One hundred Year old war

The war One hundred Year old covers the 116 years period (1337 with 1453) during which clash the France and the England at the time of many conflicts, intersected of truces more or less longues.
The war starts when Edouard III of England sends a challenge (declaration of war) to the king of France Philippe VI of Valois. The peace treaty final, signed the August 29th 1475 with Picquigny in Picardy, mark officially end. However, one rather retains the year 1453, date on which the English are completely driven out of France (except Calais).

The conflict led to the constitution of two independent European nations: France and England which, hitherto, were juridically and culturally overlapping, and were in fight for the territorial control of the West of France. For the control of this territory, the Plantagenêts (English royal dynasty) and the Capétiens had already fought nearly 140 years, between 1159 and 1299. This first period had seen evolving/moving the two kingdoms of a feudal organization very parcelled out with a structure of centralized State. The problem arising from the duchy of Guyenne not having been solved, (the king of England being theoretically Vassal of king de France as a duke of Aquitaine) at the end of the last conflict, but also their intrigues to take the control of Brittany and Flandres are at the origin of the release of the hostilities. However, the fundamental cause of the conflict is the economic and social demographic crisis then which passes through the Western medieval world since the beginning of the 14th century.

Involved forces

Kingdom of France

The Kingdom of France, irrigated by large basins river and profiting from a favorable climate has a flourishing agriculture. It is, with its 17 million inhabitants, the first demographic power of Europe. Its agricultural company is founded on a feudal mode and monk very arranged hierarchically. The agricultural capacity makes it possible to nourish the population (it more did not have a famine there from the 12th century and the schools; by the means of religious holidays the number of the public holidaies reached 140 per annum. Same manner, the nobility must combine richness, be able and bravery on the battle field: living country labor, the Master must express his generosity by maintaining the mass his hanging. The Church has work to channel the knight-brigands as of the end of the 10th century. Starting from the council of Charroux in 989, the men-at-arms are requested to put their power at the service of the poor and the church and become militate Christi (Soldiers of Christ). Since the 13th century, the king of France had been able to make admit the idea that its capacity of divine right enabled him to create the noble ones. The nobility is thus different from the remainder of the population by its direction of the honor and must make chivalrous watch of spirit, protect the people and return justice by preserving a certain material comfort. It must justify on the battle field its social status: the adversary must be overcome face to face in a body with heroic body. The army is thus structured around the most powerful Chevalerie of Europe, heavy cavalry combatant of face, with the body with body. This will to shine on the battle fields is increased by the practice of the time to make prisoners and monnayer their release against ransom. The war thus becomes very lucrative for the good combatants and the risks to be killed are thus reduced for the others.

To sit their capacity vis-a-vis the great nobility and with papacy, Capétiens gave pledges to the people: creations of free cities with granting of charters of franknesses, creation of the general states… Social balance extremely passes by acceptance by the people of a royal capacity, which it émancipe of arbitrary feudal, and an increasingly centralized administration which ensures a certain material comfort to him.

The day before the One hundred Year old war, this system weakens because following the population growth which takes place since the 10th century, one attends with an overpopulation of the campaigns and a request for autonomy of the cities. The size of the pieces of the peasants is reduced and the farm prices fall: the tax resources of the nobility decrease and it becomes imperative to shine on the battle field to reinflate its finances.

In three centuries, the kings Capétiens succeeded in consolidating their authority and increasing their territory, at the expense of the Plantagenêts. The royal prestige of France is immense, and, to the time of Philippe IV Beautiful the, the network of Alliance fran1caises extends as far as Russia) and to choose an economy based on specialization and the trade. The rainy climate and the green pastures support the breeding (more particularly of the Ovin S) which allows an important production of wool used by the tisserands and the clothiers (the English sheep produce a particularly fine wool and of excellent quality for the spinning). The craft industry, the trade and thus the cities developed. The inhabitants of the cities need especially freedom to undertake and limit the tax pressure (most of the public purses comes from the tax on wool). This need led to the granting of the Large Charter of 1215 which guarantees the freedom of the cities and gives to the Parliament a power to control on the taxation. The trade makes England very dependant on the Guyenne (because it produces wines which at the time is more salubrious than water), of the Flandres (whose clothiers buy wool) and of the Brittany (which sells to him salt essential to the conservation of food).

For two centuries, the Sovereignty on the west of France, of the duchy of Aquitaine to the rich person and powerful County of Flanders, has been at the origin of conflicts and intrigues between Capétiens and Plantagenêts. This fight started in the middle of the 12th century with an enormous advantage for the English (which had the Anjou then, the Normandy, the Maine, the Poitou, the Aquitaine and the the Limousin), ends in the confiscation of its possessions to the profit of the king of France. Large Empire Plantagenêt, it remains nothing any more but one Aquitaine decreased and reduced to the Gascon coast and Bordeaux, named Guyenne.

In addition England takes share with the 2 {{E}} war of independence of Scotland (1332 with 1357). Since 1296, benefitting from died from Alexandre III without male heir and an attempt at takeover per marriage, England regards the Scotland as a vassal State. However, the Scot contracted with France the Auld Alliance on October 23rd 1295, and Robert Bruce, at the time of the Bataille of Bannockburn, crushed the English knighthood however much higher of number thanks to an army primarily made up men-at-arms than foot protected from the loads by a first rank of piquiers. The English thus adapt their manner of fighting by decreasing the cavalry but by using more archers and men-at-arms to foot protected from the loads by piles planted in the ground (these units to increase their mobility move with horse but fight with foot). Edouard III implements this new way of fighting by supporting Edouard Balliol against the partisans of David II, the son of Robert Bruce. Thanks to this tactic, the English gain several important battles of which the Bataille of Dupplin Moor in 1332 and that of Halidon Hill in 1333. David II must flee and finds refuge in France where it is accommodated by Philippe VI of Valois. Edouard Balliol becomes king d' Écosse, vassal of England and honni by his people. Thanks to this countryside Edouard III can have a modern and ground army with the new tactics (it also tried out there the strategy of the rides which consists in plundering the country at enormous distances thanks to an assembled army).

