battle of agincourt middle finger

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]. The Duke of Brabant (about 2,000 men),[65] the Duke of Anjou (about 600 men),[65] and the Duke of Brittany (6,000 men, according to Monstrelet),[66] were all marching to join the army. [74], The plate armour of the French men-at-arms allowed them to close the 1,000 yards or so to the English lines while being under what the French monk of Saint Denis described as "a terrifying hail of arrow shot". 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. . In the other reference Martial writes that a certain party points a finger, an indecent one, at some other people. The idea being that you need two fingers to draw a bow, which makes more sense, and thus links up a national custom with a triumphant moment in national history! False claim: "Middle finger" gesture derives from English soldiers at [87] Whether this was part of a deliberate French plan or an act of local brigandage is unclear from the sources. In the song Hotel California, what does colitas mean? [50] Both lines were arrayed in tight, dense formations of about 16 ranks each, and were positioned a bowshot length from each other. In the words of Juliet Barker, the battle "cut a great swath through the natural leaders of French society in Artois, Ponthieu, Normandy, Picardy. Send questions to Cecil via cecil@straightdope.com. 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. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off 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. 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 . In March 2010, a mock trial of Henry V for the crimes associated with the slaughter of the prisoners was held in Washington, D.C., drawing from both the historical record and Shakespeare's play. It continued as a series of battles, sieges, and disputes throughout the 14th century, with both the French and the English variously taking advantage. When 5,000 British Archers Defeated Over 30,000 French Knights 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. Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons". 138). The origins of the sign aren't confirmed, but popular folklore suggests that its original meaning, packed with insult and ridicule, first appeared in the 20th century in the battle of Agincourt. [49], The French vanguard and main battle numbered respectively 4,800 and 3,000 men-at-arms. This material may not be reproduced without permission. 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). It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird". [23] The army of about 12,000 men and up to 20,000 horses besieged the port of Harfleur. [121] Mortimer notes the presence of noncombatant pages only, indicating that they would ride the spare horses during the battle and be mistakenly thought of as combatants by the English.[122]. 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. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. 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. The image makes the further claim that the English soldiers chanted pluck yew, ostensibly in reference to the drawing of the longbow. After the victory, Henry continued his march to Calais and arrived back in England in November to an outpouring of nationalistic sentiment. It sounds rather fishy to me. Participating as judges were Justices Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The number is supported by many other contemporary accounts. 42 Share 3.9K views 4 years ago There is an old story that allegedly gives the background of how we came to use the middle finger as an insult along with the alleged origin of the "F-word". On February 1, 1328, King Charles IV of France died without an heir. 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 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. This famous weapon was made of the . After a difficult siege, the English forces found themselves assaulted by a massive French force. Battle of Agincourt: English victory over the French | Britannica 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". 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. [135] The battle also forms a central component of the 2019 Netflix film The King. The middle finger gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. 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. 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 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. Some notable examples are listed below. [59], The field of battle was arguably the most significant factor in deciding the outcome. Upon his death, a French assembly formed to appoint a male successor. This suggests that the French could have outnumbered the English 5 to 1. 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. 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. The English men-at-arms in plate and mail were placed shoulder to shoulder four deep. Jean de Wavrin, a knight on the French side wrote that English fatalities were 1,600 men of all ranks. 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. [125] Shakespeare illustrates these tensions by depicting Henry's decision to kill some of the French prisoners, whilst attempting to justify it and distance himself from the event. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. It goes on to state thatafter an unexpected victory, the English soldiersmocked thedefeatedFrenchtroopsbywavingtheir middle fingers( here ). But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. [Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.] The approximate location of the battle has never been disputed, and the site remains relatively unaltered after 600 years. The Battle of Agincourt (720p) Watch on The Battle of Agincourt [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. 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. . 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. As John Keegan wrote in his history of warfare: "To meet a similarly equipped opponent was the occasion for which the armoured soldier trained perhaps every day of his life from the onset of manhood. Wikipedia. After Henry V marched to the north, the French moved to block them along the River Somme. The longbow. They might also have deployed some archers in the centre of the line. Band of Brothers: Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt [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. Wikipedia. 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 ). The French army blocked Henry's way to the safety of Calais, and delaying battle would only further weaken his tired army and allow more French troops to arrive. The situation in England, coupled with the fact that France was weakened by its own political crisisthe insanity of Charles VI had resulted in a fight for power among the nobilitymade it an ideal moment for Henry to press his claims. Juliet Barker quotes a contemporary account by a monk from St. Denis who reports how the wounded and panicking horses galloped through the advancing infantry, scattering them and trampling them down in their headlong flight from the battlefield. [citation needed]. As the story goes, the French were fighting with the English and had a diabolical (and greatly advertised) plan of cutting off the middle fingers of any captured English archers so they could never taunt the French with arrows plucked in their . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). 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. [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. Turning to our vast classical library, we quickly turn up three references.

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