The war, called the 100 Years War, actually lasted one hundred and sixteen years from the year 1337 to the year 1453. This war was between France and England, the main reason was the possession of the French territories. It is the last feudal war and the most perfect example of this type of war. At the beginning, England took possession of French lands, but at the end of the war, France managed to recover the territories occupied by the French, thanks to the intervention of Joan of Arc.
Causes of the 100 Years War
The Franco-English enmity in the Middle Ages was the main cause, in addition to Flanders a vassal county of France with aspirations of independence, it was frequently aided by the English kings, who had their main wool import market there. Keep in mind that from Guyana It brought its famous wines and salt from England, both of great commercial volume. France, in turn, helped the Scots in their continuous struggles against England .
The English monarch owned a large part of western France, practically from the Loire to the Pyrenees, and that he was a feudal vassal who did not fulfill his duties that he owed as such to the French king.
In addition, the dynastic question promoted by the death of Carlos IV , in 1328, without direct succession, the third son of Philip IV, successor to his two brothers Louis X and Philip V , also dead without succession. Edward III of England, nephew of these three kings, as the son of Elizabeth Capet, married to Edward II, claimed the throne of France, but the French, more for political reasons than legal; gave the crown to Philip VI of Valois , first cousin of the last king.
The French monarchy was not yet centralized, nor did it possess a strong economy; his army had not yet passed the feudal phase. England, much less populated, had a better organized economy; her army could be considered national and was equipped with superior weapons.
The Kings
Englishkings
During the war five kings reigned in England:
Edward III (1327-1377), a practical man, with an energetic character and who was excellently helped by his son the Black Prince .
Richard II (1377-1399), his grandson, weak despite his cruelties, which made him unpopular and cost him his destitution and his life, since he died imprisoned in York Castle.
Henry IV of Lancaster (1399-1413), also a grandson of Edward III, bequeathed to the throne by an uprising, reorganized the army, which his son took advantage of.
Henry V (1387-1422), the great English king of the 15th century, a notable military man and prudent politician.
Henry VI . The last English king of the war, weak and irresolute.
French Kings
Five kings also reigned in France. The first three, contemporaries of Edward III, were:
Philip VI (1328-1350), chivalrous and brilliant, symbol of the undisciplined French nobility.
John the Good (1350-1364), powerless to dominate the noble anarchy.
Carlos V the Prudent (1364-1380), sagacious politician.
The successor of Carlos V was Carlos VI (1380-1422), whose reign coincides with that of the three English kings, Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V. Charles VI, affected by madness as a result of a hunting accident, brought France to the brink of ruin.
The last war king in France was Charles VII (1422-1461), contemporary of Henry VI and restorer of French nationality.
The periods of the 100 Years War
The 100 Years War can be divided into two periods:the first lasts from 1337 to 1380 and ends with the death of Charles V. The second, from 1380 to 1453, ends with the expulsion of the English from France.
First period of the fight
The need for both sides to dominate the sea meant that the first battle was naval. In 134, the English squad beat the French at L’Ecluse , remaining mistress of the sea, and an English army landed on the continent and reached almost as far as Paris. On his retreat he was attacked by the French army, which he defeated at Crécy (1346).
The Battle of Crécy is a clear example of the difference in military organization between France and England.
In a few hours the battle was resolved, which cost the English 40 archers, while the French lost four thousand men, of whom 1,500 were knights.
Edward III, after congratulating the Black Prince, true architect of the victory, I march on Calais , a square that surrendered after a hard siege and that the English kept in their power until 1558, when they lost it in the peace of Cateau-Cambresis. Calais represented for England to have an open door on the continent.
The Black Death interrupted the war for a few years until 1355, when the Black Prince won at Poitiers to King John II the Good, who remained prisoner. The battle can be considered as a repetition of Crécy. King John had to sign a treaty called Brétigny while in captivity. (1360), by which the property of the entire west of France was recognized to the English king, in exchange for his renunciation of the French crown. The French king regained his freedom, after paying a ransom of 40 million francs.