The official language is theNorman one - is crossbred French of Scandinavian words brought by the Vikings - (since 1066, conquest by William the Conqueror - until in 1361, decree of Edouard III), although the Anglo-Saxon continues to be employed by the people.

Origins of the conflict

See also: Capétiens against Plantagenêts

If one finds the reasons deep of the conflict in the demographic crisis, economic and social that Europe of the 14th century crosses, the release of the war is justified by the progressive rise of the tension between the kings of France and England about Guyenne, of Flandres and Scotland. The dynastic question, raised by an interruption of the direct male descent of Capétiens is the official pretext.

Causes cultural, demographic, economic and social of the conflict

Whereas, under the effect of progress of the agrarian techniques and the clearings, the population increases in Occident since the 10th century, one crosses a threshold which exceeds agricultural production capacities in certain zones of Europe as of the end of the 13th century. With the play of the successional divisions the pieces are reduced: they do not have any more in 1310 but the third of their average surface of 1240. Certain areas as Flandres are in overpopulation and try to gain cultivable grounds on the sea, nevertheless to meet their needs they choose a saving in trade making it possible to import the agricultural food products. In England, as of 1279, 46% of the peasants have only one cultivable surface lower than 5 hectares. However, to nourish a family of 5 people, it is necessary from 4 to 5 hectares. In France, the king Philippe VI needs to reinflate the cases of the state and a war would make it possible to raise exceptional taxes.

Economic and cultural spheres of influence of France and England

Since Saint Louis, the modernization of the legal system attracts in the French cultural sphere of many areas bordering: in particular out of grounds of Empire, the cities of the Dauphine or the county of Burgundy (future Franche-Comté) take out from Saint Louis the royal legal proceedings to regulate litigations: the king sends for example the Baillif de Mâcon who intervenes in Lyon to regulate the different ones, as the seneshal of Beaucaire intervenes in Vivier or Valence. The kings of France can attract at their court the nobility of these areas by allocating revenues and while devoting themselves to a skilful matrimonial policy. The counts de Savoie lending homage to king de France against the granting of pensions; Jean of Luxembourg, king de Bohème and beautiful father of Jean the heroically dying Good with Crécy or the count Humbert II ruined because of her incapacity to raise the tax and without heir after death to its only son, selling the Dauphiné with Philippe VI are perfect illustrations of this phenomenon. Conversely, the fact that the king of England is vassal of king de France for Guyenne poses him problem because all the litigations can be regulated in Paris and thus in its discredit. The rise of the trade made certain areas dependant economically on one or other kingdom. At that time the transport of freight is done primarily by sea route or river. The Champagne and Burgundy feed Paris via the the Seine and its affluents and are thus pro-Frenchwomen. The Normandy is divided because it is the point of union between this economic basin and the Manche which becomes a zone of increasingly intense exchanges thanks to progress of the maritime techniques (the skirting of the Iberian peninsula by the Italian ships becomes increasingly frequent). The Aquitanian which exports its wine in England, the Brittany which exports its salt and Flandres which import British wool may find it very beneficial to be in the English sphere of influence.

Thus the Flemings while wanting to escape the French tax pressure, revolt in a recurring way against the king of France; from where successive battles of Courtrai in 1302 (where the French knighthood is rolled) of Mons-in-Pévèle in 1304 and of Cassel in 1328 (where Philippe VI subdue the Flemish rebels). The Flemings give their support for the king of England, declaring even in 1340 qu ' Edouard III is legitimates it king of France. The two States thus may find it beneficial to increase their territorial possessions to increase their tax re-entries and to reinflate their finances. Consequently, the intrigues of the two kings to make pass the Guyenne, the Brittany and Flandres under their influence lead quickly to the war between the two States: it will last 116 years.

The dynastic question

To include/understand the dynastic question of 1328, it is necessary to go up ten years in time:

In 1316, the death of Louis X Hutin, two years only after that of his/her Philippe father the Beautiful one, mark end of the miracle capétien : of 987 with 1316, the kings capétiens always had a son with whom to transmit the crown to their death. Of his first wife, Marguerite of Burgundy which was condemned for inaccuracy, Louis X Hutin has only one girl, Jeanne de Navarre. Her death, his second wife awaits a child. A son is born: Jean I {{er}} says Posthumous the, but he saw only a few days. New case hitherto, the direct heir to the kingdom of France is thus to be Jeanne de Navarre, a woman. The decision which is made at this time is very important, because it became habit and was applied to the dynastic question which arose in 1328. The inaccuracy of the Marguerite queen is only one pretext for the ousting of his/her Jeanne daughter, and the choice of Philippe V (brother of Louis X Hutin) as king de France. In fact, it is about a geopolitical choice, the refusal to see a possible foreigner marrying the queen and directing the country. The choice of the French monarch is based on heredity and the sacring, but the election takes again its rights in the event of problem. The principle of the Salic law rises from the will of Capétiens to reinforce their possessions by attaching to the crown the strongholds of their vassal without male heirs: Philippe the Beautiful one had introduced the “clause of the masculinity”, according to the expression of Jean Favier, while revising, his death day before, the statute of the prerogative of Poitou which, “male fault of heir, would return to the crown of France”. This law dates from the Francs and stipulates that the women must be excluded from the “salic ground”. Salic comes from the city from Salted, today Overijse, in Belgium, ground of the Francs saliens. This law is taken again, adapted to the situation and advanced like weighty argument in the arguments on the legitimacy of the king.

After the court reigns of Philippe V, deceased without male heir, it is his younger brother, Charles IV, which, profiting from the precedent posed by its elder, girds in its turn the crown. But its reign lasts also little of time.

When this third and the last wire of Philippe the Beautiful one dies without male descendant in 1328, the dynastic question is the following one: Isabelle de France, last girl of Philippe the Beautiful one, has a son, Edouard III, king d' Angleterre. Can it transmit a right which it cannot itself more early exert according to the fixed habit ten years? Edouard III proposes like candidate, but it is Philippe VI of Valois which is selected. With good certain reserves, Edouard III of England lends homage to Philippe VI then, being his vassal with the title of Guyenne

See also: Succession of Charles IV Beautiful the

Edouard III, having lent homage and having recognized for king Philippe VI of Valois, and having had to accept concessions in Guyenne (but it reserves the right to claim the arbitrarily confiscated territories).

