Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years War was an intermittent conflict between France and England which started in 1337 and lasted until 1453.
Causes
It was basically a continuation of a struggle which began soon after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, over the great fiefs which the king of England held of the king of France. The struggle did not end until the English had lost all their Continental possessions except Calais.
The immediate cause was the reassertion in 1337 by Edward III of England of his claim to the French throne as the son of Philip IV's daughter, Isabella. Philip's last son had died in 1327 without a male heir, and a council of French magnates had passed over Edward's claim on the ground that the royal power could not pass to or through a woman. Philip VI of Valois won the throne, and Edward accepted the decision. But there was constant friction between the two kings over the boundary of Aquitaine, and Philip actively supported the king of Scotland against the English. The French also established a control over Flanders, upon which England depended as a market for its wool, and in retaliation Edward built up an anti-French coalition and laid an embargo on the export of wool from England. Revolution broke out in Ghent in 1336, led by Jacob van Artevelde, which resulted in Flanders throwing off French control and signing a commercial and political alliance with the English. Edward III seized the opportunity to reassert his claim to the French throne.
Opening years
The war opened with an English and Flemish naval victory at Sluys in 1340. Edward then annually raided France with small forces. But in 1346, after Artevelde had been murdered, and Edward's position in Flanders was threatened, he landed in Normandy with an army of about 10,000 and marched towards the north. At Crécy, Aug. 26, 1346, his yeoman soldiery, armed with the longbow, gained a brilliant victory over the much larger army of French knights. The following year Edward took Calais, which was made into a military and commercial base.
Poitiers, 1356
After Crécy in 1346 the war degenerated into a series of plundering expeditions and skirmishes until the Black Prince, Edward's son, repeated the tactics of Crécy with similar results at Poitiers, Sept. 19, 1356. Thousands of French knights died on the field or were taken prisoner. Among the latter was King John, who had succeeded his father Philip. France was brought to the verge of ruin as the royal authority collapsed. The mercenary companies employed by both sides ravaged the land, the Black Death added its horrors, and a peasant revolt broke out. The Treaty of Brétigny, May 8, 1360, terminated this phase of the war. Edward gave up his claim to the French crown and to Normandy, but received Guyenne, Calais, and other lands in full sovereignty.
Charles V
John of France died in 1364 and was succeeded by Charles V (1338–1380), a statesman who restored the power of the French kingship. With the help of his constable, Bertrand du Guesclin, Charles reformed the French army, restored order throughout the land, and in the course of renewed hostilities with the English in Guyenne gradually forced them back. When Charles died in 1380, England was left only the three seaports of Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne.
Henry V
The war languished until the accession to the English throne in 1413 of the young Henry V (1387–1422), who was ambitious for military glory. In France the incompetent and intermittently insane Charles VI was on the throne, and civil war had broken out between the Orleanist and the Burgundian factions. Henry V revived the English claim to the throne of France. He invaded Normandy with an army of about 10,000 and won a great victory at Agincourt, Oct. 25, 1415, repeating the tactics of Crécy and Poitiers against a large army of French knights who had learned nothing from the past. Henry then completed the conquest of Normandy, and the French cause seemed hopeless. On May 21, 1420, after the murder of John, Duke of Burgundy, by the Armagnacs, the new Duke Philip, aided by the queen, secured the signing of the Treaty of Troyes between Henry and Charles VI. Henry married the princess Catherine, secured the regency of France, and was declared heir to the French throne. But in 1422 both kings died, and the infant son of Henry and Catherine was proclaimed king of France and England. His uncles, the dukes of Gloucester and Bedford, were installed as regents. The Duke of Bedford, with Burgundian cooperation, was able to complete the conquest of France north of the Loire River.
Joan of Arc
In 1428, while Bedford was besieging Orléans, the apathetic Dauphin and his despairing army were galvanized into action by Joan of Arc (1412-31), and the siege was broken by the French in the following year.
Charles was crowned as Charles VII at Reims in 1429, and in 1435 at Arras he was able to buy a separate peace with Philip of Burgundy. Bedford died the same year, and the English cause was lost. A series of truces followed, until hostilities broke out about the middle of the century. The restored French army advanced steadily. Normandy was soon regained, then Guyenne was invaded. Bordeaux fell to the French in 1453, and the war ended with Calais alone remaining in the hands of the English.