The Longest War
The struggle between France and England called the Hundred Years' War was the longest war in recorded history. It lasted, with some interruptions, through the reigns of five English kings (Edward III to Henry V) and five French kings (Philip VI to Charles VII).
Flanders had grown to be the industrial centre of northern Europe and had become extremely wealthy through its cloth manufacture. It could not produce enough wool to satisfy its market and imported fine fleece from England. England depended upon this trade for its foreign exchange. During the 1200's, the upper-class English had adopted Norman fashions and switched from beer to wine.
Beer and wine were very important elements in the medieval diet. Both contain vitamin and yeast complexes that the medieval diet, especially during the winter, did not provide. Besides, the preservation of food was a difficult matter in that era, and the alcohol in beer and wine represented a large number of calories stored in an inexpensive and effective fashion. People did get drunk during the middle ages, but most could not afford to do so. Beer and wine were valued as food sources and were priced accordingly
The problem was that England could not grow grapes to produce the wine that many of the English now favoured and had to import it. A triangular trade arose in which English fleece was exchanged for Flemish cloth, which was then taken to southern France and exchanged for wine, which was then shipped into England and Ireland, primarily through the ports of Dublin, Bristol, and London.
But the counts of Flanders had been vassals of the king of France, and the French tried to regain control of the region in order to control its wealth. The English could not permit this, since it would mean that the French monarch would control their main source of foreign exchange. A civil war soon broke out in Flanders, with the English supporting the manufacturing middle class and the French supporting the land-owning nobility.
"Nutcracker"
The Kings of England directly controlled more territory in France than the French kings. This led to the battles over homage that would eventually play a vital role in the Hundred Years War. The Hundred Years War was not the beginning of this conflict; it was a continuation of one that had existed since the time of the first Norman Kings of England. Every king from Richard I to Edward II had engaged in warfare against French Kings on the continent. However, by 1214, the Kings of England had lost a substantial portion of their lands in France including Normandy. But they still retained Aquitaine which had been acquired through Henry II's marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine.
There was constant bickering along the French-English frontier, and the French kings always had to fear an English invasion from the South. Between Flanders in the North and the English in the South, they were caught in a "nutcracker".
The French responded by creating their own "nutcracker." They allied with the Scots in an arrangement that persisted well into the 18th century. Thus the English faced the French from the south and the Scots from the north.
The French nutcracker would only work in the French could invade England across the English Channel. Besides, England could support their Flemish allies only if they could send aid across the North Sea, and, moreover, English trade was dependent upon the free flow of naval traffic through the Channel. Consequently, the French continually tried to gain the upper hand at sea, and the English constantly resisted them. Both sides commissioned what would have been pirates if they had not been operating with royal permission to prey upon each other's shipping, and there were frequent naval clashes in those constricted waters.
Charles IV, King of France and Navarre, the youngest son of Philip IV, died in 1328, leaving only daughters, and an infant daughter yet to be born. The senior line of Capetian dynasty ended thus in "tail male", creating a crisis about who would become the next king of France.
Meanwhile living in England, Charles IV's sister Isabella was the widow of King Edward II and was at the time effectively in control of the crown, having forced her politically-weak husband to abdicate in favour of their teenage son, Edward III. The young Edward III, being the nephew of King Charles, was his closest living male relative, and was at that time the only surviving male descendant of the senior line of the Capetian dynasty descending from Philip IV (Philip the Fair). By English interpretation of feudal law, this made the English Edward III the next heir to the throne of France.
The French nobility, however, did not want a foreigner on the throne; in particular, not an English king. The French nobility searched through many laws and (after making some questionable interpretations) claimed that royal inheritance could pass only through an unbroken male line, and not through a King's daughter (Philip IV's daughter Isabella) to her son (Edward III). This principle, known as Salic Law, originated in the ancient tradition of laws belonging to the Salian Franks. The French nobility asserted that the royal inheritance should therefore pass to Philip of Valois (Philip VI), who had taken regency over the throne after Charles IV's death. Charles' unborn child, had it been male would have become king. When it was instead a daughter Philip VI became king. Both Edward III and Philip VI had good legal cases for the right to the crown, and the force to back it up.
Although France was the most populous country in Western Europe (20 million inhabitants to England's 4-5 million) and also the wealthiest, England had a strong central government, many veterans of hard fighting on England's Welsh and Scottish borders (as well as in Ireland), a thriving economy, and a popular king. Edward was disposed to fight France, and his subjects were more than ready to support their young (only 18 years old at the time) king.