The quarrel of Guyenne

This quarrel is even more important than the dynastic question to explain the release of the war.

Intrigues and declaration of war

The tension goes up between the two sovereigns the more so as the nobility pushes with the conflict, it inevitably leads to the declaration of war in 1337.

The king of France helps the Écossais in their combat against England. It has been the policy followed for several centuries by the kings capétiens: it is about the Vieille Alliance. The king of Scotland, David Bruce, was driven out by Edouard III in 1333 and Philippe VI the point of disjunction with Castle-Strapping man and rearms his partisans while waiting for that it reconstituted sufficient forces to reestablish in Scotland.

In 1334, it convenes the English ambassadors, of which the archbishop of Canterbury and their precise that Scotland of David Bruce is included/understood in peace. In 1335 David Bruce the Anglo-Norman islands thanks to a fleet financed by Philippe VI can attack. It is a failure, but that done to fear in Edouard III an invasion of England.

Edouard III intrigues in Flandres, its marriage with Philippa de Hainaut enables him to weave bonds in the north of France and the Holy roman Empire: Robert d' Artois is taken refuge in London since 1336, it bought the alliance of the count de Hainaut like that of the emperor Louis of Bavaria for 300.000 Guilders and the Duke of the Brabant as well as the count Gueldre turn to him. The Flemings are outraged by the rallying of the count Louis I {{er}} of Flanders to king de France and of the tax pressure which follows, but in the event of revival of the conflict with the king of France, they should pour a door amends with the pope (who has the capacity them to excommunicate or to throw the prohibited on the Flemish cities). It is envisaged with Jacob Van Artevelde (the strong man of the Flemish opposition) that Flandres recognize Edouard as king de France what makes it possible to circumvent this agreement. On their side, the French support the Scot in war against the English.

At the beginning of the conflict, while Edouard III, as a small son of Philippe the Beautiful one, can assert the crown of France, the king of France, not having a claim on the crown of England, has only one goal: to recover the Guyenne. It thus should force Edouard III of England to accept the confiscation and to put an end of it to its claims with the crown of France. The French, with the reinforcement of Mercenary S génois, have the maritime power struggle for them. Thus, the French fleet plunders the English ports regularly. A strategy of Blocus is imagined because the wine of Guyenne and the salt of Brittany or Poitou are vital for England. The trade of wool towards Flandres and the Vin of Bordeaux is stopped and English finances are with most badly. The Flemish clothiers severely touched by the conflict raise against their count Louis I {{er}} of Flanders. They are led by Jacob Van Artevelde which seized the power in Flandres and are combined to king d' Angleterre.

The trade having begun again with England, the French send their fleet to Sluys, with the mouth of the channel connecting Bruges to the the North Sea, to impose a naval blockade. The June 24th 1340, at the time of the battle of the Lock, the French fleet undergoes a severe defeat which reverses the maritime power struggle. This defeat puts an end to the project to send French troops to support the Scot, and makes it possible Edouard III of England to start again the trade of wool. To the beginning of the year 1340, the return of English wools does not bring back however prosperity in Flandres and the authority of Jacob Van Artevelde is disputed more and more. Moreover, the pope Clement VI having launched a Excommunication with the Flemings perjuries. Extremely of its new maritime control, an army of Edouard III of England unloads with Brest in 1343. However, its ally Jean de Montfort is captured with Nantes then dies in 1345. Charles of Blois remains only applicant with the duchy of Brittany. A truce is signed in Brittany, the English keep the control of Brest until in 1397.

Fearing an English invasion, Philippe VI manages to convince his old Scottish ally to attack England by north because, Edouard III having gathered his army in the south of the country, the Scottish border should be little defended. The October 7th 1346, David II, king of Scotland attacks England with the head of: 12000 men. But it east demolishes and captured with the of Neville' S Cross battles. Edouard III of England has the freehands to unload in France.

Rides

At that time, France, with 20 million inhabitants, five times is populated than England. The French Chevalerie is most numerous and more aguerrie of Europe. This is why Edouard III does not plan to hold the ground. He envisages a war of Pillage which has the merit to be financed. The first of famous the English rides date of 1346: an army reduced, mobile, advancing on a reduced face and practitioner an all-out war systematically devastating the crossed areas. Strange manner on behalf of Edouard III to take possession of the kingdom which he asserts and of which population, from a legal point of view English, is perceived like supporting a usurper, Philippe VI of Valois.

The two armies meet with Crécy the August 26th 1346. The French are more numerous, but the French Army, cash on its powerful knighthood, faces an English army made up of Archer S and infantryman S in the course of professionalisation. The tactics used rise from the social organization different from the two countries. France is a feudal country and monk whose nobility must justify on the battle field the divine origin of its capacity: one must overcome the adversary face to face in a body with heroic body. The French nobility applies to the letter the codes of the knighthood, and fights courteously: i.e. while avoiding killing an enemy knight of noble blood, but rather while seeking to capture it in order to hold to ransom it. On its side, England is a country turned towards the craft industry and the trade. The warlike tactics of the English, ground by years of war in Scotland, are based on a maximum search for effectiveness. It results from it a very organized army where the knights count less.

Within sight of their great numerical superiority, the French are certain to carry it in Crécy. However, confronted with the fall of its land incomes, the nobility hopes to be reinflated with the ransoms requested in exchange of the captured unfavourable knights.

The destroyed French Army, Edouard III goes up towards north and puts the seat in front of Calais. With an army of help, the king of France tries well to raise the blockade of the city, but does not dare to face Edouard III.
It is in dramatic circumstances, during which famous the middle-class of Calais give the keys of their city to besieging, that Calais passes under English domination, which will last until the 16th century. Philippe VI negotiates a truce with Edouard III, who in strong position, obtains the Souveraineté full and whole on Calais.

