Hundred Ye War

Causes
Firstly, the feudal relationship between the English and French kings. Kings of England were Duke of Aquitaine in their own right, and owned other lands in France as well. However, they were technically vassals of the King of France for these lands, and disliked this partially subordinate position. For their part, French kings were suspicious that English kings would attempt to consolidate their French lands as a hereditary, independent part of their English dominions.

Secondly, growing English commercial domination of the rich French controlled province of Flanders. The burghers and weavers of Flemish towns and cities relied on English wool (England's chief export) as raw material for their textile industry. This gave England an important influence over Flemish economic policy, and the French kings didn't like this.

Finally, France had a long standing alliance with Scotland (the Auld Alliance), and rendered assistance and support to the Scots in their more or less continuous border warfare with England.

This all came to head in 1337. Phillip Vi of France declared all English owned lands south of the river Loire confiscated. Edward III of England responded by declaring himself the rightful king of France (he had a strong hereditary claim through his grandmother, which had been overlooked when Phillip VI was declared king in 1328), and invaded; the Hundred Years War was underway.
Expirience
The first period was followed by years of ineffective political power in both England and France. Military activity was relegated to small raids along the frontiers in France between English held towns in France, and French naval raids on the coast of England. The usurpation of the English crown by the Lancasterians introduced more aggressive leadership in England. While, in France, a mad king was subjected to inner dynastic struggles among his powerful uncles ­ most markedly, the actions of the second Valois duc de Bourgone [duke of Burgundy], Philippe 'the Fearless'.

The second period of the Hundred Years' War began with the invasion of Henry V of England into France and his spectacular battlefield victory at Agincourt (1415), which had many of the same tactical characteristics of the English field victories in the earlier period. However, there were differences in the arms and in the complete logistical mastery of Henry V. Henry V was more effective than Edward III in conducting siege operations, and Henry's successful sieges led to real, if gradual and incomplete, conquests. His accomplishment was aided considerably by the continued political division in France. Valois France's recovery from this nadir provided a remarkable and dramatic conclusion -- the final phase -- to the epic war.

The study of the Hundred Years' War is complicated by the infusion of related events ­ often separate wars in their own spheres ­ that sometimes were integrated with, and at other times they only casually affected, the developments of the greater struggle. Some of the more significant of these 'sideshows' to the Hundred Years' War are identified at the end of this page.
1214 King Philippe II Auguste of France defeated English-German coalition armies in the 'War of Bouvines', essentially confirming his earlier confiscation of Normandy, Anjou, and Maine from the English duke-king John I 'Lackland'. This effectively removed any direct claims of English Plantagenet kings to the French domains associated with the French-Norman conquest of England in 1066.

1242 King Louis IX (Saint Louis) defeated the English king Henry III and a rebel force of French nobles in the Santonge War of 1242. The result was confiscation by the French crown of large portions of the former 'Aquitaine'. However, Louis IX's main ambition was to devote his energies toward a crusade to the Levant, and he desired to assuage the king of England with some return of French ducal land in Guyenne.

1259 Treaty of Paris: Henry III of England acknowledged surrender of Plantagenet claims to lands in France conquered by Philippe Augustus (Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine and Poitou). In addition, he accepted to hold the remaining Plantagenet fiefs in southwest France (partially increased from the 1242 losses, but still 'Guyenne', a lesser Aquitaine) by liege homage to the king of France. However, this region remained a significant source of disputes and confiscation initiatives by later French monarchs. Most significant was a 'small war' of Saint-Sardos (1325), which was the result of king Edward II of England refusing to pay homage to Charles IV of France for Guyenne.

1327 Accession of Edward III (1327-77) to the English throne. His mother, Isabelle, was sister to three French kings, none of whom left a direct male heir to the Capetian throne.

1328 Death of the last [direct] Capetian king of France, Charles IV. Edward III's claim to succeed him was rejected, and Philippe de Valois, a cousin by direct male line, acceded to the French throne as Philippe VI (1328-1350). This began the royal Valois dynasty in France. In 1329, Edward III went to Amiems and paid homage to king Philippe IV of France for the duchy of Guyenne. He also paid homage for the county of Ponthieu.
1337 King Philippe VI of France declared the duchy of Guyenne forfeited by Edward III for the latter's harboring Robert d'Artois ­ a troublsome criminal in the eyes of the French crown. Edward III sent letter of defiance to 'Pilip [sic] of Valois, who calls himself king of France'. These incidents are usually cited as the Beginning of the Hundred Years' War.