The Course of the War
War broke out in earnest in 1340. The French had assembled a great fleet to support an army with which they intended to crush all resistance in Flanders. When the ships had anchored in a dense pack at Sluys in modern Netherlands, the English attacked and destroyed it with fire ships and victory in a battle fought across the anchored ships, almost like a land battle on a wooden battlefield. The English now had control of the Channel and North Sea. They were safe from French invasion, could attack France at will, and could expect that the war would be fought on French soil and thus at French expense.
In 1341 conflict over the succession to the Duchy of Brittany began the Breton War of Succession, in which Edward backed John of Montfort and Philip backed Charles of Blois, who was initially successful. Action for the next few years focused around a back and forth struggle in Brittany, with the city of Vannes changing hands several times, as well as further campaigns in Gascony with mixed success for both sides.
In July 1346, Edward mounted a major invasion across the Channel, landing in the Cotentin peninsula of Normandy and marching through Normandy. Philip gathered a large army to oppose him, and Edward chose to march northward toward the Low Countries, pillaging as he went, rather than attempt to take and hold territory. Finding himself unable to outmanoeuvre Philip, Edward positioned his forces for battle, and Philip's army attacked him at the famous Battle of Crécy. Until this time Philip had undertaken a strategy that forced the English into retreat when he would not meet in battle on English terms. Although Philip had a numerically superior army and sufficient supply line the English did not. The much larger French army made a series of piecemeal attacks against the expert English and Welsh longbowmen, and all of the attacks were dispersed with heavy losses until the French were forced to retreat. Crécy was a crushing defeat for the French.
Edward proceeded north unopposed and besieged the coastal city of Calais on the Englis Channel, capturing it in 1347. This became an important strategic location for the English. It allowed the English to keep troops in France safely. In the same year, an English victory against Scotland in the Battle of Neville's Cross led to the capture of David II and greatly reduced the threat from Scotland.
Nevertheless, facing much the same battlefield situation some ten years later, the French employed the same tactics they had used at Crecy, with the same dismal result, at the battle of Poiters (1356). The French king and many nobles were captured, and many, many others were killed. Old fashioned feudal warfare, in which knights fought for glory, was ended. The first phase of the war ended with a treaty in 1360, but France continued to suffer. The English had employed mercenaries who, once they were no longer paid, lived off the country by theft and plunder. Most French peasants would have found it difficult to distinguish between war and this sort of peace.
Nevertheless, in the reign of Henry V, the English took the offensive once again. At Agincourt, not far from Crecy, the French relapsed into their old tactics of feudal warfare once again, and were again disasterously defeated (1415). In 1420, Henry met with the mad king Charles VI, who signed the Treaty of Troyes, by which Henry would marry Charles' daughter Catherine of Valois and Henry's heirs would inherit the throne of France. The Dauphin, Charles VII, was declared illegitimate. Henry formally entered Paris later that year and the agreement was ratified by the French Estates-General. Earlier that year an English army under the command of the Earl of Salisbury, a highly capable soldier, ambushed and destroyed a Franco-Scottish force at Fresnay 20 miles north of Le Mans (March 1420) - according to a chronicler the allies lost 3.000 men, their entire camp and its contents including the Scottish treasury.
After Henry's early death in 1422, almost simultaneously with that of his father-in-law, his baby son was crowned King Henry VI of England and also King of France, but the Armagnacs remained loyal to Charles VI's son, the dauphin Charles, and the war continued in central France.
Following Henry's death English armies continued to remain masters of the battlefield, setting very high standards of military effectiveness.
Following Henry's death English armies continued to remain masters of the battlefield, setting very high standards of military effectiveness.
In 1423 the Earl of Salisbury, perhaps the most outstanding English commander, completely defeated another Franco-Scottish force at Cravant on the banks of the River Yonne. He personally led the crossing of the river, successfully assaulting a very strong enemy position, and in the resulting battle the Scots took very heavy losses; the Franco-Scottish army ceased to exist.
In the following year the Duke of Bedford won what has been described as a "second Agincourt" at Verneuil (Normandy) when his English army of 9000, his Burgundian allies being elsewhere, destroyed a Franco-Scottish army estimated at 16,000 men. The Scots were surrounded on the field and annilihated, virtually to the last man - some 6500 dying there, their losses were catastrophic including all their commanders.
This combined arms victory demonstrates the very high level of battlefield effectiveness often achieved by English armies during the war, which their opponents never matched in the field. Indeed for long periods of the wars the French would simply not face the English army in open battle.
Victories continued - in February 1426 Sir Thomas Rempstone with 600 men utterly routed a French besieging force estimated at 16,000, during the "Rout of St. James" which occurred at St-James-de-Beuvron on the Normandy/Brittany border. He suddenly launched a surprise counterattack and the French, commanded by Arthur de Richemont (the future Arthur III, Duke of Brittany), fell back in panic and disarray.
