The Hundred Years War
Hundred Years War, The. A phrase popularized in the mid-19th-c. to describe a series of Anglo-French wars between 1337 and 1453, now seen as a distinct phase of a longer rivalry as the modern nations of France and England grew out of the feudal, family ‘empires’ that preceded them. In this perspective the war's origins lie in the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Angevin inheritance that made medieval English kings also vassals of the Capetians. It was the definition and exercise of their rights that principally led to war in 1337.
In return for territorial concessions, Henry III of England in the Treaty of Paris (1259) acknowledged holding his lands in France by liege homage. But as lawyers in the late 13th c., under the influence of Roman law, formulated a clearer doctrine of sovereignty, the relationship changed. In practice, the development of the Parlement of Paris as an appellate court and close supervision in the field severely circumscribed the English king's freedom of action as duc de Guyenne and caused endless disputes with Crown officials.
These developments provoked two initial conflicts (1294-1303 and 1324-7), during which Guyenne was twice confiscated and overrun by French forces. Anglo-French ill feeling was also engendered by a French alliance with Scotland, rivalry in the Netherlands, piracy, and naval warfare. The extinction of the Capetian dynasty (1328) allowed Edward III to claim the French throne, though he afterwards temporarily recognized the election of Philippe de Valois. In 1337, after more frustrated diplomacy and mutual recrimination, Guyenne was confiscated again. Edward III retaliated by assuming the title ‘king of France’ and exercising ‘sovereign’ rights in Guyenne.
The conflict which followed can be divided into several phases. Initially it went badly for Edward III, but between 1340 and 1360 English arms enjoyed spectacular success (Sluys, 1340; Crécy, 1346; Poitiers, 1356), whilst warfare in provinces like Brittany attracted soldiers eager for personal enrichment. The capture of the French king Jean II at Poitiers represented a nadir in French fortunes. Widespread social unrest and financial hardship followed as the country struggled to find the king's ransom and humiliating territorial concessions were agreed. The Treaty of Brétigny (1360), however, marked the beginning of a slow revival. Its momentum increased under Charles V (1364-80), though the effort to eject the English completely proved impossible. The war was punctuated by truces as exhaustion set in on both sides.
Domestic divisions under Charles VI (1380-1422) allowed the English to renew their offensive in 1415 [see Armagnacs And Burgundians]. At Agincourt, French forces suffered another catastrophic defeat. Henry V overran Normandy and formed a powerful alliance with Burgundy. By the Treaty of Troyes (1420) a double monarchy was established: the dauphin was disinherited; his sister, Catherine, married the English king; and succession to both kingdoms was entailed on their issue. But after Henry's premature death (1422) the dauphin as ‘king of Bourges’, Charles VII, slowly recovered the initiative, thanks to the intervention of Jeanne d'Arc. In 1435 the Burgundians were reconciled and in 1436 Paris was recaptured. Although the English fought tenaciously in Normandy, adequate resources were lacking, whilst French military and financial reorganization allowed Charles VII to mount a decisive campaign in 1449-50. In 1453 Guyenne was finally conquered, effectively ending the war.
From an early point the conflict stimulated a wide range of literary expression. Military campaigns and individual feats of valour were celebrated in chivalric works, reaching their apogee in Froissart's Chroniques. The lives of famous captains were also commemorated in a last flourishing of the chanson de geste tradition. The darker side of war and its impact on ordinary people find sympathetic treatment in the poetry of Eustache Deschamps, the Quadrilogue invectif of Alain Chartier, and the realism of chroniclers like Jean de Venette or the Bourgeois de Paris. Bitter laments came from loyal servants of the French crown, like Jean Jouvénal des Ursins, who savaged the royal administration for its shortcomings. Propaganda pieces and pamphlets also proliferated, as did treatises on the art of war (Honoré Bouvet, Christine de Pizan). ‘Official historiography’ enjoyed a particular vogue as the Valois kings continued the Capetian tradition of encouraging the monks of Saint-Denis to write the Grandes Chroniques de France, until the last decades of the war.
[Michael Jones]
Bibliography
- C. Allmand, The Hundred Years War (1988)
- C. Sumption, The Hundred Years War, vol. I, Trial by Battle (1990)
