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. [5] [b] Henry V 's victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army. [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. [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. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". When 5,000 British Archers Defeated Over 30,000 French Knights The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. At least one scholar puts the French army at no more than 12,000, indicating that the English were outnumbered 2 to 1. 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). [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 number is supported by many other contemporary accounts. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. It sounds rather fishy to me. Since the French had many more men-at-arms than the English, they would accordingly be accompanied by a far greater number of servants. Rogers, Mortimer[117] and Sumption[41] all give more or less 10,000 men-at-arms for the French, using as a source the herald of the Duke of Berry, an eyewitness. It established the legitimacy of the Lancastrian monarchy and the future campaigns of Henry to pursue his "rights and privileges" in France. The Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415. 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. [116] One particular cause of confusion may have been the number of servants on both sides, or whether they should at all be counted as combatants. [52] The dukes of Alenon and Bar led the main battle. Didn't it originate at Agincourt? Updates? [93] Entire noble families were wiped out in the male line, and in some regions an entire generation of landed nobility was annihilated. 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. When the first French line reached the English front, the cavalry were unable to overwhelm the archers, who had driven sharpened stakes into the ground at an angle before themselves. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991 ISBN 0-471-53672-5 (pp. 33-35). 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. 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 terrain favoured Henrys army and disadvantaged its opponent, as it reduced the numerical advantage of the French army by narrowing the front. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird". Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. Increasingly, they had to walk around or over fallen comrades. 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. The Hundred Years War was a discontinuous conflict between England and France that spanned two centuries. 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 metallography and relative effectiveness of arrowheads and armor during the Middle Ages. [22], Henry's army landed in northern France on 13 August 1415, carried by a vast fleet. The key word for describing the battle of Agincourt is mud . After several decades of relative peace, the English had resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French. 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]. 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. 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. Thinking it was an attack from the rear, Henry had the French nobles he was holding prisoner killed. 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. [85], The French men-at-arms were taken prisoner or killed in the thousands. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. [92], The French had suffered a catastrophic defeat. [113] Barker opined that "if the differential really was as low as three to four then this makes a nonsense of the course of the battle as described by eyewitnesses and contemporaries".[110]. The History of the Middle Finger & "Fuck You" - Blogger 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. [84] The exhausted French men-at-arms were unable to get up after being knocked to the ground by the English. They were blocking Henry's retreat, and were perfectly happy to wait for as long as it took. Dear Cecil: Can you confirm the following? If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? [Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.] 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 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 traditional view of the years 131821 is one of domination by Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415)Battle resulting in the decisive victory of the English over the French in the Hundred Years' War. 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 chroniclers did not criticise him for it. [126], Shakespeare's depiction of the battle also plays on the theme of modernity. Battle of Agincourt - Wikipedia [93] In all, around 6,000 of their fighting men lay dead on the ground. This symbol of rocking out is formed by tucking the middle and index finger and holding them in place with the thumb. Agincourt and the Middle Finger | First Floor Tarpley When the French rejected Henrys substantial territorial demands, he arrived in Normandy in August 1415 with a force of about 12,000 men and laid siege to the city of Harfleur. 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. . 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. Julia Martinez was an Editorial Intern at Encyclopaedia Britannica. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. 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 latter, each titled Henry V, star Laurence Olivier in 1944 and Kenneth Branagh in 1989. Kill them outright and violate the medieval moral code of civilized warfare? They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The impact of thousands of arrows, combined with the slog in heavy armour through the mud, the heat and difficulty breathing in plate armour with the visor down,[83] and the crush of their numbers, meant the French men-at-arms could "scarcely lift their weapons" when they finally engaged the English line. Modern test and contemporary accounts conclude that arrows could not penetrate the better quality steel armour, which became available to knights and men-at-arms of fairly modest means by the middle of the 14th century, but could penetrate the poorer quality wrought iron armour. Keegan, John. 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. While numerous English sources give the English casualties in double figures,[8] record evidence identifies at least 112 Englishmen killed in the fighting,[103] while Monstrelet reported 600 English dead. The French nobility, weakened by the defeat and divided among themselves, were unable to meet new attacks with effective resistance. There was no monetary reward to be obtained by capturing them, nor was there any glory to be won by defeating them in battle. [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. 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." Upon his death, a French assembly formed to appoint a male successor. 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. 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. Henry would marry Catherine, Charles VI's young daughter, and receive a dowry of 2million crowns. [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. What's the origin of "the finger"? - The Straight Dope Without the middle finger it would be impossible for the English soldiers to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore incapable of fighting in the future. 