PLUCK YEW

Of late I've been reading a lot of European history from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. This is one area of my personal history knowledge that I have been weak in and am seeking to improve.

During my reading and research I have come across a number of fascinating though trivial facts. Facts that in and of themselves mean little but when combined with our modern beliefs and customs become humorous, misplaced, or even unbelievable.

For example; before the battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French - anticipating an easy victory over the English - proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English bowmen. They knew that without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore captured English bowmen would be incapable of fighting in the future.

This famous weapon was primarily made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was commonly known as, "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").

The bow was so powerful that an arrow could not only pierce the chain mail of a knight or man-at-arms, it could even pierce the weak plate armor in use in those days. The French were justifiably terrified of the weapon because they had no bowmen who could equal the English. They employed the Genoise crossbowmen who could not compete with the English in speed and accuracy of delivery.

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset at the battle of Agincourt, and celebrated in mocking the French by waving their 'middle fingers' at the defeated French, yelling, "See, we can still pluck yew! "WE CAN PLUCK YEW!" Meaning of course that they still had their middle finger and could draw their powerful yew bows.

Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, over time the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a simpler term first used in the middle of the nineteenth century. These initials, written on English police blotters, were For Uncommon Carnal Knowledge. Today the word often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an immoral and intimate encounter and are used as a nasty insult.

A purely reactional boasting by English bowmen to show that they could still shoot their longbows, has denigrated into a nasty insult in today's society.

It is also because of the goose feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that this symbolic gesture was then and is today known as "giving the bird."

And yew thought yew knew everything!

Also, did you know this?

It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannon on old war ships. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck was the problem. The best storage method devised was to stack them as a square based pyramid, with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen.

Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others.

The solution was a metal plate with 16 round indentations, called, for reasons unknown, a Monkey. But if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make them of brass - hence, Brass Monkeys.

Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron wh en chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey.

Thus,it was quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. And all this time, you thought that was just a vulgar expression, didn't you?

(Information extracted from different sources.)