Furthermore, in February 1429 Sir John Falstaff, who was taking a supply convoy to Orléans, was attacked by a French army with a small Scottish contingent. Falstaff, who had about 1000 mounted archers and a small force of men-at-arms, formed a circle of his supply wagons. Greatly outnumbered, the English force beat off attacks in what became known as the "Battle of the Herrings" before counterattacking, the French and Scots being ignominiously defeated yet again and put to flight. Sir John, through the medium of Shakespeare, was perhaps unfairly cast as coward and villain.
By 1428, the English were ready to pursue the war again, laying siege to Orléans. Their force was insufficient to fully invest the city, but larger French forces remained passive. In 1429, Joan of Arc convinced the Dauphin to send her to the siege, saying she had received visions from God telling her to drive out the English. She raised the morale of the local troops and they attacked the English redoubts, forcing the English to lift the siege. Inspired by Joan the French took several English strongpoints on the Loire. Shortly afterwards a French army some 8000 strong broke through English archers at Patay with heavy cavalry, defeating a 3000 strong army commanded by Falstaff and John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. The first major French land victory of the wars, this opened the way for the Dauphin to march to Reims for his coronation as Charles VII.
After Joan was captured by the Burgundians in 1430 and later sold to the English and executed, the French advance stalled in negotiations. But, in 1435, the Burgundians under Philip III switched sides, signing the Treaty of Arras and returning Paris to the King of France. Burgundy's allegiance remained fickle, but their focus on expanding their domains into the Low Countries left them little energy to intervene in France. The long truces that marked the war also gave Charles time to reorganize his army and government, replacing his feudal levies with a more modern professional army that could put its superior numbers to good use, and centralizing the French state.
Generally, though, the tactical superiority of English forces remained a potent factor; John Talbot, for instance, who specialised in fast attacks, routed French forces at Ry and Avranches in Normandy in 1436 and 1439 respectively. Talbot, one of the most daring warriors of the age, was the victor in 40 battles and skirmishes. This was one of the main reasons the war was so prolonged. The biographer of the Constable Richemont put it plainly when he wrote that, "The English and their captains, above all Talbot, had a well established reputation for superiority, Richemont knew them better than anyone".
But a repetition of Du Guesclin's battle avoidance strategy paid dividends and the French were able to recover town after town.
By 1449, the French had retaken Rouen, and in 1450 the count of Clermont and Arthur de Richemont, Earl of Richmond, of the Montfort family (the future Arthur III, Duke of Brittany) caught an English army attempting to relieve Caen at the Battle of Formigny and defeated it, the English army having been attacked from the flank and rear by Richemont's force just as they were on the verge of beating Clermont's army. The French proceeded to capture Cherbourg on July 6 and Bordeaux and Bayonne in 1451. The attempt by Talbot to retake Gascony, though initially welcomed by the locals, was crushed by Jean Bureau and his cannon at the Battle of Castillon in 1453 where Talbot had led a small Anglo-Gascon force in a frontal attack on an entrenched camp. This is considered the last battle of the Hundred Years' War.
The war dragged on for many years. In fact, it was not until 1565 that the English were forced out of Calais, their last foothold in continental France, and they still hold the Channel Islands, the last remnant of England's medieval empire in France.
The Hundred Years' War was a time of military evolution. Weapons, tactics, army structure, and the societal meaning of war all changed, partly in response to the demands of the war, partly through advancement in technology, and partly through lessons that warfare taught.
England was more what might be considered a modern state than France. It had a centralized authority—Parliament—with the authority to tax. As the military writer Colonel Alfred Burne notes, England had revolutionized its recruitment system, substituting a paid army for one drawn from feudal obligation. Professional captains were appointed who recruited troops for a specified (theoretically short) period. This "modern army", to some extent a necessity—many barons refused to go on a foreign campaign, as feudal service was supposed to be for protection of the realm also gave England a military advantage early on.
Before the Hundred Years' War, heavy cavalry was considered the most powerful unit in an army, but by the war's end this belief had definitely shifted. The heavy horse was increasingly negated by the use of the longbow and fixed defensive positions of men-at-arms, tactics which helped lead to English victories at Crécy and Agincourt. Learning from the Scots, the English began using lightly armoured, mounted troops, who would dismount in order to fight battles. By the end of the Hundred Years War this meant a fading of the expensively outfitted, highly trained heavy cavalry.
The war also stimulated nationalistic sentiment. It devastated France as a land, but it also awakened French nationalism. The Hundred Years' War accelerated the process of transforming France from a feudal monarchy to a centralized state