If the Black Death, or Large Plague, of 1349 obliges the belligerents to cease the combat until in 1355, she is also lived like a divine punishment. The prestige and the royal authority of the Valois are thus deeply faded. The disorder settles in the kingdom without its successor, Jean II the Good, managing to reverse the tendency. The economy is badly and, to avoid resorting to the increasingly unpopular taxes, the state resorts to changes which brutally devaluate the currency and fact of assassinating the favorite of the king Charles of Cerda. Jean the Good, which does not wish to break the truce with the English, is obliged to accept the treaty of Mantes (the February 22nd 1354). By this last, the Navarrese increases his Norman field of several Vicomté S and Fief S: Beaumont-the-Roger, Breteuil, Conches, Pont-Audemer, Orbec, Valognes, Coutances and Carentan. N the other hand, it gives up its claims on the Champagne.

Ensured of the cogency of this strategy, and obsessed by the title of king de France, he does not hesitate to conclude a pact with Jean from Ghent, the third wire of Edouard III at the end which France (from which he would obtain the crown) would be quite simply divided. But it is in vain that it awaits the unloading promised by Edouard III.

Confronted with the English threat, Jean the Good must convene the general states, the December 28th 1355, to raise the army of: 30000 men necessary. Those Ci are extremely being wary as for management of public finances (scalded by the Dévaluation S pulled by the monetary changes) and accept the lifting of a tax on salt (the Gabelle) only if the general states can control of it the application and the use of the taken funds. The officers who would take the tax must be indicated by the general states and 10 deputies must enter to the council of the king in order to control finances. Normandy, rebellious area, refuse to pay: the Dauphin Charles, recently named Duc joins together the states of Normandy. Charles the Bad one sees in this unpopular lifting of tax, the occasion to destabilize a crown staggering by federating the dissatisfied ones. Present under its possessions Normans (it is count d' Évreux), it then tries a bringing together with his brother-in-law whom it tries to convince that his/her Jean father the Good wishes to disinherit it (Charles is weak, according to certain sources would have a malformation of the right hand, is little favoured on the battle fields and is thus far from expensive representing the chivalrous ideal with its father). So the April 5th 1356, the dolphin invited in its castle of Rouen all the high lords of the province. The festival beats full sound when Jean II emerges the Good which comes to seize of Charles the Bad one. Informed plot of his son-in-law (it has just given him in marriage his daughter Jeanne de France) with the English, the king lets burst his anger which broods since nearly two years, in fact since the assassination, in January 1354, of his favorite the Connétable Charles of Spain Cerda. He makes decapitate the companions of Charles at once the Bad one and makes imprison this last.

During his imprisonment, Charles de Navarre gains in popularity. Its partisans feel sorry for it and claim his release. The Normandy thunders and many are the barons who disavow the homage lent to king de France and turn to Edouard III of England. For them, Jean the Good one exceeded his rights by stopping a prince with whom it however signed peace. Worse still, this gesture is perceived by the “Navarreses” like the fact of a king who knows himself illegitimate and hopes to eliminate an adversary whose only wrong is to defend its rights to the Crown of France. Philippe de Navarre the brother of Charles the Bad one sends his challenge to King de France on May 28th, 1356. The Norman Navarreses and particularly lords pass in block on the side of Edouard III who, as of June, launches his troops in frightening Chevauchée S, to Normandy and Guyenne After having known to subdue of an iron hand a rebellion in his English county of Chester, Edouard de Woodstock, oldest son of Edouard III, see themselves gratifié of the confidence of his father who entrusts the station of " to him; lieutenant de Gascogne": thus the first ride of the famous English captain starts. In 1355, the Prince Noir, started from Bordeaux, plunders the French countryside through the counties of Julliac, Armagnac and Astarac. Its troops make many atrocities in the area of Carcassonne. The summer of the following year, the Prince Noir reconsiders the French soil for a new plundering campaign. It fails in front of Bourges, but takes Vierzon whose garrison is massacred. Obstructed by the weight of the spoils, its troop obliques then towards the west, then towards Bordeaux while passing by Poitiers. Jean II the Good continues it with an army twice more, made up heavy knights, and catches up with it in the surroundings of Poitiers. The battles of Poitiers takes place the September 19th 1356. Jean II is taken speed by his avant-garde which attacks without any coordination. The remainder of the French Army, in front of the confusion of the battle, loses confidence and turns casaque, and the king is made prisoner with one of his sons juniors Philippe: it is a new disaster. Edouard III has all the charts in hand to negotiate important territorial and financial concessions. In January 1358, Charles de Navarre released is able to seize the power (he is regarded by much as ready to fight the enemy English and more legitimate than the weak dolphin). Jean the Good must take again the things in hand and negotiates his release: he accepts the first treated of London which provides that England recovers the whole of its old possessions of Aquitaine and a ransom of 4 million ecu S without renunciation of the crown of France. On this occasion, is struck the first currency called “frankly”, this word taking here the direction of “free”. The spoils and the ransoms acquired following this battle were so important that many English castles were renovated or rebuilt with these funds.

Valois disputed

After the battles of Poitiers, the demobilized mercenaries gather in Grandes companies and plunder the country what increases the popular discontent. The defeats of Crécy and Poitiers threw discredit upon the nobility which is supposed to prove the divine ascent of its capacity on the battle fields. The king being prisoner, his oldest son, the Dolphin Charles, joins together the general states starting from the October 15th 1356. Etienne Marcel, the Provost of the merchants of Paris, sees the possibility there of setting up a parliamentary Régime. Combined on the Navarrese party gathered around the bishop of Laon Robert the Cock, it imposes the November 7th the establishment of a committee of 80 members within the general states (to facilitate the discussions) which supports their claims. The general states, declare the dolphin lieutenant of the king and defender of the kingdom in the absence of his father and associates to him a council of twelve representatives of each order. The Dolphin is close to the reforming current is not against the reforms suggested. but, well quickly of deep dissensions occur between the council and the dolphin which refuses to make judge the former advisers of its father honnis to have brutally devaluated the currency on several occasions to reinflate the cases of the State as to make release Charles the Bad one who is strongly constant (there could be a dynastic change). Indicator which it cannot contain the claims of Etienne Marcel and Robert the Cock which want to make release Charles de Navarre, the dolphin tries to save time and reserves its position (pretexting the arrival of messengers of its father. Those are recalled for February 1357 and the dolphin accepts a large ordinance, which is promulgated the March 3rd according to and envisages the control of finances by the general states, the purification of the administration (and particularly of the tax collectors), and finally the replacement of the council of the king by a Trusteeship Council to the dolphin, where twelve deputies of each kind of the general states would be present, but where it is not any more question of the release of Charles de Navarre who would make weigh a real danger to the crown of Valois.

