V - Sign

 25th October is the patron saint’s day for St. Crispin and Crispinian.  They were the patron saints for cobblers, curriers, tanners and leather workers.  However, St. Crispin is best remembered in Shakespeare’s St. Crispin’s Day Speech from the play Henry V, 1599.

In the play, Henry V, addresses his men on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, which was fought on 25th October 1415.  The British Army were heavily outnumbered by the French. 

The Earl of Westmorland states

O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!


The King, Henry V replies

What's he that wishes so?
My cousin, Westmorland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian .
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words—
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester —
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

The Morning of the Battle of Agincourt (1884),
John Gilbert
The Battle of Agincourt, 1415, was one of the latter battles of the Hundred Years’ War, 1337 – 1453.  A series of conflicts having been fought between England and France. The ending result at the end of the conflict, was a French victory and England loses all continental possessions except the Pale of Calais.

August 1415, Henry V, sailed from England with an army of 10,500. After a siege at Harfleur.  The siege lasted longer than expected, but finally surrendered on 22nd September.  With the campaign nearly over, instead of marching of Paris, Henry elected to make a raiding across France making way towards English occupied Calais. North of the Somme, Henry found himself outmanoeuvred and low on supplies.  Henry had to fight the larger French army.

The Battle is notable for the use English longbow, and the archers hailing from both England and Wales.

The archers from the Battle are best remembered in providing hand gestures that are used today -  V sign and middle finger.

Captured archers would have had their fingers chopped off by the French, and so as a gesture they would wave their fingers at the French.

But it wouldn’t be until 1901, when the insulting V sign was first used in the United Kingdom, when workers outside Parkgate ironworks, Rotherham, used the gesture.

Winston Churchill, 1942
During the Second World War, when British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who was unaware of the meaning was captured, 1942.  

Winston Churchill, 1943

However, Churchill, during 1943, used V Peace sign.

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