The Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War
Chapter 14 Overview
In the early fourteenth century, the English held a small part of southwestern France known for wine production.
Wine (claret) was shipped from Bordeaux to London, and wool was shipped from London to Bordeaux.
English merchants urged King Edward III to protect their rights when the French threatened to take over the wine-producing region.
Other Problems Between England and France
French pirates frequently attacked English vessels in the English Channel.
Edward III tried to bring Wales and Scotland under his control, but the French aided the Scots in their armed resistance.
The Flemish appealed to Edward III for aid when the French threatened to conquer Flanders.
In 1328, Charles IV, the last of the Capetian kings, died without a son.
The French crown was passed on to Philip of Valois, Charles IV's cousin.
Edward III contested Philip's coronation and claimed to be the rightful heir to the French throne through his mother Isabella, Charles' sister.
The French Estates General dismissed Edward's claim based on old Frankish laws forbidding women to inherit or transmit inheritance of the French throne.
Edward III insisted he was the rightful heir to defend English and Flemish commercial interests.
Edward III added three lilies (fleurs de lys), the symbol of the French king, to his coat of arms and adopted the French motto "Dieu et mon Droit" ("God and my Right").
A Terrible War Begins
In 1337, a long conflict known as the Hundred Years' War began between France and England.
There were three major periods of fighting with long stretches of peace in between.
The conflict lasted somewhat more than one hundred years.
All the land battles took place on French soil.
During peaceful interludes, the French countryside was pillaged by soldiers.
The Hundred Years' War is viewed as a continuation of the rivalry between England and France that began with William the Conqueror's victory at the Battle of Hastings.
England had held property in France since then, causing conflict.
Jean Froissart's Chronicles
Much of what we know about the war comes from Jean Froissart's four-volume Chronicles of France, England, Scotland, and Spain.
Froissart traveled widely and was patronized by Edward's wife, Queen Philippa, and other noblemen.
His works cover European political affairs from 1325-1400 and focus on the Hundred Years' War.
For earlier sections, Froissart borrowed from Jean le Bel, but based the rest on eyewitness accounts.
Froissart's books provide valuable information about the war, although they are not always accurate and are often biased.
The Battle of Crecy
In 1340, Edward's forces crossed the English Channel on a fleet of two hundred ships.
The English attacked and defeated the French navy at Sluys, gaining control of the Channel.
By 1346, Edward raised money to hire and equip an army to attack France, landing in Normandy.
The French army outnumbered the English two to one.
Edward was accompanied by his sixteen-year-old son, the Black Prince.
The English army moved southeast, looting villages, and then turned north towards Flanders.
The French forces caught up with Edward near the village of Crecy.
English Military Tactics and Strategies
The English army consisted mainly of professional soldiers who fought on foot, many armed with the longbow.
The English had been introduced to the longbow during wars against the Welsh and Scots.
A longbow was made of a straight stave of wood and shot a steel-pointed arrow that could accurately travel over five hundred feet.
The arrow could penetrate armor.
A bowman could shoot six arrows a minute.
At close range skilled archers could create a storm of arrows, firing up to twelve a minute.
French Military Tactics and Strategies
The French army had Genoese archers who used crossbows.
A crossbow was a powerful bow made of whalebone or hardwood with a string of twisted linen.
It fired iron-tipped bolts that spun in the air and could penetrate armor at two hundred yards.
However, a crossbow took a long time to reload, firing only two bolts a minute.
The crossbowman had to rewind the string using a stirrup at the bottom of the bow.
The French army was mostly knights, backed up by crossbowmen.
The Battle of Crecy Details
Before the battle, there was a rainstorm.
The English archers removed their bowstrings to keep them dry, while the French crossbows were drenched, making them less effective.
Edward chose a position on a plateau above marshy land, with woods protecting the flanks of his army.
Philip ordered crossbowmen to engage the English, but the setting sun and the steep incline hampered them.
The English bowmen shot a storm of arrows, forcing the French bowmen to retreat.
The French knights charged through the retreating crossbowmen, and the English archers brought down both men and horses.
Edward also had five-foot iron "thunder tubes" that were loaded with gunpowder and fired balls of stone and iron.
The sky was filled with arrows and missiles, causing agony.
The French retreated by dusk.
Over 1500 French knights were killed.
The Black Prince fought bravely and was knighted on the field of battle.
The Siege of Calais
From Crecy, Edward marched to Calais and laid siege.
After eleven months, the citizens of Calais surrendered on August 3, 1347.
Calais became an important trading port for English merchants.
Edward returned home and was welcomed as a great hero.
The Battle of Poitiers
The year after the surrender of Calais, the Black Death broke out in France and spread to England.
The English continued their raids in France, led by the Black Prince.
In 1356, the Black Prince and about 7,000 men were surrounded by a larger French army at Poitiers.
