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- The image makes the claim that the gesture derives from English soldiers at the Battle of Agincourt, France in 1415. This claim is false. The post alleges that the French had planned to cut off the middle fingers of all captured English soldiers, to inhibit them from drawing their longbows in future battles.
www.reuters.com › article › idUSKBN22Q2MUFalse claim: “Middle finger” gesture derives from English ...
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Why did the French cut off the middle fingers at Agincourt?
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Why did the French cut the middle finger off English archers?
May 14, 2020 · False. The “middle finger” gesture does not derive from the mutilation of English archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Some historians trace its origins to ancient Rome.
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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.
The basic premise that the origins of the one-finger gesture and its association with the profane word fuck were an outgrowth of the 1415 battle between French and English forces at Agincourt is simple enough to debunk. The insulting gesture of extending ones middle finger (referred to as digitus impudicus in Latin) originated long before the Battl...
The military aspects of this account are similarly specious. 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. Battles were observed and chronicled by heralds who were present at the scene and recorded what they saw, judged who...
Bowman were not valuable prisoners, though: they stood outside the chivalric system and were considered the social inferiors of men-at-arms. There was no monetary reward to be obtained by capturing them, nor was there any glory to be won by defeating them in battle. As John Keegan wrote in his history of warfare To meet a similarly equipped opponen...
Moreover, if archers could be ransomed, then cutting off their middle fingers would be a senseless move. 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? Take on the burden and expense of caring for them? Kill them outright and violate the medieval moral code of civilized...
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? Why not simply kill them outright in the first place? Do you return these prisoners to your opponents in exchange for nothing, thereby providing them with trained ...
Aug 5, 2022 · When the English unexpectedly won the Battle of Agincourt, they supposedly taunted the French by raising their intact middle fingers toward them. Allegedly, the insult was born here.
- The Local France
- news@thelocal.fr
Jan 31, 2020 · The two-fingered salute, or backwards victory or V-sign, made with the middle and index fingers, is said to have originated with English archers at Agincourt in 1415. But is this really true? Medieval researcher and longbow expert Clive Bartlett claims in his book ‘English Longbowman 1330-1515’ that it is.
But why do we use our middle finger to express anger? And why do we call it “the bird.”. Suggestions range from The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 to Ancient Rome. We find out the history everyone’s favorite one-finger salute in this episode.
Oct 25, 2015 · Five Myths about the Battle of Agincourt. Anne Curry explains that “no other battle has generated so much interest or some much myth” as the Battle of Agincourt, fought on October 25, 1415.
Jul 16, 2015 · 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. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future.
