The Hundred Years' War

What was the Hundred Years' War?

The Hundred Years' War was fought between England and France, and was an important period in English history. It played a key role in the development of English identity.

When was the Hundred Years' War?

The Hundred Years' War lasted 116 years, from 1337 until 1453. It was characterised by famous English victories such as Crecy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415).

What were the causes of the Hundred Years' War?

There were a number of reasons why the Hundred Years' War started.

• ❖ Between 1307 and 1327, England was ruled by Edward II, a weak king. The French king had tried to exploit his weakness, by making him travel to France to pay homage for Gascony, the last major English possession in France.
• ❖ Since the loss of French lands in the early 13th century, England had desperately clung on to Gascony, which produced a lot of wealth for the king of England due to its wine trade. Losing Gascony to France would have been a great blow.
• ❖ England's main export was wool, which was sold to the cloth merchants in Antwerp. When the French began to threaten Flanders, and therefore the Antwerp cloth trade, the English were worried about losing money.
• ❖ From 1327 the new English king, Edward III, became convinced he had a better claim to the French throne than the French king, Philip VI. Edward was the grandson of the previous French king, while Philip was only his nephew.
• ❖ Edward III was a warrior king. His father's weak rule had weakened the power of the king, and Edward III wanted to prove his worth on the battlefield.

What happened in the Hundred Years' War?

The Hundred Years' War lasted for 116 years, although England and France did not fight continuously during this period. These are some of the key events of the war.

• ❖ The first major conflict of the Hundred Years' War was the naval battle of Sluys, in 1340, which was a victory for the English.
• ❖ In 1346, the English defeated the French at the Battle of Crecy. The English victory was largely due to the power of the longbow, wielded by ordinary soldiers - they decimated the best of the French knights.
• ❖ In 1356, the English used the longbow again to defeat the French at the Battle of Poitiers. The French king and his heir were both captured during the battle - a humiliating defeat for the French.
• ❖ In 1415, King Henry V scored his own massive victory over the French at Agincourt. Again, it was the longbow, wielded by ordinary soldiers, who massacred the best of the French nobility.
• ❖ After Agincourt, Henry V married the daughter of the French king, and was nominated as the heir to the French throne. Even though Henry died only a few years later, his descendents continued to claim the French throne.
• ❖ Henry V was succeeded, however, by his nine-month-old son, Henry VI. The new king's reign was weak, which gave the French the upper hand. The Hundred Years' War ended with a great English defeat, when the French used artillery at the Battle of Castillon.

What role did technology play in the Hundred Years' War?

The Hundred Years' War saw the use of different types of technology to win battles.

• ❖ The English were particularly successful in their use of the longbow, such as at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt. Ordinary English people used the longbow to defeat the great knights of the French aristocracy.
• ❖ However, by the end of the war, the French were able to defeat the English, such as at Castillon, through their use of cannon. They used this new type of artillery to break the charge of the English knights.

What was the significance of the Hundred Years' War?

These are some of the reasons why the Hundred Years' War was significant.

• ❖ England lost all its remaining land in France - Gascony, and the land it conquered during the war. The only French land that England still owned was the town of Calais, which was finally lost in 1558.
• ❖ Although the war had started as a dynastic struggle between two kings, it later developed into a war between two distinct countries - England and France.
• ❖ As England became more isolated, and lost more of its lands in France, people began to develop what became known as a special 'English identity'. They felt that England had a special destiny.
• ❖ The rivalry between England and France developed into a rivalry that lasted until the end of the 19th century. There is still a memory of this rivalry in the minds of many English people today.
• ❖ The war saw a great change in how warfare was conducted. The English showed that armoured knights could be defeated by ordinary soldiers with the simple longbow; the French showed that artillery could be used to shatter a charge of armoured knights.