After the initial wave, the French would have had to fight over and on the bodies of those who had fallen before them. 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. 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. Its not known whether one displayed the digitus infamis in the same manner that we (well, you) flip the bird today. Image source with chivalry. Corrections? [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. [39] Curry, Rogers[118] and Mortimer[42] all agree the French had 4 to 5 thousand missile troops. During World War II the symbol was adopted as a V for victory. His men-at-arms were stationed in the centre, flanked by wedges of archers who carried longbows that had an effective range of 250 yards (229 metres). It. 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). Humble English archers defeated the armoured elite of French chivalry, enshrining both the longbow and the battle in English national legend. Bloomsbury Publishing. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. Before the battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French proposed cutting the middle finger off of captured English soldiers rendering them incapable of shooting longbows. ), 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? [34] The rearguard, leaderless, would serve as a "dumping ground" for the surplus troops. As the English were collecting prisoners, a band of French peasants led by local noblemen began plundering Henrys baggage behind the lines. Take on the burden and expense of caring for them? Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. 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 battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. After the victory, Henry continued his march to Calais and arrived back in England in November to an outpouring of nationalistic sentiment. Increasingly, they had to walk around or over fallen comrades. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. 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. 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. 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. Henry would marry Catherine, Charles VI's young daughter, and receive a dowry of 2million crowns. (There is an Indo-European connection between the p-sound and f-sound see the distinction between the Latin pater and the Germanic Vater/father but that split occurred a long time ago.) Despite the lack of motion pictures and television way back in the 15th century, the details of medieval battles such as the one at Agincourt in 1415 did not go unrecorded. I admit that I bring this story up when I talk about the Hundred Years War only to debunk it. [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]. 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]. The town surrendered on 22 September, and the English army did not leave until 8 October. 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. The king received an axe blow to the head, which knocked off a piece of the crown that formed part of his helmet. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here . Since the French had many more men-at-arms than the English, they would accordingly be accompanied by a far greater number of servants. Update [June 20, 2022]: Updated SEO/social. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. One popular "origin story" for the middle finger has to do with the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. The French were commanded by Constable Charles d'Albret and various prominent French noblemen of the Armagnac party. 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 continued as a series of battles, sieges, and disputes throughout the 14th century, with both the French and the English variously taking advantage. And although the precise etymology of the English word fuck is still a matter of debate, it is linguistically nonsensical to maintain that that word entered the language because the "difficult consonant cluster at the beginning" of the phase 'pluck yew' has "gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'f.'" It lasted longer than Henry had anticipated, and his numbers were significantly diminished as a result of casualties, desertions, and disease. To meet and beat him was a triumph, the highest form which self-expression could take in the medieval nobleman's way of life." [25] The siege took longer than expected. 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. 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. 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. After several decades of relative peace, the English had resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French. 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 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. 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. This symbol of rocking out is formed by tucking the middle and index finger and holding them in place with the thumb. Shakespeare's version of the battle of Agincourt has been turned into several minor and two major films. The city capitulated within six weeks, but the siege was costly. And where does the distinction between one and two fingers come from? 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. False. 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. [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 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. When that campaign took place, it was made easier by the damage done to the political and military structures of Normandy by the battle. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. "[129], The play introduced the famous St Crispin's Day Speech, considered one of Shakespeare's most heroic speeches, which Henry delivers movingly to his soldiers just before the battle, urging his "band of brothers" to stand together in the forthcoming fight. A widely shared image on social media purportedly explains the historic origins of the middle finger, considered an offensive gesture in Western culture. . With 4,800 men-at-arms in the vanguard, 3,000 in the main battle, and 1,200 in the infantry wings. The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground. [18] A recent re-appraisal of Henry's strategy of the Agincourt campaign incorporates these three accounts and argues that war was seen as a legal due process for solving the disagreement over claims to the French throne. [34][d] The French apparently had no clear plan for deploying the rest of the army. They were blocking Henry's retreat, and were perfectly happy to wait for as long as it took. 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]. Probably each man-at-arms would be accompanied by a gros valet (or varlet), an armed servant, adding up to another 10,000 potential fighting men,[7] though some historians omit them from the number of combatants. Contents. 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. Axtell, Roger E. Gestures: The Do's and Taboos of Body Language Around the World. The Hundred Years War was a discontinuous conflict between England and France that spanned two centuries. This article was. [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]. [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. [89] A slaughter of the French prisoners ensued. 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! 