Meanwhile, disorder had taken over France. In the capital, the provost of merchants Esteban Marcel , leader of the bourgeoisie, took over power and wrested from the king in 1357 the signing of the Grand Ordannance (imitation of the Magna Carta), while in the countryside, the villagers, exasperated by hunger, plague and the disorderly conduct of the mercenaries, looted noble estates and killed their occupants in the bloody revolt of Jacquerie (name that comes from Jacques Bonhomme , epithet with which the nobility named the peasants), in 1358. But the lords finally triumphed. After suppressing the peasant revolution with incredible harshness and having assassinated Stephen Marcel (1359), they took the Dauphin or Crown Prince Charles to Paris. His father John II died in London in 1364.
Reign of Carlos V
In the reign of Charles V, France soon recovered. An ally of Castile and Portugal, he immobilized Navarre and threatened English rule in Guyenne from behind. The Breton Bertrand Duguesclin He managed to ward off the depredations of the mercenary companies by taking them, in 1365, to Spain, where they fought for Enrique de Trastámara against his bastard brother Pedro the Cruel. Denounced the treaty of Brétigny in 1368, the war against England was resumed , carried victoriously by Duguesclin, appointed constable. He gradually seized the territories that the English occupied in France until his domains were reduced to Bayonne, Bordeaux and Calais. In 1376-1377 the Black Prince and Edward III died.
Crises in England and France
The truce that followed these victories was one of serious crisis in England as a result of military disasters. A blacksmith named Wat Tyler led a fearsome workers insurrection, which endangered the crown of Richard II. Although he managed to dominate it, he could not prevent the nobles from dethroning him to name his cousin Henry IV of Lancaster (1399).
In France, at the same time, the madness of Charles VI caused the formation of a regency. The power dispute between the Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Orleans It produced a true civil war, called the Burgundians and Armagnacs.
Second period of the fight
Henry V of England took advantage of the civil war in France between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs and managed to defeat the French at Azincourt (1415), a battle in which the French repeated the same defects as Crécy and Potiers. The Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good (1419-1467), devastated by the murder of his father, John Fearless (1371-1419), attributed to the Dauphin Carlos, went over to the English, and with his help they imposed the Treaty of Troyes on the weak Carlos VI. (1420), by which the marriage of Enrique V with Catalina, daughter of the French king, was agreed. The son born of this marriage would inherit France to the detriment of the Dauphin.
Two years after this treaty, Charles VI and Henry V died, and Henry VI was crowned in Paris. ten-month-old child, while Carlos VII it was in an obscure village on the Berry. The English were besieging Orleans, the bridgehead over the Loire, the only region that escaped their domination, when Joan of Arc appeared. .
The French reaction, Joan of Arc
Presenting herself before Charles VII, she designated him as the true king, heir to the crown of France. Mysticism won over the French. Charles VII entrusted him with an army, with which he was able to enter Orléans (1429). After this victory, he had Charles VII crowned at Reims. He then defeated the English at Patay . The following year he entered Campiegne , but making a sortie she was taken prisoner by the Burgundians, who handed her over to the English. At the instigation of the University of Paris, she was put on trial for sorcery. She condemned to the stake she died burned in Rouen, in 1413.
Endofthe100yearwar
Joan of Arc's performance was brief, but decisive. In 1435, Philip the Good of Burgundy signed the Treaty of Arras with Charles VII, by which Artois and Picardy were preserved and he was exempted from paying homage to the King of France. The same year Lord Bedford, head of the English army, died. In 1437, Paris opened its doors to Charles VII. In 1441 a nine-year truce was signed, keeping the English only part of Guyenne and Normandy. The truce was broken in 1449 by the English, they were defeated little by little and were reduced to the Plaza de Calais, thus ending the war, without any peace treaty.
France after the 100 years war
At the end of the Hundred Years' War, France was exhausted. Feudalism was undone; the field, at the mercy of robbers. Charles VII (1422-1461) restored order, relying on the bourgeoisie and the seconds of the bourgeoisie. In the Orléans Ordinances he regulated the economy and, at the same time, justice, and established the permanent army. With these reforms he put France on the path of absolute monarchy.