[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. Agincourt. [39] Curry, Rogers[118] and Mortimer[42] all agree the French had 4 to 5 thousand missile troops. 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. What it is supposed to represent I have no idea. 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. 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 English Gesta Henrici described three great heaps of the slain around the three main English standards. 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. [81] In any case, to protect themselves as much as possible from the arrows, the French had to lower their visors and bend their helmeted heads to avoid being shot in the face, as the eye- and air-holes in their helmets were among the weakest points in the armour. At issue was the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown as well as the ownership of several French territories. 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. (Storyline based on the play by William Shakespeare "The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Batt. After the initial wave, the French would have had to fight over and on the bodies of those who had fallen before them. According to contemporary English accounts, Henry fought hand to hand. Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. [citation needed], Immediately after the battle, Henry summoned the heralds of the two armies who had watched the battle together with principal French herald Montjoie, and they settled on the name of the battle as Azincourt, after the nearest fortified place. The Face of Battle. It supposedly describes the origin of the middle-finger hand gesture and, by implication, the insult "fuck you". [60][61], Accounts of the battle describe the French engaging the English men-at-arms before being rushed from the sides by the longbowmen as the mle developed. 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. You would think that anything English predating 1607, such as the language, Protestantism, or the Common Law, would have been a part of Americas patrimony. [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. 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. It was often reported to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. 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. Historians disagree less about the French numbers. It sounds rather fishy to me. The French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, threatened to cut a certain body part off of all captured English soldiers so that they could never fight again. [51] Albret, Boucicaut and almost all the leading noblemen were assigned stations in the vanguard. The number is supported by many other contemporary accounts. Contents. [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]. 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. "[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. The campaign season was coming to an end, and the English army had suffered many casualties through disease. Some notable examples are listed below. October 25, 1415. giving someone the middle finger [73] The mounted charge and subsequent retreat churned up the already muddy terrain between the French and the English. Nicolle, D. (2004). Agincourt 1415: The Triumph of the Longbow: Directed by Graham Holloway. The Hundred Years' War. The Roman gesturemadeby extending the third finger from a closed fist, thus made the same threat, by forming a similarly phallic shape. 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. An account purporting to offer the historical origins of the obscene middle-finger extended hand gesture (varously known as "flipping the bird," "flipping someone off," or the "one-finger salute") is silly, and so obviously a joke that shouldn't need any debunking. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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. [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. 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. He told his men that he would rather die in the coming battle than be captured and ransomed. 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. [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 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. Why not simply kill them outright in the first place? 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. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. In the other reference Martial writes that a certain party points a finger, an indecent one, at some other people. This famous English longbow was . It may be in the narrow strip of open land formed between the woods of Tramecourt and Azincourt (close to the modern village of Azincourt). These numbers are based on the Gesta Henrici Quinti and the chronicle of Jean Le Fvre, the only two eyewitness accounts on the English camp. The Battle of Agincourt is well documented by at least seven contemporary accounts, three from eyewitnesses. The battle remains an important symbol in popular culture. Although the victory had been militarily decisive, its impact was complex. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. 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. [48] On account of the lack of space, the French drew up a third battle, the rearguard, which was on horseback and mainly comprised the varlets mounted on the horses belonging to the men fighting on foot ahead. (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.). 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 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. [107], Most primary sources which describe the battle have English outnumbered by several times. By most contemporary accounts, the French army was also significantly larger than the English, though the exact degree of their numerical superiority is disputed. At least one scholar puts the French army at no more than 12,000, indicating that the English were outnumbered 2 to 1. [70]), The tightness of the terrain also seems to have restricted the planned deployment of the French forces. [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. 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). [49], The French vanguard and main battle numbered respectively 4,800 and 3,000 men-at-arms. The struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. [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]. After the victory, Henry continued his march to Calais and arrived back in England in November to an outpouring of nationalistic sentiment. It was a disastrous attempt. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. ", "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. 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 . When the English won the battle the soldiers waved their middle fingers at the French in defiance, thus flipping the bird was born Without a river obstacle to defend, the French were hesitant to force a battle. As the English were collecting prisoners, a band of French peasants led by local noblemen began plundering Henrys baggage behind the lines. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird". A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). [104] Henry returned a conquering hero, seen as blessed by God in the eyes of his subjects and European powers outside France. Subject: Truth About the Finger In the film Titanic the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack, another character. The key word for describing the battle of Agincourt is mud . She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019 with bachelor's degrees in English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies. 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? The Hundred Years War was a discontinuous conflict between England and France that spanned two centuries. Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture.