>Is this also the story of why the British version of the middle finger is the v? That's correct, this is where that (possibly real?) gesture comes from. This is also disputed, but the speech King Henry gave to his longbowmen the day of battle was supposedly pretty moving; remember, his army of 7,000-8,000 men had like 10 nobles among it. So if they were defeated, you know what happens to most non-noble prisoners? Some *might* be able to be ransomed, but chances are they'd have their throats cut right on the spot of surrender. Because of this, **King Henry allegedly told his men that if it came to it, he'd rather die in this battle than be captured and ransomed.** That kind of shit will inspire fanatical loyalty from your men- "Our King is willing to die here, with us common folk, a common death! I'll follow him to hell, I will!" King Henry *might* also have included a made up threat in this speech- that the French would cut the index and middle finger off of the right hand of any longbowmen who were captured. I would dispute this, because how would Henry know what the French planned to do with prisoners, and also they'd probably just cut their throats or behead them. Regardless, if Henry said this, very clever- just gives the longbowmen even *more* motivation to hate the already despised French nobility. On the French nobility.... really, their inaction is what lost them Agincourt. See, Henry's army invaded like 2 years before this, and laid siege to a French town- but it took way too long to capture, and campaign season was ending when the town finally fell. The British army was being devastated by disease, probably dysentery. Fortunately, King Henry was one of the earliest kings to not look at these "surgeon" weirdos as just kooky losers- he had a King's Physician and a team of surgeons traveling with the army, practicing "modern" medicine. They probably kept the campaign alive with their knowledge and expertise. But still, the British numbers were dwindling quickly- they had to get the hell out of France before the French mobilized an army and... y'know, did something. So Henry's army started marching north towards Calais. By this time, a French army had formed... but the nobility commanding it was hesitant. They shadowed Henry's little army through the French lands, missing *dozens* of opportunities to attack. But they kept delaying, hoping for more men to join. Eventually the ended up with this overly-swollen French army... but they had chased the British onto the Agincourt battlefield. This field, although we don't know exactly where it is, would be a nightmare for any attacking army. From the French side, you would see this: a flat, open field, leading to a slope up on either flank into a treeline. The British deployed their men-at-arms in a formation 4-men deep in the center, down on the flat area. Their longbowmen were positioned in the treelines on each flank. The British had a sort of crescent shaped formation, a perfect way to shoot arrows into the sides of the enemy formations from the high ground- and they were so close, some of the eyewitness accounts have the longbowmen's arrows actually *piercing through French full-plate.* I find this a little hard to believe, but regardless it proved effective in at least distracting/provoking the French. Finally, the ending of the battle was unprecedented. Up until this battle, the concept of ransoming was almost always observed- even a poor spearman could fetch *some* ransom, sometimes. So the British defeat the main French assault and take several thousand French prisoners, nobles and commoners among them... but then the British spot more French formations sort of slinking around, eyeing up the British disposition. This got King Henry worried about another attack, so he quickly ordered **a mass execution of prisoners.** Some British knights initially protested, saying this was dishonorable- King Henry reiterated his order, and added on "Any who disobey will be hanged." So thousands of French prisoners are now being executed in an open field to the shocked horror of the remaining, onlooking French. They would call this "The day that chivalry died". In reality, it was a totally practical decision. Some historians argue that this was done to shock and terrorize the remaining French forces to discourage a second major attack- I guess that's possible. I'd say it's more likely that there were simply too many prisoners, not enough *healthy* British troops left to actually look after and keep control over the prisoners, and the British still needed to keep hauling ass to escape France before they were surrounded- a bunch of prisoners would only slow this down. Food was also a major issue already, having to feed prisoners would've been impossible. Pretty hardcore right? Wish they taught us about this kind of shit in history class instead of making us watch Schindler's List.