The November 9th 1357, the “Navarrese” is released from prison by Jean de Picquigny, at the instigation of Etienne Marcel and of Jean Lecoq.Le returns of Charles de Navarre méticuleusement is méticuleusement organized: it is released on November 9th, it is received with the protocol of with the king in the cities which it crosses, accommodated by the notable ones and the crowd joined together by the states. The same ceremonial reproduces in each city from Amiens to Paris: It enters with a splendid escort, is received by the clergy and the middle-class men in procession, then it harangue very acquired crowd, explaining why it wrongfully was despoiled and imprisoned by Jean the good whereas it is of right-hand side royal line. Put in front of the accomplished fact the dolphin cannot refuse the request of Etienne Marcel and Robert the Cock and signs letters of remissions for the Navarrese who carries out his triumphal return quietly. It returns to Paris the November 29th and harangue: 10000 people gathered by Etienne Marcel (what is considerable for the time). November 30th it harangue: 10000 Parisian joined together by Etienne Marcel with pre with the clerks. December 3rd Etienne Marcel is invited with a strong middle-class party with the council which must decide rehabilitation of Charles de Navarre, under pretext of announce that the states joined together with the cordeliers agree to raise the tax requested by the dolphin and that there remains only the agreement of the nobility to be obtained (which joined together other states separately). Within sight of this show of force, the dolphin cannot make differently than to reconcile themselves with Charles de Navarre and to restore its possessions Normans to him. This last pupil of the claims on several provinces (of which the Champagne of which it was dispossessed by Jean the Good). The dolphin can make yet only agree and rehabilitate Charles the Bad one, but worse still the states must solve the dynastic question on January 14th, 1358. The crown of Valois is threatened. Charles Mauvais exploits the month of waiting to make countryside.

Fearing that the Navarrese can seize the capacity, Jean the Good must take again the things in hand and negotiates his release: he accepts the first treated of London which provides that England recovers the whole of its old possessions of Aquitaine and a ransom of 4 million ecu S without renunciation of the crown of France. Of the same Jean II, since his prison of London, prohibited the application of the large ordinance, which causes a conflict open between Etienne Marcel and the dolphin. The January 13rd 1358, the general states are again convened by the Trusteeship Council (which is after purification is controlled by close relations of Etienne Marcel). In front of the opposition of the dolphin, Etienne Marcel decides to impose his reform by the force and rejoins the Parisian tradesmen with his cause. He creates a militia under pretext of defense against the possible attacks of the English, then folded up with Bordeaux and reinforces the fortifications of Paris.
The February 22nd 1358, Etienne Marcel, escorted by many men-at-arms and head of a rageuse crowd, invades the royal palace of the City where the dolphin resides. Wanting to interpose, the Champagne marshal Jean de Conflans and the marshal of Normandy Robert de Clermont are killed in front of the dolphin, which believes its arrived last hour. Marcel obliges it to cap the red and blue hood and to renew the ordinance of 1357. Then it is hunting for the man during whom the prosecuting attorney, Renaud d' Acy, who had taken refuge in a pastry making, is cut the throat of férocement.
He forces then the dolphin to ratify the murder of his advisers. The dolphin can only accept one new institutional change: its council is purified: 4 Middle-class men return there, the government and finances are with the hands of the states, Charles the Bad one receives a military command and what to finance an army of: 1000 men, the dolphin obtains to him to become regent kingdom what makes it possible not to take account of the decisions of the king more as long as it is in captivity (and in particular unacceptable peace treaties).

Preferring to move away from the Parisian fury, the Dolphin Charles leaves the capital for Compiegne: The nobility which joined together there separately of the two other states, to ratify the new ordinance, safe from any agitation. Champagne and Burgundian are shocked by the assassination of the marshals and rejoin the camp of the Dolphin. This last fact solemnly of condemning Etienne Marcel by the deputies. Extremely this support it seizes the fortresses of Montereau and Meaux. The access is of Paris is blocked. In the south and the west the companies foam the country and it is crucial for Etienne Marcel to preserve the communications with the cities of Flandres: it is necessary to release the road of North.

At the end of the month of May 1358 starts the Grande Jacquerie: peasants (mainly of land small holders), exceeded by the reinforcement of the revenue seigneuriale whereas the price of corn drops, revolt against the nobility. The latter, already discredited by the defeats of Crécy and Poitiers, is not any more able to protect the people of modest means. This movement describes by the chroniclers of the time as extremely violent (this violence was probably exaggerated) is mainly directed against the noble ones who, if they are not massacred, see their plundered castles and flarings. : 5000 men gather quickly around a charismatic chief: Guillaume Carl, it very quickly receives reinforcements on behalf of Etienne Marcel, whose objective is to release Paris of the surrounding which the dolphin is realizing by privileging the northern access which makes it possible to communicate with the powerful cities of Flandres. June 9th the men of Prévost of Paris and part of the Jacques lead an attack on the market of Meaux where is the regent and his family to make sure of her person. It is a failure: whereas the Jacques ruent himself with the attack of the fortress on the bridge which makes it possible to reach it the doors open and they are swept by a load of cavalry. But the large one of the forces of Guillaume Carl goes in découdre to Mello on June 10th. Pressed by the nobility, of which he is the leader and particularly by Picquigny to which he owes the freedom and whose brother has just been massacred by the Jacques, Charles the Bad one takes the head of repression. It engages of the English mercenaries, rejoins the nobility, seizes Guillaume Carl come to negotiate and charges the Jacques decapitated. It is a massacre: the jacquerie finishes in a blood bath for which Charles the Bad takes the responsibility and or the dolphin knew to keep the clean hands. The strong Navarrese of its success against the Jacques rejoins Etienne Marcel hoping that the nobility that it has just led to the victory against the Jacques follows it, but one saw it in Compiegne, the nobility did not forgive the assassination of the marshals and is placed under the banner of the dolphin. The troops of the Dolphin are joined by the companies which dream to take part in the plundering of Paris. Charles de Navarre awaits English reinforcements to compensate for his losses, the Parisian loyal supporters there see a treason and rebel in their turn. The July 31st 1358, Etienne Marcel is carried out whereas he sought to make return of the English mercenaries in Paris and the dolphin takes again the reins of the capacity.

