Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. To meet and beat him was a triumph, the highest form which self-expression could take in the medieval nobleman's way of life." 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. This battle is notable for the use of the English longbow in very large numbers, with the English and Welsh archers comprising nearly 80 percent of Henry's army. Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. Omissions? 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). Its up there with heres something that they dont want you to know.. They might also have deployed some archers in the centre of the line. [5] [b] Henry V 's victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army. The image makes the claim that the gesture derives from English soldiers at the Battle of Agincourt, France in 1415. 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. The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground. Contents. It. There is a modern museum in Agincourt village dedicated to the battle. The trial ranged widely over whether there was just cause for war and not simply the prisoner issue. The battle probably lasted no longer than three hours and was perhaps as short as half an hour, according to some estimates. When that campaign took place, it was made easier by the damage done to the political and military structures of Normandy by the battle. 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. 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. [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. [50] Both lines were arrayed in tight, dense formations of about 16 ranks each, and were positioned a bowshot length from each other. The pl sound, the story goes, gradually changed into an f, giving the gesture its present meaning. 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." The middle finger gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. . 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). 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. Why do some people have that one extra-long fingernail on the pinkie finger. 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. "[67] On top of this, the French were expecting thousands of men to join them if they waited. 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. 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]. [44] There was a special, elite cavalry force whose purpose was to break the formation of the English archers and thus clear the way for the infantry to advance. 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. Didn't it originate at Agincourt? 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. 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). 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. [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. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. 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. It was a disastrous attempt. [25] The siege took longer than expected. 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. [88] In some accounts the attack happened towards the end of the battle, and led the English to think they were being attacked from the rear. If the two-fingered salute comes from Agincourt, then at what point was it reduced to one finger in North America? 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. 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. . New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991 ISBN 0-471-53672-5 (pp. The latter, each titled Henry V, star Laurence Olivier in 1944 and Kenneth Branagh in 1989. [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. A list of English archers killed at Agincourt, as recorded in the village's museum, The story of the battle has been retold many times in English, from the 15th-century, Dates in the fifteenth century are difficult to reconcile with modern calendars: see, The first known use of angled stakes to thwart a mounted charge was at the Battle of Nicopolis, an engagement between European states and Turkish forces in 1396, twenty years before Agincourt. The longbow. After the battle, the English taunted the survivors by showing off what wasn't cut off. There is no evidence that, when captured in any scenario,archers had their finger cut off by the enemy( bit.ly/3dP2PhP ). 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. 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 military aspects of this account are similarly specious. [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. It seems clear, however, that the English were at a decided numerical disadvantage. Historians disagree less about the French numbers. Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem. Recent heavy rain made the battle field very muddy, proving very tiring to walk through in full plate armour. The English King Henry V and his troops were marching to Calais to embark for England when he was intercepted by forces which outnumbered his. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. 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]. They were successful for a time, forcing Henry to move south, away from Calais, to find a ford. But frankly, I suspect that the French would have done a lot worse to any captured English archers than chopping off their fingers. 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. Unable to cross the Somme River because of French defenses, he was forced to take a detour inland and cross farther upstream. The city capitulated within six weeks, but the siege was costly. 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. By contrast, Anne Curry in her 2005 book Agincourt: A New History, argued, based on research into the surviving administrative records, that the French army was 12,000 strong, and the English army 9,000, proportions of four to three. The Face of Battle.New York: Penguin Books, 1978 ISBN 0-140-04897-9 (pp. They were blocking Henry's retreat, and were perfectly happy to wait for as long as it took. One final observation: any time some appeal begins with heres something that intelligent people will find edifying you should be suspicious. By most contemporary accounts, the French army was also significantly larger than the English, though the exact degree of their numerical superiority is disputed. 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. The ransoming of prisoners was the only way for medieval soldiers to make a quick fortune, and so they seized every available opportunity to capture opponents who could be exchanged for handsome prices. At issue was the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown as well as the ownership of several French territories.

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