Re: Fwd: a little history lesson

[Gene Bonar <gbonar@auspex.com>]

Poster: Gene Bonar <gbonar@auspex.com>

Greetings,

I sorry but James (whom I respect) is just another in a long line of people
who have been passing this old wives tale about pluck you, Agincourt and so
forth.

This tale has been bouncing around for sometime now , I for one, would like
to see it die.  To that end, I have been researching to find out the truth
about this one in hopes to put it to rest.

So far, this is what I have found.  

During the battle of Agincourt, a small number of archers were captured and
delivered to the local french constable.  It is unclear why they were
captured and not killed and it is also not clear why the constable didn't
kill them, but he didn't want to feed them so he had the first two fingers
of their right hand cut off and released them.  Cutting off the fingers, of
course, made them useless to the English as archers.

At later battles, not Agincourt, some archers were know to taunt there
opponents by holding up or waving their two fingers. This gesture has
become the famous British two-finger salute, and the Brits use it like we
use "the finger".

The source of "the finger" has little to do with the British but in fact
comes to us from the Italians.  I have the documentation for this and will
post it as soon as I find it.

The term fuck you is not derived pluck you.  I have not gotten the docs on
this but have reliable source that say that the word fuck was originally a
acronym use by police in their reports when referring to public sex. The
individual was arrested "For Unnatural Carnal Knowledge."  Don't quote me
on this one yet I still have to pin down the source.

Finally, although the English, through the years, used many different kinds
of feathers.  Most period arrows were made with goose feather.  In fact, at
one time the English government taxed each town and village so many pounds
of feathers a year for the purposes of make arrows for the army's archers. 

Go in peace,




Gene Bonar                               Auspex Systems 
919.461.2221 (voice)                  TSE, Cary, NC
919.319.9910 (fax)           gbonar@auspex.com
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