The Hundred Years War

The Hundred Years War, was the epic campaign fought between England and France. The war began when there was an argument over who would receive the French throne. The war was divided into three parts, the first one was the Edwardian Era that lasted from 1337 until 1360, then there was the Caroline War from 1369 to 1389, and finally the Lancastrian War from 1415 to1453.

            The Edwardian Era began when Edward III of England did not pay homage to Philip VI of France, and he even went so far as to say that he deserved to be king of France, and not Philip, because he was the closest heir to the throne, as it was only by ancient law code that Philip inherited it. Soon the Council of Paris decided to send the duchy of Gascony back to France. A duchy was a land ruled by a duke or duchess. The reason for this was because Gascony was a part of France geographically, but it had been a duchy of England, and also because they believed Edward had not acted properly saying he should have received the French throne.

During this time, military equipment changed, previously the armor was heavy, but Edward made his army fight on foot, and horses became strictly for transportation. The men with light armor were known as hobelars. The first battle in the Hundred Years War was the battle of Sluys, on June 22, 1340. King Edward III of England sailed his ships across the channel, and was met by Philip VI of France. The English completely destroyed the French in this battle. In 1346, Edward led another attack in the channel and fought with Philip in the battle of Crecy and had another great victory, taking over the city of Calais, which was a sea port and gave the English another advantage of keeping troops in France. Then in 1348, the Black Death came and the war was contested for a few years because of the devastation. Once the Black Death passed, there was a new king of England, Edward the Black Prince, who led the next battle, the Battle of Poitiers, in 1356. He invaded France from Gascony, and won a victory, capturing the new king of France, John II. In the place of John, his son Dauphin reigned and the first peace came in 1360, and lasted until 1369, which concluded the Edwardian Era.

            The next phase in the Hundred Years War was the Caroline War. John II died in captivity and was succeeded by Charles V. He is known as Edward The Black Prince, and was in poor health so when they went to war again they only controlled the city of Calais, because the French were taking some of their land back. Before long, Edward, died and his son Richard II took over as a young boy. In Richard’s rein, the country lost much of the French areas that they had claimed and there were other troubles inside England. So another peace was made from 1389-1415, which ended the Caroline war.

                The final stage in the Hundred Years War was the Lancastrian War, which began in 1415, when Henry V of England brought his ships into French waters to attack. After Henry’s first attack, the French were able to intercept him, and the battle of Agincourt was fought. The battle was fought on a small muddy field, and was in England’s favor because their lightweight hobelars completely slaughtered the heavy armored French soldiers. The ratio of English soldiers killed to French ones, was 400 to 6,000. Henry V of England again controlled much of Normandy and again became the Duke of Normandy. In 420, Henry married a French princess whose name was Cathereine. The Treaty of Troyes was made, which said that Henry V’s throne would go to his heirs. In 1422, Henry died and his son was not accepted to claim the throne, so the Duke of Bedford was assigned to oversee the transfer of the throne and the war. The duke did manage the war, but they lost a few battles. The Treaty of Troyes was not fulfilled, and the war pressed on and the English were not able to take hold of the throne. France was defeated in almost all of it’s battles, but soon their fortune changed. In 1412, a peasant girl named Joan of Arc was born in a small French village. When Joan was twelve years old she claimed to have heard voices and to have seen several saints talking to her. At first the voices and saints only talked to her about personal things, but before long they told her to rise up and reclaim the country of France. So when she was sixteen she was able to speak to the king of France, King Charles VII, she had previously tried three times but was not allowed to, but finally she gained an audience with him, this was right after the defeat in Armagnac in 1429. She offered to be a leader of a small army and soon people who had given up on Charles joined Joan of Arc. Before they went into battle she reformed the army by not allowing any swearing or harassing of the people, and she made them go to church. When they were ready for battle, Joan had a suit of armor made just for her. She led a siege on a church controlled by England, and won a victory. After that battle she conquered a few more cities and she made a clear path to the city of Reims, which was the city where kings were crowned, and after being urged by Joan, Charles VII decided to go and be crowned King of France. And Joan was there and proclaimed that the will of God had been accomplished at last. Joan had other expeditions, but she was unfortunately captured and tried for heresy and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. Several years later, she was made a Saint. Without Joan of Arc, the French would likely have lost the war, but instead they were victorious.

            The Hundred Years war was a brutal conflict and it lasted for basically one hundred years. Through the war, many kings came and went, and those who began the war were long gone by the time the war ended. This war was very unfortunate because in the end, no one had more than what they started with and the most tragic thing about it was all of the lives that were lost. It would certainly be better if the war did not happen at all and I believe it is not right for people to kill other people just to increase their territory.

Information gathered from: Ron Paul Curriculum 7^th grade history class.