See also: Great Jacquerie, Etienne Marcel, Charles the Bad

However, the king Jean II who now seeks to return as fast as possible to take again the control of the situation, the English can negotiate with expensive its release (the endenture): they require all the grounds having belonged to them, that is to say more half of the kingdom. To reach these claims would still weaken the royal capacity and could start again the civil war, offering to Edouard III France (he asserts the crown being small son of Philippe Beautiful the).

The treaty of Brétigny

The dolphin Charles calls upon the General states which refuse to sign this humiliating treaty and catastrophic. By doing this, it is cleared like his father and resolders the country against the English. Edouard III then decides to pass again to the action. Unloading with Calais on October 28th 1359, it overlaps in direction of Rheims, the city of the sacring (a sacring would have there catastrophic consequences for the Valois since it holds the life of Jean the Good between his hands). But the Charles dolphin took the initiative and applies the strategy of the deserted Ground. It ordered with all the inhabitants campaigns to take refuge, with all their provisions and materials, in the strengthened cities. Edouard, crossing an empty country, must be satisfied with his reserves. Arrived in front of Rheims, it finds the doors closed. He asks the rendering of the city. The alderman S refuse, by fidelity with the Dolphin Charles. The English army which was not equipped for a seat is obliged to leave at the end of one month.

Edouard is furious, it seeks to cause a great battle with the French. Those are invisible, but the English latecomers and scouts frequently fall into ambushes where they are massacred. Finally, Edouard arrives in front of Paris, where the dolphin was locked up with the population of Île-de-France. In spite of the provocations, the dolphin prohibited its knights from fighting battle. He does not want to renew the demolished of Poitiers.

At the end of 12 days, Edouard III must leave Paris to re-embark as quickly as possible because it does not have any more a vivres, the majority of its horses having died for lack of fodder and it lost a considerable number men. Moreover, one raid of Norman sailors with Winchelsea. In Beauce, the remainder of its army is taken in a violent one storm who dislocates it. This event is perceived like miraculous. However the capture of Jean the Good gives him capacity of negotiation. The treated of Brétigny-Calais concludes finally the conflict:

Rançon of three million books for the release of Jean II the Good (equivalent with the totality of the receipts of the king during two years)
the king of England obtains sovereignty on the Guyenne and the Gascogne, Calais and the Ponthieu, the Comté of Guines, the Poitou, the Périgord, the the Limousin, the Angoumois, the Saintonge, the Agen board, the Quercy, the Rouergue, the Bigorre and the Comté of Gaure.

The treaty aims at defusing all the objections which led to the release of the conflict. Edouard III thus gives up the duchies of Normandy and Touraine, with the counties of the Maine and of Anjou and with suzerainty on Brittany and Flandres. He especially gives up asserting the Crown of France.

The resumption of the war of succession of Brittany is not very happy for the French: Charles of Blois and Bertrand Duguesclin are demolished with Auray by the future Jean IV of Brittany and John Chandos. This battle leads to the treated of Guérande which recognizes Jean IV like duke of Brittany, the English keep the control of Brest and its area. On the whole, the English are Masters of a good third of the Royaume of France, and the duchy of Brittany is controlled by one their allies (Jean IV marries a sister then a daughter-in-law of the Prince Noir). But Charles V is a good tactician: peace obtained makes it possible to give again with the future king (his father Jean the Good dies the April 8th 1364) the capacities to reconquer the yielded territories.

The reconquest of Charles V the Wise one: from 1364 to 1380

In this demolished France, the royal capacity has neither prestige any more, nor means. Finances are with lowest. The popular movements, the Jacquerie S and especially that of 1358, made understand with Charles V which saw two marshals killed under its eyes by the Parisian rioters that the maintenance of sovereignty passes by the support of the population. It thus takes care to preserve its popularity. Since its library, it rebuilds and prepares slowly the reconquest. The English have the hand tieds by the Traité of Brétigny which would be cancelled by a resumption of the engagements: on an idea of the dolphin, the treaty provides that the sovereignty of king d' Angleterre on his new possessions will be effective only after the handing-over of those by the French. The renunciation of Edouard III of the French crown would intervene at the same time. In this way, the Dolphin gives itself the possibility of delaying the application of the text indefinitely. Charles V thus makes trail in length the payment of the ransom (of which less third is actually paid) and the transfer of the yielded territories. To restore the royal authority, him and his/her father go guaranteeing of monetary stability by creating the frankly and puts thus fine at the monetary changes so much décriées. Bertrand of Guesclin, with the head of the army raised thanks to the taxes voted by the general states of 1363, beats it with the Bataille of Cocherel, which puts an end to the civil war, restores the royal authority with the eyes of the population (it shows that the financial sacrifices agreed by the population for the effort of war are followed effects on the ground) and allows the sacring of Charles V. This last gives him then for mission, to involve the Grandes companies (regrouping of demobilized mercenaries which devastate the French provinces) to defend in Spain the rights of Henri de Trastamare which disputes with Pierre cruel the the throne of Castille. By pacifying the kingdom and by decreasing the heaviest taxes, it gives again popularity with the crown, restores the royal capacity and recovers with its incipient profit the national feeling. Edouard III, imposes to him in 1361 the English as national language (until this date the official language at the English court was the French); this measurement reinforces in return the anglophobia in the conquered territories.