1338 Edward III's ambitions were supported by the newly appointed leader of the Flemish townsmen seeking independence from France. Jacob van Artevelde formed a commerical treaty with Edward III and encouraged Edward to claim the French crown.

1339 Edward III's first personally led campaign in France (launched from Flanders into Thiérache) proved ineffective, as well as financially costly. He returned to England to better prepare for a future invasion.

1340 Edward III assumed the title of "king of England and France" (26 January), and concluded a military alliance with the Flemish. Edward III's fleet defeated the French fleet at Sluys [l'Écluse] (24 June).

1341 Death of the Jean III, duc de Bretagne [Brittany], led to a war of succession (1341-64) for the duchy between Charles de Blois (supported by the French king) and Jean de Montfort (supported by the English king).

1345-7 English campaigns in Normandy, Brittany and Aquitaine; battle of Crécy (26 August 1346) and capture of Calais (4 August 1347).

1348-49 The 'Black Death' (bubonic plague) spread in France and England.
1415 As the powerful duke of Burgundy remained neutral, Henry V of England invaded France, captured Harfleur (23 September) and defeated the French army at Agincourt (25 October). The defeat resulted in the deaths or capture of many of the leading French nobles that supported the Orléanst-Armagnac faction, and, thereby, strengthen the Burgundian position. In December, Bernard d'Armagnac became constable of France.

1416 Comte d'Armagnac, constable of France was defeated by English force at Valmont (11-13 March). English fleet defeated French-Genoese fleet in a naval engagment on the Seine (15 August). Henry V signed an alliance with Emperor Sigismond de Luxembourg, for the latter to remain netural in the English-French conflict.
1418 Jean the Fearless secured control of Paris and Armagnacs were massacred. The constable, Bernard, was killed. The dauphin Charles escaped to south of the Loire, to Melun (29 May). With the help of the Angevins, Charles established a rival government at Bourges. Dauphin Charles assumed (29 June) the position of lieutenant-general from his father. Charles retained a bodyguard of Scots archers. In July he led a force that siezed the Burgundian-held castle of Azay-le-Rideau. Henry V besieged Rouen in July.

1419 Rouen surrendered in January, and Henry V completed his conquest of Normandy. Jean the Fearless, while meeting (10 September) with the dauphin Charles at Montereau, was assassinated in revenge for the murder of the duc d'Orleans. Philippe the Good succeeded his father as duke of Burgundy, and continued the alliance with Henry V of England in December.

1420 French-Scottish army was defeated by English at Fresnay (3 March). The Treaty of Troyes (21 May) was the result of the English-Brugundian alliance and the mental illness of the French king, Charles VI. The treaty called for Henry V to marry Catherine, daughter of Charles VI, and to become king of France on the death of his father-in-law.

1421 The dauphin Charles' Scots allies and French (under Marshal Gilbert Lafayette) defeated an English force at Baugé (22 March 1421), in which Henry V's brother, duke of Clarence, was killed. A Burgundian force defeated French at Mons-en-Vimeu (31 August 1421), in which Jean Ponton de Xaintrailles and Etienne de Vignolles, le Bourg de la Hire, were captured.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc,[4] IPA: [ʒan daʁk]; ca. 1412[5] – 30 May 1431), nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" (French: La Pucelle d'Orléans), is a folk heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. She was born a peasant girl in what is now eastern France. Claiming divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII of France. She was captured by the Burgundians, transferred to the English in exchange for money, put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchon for charges of "insubordination and heterodoxy",[6] and was burned at the stake for heresy when she was 19 years old.[7]Twenty-five years after her execution, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr.
Effects
The Hundred Years War inflicted untold misery on France. Farmlands were laid waste, the population was decimated by war, famine, and the Black Death (see plague), and marauders terrorized the countryside. Civil wars (see Jacquerie; Cabochiens; Armagnacs and Burgundians) and local wars (see Breton Succession, War of the) increased the destruction and the social disintegration. Yet the successor of Charles VII, Louis XI, benefited from these evils. The virtual destruction of the feudal nobility enabled him to unite France more solidly under the royal authority and to promote and ally with the middle class. From the ruins of the war an entirely new France emerged. For England, the results of the war were equally decisive; it ceased to be a continental power and increasingly sought expansion as a naval power