed to death rather than go to the wasteful effort of taking him prisoner. 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. [49], The French vanguard and main battle numbered respectively 4,800 and 3,000 men-at-arms. Keegan, John. This symbol of rocking out is formed by tucking the middle and index finger and holding them in place with the thumb. (Indeed, Henry V was heavily criticized for supposedly having ordered the execution of French prisoners at Agincourt. Since then there had been tension between the nobility and the royal house, widespread lawlessness throughout the kingdom, and several attempts on Henry Vs life. 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. Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons". Mortimer also considers that the Gesta vastly inflates the English casualties 5,000 at Harfleur, and that "despite the trials of the march, Henry had lost very few men to illness or death; and we have independent testimony that no more than 160 had been captured on the way". They had been weakened by the siege at Harfleur and had marched over 200 miles (more than 320 km), and many among them were suffering from dysentery. The terrain favoured Henrys army and disadvantaged its opponent, as it reduced the numerical advantage of the French army by narrowing the front. Rogers says each of the 10,000 men-at-arms would be accompanied by a gros valet (an armed, armoured and mounted military servant) and a noncombatant page, counts the former as fighting men, and concludes thus that the French in fact numbered 24,000. 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. (Storyline based on the play by William Shakespeare "The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Batt. 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. [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. A widely shared image on social media purportedly explains the historic origins of the middle finger, considered an offensive gesture in Western culture. 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. Henry V's victory in the mud of Picardy remains the . The latter, each titled Henry V, star Laurence Olivier in 1944 and Kenneth Branagh in 1989. The English numbered roughly 5,000 knights, men-at-arms, and archers. The 'middle finger salute' did not derive from the defiant gestures of English archers whose fingers had been severed at the Battle of Agincourt. 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. 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. Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. 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. [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. 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. 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. 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. The English men-at-arms in plate and mail were placed shoulder to shoulder four deep. (Its taking longer than we thought.) According to contemporary English accounts, Henry fought hand to hand. 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 ). So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". [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. In December 1414, the English parliament was persuaded to grant Henry a "double subsidy", a tax at twice the traditional rate, to recover his inheritance from the French. With Toby Merrell, Ian Brooker, Philip Rosch, Brian Blessed. The decorative use of the image of Priapusmatched the Roman use ofimages of male genitalia for warding off evil. Maybe it means five and was a symbol of support for Henry V? News of the contrivance circulated within Europe and was described in a book of tactics written in 1411 by. 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. PLUCK YEW!". [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.

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