The 100 Years War 1337-1453

Longest recorded war in history

Actually 116 years

• Weakness of French crown: existence of powerful vassals, e.g. Duke of Burgundy

• French ancestry of English Kings, this meant Edward III as Duke of Guienne was vassal to Charles IV of France.

• Lack of any effective way of settling disputes - always had to go to war

• England and Flanders relied on each other for trade (wool)

Short Term Causes #1

• Charles IV - the last Capetian King died with no heir to the throne.

• Edward III claimed the throne of France.(His mother was Charles IV’s sister)

• The French assembly chose Philip VI (cousin to Charles IV)

Short Term cause #2

• The problem was that England could not grow grapes to produce the wine that many of the English now favored 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.

Short Term Cause #2• Flanders had grown to be the industrial

center 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.

What the cool people drank

War Begins

• In 1337 Edward III (of England) took an army of 10000 to Flanders

• 1340 Battle of Sluys French attempt to get control of the English Channel. Philip sent a huge fleet to support his army. The English sent in Fire ships and won the battle.

New Weapons

Gunpowder

Canons

Longbow

Crossbow

Decisive Battle # 2

• With the English safe from French Invasion they once again invaded France in 1345……BIG MISTAKE!

Decisive Battles- Crecy 1345

• With the English army weakened by plague the French tried to force them into battle at Crecy. Backed up onto a hill the English won a decisive victory by skillful use of the Long-bow

Decisive Battles Poiters 1356

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.

Decisive Battle Agincort 1415

• 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 disastrously defeated (1415). The English recovered much of the ground they had lost, and a new peace was based upon Henry's marriage to the French princess Katherine.

• In the following years, the French developed a sense of national identity, as illustrated by Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who led the French armies to victory over the English until she was captured and burned by the English as a witch.

• The French now had a greater unity, and the French king was able to field massive armies on much the same model as the British. In addition, however, the French government began to appreciate the "modern" style of warfare, and new military commanders, such as Bertran du Guesclin, began to use guerilla and "small war" tactics of fighting.

Europe 1470Europe in 1430

• End of English attempts to control continental territory and the beginning of its emphasis upon maritime supremacy.

• By Henry V's marriage into the House of Valois, an hereditary strain of mental disorder was introduced into the English royal family.

• There were great advances in military technology and science during the period, and the military value of the feudal knight was thoroughly discredited. Castles were no longer safe!

• The order of knighthood ended, in a wave of civil wars (eg Wars of the Roses) that racked the countries of Western Europe.

• The European countries began to establish professional standing armies and to develop the modern state necessary to maintain such forces.

• The nation states of Europe were formed with people becoming more nationalistic

Even More Results