The Battle of Agincourt 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. 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. [37], Henry made a speech emphasising the justness of his cause, and reminding his army of previous great defeats the kings of England had inflicted on the French. This would prevent maneuvers that might overwhelm the English ranks. . 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. 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. Do you return these prisoners to your opponents in exchange for nothing, thereby providing them with trained soldiers who can fight against you another day? Why is the missionary position called that? Update [June 20, 2022]: Updated SEO/social. 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. 1.3M views 4 months ago Medieval Battles - In chronological order The year 1415 was the first occasion since 1359 that an English king had invaded France in person. 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. |. [22], Henry's army landed in northern France on 13 August 1415, carried by a vast fleet. And for a variety of reasons, it made no military sense whatsoever for the French to capture English archers, then mutilate them by cutting off their fingers. 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". Eventually the archers abandoned their longbows and began fighting hand-to-hand with swords and axes alongside the men-at-arms. Kill them outright and violate the medieval moral code of civilized warfare? Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . He contrasts the modern, English king and his army with the medieval, chivalric, older model of the French. I suppose that the two-fingered salute could still come from medieval archery, even if it didnt come specifically from the Battle of Agincourt, although the example that Wikipedia links to (the fourteenth-century Luttrell Psalter) is ambiguous. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. [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]. 78-116). 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. 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." Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. Battle of Agincourt - HISTORY The earliest known photograph of "the finger," given by Charles "Old [94][10][11] The list of casualties, one historian has noted, "read like a roll call of the military and political leaders of the past generation". The Face of Battle. Wikipedia. [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. Contemporary accounts describe the triumphal pageantry with which the king was received in London on November 23, with elaborate displays and choirs attending his passage to St. Pauls Cathedral. They were successful for a time, forcing Henry to move south, away from Calais, to find a ford. 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. On the morning of 25 October, the French were still waiting for additional troops to arrive. Fixed formatting. 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. [77][78][79][80] Rogers suggested that the longbow could penetrate a wrought iron breastplate at short range and penetrate the thinner armour on the limbs even at 220 yards (200m). What is Mudra, ancient times to modern classic and controversial 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. The fact that Winston Churchill sometimes made his V-for-victory gesture rudely suggests that it is of much more recent vintage. Since the French had many more men-at-arms than the English, they would accordingly be accompanied by a far greater number of servants. [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. Julia Martinez was an Editorial Intern at Encyclopaedia Britannica. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and so the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking yew". (Its taking longer than we thought.) It may be difficult to pinpoint exactly when the middle finger gesture originated, but some historians trace its roots to ancient Rome. 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]. Thinking it was an attack from the rear, Henry had the French nobles he was holding prisoner killed. The History of the Middle Finger & "Fuck You" - Blogger The Battle of Agincourt - The European Middle Ages Henry V's victory in the mud of Picardy remains the . David Mikkelson Published Sep 29, 1999. [128] The original play does not, however, feature any scenes of the actual battle itself, leading critic Rose Zimbardo to characterise it as "full of warfare, yet empty of conflict. Jean de Wavrin, a knight on the French side wrote that English fatalities were 1,600 men of all ranks. I admit that I bring this story up when I talk about the Hundred Years War only to debunk it. 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. [72], The French cavalry, despite being disorganised and not at full numbers, charged towards the longbowmen. England had been fraught with political discord since Henry IV of the house of Lancaster (father of Henry V) had usurped the throne from Richard II in 1399. It was a disastrous attempt. Band of Brothers: Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt Contents. 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. 33-35). Didn't it originate at Agincourt? [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". (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.) 138). A Short History of "Flipping the Bird" - OddFeed Battle of Agincourt - English History The Battle Of Agincourt: What Really Happened? | HistoryExtra One of the most renowned. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. (Indeed, Henry V was heavily criticized for supposedly having ordered the execution of French prisoners at Agincourt. 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 town surrendered on 22 September, and the English army did not leave until 8 October. "[67] On top of this, the French were expecting thousands of men to join them if they waited. The struggle began in 1337 when King Edward III of England claimed the title King of France over Philip VI and invaded Flanders. Details the English victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt. 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. John Keegan argues that the longbows' main influence on the battle at this point was injuries to horses: armoured only on the head, many horses would have become dangerously out of control when struck in the back or flank from the high-elevation, long-range shots used as the charge started. 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. [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 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). [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. 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. 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). This was not strictly a feudal army, but an army paid through a system similar to that of the English. When did the middle finger become offensive? - BBC News The Battle of Agincourt was another famous battle where longbowmen had a particularly important . The image makes the further claim that the English soldiers chanted pluck yew, ostensibly in reference to the drawing of the longbow. There is a modern museum in Agincourt village dedicated to the battle. Nicolle, D. (2004). It lasted longer than Henry had anticipated, and his numbers were significantly diminished as a result of casualties, desertions, and disease. 