Hundred Years’ War

Agincourt
The Battle of Agincourt1

The Hundred Years’ War was a battle between England and France which occurred from 1337-1453. The entire war revolved around a battle for territory; England wanted to take ownership of the lands of France, and France fought to retain their land. There were many kings involved (both English and French), and the conflict was drawn out and bloody. Simultaneously, France was fighting the Armagnac – Burgundian civil war, and England began the War of the Roses just two years after the Hundred Years’ War was resolved. As the conflict was so long and drawn out, it was quite a costly battle, and between the Hundred Years’ War and the civil war, the French depositories were quite drained. 

A timeline of events, from the text The Hundred Years’ War by Anne Curry 2:

First Phase

  • 1337 Philip VI declares Edward’s lands confiscate
  • 1339 Edward invades the Cambrésis
  • 1340 Edward allies with Flemish and declares himself king of France; French fleet defeated at Sluys; Edward besieges Tournai
  • 1346 Edward defeats French at Crécy
  • 1347 Calais falls to Edward after an 11-month siege
  • 1355 Black Prince’s chevauchée through Languedoc
  • 1356 Black Prince captures John II at Poitiers
  • 1359 Edward III attempts to take Reims
  • 1360 Treaty of Brétigny/Calais gives Edward lands in full sovereignty

Second Phase

  • 1369 Charles V declares Edward Ill’s lands confiscate
  • 1369-74 French recover all save Gascony and Calais
  • 1372 English fleet defeated off La Rochelle
  • 1382 French defeat Flemish townsmen at Roosebeke
  • 1389 Truce agreed, extended in 1396 to 28 years

Third Phase

  • 1412 Henry IV sends an army to assist Armagnacs
  • 1415 Henry V takes Harfleur and defeats French at Agincourt
  • 1417-19 Conquest of Normandy
  • 1419 Assassination of John, Duke of Burgundy
  • 1420 Treaty of Troyes makes Henry V heir and regent of France
  • 1423 Anglo-Burgundian victory at Cravant
  • 1424 English victory at Verneuil
  • 1425-28 English take Maine and move towards the Loire

Fourth Phase

  • 1429 French raise the siege of Orleans and defeat English at Patay; Charles VII crowned at Reims
  • 1431 Henry VI crowned in Paris
  • 1435-36 Burgundy defects to France; the Pays de Caux and Paris fall to French
  • 1444 Truce of Tours

The End of the War

  • 1449 English take Fougéres; French begin reconquest of Normandy 1
  • 450 French victory at Formigny
  • 1451 Gascony falls to the French 1453 English defeated at Castillon
  1. Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Bataille d’Azincourt, Abrégé de la Chronique d’Enguerrand de Monstrelet, 1415.
  2. Anne Curry, Essential Histories: The Hundred Years’ War (Oxford, England: Osprey Publishing, 2002), 10.