The longbow and cannon gave the English the advantage, and the French surrendered after three days of fighting.
The French king, Jean II, was captured and ransomed for 500,000 English pounds (about 1 million).
King Jean was provided with a large household staff at Windsor Castle.
The Treaty of Bretigny
In 1360, a peace treaty was signed at Bretigny.
Edward gave up his claim to the French crown but kept Calais and the southwestern provinces of Gascony and Guienne (in Aquitaine).
King Jean's ransom was paid.
French Recovery
Large numbers of mercenary soldiers plundered the French countryside.
Bertrand du Guesclin, in charge of the French army, ordered the strengthening of fortifications to make it more difficult for raiders to obtain supplies.
By attacking small groups of English troops, the French recovered most of the land they had lost.
When Edward died in 1377, England held only a few coastal towns, including Calais and Bordeaux.
The Black Prince had died the year before, and his son, Richard II, was king.
Agincourt
At the opening of the fifteenth century, the French government was in disarray.
King Charles VI (Charles the Mad) often had fits of insanity, and the nobles, particularly the Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Orleans, were fighting for control.
In 1415, Henry V of England renewed the claim of the English kings to the crown of France.
He crossed the Channel with about 8,000 men and landed in Normandy.
He besieged and captured the port city of Harfleur, but many of his troops became ill with dysentery, and two thousand died.
Henry marched north to Calais to return home and gather replacement soldiers.
A French army of nearly 20,000 men barred his path at Agincourt.
The Battle of Agincourt details:
The English soldiers were tired, hungry, and water-logged from rain.
When one soldier complained about their small numbers, Henry replied that he would not want more men, stating, "If God will give us the victory, it will be plain that we owe it to His grace. If not, the fewer we are, the less loss for England."
Henry chose the terrain, lining up his men in a narrow gap between two dense woodlands behind a marshy area.
Six-foot wooden stakes were stuck in the soil with sharp points directed toward the enemy.
The French army depended on knights to break through enemy lines.
Only a few knights could pass through the gap at one time, and English bowmen filled the sky with arrows.
French foot soldiers became bogged down in the mud.
The English foot soldiers defeated the struggling enemy troops in hand-to-hand combat.
The French lost 7,000 men, while the English lost only a few hundred.
Within five years, Henry had conquered northern France.
The treaty signed at Troyes in 1420 allowed him to keep the lands he had won.
Charles the Mad offered Henry the hand of his daughter Catherine in marriage and agreed to recognize him as his heir.
The French people were unhappy with the prospect of an English king, but the Duke of Burgundy was pleased.
Henry died in August 1422, and Charles passed away the following October.
The infant son of Henry and Catherine (Henry VI) was proclaimed the new King of France and England.
His uncle, the Duke of Bedford, assumed control of his interests in France and laid siege to Orleans.
The French looked to Charles (the Dauphin) as their lawful king.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) was a peasant girl born at Domremy in Champagne three years before the battle of Agincourt.
She learned of the English occupation from soldiers and claimed to have heard the voices of three saints (St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret) at age thirteen.
The voices told her she had been chosen to help the Dauphin recover his land and crown.
Joan persuaded the captain of Vaucouleurs to take her to see the Dauphin at Chinon at age seventeen.
She convinced Charles that she could liberate Orleans if he provided her with an army.
Mounted on a white horse, clad in armor, and carrying a sword, Joan led the French troops to Orleans.
Her white standard was embroidered with two angels holding a fleur de lis.
The soldiers were inspired by her courage and drove the English from the city on May 3, 1429.
Joan was hailed as the "Maid of Orleans."
The liberation of Orleans marked the beginning of the end of the Hundred Years' War.
Joan was imprisoned in Rouen for a year, and Charles never tried to save her.
The English decided to expose her as an imposter and tried her in an ecclesiastical court.
She was tricked into admitting she had been mistaken about her voices.
When she reconfirmed her belief, her critics would not listen.
From Orleans, the French army fought through regions controlled by the Burgundians to Rheims.
On July 17, 1429, Joan stood near the Dauphin as he was crowned Charles VII in the cathedral.
She asked permission to return home, but Charles forced her to take the field again.
She was captured while defending Compeigne against the Duke of Burgundy, who sold her to the English.
Joan was condemned as a witch and burned at the stake in Rouen on May 19, 1431, at age nineteen.
Before she died, she asked for a cross, and an English soldier made one for her.
She uttered "Jesus" repeatedly.
Another soldier said, "We are lost; we have burned a saint."
Two years later, her case was reopened, and she was declared innocent.
In 1920, she was canonized.
The Aftermath
Joan's courage inspired the French soldiers.
Charles reclaimed castles, cities, and provinces.
By 1453, the English held only Calais and the Channel Islands.
England gained little from the war, and the monarchy was weakened.
In France, a new spirit of patriotism strengthened the national government.