Hundred Years’ War

B

Major Battles

The English conducted three major campaigns between 1345 and 1360. The first campaign was highlighted by three English victories, including the Battle of Crécy in Normandy (Normandie) in 1346. During the battles of this campaign, the English inflicted heavy losses on the French, and Edward III concluded the campaign by taking the important French port of Calais in 1347.

The next campaign began in the southwest of France, where Edward III’s son, Edward the Black Prince of Wales, conducted a very damaging raid in 1355. In 1356 the Black Prince marched his forces northward until the new French king, John II, cornered him near Poitiers in western France in September. There, however, the Black Prince defeated the French decisively, taking John II prisoner. John spent four years in captivity trying to arrange his ransom and to buy his release with generous treaties. Despite the fact that they were unable to finance an army, the government in France rejected the treaties negotiated in London. Edward III’s final campaign in 1359 was unopposed by the French. It ended with the Peace of Brétigny in 1360 that forced the French to cede all of the southwestern region of Aquitaine to the English, and left thousands of unemployed soldiers ravaging the French countryside.

IV

The Caroline War (1369-1389)

The Caroline war was characterized by a dramatic French resurgence. Major reorganization of French forces by King Charles V (1364-1380), including the establishment of a standing army, enabled the French to quickly regain much of the territory that they had lost to the English in the Edwardian war. Although political turmoil prevented the French from achieving a total victory, they were able to reduce English possessions in France to a few coastal cities.

A

French Successes

French successes in the Caroline war were due in large part to the skills of two men that the new French king, Charles V, found to lead his armies. One of them, Bertrand du Guesclin, a noble from Brittany, was highly skilled in conducting small hit-and-run raids and was able to control the unruly soldiers of the period. The other, Olivier de Clisson, was a nobleman who had fought on the English side during the Edwardian war. He returned to the French side and gave Charles V the benefit of his knowledge of English tactics. Du Guesclin became Constable of France (head of the army) in 1370, and when he died in 1380, Clisson succeeded him.

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Charles also reorganized the French military, developing a full-time, professional army for the first time, and established a regular system of taxation to pay for it. In addition, France gained an important ally on the throne of the Spanish kingdom of Castile, Henry II, who had pledged support for Charles V.

When the Caroline war began in 1369, the English found themselves at a disadvantage. Edward III of England was getting old, and the Black Prince was in the early stages of a terminal illness. French troops under Du Guesclin and Clisson gradually were able to reconquer western France, using hit-and-run tactics and avoiding major pitched battles. The French cause was helped when a largely Castilian fleet defeated the English navy in 1372 off La Rochelle in western France. The French had also been rebuilding their own fleet, and in the summer of 1377 they launched an offensive that left the English in control of only a few coastal cities in the northwest of France. The French and Castilian navies took command of the English Channel and attacked the southern English coast. Under threat of invasion, the English were forced onto the defensive.

B

Domestic Turmoil

However, the untimely death in 1380 of Charles V brought French advancement to a halt. Charles’s heir, Charles VI (1380-1422), was only 11 years old, and his inability to take power immediately led to the development of rival factions at court. One faction was led by Charles VI’s uncle Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy. The other, called the Marmousets, included Charles V’s former officials and military commanders and was led by the Constable of France, Olivier de Clisson. The French planned major invasions of England in 1385 and 1386, and a lesser raid in 1387. However, a combination of bad weather andinternal political conflict prevented these campaigns, and the Caroline war finally ended in 1389 with the first of several long truces.

Shortly after the truce was signed, a series of crises destabilized the governments of both England and France, gradually undermining the peace. In August 1392, Charles VI had a sudden attack of mental illness, which would afflict him off and on for the rest of his life. Philip the Bold immediately seized power and ousted Clisson and the Marmousets. Under Philip’s leadership, a new and longer truce was made with England in 1396, when English king Richard II married the daughter of Charles VI. Then, in 1399, Richard II, who was the key to peace between the English and the French, was overthrown by his cousin, Henry IV, of the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet family. Finally, in 1404, the able and diplomatic Philip the Bold died and was succeeded by his brutal and unpopular son, John the Fearless, as ruler of Burgundy. In 1407 John the Fearless had the king’s brother murdered, and France plunged into civil war. John occupied Paris in 1418, but one year later he was murdered by forces loyal to the king.

V

The Lancastrian War (1415-1435)

The Lancastrian war was originally a success for the English. Aided by an alliance with the duke of the French region of Burgundy, the English quickly captured much of northern and western France, taking Paris in 1420. English expansion, though checked in 1429, was not reversed until the duke of Burgundy changed his allegiance back to the French in 1435, leaving English forces seriously overextended. After this, the French quickly regained lost territory.

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