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. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here . 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). October 25, 1415. Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415), decisive battle in the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) that resulted in the victory of the English over the French. 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. [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. 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. 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]. 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. Im even more suspicious of the alleged transformation of p to f. . 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! The battlefield was a freshly plowed field, and at the time of the battle, it had been raining continuously for several days. 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". [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. (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.). [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. 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. After the victory, Henry continued his march to Calais and arrived back in England in November to an outpouring of nationalistic sentiment. It may be difficult to pinpoint exactly when the middle finger gesture originated, but some historians trace its roots to ancient Rome. "[67] On top of this, the French were expecting thousands of men to join them if they waited. 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. News of the contrivance circulated within Europe and was described in a book of tactics written in 1411 by. The archers were commanded by Sir Thomas Erpingham, another elderly veteran. 030223 - Musings From Leroy Its origins can be traced back to 1066 . A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). The earliest known photograph of "the finger," given by Charles "Old [62] Battle of Agincourt. With 4,800 men-at-arms in the vanguard, 3,000 in the main battle, and 1,200 in the infantry wings. Battle of Agincourt - English History [45] A second, smaller mounted force was to attack the rear of the English army, along with its baggage and servants. Poitiers 1356: The capture of a king (Vol. [72], The French cavalry, despite being disorganised and not at full numbers, charged towards the longbowmen. 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 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. This head-lowered position restricted their breathing and their vision. A BBCNews Magazinereportsimilarlytracesthe gesture back toAncient Greek philosophers ( here ). With Toby Merrell, Ian Brooker, Philip Rosch, Brian Blessed. [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. The Battle of Agincourt (October 25, 1415) was a pivotal battle in the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), resulting in an English victory over the French. 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 . 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. Subject: Truth About the Finger In the film Titanic the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack, another character. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. What it is supposed to represent I have no idea. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and so the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking yew". Agincourt was a battle like no other but how do the French remember Its not known whether one displayed the digitus infamis in the same manner that we (well, you) flip the bird today. Some notable examples are listed below. Axtell, Roger E. Gestures: The Do's and Taboos of Body Language Around the World. Moreover, if archers could be ransomed, then cutting off their middle fingers would be a senseless move. By 24 October, both armies faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. 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. Very quickly after the battle, the fragile truce between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions broke down. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). The Battle of Agincourt is an iconic moment in English military history. One of the most renowned. 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 fact that Winston Churchill sometimes made his V-for-victory gesture rudely suggests that it is of much more recent vintage. [8] These included the Duke of York, the young Earl of Suffolk and the Welsh esquire Dafydd ("Davy") Gam. 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 city capitulated within six weeks, but the siege was costly. [130][131] Partially as a result, the battle was used as a metaphor at the beginning of the First World War, when the British Expeditionary Force's attempts to stop the German advances were widely likened to it.[132]. Plucking The Yew - Jerry Pournelle [101] The bailiffs of nine major northern towns were killed, often along with their sons, relatives and supporters. Battle of Agincourt - HISTORY 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. 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. The Battle of Agincourt (Pt 1) - YouTube For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting. If the one-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, as the graphic suggests, then at what point did it get transformed into two fingers in England? [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]. 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. 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. 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. (Storyline based on the play by William Shakespeare "The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Batt. After the battle, the English taunted the survivors by showing off what wasn't cut off. Your opponent is not going to pay you (or pay you much) for the return of mutilated soldiers, so now what do you do with them? Idiom Origins - Middle finger - History of Middle finger The English finally crossed the Somme south of Pronne, at Bthencourt and Voyennes[28][29] and resumed marching north. 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. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare 's play Henry V, written in 1599. 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. [108] While not necessarily agreeing with the exact numbers Curry uses, Bertrand Schnerb, a professor of medieval history at the University of Lille, states the French probably had 12,00015,000 troops. [21] On 19 April 1415, Henry again asked the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed. It supposedly describes the origin of the middle-finger hand gesture and, by implication, the insult "fuck you". [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. before a defensive battle was possible. 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. [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. 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. The approximate location of the battle has never been disputed, and the site remains relatively unaltered after 600 years. 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. Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons".
Does Cpt Code 99406 Need A Modifier,
Charles Stack Son Of Robert Stack,
Shaw Covington Ash,
Articles B