The middle finger and pluck Yew

[BIAD]

Here in merry-olde England, I was always under the impression that the French's goal was to cut
off both fingers to stifle use of the longbow. Hence the now obscure use of the two-finger salute
(the reverse of the peace sign) to insult rival military forces.


Wikipedia 'suggests' the single-finger signal stems from Ancient Greece and oddly enough,
the use of two digits to insult is also commented on and offers the idea of three fingers
being taken to stop longbowmen.

'Origins
A commonly repeated legend claims that the two-fingered salute or V sign derives from a gesture made
by longbowmen fighting in the English army at the Battle of Agincourt (1415) during the Hundred Years'
War, but no written historical primary sources support this contention.

This origin legend states that Welsh archers believed that those who were captured by the French had their
index and middle fingers cut off so that they could no longer operate their longbows, and that the V sign was
used by uncaptured and victorious archers in a display of defiance against the French.

In conflict with this origin myth, the chronicler Jean de Wavrin, contemporary of the battle, reported that Henry
V mentioned in a pre-battle speech that the French were said to be threatening to cut off three fingers (not two)
from captured bowmen.

Wielding an English longbow is best done with three fingers. Neither Wavrin nor any contemporary author
reported the threat was ever carried out after that nor other battles, nor did they report anything concerning a
gesture of defiance...'




Shown merely as an example, not an insult!!