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[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. [Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.] 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 . This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Pluck yew - onlysky.media The Battle of Agincourt (720p) Watch on [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. With Toby Merrell, Ian Brooker, Philip Rosch, Brian Blessed. [46] Many lords and gentlemen demanded and got places in the front lines, where they would have a higher chance to acquire glory and valuable ransoms; this resulted in the bulk of the men-at-arms being massed in the front lines and the other troops, for which there was no remaining space, to be placed behind. Rogers suggested that the French at the back of their deep formation would have been attempting to literally add their weight to the advance, without realising that they were hindering the ability of those at the front to manoeuvre and fight by pushing them into the English formation of lancepoints. 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. PLUCK YEW!". A Dictionary of Superstitions. Jones, P. N. (1992). [107], Most primary sources which describe the battle have English outnumbered by several times. News of the contrivance circulated within Europe and was described in a book of tactics written in 1411 by. Henry threatened to hang whoever did not obey his orders. 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". 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. Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. Battle of Agincourt - Wikipedia The campaign season was coming to an end, and the English army had suffered many casualties through disease. A complete coat of plate was considered such good protection that shields were generally not used,[75] although the Burgundian contemporary sources distinguish between Frenchmen who used shields and those who did not, and Rogers has suggested that the front elements of the French force used axes and shields. [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. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here . A Dictionary of Superstitions.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). It goes on to state thatafter an unexpected victory, the English soldiersmocked thedefeatedFrenchtroopsbywavingtheir middle fingers( here ). 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. [45] A second, smaller mounted force was to attack the rear of the English army, along with its baggage and servants. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird". [116] Rogers, on the other hand, finds the number 5,000 plausible, giving several analogous historical events to support his case,[112] and Barker considers that the fragmentary pay records which Curry relies on actually support the lower estimates. They were blocking Henry's retreat, and were perfectly happy to wait for as long as it took. Since the French had many more men-at-arms than the English, they would accordingly be accompanied by a far greater number of servants. The longbow. [34] The rearguard, leaderless, would serve as a "dumping ground" for the surplus troops. 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. [17] Two of the most frequently cited accounts come from Burgundian sources, one from Jean Le Fvre de Saint-Remy who was present at the battle, and the other from Enguerrand de Monstrelet. 78-116). Contemporary chroniclers did not criticise him for it. Battles were observed and chronicled by heralds who were present at the scene and recorded what they saw, judged who won, and fixed names for the battles. 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. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (p. 454). 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. [105] Other benefits to the English were longer term. By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself. 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! [34][d] The French apparently had no clear plan for deploying the rest of the army. The English finally crossed the Somme south of Pronne, at Bthencourt and Voyennes[28][29] and resumed marching north. 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. [108] While not necessarily agreeing with the exact numbers Curry uses, Bertrand Schnerb, a professor of medieval history at the University of Lille, states the French probably had 12,00015,000 troops. [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. The Battle of Agincourt (Pt 1) - YouTube Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. [25] The siege took longer than expected. Certainly, d'Azincourt was a local knight but he might have been chosen to lead the attack because of his local knowledge and the lack of availability of a more senior soldier. [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. It was often reported to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. Inthe book,Corbeillpoints to Priapus, a minor deityhedatesto 400 BC, whichlater alsoappears in Rome as the guardian of gardens,according to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Greece and Rome( here ). Supposedly, both originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, . The delay allowed a large French force, led by the constable Charles dAlbret and the marshal Jean II le Meingre (called Boucicaut), to intercept him near the village of Agincourt on October 24. [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). Legendinc.com Giving the Finger History The original usage of this mudra can be traced back as far as the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. [70]), The tightness of the terrain also seems to have restricted the planned deployment of the French forces. [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. Moreover, if archers could be ransomed, then cutting off their middle fingers would be a senseless move. 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]. 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 . (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.). After the battle, the English taunted the survivors by showing off what wasn't cut off. The English army, led by King Henry V, famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent. 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. A Short History of "Flipping the Bird" - OddFeed Band of Brothers: Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt [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]. Eventually the archers abandoned their longbows and began fighting hand-to-hand with swords and axes alongside the men-at-arms. What it is supposed to represent I have no idea. 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. [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). Very quickly after the battle, the fragile truce between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions broke down. PDF THE ENGLISH VS FRENCH - Carolina Traditional Archers The latter, each titled Henry V, star Laurence Olivier in 1944 and Kenneth Branagh in 1989. Adam Koford, Salt Lake City, Utah, Now for the facts. French history myths: The 'two fingers' insult comes from the Battle of Nicolle, D. (2004). Some notable examples are listed below. The archers were commanded by Sir Thomas Erpingham, another elderly veteran. 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? For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting. The battle remains an important symbol in popular culture. The pl sound, the story goes, gradually changed into an f, giving the gesture its present meaning. Humble English archers defeated the armoured elite of French chivalry, enshrining both the longbow and the battle in English national legend. 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. Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. 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. [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]. 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.