THE Hundred Years War, which took place between 1337 and 1422, was not a continuous war, but a succession of battles involving France and England during the process of formation of European national monarchies.
This war is remembered because of the participation of Joana d’Arc, a peasant woman who fought with the French army. The Hundred Years War was won by France, putting an end to any pretensions of England to annex territory from it.
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Summary on the Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years War was a series of conflicts involving France and England, between 1337 and 1453.
The British took advantage of France's power vacuum to invade its territory and control Flanders' trade.
Civil wars in both kingdoms interfered with the progress of the Hundred Years' War.
The French peasant Joan of Arc played a fundamental role in the French victory against the English invaders during the last period of the war.
After more than a hundred years of conflicts, the English and French monarchies were strengthened, awakening national and patriotic sentiment.
Video lesson on the Hundred Years War
Background to the Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years War is part of the transition from Middle Ages to the Modern age, period in which the National States were formed. If, in the medieval period, power was decentralized in the hands of feudal lords, in Modernity, the new States emerged with power centralized in a monarch.
In the 12th century, the Europe watched the end of the Middle Ages, a period marked by the feudalism and the decentralization of power, and the emergence of the first national monarchies and absolutist kings. Commerce and cities were reborn in opposition to the countryside, which was in crisis. The kings, who during the Middle Ages were military chiefs, gained strength by containing peasant revolts and wars between the developing kingdoms.
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Causes of the Hundred Years War
The origin of the Hundred Years War is in the dispute for the French throne, which became vacant soon after the death of Charles IV in 1328. The British wanted to take advantage of this vacuum of power in France to take over its territory and enjoy economic benefits, especially in Flanders, a commercially prosperous region.
The English King Edward III, who was the grandson of the French monarch Felipe the Beautiful, used his degree of kinship as a justification for attach Thethe kingdoms of England and France. It was a way for the British to dominate France and benefit from its expanding trade. Flanders had a textile industry that profited from the wool trade with the English and, on account of this economic interest, welcomed England's attempt to annex the kingdom of France.
The Hundred Years War
First period (1337-1364)
The first period of the Hundred Years War was marked by the England's success in the fight against France. This caused the British to occupy part of the northern French coast. The troops led by King Edward III outnumbered those from France. Flanders and Brittany, which were on French territory, supported England by financing their army.
However, The black Plague caused the end of the first battles of the Hundred Years War. A third of Europeans died from this disease. When clashes returned, the British maintained their advances into French territory. The nobles were not loyal to the French crown and they rebelled against the losses of war.
Realizing the defeats on the battlefield and the lack of support from the nobles and the bourgeoisie, French King Charles V negotiated a peace treaty with King Edward III which ended the first period of the war, in 1364, and recognized England's dominance of much of the French lands. In return, the British pledged to no longer requisition the throne of France.
Second period (1364-1380)
In 1364, French King Charles V did not recognize the peace treaty previously signed with England and restarted the conflict. French troops attacked the British and began to reverse defeats suffered during the first period of the war.
France's success in this second period was due to Bertrand Du Guesclin, a French knight who unified the troops and used the guerrilla system to defeat the British. This unification demonstrated the importance of having a centralized power that organized the nobles around them and increased tax collection.
Tempers between France and England cooled on account of the death of their monarchs. In 1377, Edward III died. His successor, Ricardo II, was just 10 years old. In 1380, French monarch Charles V died, easing France's military forces.
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Third period (1380-1422)
The third period of the Hundred Years War was marked by internal wars and disputes for the throne. The English faced servile revolts, and King Richard II clashed with the nobles. From this confrontation, the nobility supported the rise of Henry V to the English throne.
In France, the internal clashes took place because of a revolt in the Burgundy region. With the death of Charles V, his successor was Charles VI, in 1380. The nobles split between the Armagnacs, who supported the Orleans, and the Burgundians, who sided with the Burgundy region. This civil war was justified because King Charles VI did not have the mental conditions to govern France.
The English took advantage of this disunity between the king and his nobility to continue advancing through French territory. In 1415, English King Henry V landed in Normandy, northern France, and invaded Harfleur. The French were defeated by the English, who, in the same year, already occupied Paris.
In 1420, it was the Treaty of Troyes was signed, in which France recognized English rule over the north and that forced King Charles VI to disinherit his son Dauphin Charles VII from the throne. Furthermore, Henry V married Catherine, daughter of the French king, and became heir to the throne. France remained divided and occupied by the British.
In 1422, Kings Charles VI and Henry V died. English domains in France were controlled by the nobility. Charles VII assumed royalty in Bourges, in the center of France.
Fourth period (1422-1453)
The fourth period of the Hundred Years War is marked by the participation of Joan of Arc, a peasant and visionary who led a regiment of the French army and managed to impose several defeats on the English, starting the reaction of France against the invaders. While the War of the Two Roses was taking place in England, the French took advantage of this to retake the territory that was in the hands of the English.
In 1430, Joan of Arc was arrested by the Burgundians and handed over to the English. She was tried by the Court of the Holy Inquisition and sentenced to death in 1431.
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Video lesson about Joan of Arc
End of the Hundred Years War
The peasant warrior's martyrdom motivated the French soldiers to remain in the fight against the English. In 1453, the French conquered the city of Bordeaux, the last Englishman, ending the Hundred Years War. England practically abandoned the war against France to resolve internal disputes caused by the War of the Two Roses. There were no peace treaties, but the French managed to regain the territory that was under the rule of England.
The Hundred Years War was, in fact, a conflict between the French and the English, but internal disputes changed your course. When it wasn't France, it was England's turn to face the infidelity of the nobles to the king or the internal disputes that generated civil wars, benefiting the enemy in the war.
Consequences of the Hundred Years War
One of the main consequences of the Hundred Years War was the end of England's attempt to gain dominion over mainland Europe. For France, the war strengthened the patriotic feeling and contributed to the emergence of its national and absolutist monarchy.
By Carlos César Higa
History teacher