In these days it is more common that when we are upset for someone or wan't to express our opinion for someone's behaviour in traffic, we raise our middlefingers. Much rare is british, or I should say English style to raise middle and index fingers reversed, meaning that the palm is towards yourself.
I was reading Arran Lomas' fantastic book Stick a Flag in It and got an answer for the question that I wasn't evan asking. Where does it come from?
Now imagine what you can do with those two fingers, apart being an asshole in United Kingdom. Imagine that you have a bow and arrow and you get the answer, you hold the arrow with those fingers and relase the arrow.
In 100 Years War, that lasted 116 years, England had managed to create a superweapon that was easy to make and any blockhead could use, a longbow. In the battle of Crécy in 1346, English and Welsh longbowmen made havoc on French cavallery. Knights were clad on harness, however the horses weren't and when the volley of arrows cut the French cavallery out of the game English got the upper hand.
After 69 years English did the same feat in Agincourt. Usually the enemy will adapt new weapons from the enemy, however the French resisted the idea, relying more on short-range croswbows. Instead they despised the enemy longbowmen so much, that they cut their index and middle fingers preventing them to use a bow ever again. This made the beginning of a new kind of hand gesture: When the English longbowmen stood against their French enemy, they raised their hands middle and index fingers showing, "look we still have them".
