HUNDRED YEARS' WAR (1337-1453).
The fight amid France and England described as the Hundred Years' War was the longest conflict in documented historical accounts. It was fought, with a number of pauses, during the reigns of five kings of England and five rulers of France.
The direct reason of the conflict was the system of power. The English king had been duke of Guienne in France. From this point of view he was the vassal of the king of France. The French king wanted to weaken the authority of those who were his subordinates, and England strongly objected losing the power over the duchy of Guienne.
Edward III, the king of England declared that he himself was the real king of France because his mother was a sister of the previous French king, whereas Philip VI was just his cousin. The French stated that it was impossible to inherit the throne and crown of France through the mother only, so Edward III was an illegal pretender.
The direct casus belli was financial. Philip VI put under arrest the English merchants who sold wool produced by the English sheep growers to weavers in Flanders and limited the rights of the Flemish towns and manufacturer's guilds. As the wool trade was a matter of life and death for the Flemish weavers and the English sheep owners, the Flemings revolted against French control and made an alliance with England.
The Battle of Crecy
Edward III landed in 1346 in Normandy with the military force of 10,000 knights and soldiers. The French followed him to Crecy. The English took the side of a hill, and the French army took positions on the plain below the hill. The French forces were four times more numerous than the English army and were combined of French mounted knights whose military value was not very high and Genoese crossbowmen on foot. The English were armed with a new weapon, the longbow, and they were commanded to fight on foot, too.
When the Genoese advanced to attack, it proved that they were tired after the long march and their crossbows were in poor condition. The English bowmen were faster…and the famous scene with a flying cloud of arrows is a favourite picture used by the directors of historical films. The hired Genoese did not withstand the massive attack and the hail of arrows; they threw their crossbows and ran. King Philip ordered to kill them, so the French started to chase and slay the Genoese deserters.
While the French were punishing the Genoese, the Englishmen kept shooting at the crowded and disorderly army. The longbow was a terrible weapon, as the arrow could pierce the armour, so the losses in knights and horses were heavy. The knights were packed so densely that they caused the others to fall down.
One French division got into direct contact with the military unit commanded directly by the Black Prince, the King's son. He was sixteen years old and was expected to "win his spurs" in the battle and become a knight. The king forbade helping his son's unit as long as the prince was alive and able to fight.
In the evening the French army was defeated and flew away, while the English army kept the hill.
That was the first victorious battle for the English, but nobody could predict the ending of the war. There was also a sea battle at Sluys that was won by the English, so they had freedom to sail the English Channel. The English took also the town of Calais in 1347 that let them control Pas de Calais, in English called the Straits of Dover.
The war was not the only disaster of those days. Great epidemics called the Black Death reduced the number of the inhabitants of Europe by one third and slowed down the fighting.
In 1355 the English hit again and attacked the southern provinces of France. The two countries continued the war.
The Battle of Poitiers
The Black Prince, now grown up and experienced, had a very small army again. He met large French forces at Poitiers in 1356. As he wanted to avoid the battle, he tried to give the French the looted goods, the captives and a warranty of seven years' peace. The French were not interested in diplomacy, they wanted armed confrontation. In that way, he Black Prince was forced to fight.
He arranged his forces on an upland where they were protected at the sides by a hedge and a boggy land. The French were brave and numerous, but it was all in vain, as they had to fight on foot in their heavy armours. The English bowmen soon caused a terrible disorder in the three advancing French divisions that the army flew and the King of France with his son were taken prisoners. The bowmen won the battle and the longbow proved a terrible weapon again.
In the meantime, Jacquerie and civil war were now the inner troubles of France. This led in 1360 to a treaty of Bretigny. The King of France had to pay a ransom and the King of England was made the sovereign of Guienne, Crecy, and Calais. Moreover, he gave up all claims to the French crown.
The new king of France, Charles V, broke the treaty and started the war again in 1369. The Breton general Bertrand du Guesclin organized for him an army of professional soldiers. They were much better trained than knights and they marched from one victory to another, so until 1380 only Calais and Bordeaux were left in the English hands.
In the following years England and France faced internal fight for power, so nothing important happened in international relations until 1415.
The Battle of Agincourt
A small English army was once more confronted with overwhelming French forces at Agincourt near Crecy. The French had forgotten the sorry experience of the previous battles and learned nothing from the victories of General Du Guesclin. Dismounted French knights in heavy armour were very closely packed in a narrow strip of ground with woods on both sides. The soil was so soft that they sank in it almost to the knees. This resulted in the third English victory, comparable to those of Crecy and Poitiers.
France was defeated and disunited so, according to the Treaty of Troyes signed in 1420 Henry V of England should married Catherine of Valois, the daughter of the French king Charles VI. During Charles's lifetime Henry was appointed a regent and was supposed to become the king of France as well as of England after Charles's death. Unfortunately, King Henry died in 1422 and was almost immediately followed by King Charles. In that way, both thrones were left to Henry VI, the son of Henry V and Queen Catherine.
Henry VI was an infant, so the dispossessed dauphin of France, later known as Charles VII claimed the rights to the throne for himself. He did not accept the Treaty of Troyes, but was too weak to threaten the English domination in France. His fortress in Orleans was besieged by the English.
Maid of Orleans
This was the worst moment in the history of France, but just then a new personality appeared. This was Joan of Arc, later called the Maid of Orleans. Her patriotism inspired the French, who liberated the stronghold of Orleans, which was followed by a series of spectacular victories. The dauphin was crowned at Reims as King Charles VII. Joan's courage was an inspiration for the French and roused their patriotism. They gradually forced the English to retreat and at the end of the war in 1453 only Calais was still in English hands.
Joan of Arc was imprisoned by the English and Burgundians, convicted of heresy and put to death. The Duke of Bedford had her burnt at the stake in Rouen on 30 May 1431. Twenty-four years later, after the English were driven out, Inquisitor-General and Pope Callixtus III reopened Joan's case and overturned the conviction. Eventually, Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920.
The English kings wanted to win the throne of France but they lost even those continental possessions that had been the property of Henry II back in the fourteenth century. The Hundred Years' War was also a direct cause of establishing absolute monarchy in France, as after the English withdrawal there was no powerful vassal monarch to oppose the king. He had a large income, competent advisors and professional army with modern equipment, much more efficient than the disorderly knights and hired crossbowmen from Crecy.
Strong patriotism extending to nationalism, expressed in the slogan "France for the French" resulted from the war experiences and has been the country's characteristics since then. The French paid heavily for their national identity, as the long war brought terrible losses in people and the country's economy. The long war was accompanied with the social disorder and the struggle for power.
The failure of the English armies in the Hundred Years' War added up to the internal disorder in England, which was followed by the War of the Roses, a series of cruel civil wars fought in England in the years 1455 to 1485.