Charles V, shining high level strategist and diplomat, extends the conflict to the neighbouring countries. Most of Europe begins directly in the conflict: Pierre Cruel the, in great difficulty, must call with its help two valiant English captains, John Chandos and the Prince Noir (his/her beautiful brother). The English troops are then occupied in Castille until in 1369. As for the Holy roman Empire, in the East, Charles V succeeded in transforming a larval hostility into neutrality more than benevolent: he is very close to his maternal uncle the Germanic emperor Charles IV to which he pays homage for the Dauphine one in 1357. This friendship allows in 1363, in Jean the Good income of captivity to entrust in Apanage to Philippe Bold the (which is him also nephew of the emperor) the duchy of Burgundy, vacant since the death of Philippe de Rouvre in 1361, and of évincer Charles the Bad. To make sure of the support of Flandres, Charles V manages to prevent the marriage of Marguerite of Flanders with Aymon of Cambridge, the son of Edouard III, thanks to the support of the pope Urbain V. It succeeded in marrying the heiress of the counties of Flanders, Rethel and Nevers with his/her Philippe brother the Bold one. Charles V also enters in talks with the king of Scotland David Bruce and the king of the Denmark, who have both of good reasons of in découdre with England. The wise king also makes sure of the friendship of Owen of Wales, claiming with the throne of the Wales.

In 1368, the king of France feels rather extremely to defy Edouard III. It agrees to receive the call of the count of Armagnac, in financial conflict with the Prince Noir (its complaint having initially been déboutée by Edouard III) which overpowers taxes its subjects of Aquitaine in order to finance its Spanish campaigns; the Guyenne is used once again as pretext with the conflict. The Traité of Brétigny gives the full sovereignty of the Guyenne to the English. But the double renunciation envisaged - Edouard renonçant with the crown of France, Jean the Good with the Guyenne - did not take place, and the transfer of the grounds trails in length. Thus legally, Edouard III was not founded to judge different tax on grounds which had not been yielded to him yet and Charles V can proceed to the confiscation of those. The king of England again proclaims king de France the June 3rd 1368, Charles V pronounces the confiscation of the Aquitaine the November 30th 1368. The war begins again, but Charles V, as an excellent lawyer, knew to put the right on his side.

Froissart, in its chronicles, brings back these revealing words:

At the time the English barons said to Edouard that the king of France was wise and excellent prince, and of good council. The duke of Lancaster, wire of king Edouard, will empourpra himself and launched with contempt:

- How? It is only one lawyer!

When king Charles the Fifth learned these words, it laughs, and declared of a merry voice:

- Is! If I am a lawyer, I will build a lawsuit to them of which they will regret the sentence!

Charles the Wise one turns the conflict to his advantage. Renonçant with the pitched battles carried out by banner S of unequal sizes carried out by an undisciplined nobility which did not bring anything to his/her father, it reorganizes the army, under the command of experienced and faithful chiefs (like Bertrand of Guesclin and its cousin Olivier de Mauny). This one is divided into well structured groups of 100 men aguerris called roads and ordered by captains who answer only the orders of the king. Deprived of logistical support, the fortified towns yielded by the treaty of Brétigny fall the ones after the others: Poitiers in 1372 and Bergerac in 1377. the English stick to the Chevauchée S, very popular near their Parlement because they do not cost anything, but disastrous for the image of England in the plundered territories: they do nothing but poke the hatred of the English and reinforce each day fidelity towards the king Charles V. the cleavage of the two incipient nations grows hollow always more. The king of France takes care to maintain patriotism the areas released by the granting of many privileges. He uses in particular of the ennoblement , the French nobility having been decimated by the plague, Crécy and Poitiers.

Watchword of the operations for the king of France: “Better is worth plundered country than lost ground”. Charles thus leaves the kingdom to the thank you of the Pillage S English, which cause in the population of immense sufferings. With each ride, the king orders to the countrymen to take refuge in the cities with all their reserves, practitioner the tactics of the deserted Ground. The more the English advance in the grounds, the more their supply is difficult; badgered by French who tighten many ambushes to them, their manpower are quickly reduced to nothing and of many glorious British chiefs are obliged to fold up itself in order to avoid the disaster (Jean of Lancaster, the Prince Noir, Robert Knolles and Edouard III itself are victims of this strategy of Charles V).

Between 1369 and 1375, the French take again to the English the near total made concessions and grounds had by the enemy before even the beginning of the war, except for Calais, Cherbourg, Brest, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and of some fortresses in the Massif Central. The negotiations carried out after the signature of the Truce of Bruges, between 1375 and 1377, do not lead to nothing. The English continue to launch episodical rides, which answer of the raids on the British coasts which make fear a French invasion (Charles V asks Jean of Vienna to prepare it). The English who cannot more support Jean IV of Brittany, Charles V confiscate the duchy in 1378. Although strongly supported by its barons and the Breton nationalism, which enable him to be maintained, Jean IV must approach the French gradually (it repurchases Brest with the English in 1397 and becomes vassal of king de France in 1391 under the terms of the second treaty of Guérande).

In 1378, the visit of courtesy of the Germanic emperor Charles IV with Paris devotes the victory of Charles Wise the.

The first phase of the One hundred Year old War ends in the victory of skilful Charles V of France, helped by soldiers experienced like Bertrand of Guesclin, over a growing old and too sure Edouard III of him.