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. They shadowed Henry's army while calling a semonce des nobles,[30] calling on local nobles to join the army. [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. Updates? She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019 with bachelor's degrees in English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies. This claim is false. Shakespeare's portrayal of the casualty loss is ahistorical in that the French are stated to have lost 10,000 and the English 'less than' thirty men, prompting Henry's remark, "O God, thy arm was here". A Dictionary of Superstitions. The French nobility, weakened by the defeat and divided among themselves, were unable to meet new attacks with effective resistance. [107], Most primary sources which describe the battle have English outnumbered by several times. 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. 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. Several heralds, both French and English, were present at the battle of Agincourt, and not one of them (or any later chroniclers of Agincourt) mentioned anything about the French having cut off the fingers of captured English bowman. [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. [citation needed]. Wikipedia. New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. 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. [c], The English made their confessions before the battle, as was customary. 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. When the archers ran out of arrows, they dropped their bows and, using hatchets, swords, and the mallets they had used to drive their stakes in, attacked the now disordered, fatigued and wounded French men-at-arms massed in front of them. Why is the missionary position called that? Agincourt. The effect of the victory on national morale was powerful. 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. While the precise number of casualties is unknown, it is estimated that English losses amounted to about 400 and French losses to about 6,000, many of whom were noblemen. 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 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. Im even more suspicious of the alleged transformation of p to f. Another verse begins: You love to be sodomized, Papylus . King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. Fixed formatting. The English were not in an ideal condition to fight a battle. Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . The recently ploughed land hemmed in by dense woodland favoured the English, both because of its narrowness, and because of the thick mud through which the French knights had to walk. [8] These included the Duke of York, the young Earl of Suffolk and the Welsh esquire Dafydd ("Davy") Gam. 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. . [73] The mounted charge and subsequent retreat churned up the already muddy terrain between the French and the English. 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. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare 's play Henry V, written in 1599. 33-35). See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. [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. [76] Modern historians are divided on how effective the longbows would have been against plate armour of the time. The French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, Continue Reading 41 2 7 Alexander L There is no evidence that, when captured in any scenario,archers had their finger cut off by the enemy( bit.ly/3dP2PhP ). 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 battle remains an important symbol in popular culture. Henry V's victory in the mud of Picardy remains the . [26] He also intended the manoeuvre as a deliberate provocation to battle aimed at the dauphin, who had failed to respond to Henry's personal challenge to combat at Harfleur. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare's play Henry V, written in 1599. 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). The puzzler was: What was this body part? 138). What it is supposed to represent I have no idea. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. The terrain favoured Henrys army and disadvantaged its opponent, as it reduced the numerical advantage of the French army by narrowing the front. [106] This lack of unity in France allowed Henry eighteen months to prepare militarily and politically for a renewed campaign. [93] Among them were 90120 great lords and bannerets killed, including[95] three dukes (Alenon, Bar and Brabant), nine counts (Blmont, Dreux, Fauquembergue, Grandpr, Marle, Nevers, Roucy, Vaucourt, Vaudmont) and one viscount (Puisaye), also an archbishop. A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). Julia Martinez was an Editorial Intern at Encyclopaedia Britannica. [70]), The tightness of the terrain also seems to have restricted the planned deployment of the French forces. On the morning of 25 October, the French were still waiting for additional troops to arrive. 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. (Storyline based on the play by William Shakespeare "The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Batt. "[67] On top of this, the French were expecting thousands of men to join them if they waited. 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. 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. 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. [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. 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. [22], Henry's army landed in northern France on 13 August 1415, carried by a vast fleet. David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. Despite the numerical disadvantage, the battle ended in an overwhelming victory for the English. . 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 struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. 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 is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird". The fact that Winston Churchill sometimes made his V-for-victory gesture rudely suggests that it is of much more recent vintage. 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 . Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. Henry threatened to hang whoever did not obey his orders. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. The version that I tell explains the specific British custom of elevating two fingers as a rude gesture. 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. 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. Nicolle, D. (2004). The fighting lasted about three hours, but eventually the leaders of the second line were killed or captured, as those of the first line had been. (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.). 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. Nonetheless, so many readers have forwarded it to us accompanied by an "Is this true?" 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. 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. This material may not be reproduced without permission. Very quickly after the battle, the fragile truce between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions broke down. 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. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.