Two are from the epigrammatist Martial: Laugh loudly, Sextillus, when someone calls you a queen and put your middle finger out., (The verse continues: But you are no sodomite nor fornicator either, Sextillus, nor is Vetustinas hot mouth your fancy. Martial, and Roman poets in general, could be pretty out there, subject-matter-wise. [Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.] This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and so the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking yew". After the initial wave, the French would have had to fight over and on the bodies of those who had fallen before them. October 25, 1415. [8] These included the Duke of York, the young Earl of Suffolk and the Welsh esquire Dafydd ("Davy") Gam. Battle of Agincourt - Wikipedia This symbol of rocking out is formed by tucking the middle and index finger and holding them in place with the thumb. ", "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 Burgundian sources have him concluding the speech by telling his men that the French had boasted that they would cut off two fingers from the right hand of every archer, so that he could never draw a longbow again. Materials characterization, 29(2), 111117. [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. The campaign season was coming to an end, and the English army had suffered many casualties through disease. 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. [104] Henry returned a conquering hero, seen as blessed by God in the eyes of his subjects and European powers outside France. The historian Suetonius, writing about Augustus Caesar, says the emperor expelled [the entertainer] Pylades . Bloomsbury Publishing. [93] Entire noble families were wiped out in the male line, and in some regions an entire generation of landed nobility was annihilated. [56] Some 200 mounted men-at-arms would attack the English rear. Dear Cecil: Can you confirm the following? [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]. 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. 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. The battle remains an important symbol in popular culture. 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. Why not simply kill them outright in the first place? The Hundred Years' War. [23] The army of about 12,000 men and up to 20,000 horses besieged the port of Harfleur. [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 English men-at-arms in plate and mail were placed shoulder to shoulder four deep. 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 . [5] [b] Henry V 's victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army. Image source Winston Churchhill can be seen using the V as a rallying call. [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 nobility, weakened by the defeat and divided among themselves, were unable to meet new attacks with effective resistance. After Henry V marched to the north, the French moved to block them along the River Somme. Wikipedia. The one-finger salute, or at any rate sexual gestures involving the middle finger, are thousands of years old. ), 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? (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.). 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. 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. 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. In the words of Juliet Barker, the battle "cut a great swath through the natural leaders of French society in Artois, Ponthieu, Normandy, Picardy. The Battle of Agincourt (720p) Watch on . [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. The Face of Battle. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. 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. 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. During this battle, the medieval archers started ahead of the army and commenced the action. To meet and beat him was a triumph, the highest form which self-expression could take in the medieval nobleman's way of life." Fighting ignorance since 1973. [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. Nonetheless, so many readers have forwarded it to us accompanied by an "Is this true?" New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. . Saint Crispin's Day - Wikipedia David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. 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 ). The next line of French knights that poured in found themselves so tightly packed (the field narrowed at the English end) that they were unable to use their weapons effectively, and the tide of the battle began to turn toward the English. The decorative use of the image of Priapusmatched the Roman use ofimages of male genitalia for warding off evil. The version that I tell explains the specific British custom of elevating two fingers as a rude gesture. 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 Battle of Agincourt forms a key part of Shakespeare's Henry V. Photo by Nick Ansell / POOL / AFP) Myth: During the Hundred Years War, the French cut off the first and second fingers of any. What's the origin of "the finger"? - The Straight Dope 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. And I aint kidding yew. (Storyline based on the play by William Shakespeare "The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Batt. [86], The only French success was an attack on the lightly protected English baggage train, with Ysembart d'Azincourt (leading a small number of men-at-arms and varlets plus about 600 peasants) seizing some of Henry's personal treasures, including a crown. Battle of Agincourt | Facts, Summary, & Significance | Britannica [84] The exhausted French men-at-arms were unable to get up after being knocked to the ground by the English. I admit that I bring this story up when I talk about the Hundred Years War only to debunk it. Corrections? [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. The longbow. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting. [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. [25] The siege took longer than expected. Barker states that some knights, encumbered by their armour, actually drowned in their helmets.[64]. The struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. Medieval Archers (Everything you Need to Know) - The Finer Times 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 . giving someone the middle finger 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". 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. This would prevent maneuvers that might overwhelm the English ranks. 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