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". [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. 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. [88], Regardless of when the baggage assault happened, at some point after the initial English victory, Henry became alarmed that the French were regrouping for another attack. 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. Contemporary chroniclers did not criticise him for it. Agincourt. 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. News of the contrivance circulated within Europe and was described in a book of tactics written in 1411 by. The battlefield was a freshly plowed field, and at the time of the battle, it had been raining continuously for several days. It established the legitimacy of the Lancastrian monarchy and the future campaigns of Henry to pursue his "rights and privileges" in France. 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. A BBCNews Magazinereportsimilarlytracesthe gesture back toAncient Greek philosophers ( here ). This head-lowered position restricted their breathing and their vision. 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 military aspects of this account are similarly specious. 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. 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. Some historians trace its origins to ancient Rome. Winston Churchhill can be seen using the V as a rallying call. [76] Modern historians are divided on how effective the longbows would have been against plate armour of the time. At issue was the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown as well as the ownership of several French territories. 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. Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons". 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. Axtell, Roger E. Gestures: The Do's and Taboos of Body Language Around the World. [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. 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 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. 10+ True Battle Agincourt Facts That Will Make You Look Stupid As the English were collecting prisoners, a band of French peasants led by local noblemen began plundering Henrys baggage behind the lines. According to research, heres the true story: 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. The Gesta Henrici places this after the English had overcome the onslaught of the French men-at-arms and the weary English troops were eyeing the French rearguard ("in incomparable number and still fresh"). Although the victory had been militarily decisive, its impact was complex. By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself. On 25 October 1415, an army of English raiders under Henry V faced the French outside an obscure village on the road to Calais. Keegan, John. 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. The English men-at-arms in plate and mail were placed shoulder to shoulder four deep. T he battle of Agincourt, whose 600th anniversary falls on St Crispin's Day, 25 October, is still tabloid gold, Gotcha! Its not known whether one displayed the digitus infamis in the same manner that we (well, you) flip the bird today. (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.). Bowman were not valuable prisoners, though: they stood outside the chivalric system and were considered the social inferiors of men-at-arms. Battle of Agincourt - Wikipedia This claim is false. Legendinc.com Giving the Finger History Battle of Agincourt | Facts, Summary, & Significance | Britannica Most importantly, the battle was a significant military blow to France and paved the way for further English conquests and successes. 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. The Battle of Agincourt (/dnkr(t)/ AJ-in-kor(t);[a] French: Azincourt [azku]) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. They had been weakened by the siege at Harfleur and had marched over 200 miles (more than 320 km), and many among them were suffering from dysentery. 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. Medieval Archers (Everything you Need to Know) - The Finer Times They were blocking Henry's retreat, and were perfectly happy to wait for as long as it took. Corrections? 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). The Battle of Agincourt originated in 1328. 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. Battle of Agincourt, 1415 (ALL PARTS) England vs France Hundred [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. 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. 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. They shadowed Henry's army while calling a semonce des nobles,[30] calling on local nobles to join the army. A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). 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. [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. [123] Other ballads followed, including "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France", raising the popular prominence of particular events mentioned only in passing by the original chroniclers, such as the gift of tennis balls before the campaign. 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. ), 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? All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. 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. 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 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. Idiom Origins - Middle finger - History of Middle finger "[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 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. This suggests that the French could have outnumbered the English 5 to 1. Thepostalleges that the Frenchhad planned to cut offthe middle fingers ofall captured English soldiers,to inhibit them fromdrawingtheir longbowsin futurebattles. The Hundred Years' War. There was no monetary reward to be obtained by capturing them, nor was there any glory to be won by defeating them in battle. [139] The museum lists the names of combatants of both sides who died in the battle. . Nonetheless, so many readers have forwarded it to us accompanied by an "Is this true?" 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). 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. 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 approximate location of the battle has never been disputed, and the site remains relatively unaltered after 600 years. 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. [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. [68], Henry's men were already very weary from hunger, illness and retreat. [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. [49], The French vanguard and main battle numbered respectively 4,800 and 3,000 men-at-arms. [Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.] By most contemporary accounts, the French army was also significantly larger than the English, though the exact degree of their numerical superiority is disputed. Bloomsbury Publishing. [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. [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 Burgundians seized on the opportunity and within 10 days of the battle had mustered their armies and marched on Paris.
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