Those are both interesting, and probably have some reasonable basis in fact.

The story I just heard was kind of amusing. In the centuries between the Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England and the 100 year's war both England and France claimed title to the northern coast of France. William the Conqueror in addition to becoming King of England was also the Duke of the Duchy of Normandy. Eleanor of Aquitaine brought Aquitaine to England as her dowry when she married Henry II.

This raised several interesting questions...was the King of England then a vassal of the King of France? Did England really hold title to these French lands...since under the feudal system the nobility had the use of the lands they held, but not title to them? Supposedly the title remained with the respective kings. The right to hereditary use of the lands by the nobility was not guaranteed in England until the Statute of Uses was enacted on the cusp of the end of the medieval period and the beginning of the Renaissance.

During the 100 year's war between France and England the English fielded an army that was vastly outnumbered by the French. The English evened the odds by introducing the use of the long bow for their archers. The effect of the archers was devastating. They could unhorse a French knight long before he reached the English lines of infantry, and the French soon learned a healthy respect for the skill of the English archers. Consequently, when the French captured an English archer they amputated the three fingers of the hand with which he drew back the bow string.

The favored wood for the construction of the long bow was that of the yew tree. It was a hard wood that propelled the arrow for a great distance. Launching the arrow became known as "plucking the yew".

After one memorable battle in which the English were victorious the archers taunted the retreating French by defiantly yelling "Pluck Yew" and holding up the three fingers that would have been amputated had they been captured.

Eventually "Pluck yew" became corrupted into the more common insult with which we are all familiar, and the three fingered gesture was abbreviated to the single finger gesture that usually accompanies the insult.to post a reply: login - or - register