Regents and civil war: 1380-1429

Died of Charles V the Wise one and beginnings of Charles VI: 1380-1392

Charles Wise the, which always had a bad health, wants to prepare its end. Also, in 1374 it fixes the majority of kings de France at 14 years, and orders the improvement of all the castles and fortresses of France, made vulnerable by the appearance of artillery as well to the borders as in the areas exposed to the English unloadings (Normandy, in particular), which materializes a little more the national territory. At the end of its reign peace returned, but the tax pressure with the departure provisional and justified by the state of war remained heavy and cities and campaigns start again to thunder. In September 1380, 42 years old Charles V of France dies. His/her twelve year old son only becomes the king Charles VI of France but, minor, it is placed under the supervision of his uncles. Those train a council of regency to replace the Conseil of the king. The former advisers of Charles V are gradually évincés, the uncles of the young king (and brothers of fire Charles V: Louis of Anjou, Jean de Berry, Philippe of Burgundy) engrossing all capacity. The reign of Charles V was marked by the strengthening of the royal capacity with respect to the nobility. Indeed that was already bled by the effects of the battles of Crécy and Poitiers or of the great plague and of its regular reminiscences, but it also makes vis-a-vis significant drops of its land incomes, the campaigns having been depopulated by the plague and devastated durably plunderings rising from the strategy of deserted Ground and from the action of the companies: The peasants have flees and their grounds are often turned over in waste land (in particular the vines destroyed involve durable difficulties of production of wine however essential at the time or water is seldom salubrious). Obviously with the returns of the order, the things were arranged, the grounds have summers recolonized, but much of lords their grounds in Fermage or Métayage yield what is less profitable, but allow more regular incomes and make it possible to be present at the court to profit from generosities of its suzerain. Indeed, the royal treasure is enriched by a taxation become permanent what makes it possible to maintain and by fidéliser its vassal. This is why the uncles need to draw from royal finances to ensure themselves supports it of broad customers and to constitute true principalities. This government is relatively harmful for the Treasury in which the large ones of the kingdom take the practice to draw. When Louis of Anjou decides to leave to conquer the distance kingdom of Naples which he asserts since 1382, he finances his forwarding with depend on the royal treasure, but that moves away it from the businesses of France and lets Philippe the Bold one take a dominating influence within the council. This period is calm from a military point of view because the kingdom of England east in prey with a civil war. A Révolte of the peasants is started by the economic crisis which prevails then in England following the interruption of the trade of salt, the wines and wool, the rises of taxes necessary to the maintenance of the army and the discredit which strikes the nobility because of its defeats with repetition in France. The insurrection is coordinated by preachers Lollards whose levelling ideas allure. It takes the control of London before being subdued by Richard II.

Armagnacs and Burgundian: from 1392 to 1429

The resumption of the conflict finds its origins in various factors. Initially, France as England know fights for the capacity. In England, it is before all the reverse against France which involves a dynastic change: after a long conflict, Henri IV of Lancaster is essential as king. In France, the madness of Charles VI involves the installation of a council of regency chaired by the queen. The real capacity is shared by large kingdom (Louis of Orleans, leader of the Armagnacs and Jean without Peur duke of Burgundy, the duke of Berry being rather a mediator between the two first).

Louis of Orleans takes a growing influence on the queen and is shown by the Bourguignons, which feel injured, to be his lover (and the real father of the Dauphin). This power struggle between Armagnacs and Burgundian gradually brings closer the latter to the English, the more so as in 1407 Jean without Peur makes assassinate the Duc of Orleans (see Assassinat of Louis of Orleans). The country sinks in the civil war.

English pared out of France: from 1429 to 1475

Jeanne d' Arc

He thinks in the Kingdom that a virgin sent by God recognized miraculeusement the true king with Chinon. Calculator, the dolphin (future Charles VII) agrees to send Jeanne d' Arc to Orleans, which she proposes to deliver like proof of her bona fide, with a convoy of supply. In the event of victory, he would see legitimated his claim with the throne of France (which can just as easily be asserted by Henri VI under the terms of the Traité of Troyes), in the event of defeat, nobody would remember this country-woman and its cause would be lost in any case.

End of the conflict

As from 1431, the political situation and soldier of the English degrade themselves. In fact, since the Treated of Troyes, they are far from physically controlling all the territory which was assigned to them: they occupy only partly Picardy and the Champagne and controls only imperfectly the Ile-de-France where the partisans of Charles VII still control several fortified towns there and hide in the forests of Hurepoix the French captains. Between the Saone and the Loire the allegiances are gotten mixed up. In 1434, Normandy is in nearly general insurrection following the increase in the English tax requirements. Jean without Peur had multiplied the demagogic promises of tax exemptions and the English cannot hold them. Immediately risings anti-English start in particular in country of Caux and in the valley of Transfers. In the tread Dieppe, Montivilliers and Harfleur are included. It then has the means of maintaining a standing army and of preventing that the demobilized mercenaries do not deliver themselves to plundering. It sends the dolphin Louis to the head of more than 20000 flayers fighting the Swiss cantons revolted against the duke of Austria. That enables him to test its men and to get rid of the elements doubtful or badly equipped. Many Routiers perishes vis-a-vis the Swiss ones and with the Alsatian ones. On the whole, it retains with its service only about half of the combatants. By the Ordinance of Louppy-le-Châtel of 1445, it organizes them in Lance S : basic unit where competences of each one are complementary. Each one makes up of a man-at-arms accompanied by two archers with horse, of a Coutilier (armed with a sword and a long scraping-knife), of a page and a servant (the latter combatant not in general). 100 lances form a company. The 15 companies add up 9.000 men, whose 6.000 combatants who form the large ordinance (they then prefer often to die rather than to go and be mutilated). Fewer, the archers are also less effective: the horses of the French Cavalerie are now protected in order to be less vulnerable to the parabolic shootings of the archers and in addition the cavalry tries to overflow the adversary rather than to frontally charge it as with Patay where the English archers are massacred. The occasion to break the truce occurs on March 24th 1449: François de Surienne take Fougère with the duke of Brittany rejoined with Charles VII on behalf of the Duke of Somerset, the lieutenant of Henri VI for Normandy. Charles VII attacks at once the Normandy on three faces. the English are regarded there as occupants. Cherbourg falls 4 months later: there is no more English in Normandy.

In Guyenne, the populations are less profrançaises (this area massively exports wine towards England), and in spite of a victorious campaign in 1451 or Bordeaux and Bayonne are taken, French reperdent control of it because the inhabitants have evil has to accept the heavy French taxation. The objective is not then any more to take the cities but to beat the English in arranged battle well. It is delivered on July 17th 1453 to Castillon. The English who charge the cut off French are cut in parts by 300 pieces of artillery drawing at the same time (they are for the majority guns with hand), charged with Mitraille and been willing so as to take the attacker in row. Carnage is alarming. The attackers are in a hurry the ones against the others not being able neither to escape nor to be dissimulated. The Breton cavalry charges the survivors and it is the massacre: 4000 English lose the life.

However, whereas Henry VI and Marguerite flee in Scotland, Edouard IV alienates Warwick, large friendly of king de France Louis XI, by a policy far too favorable to Burgundian of the duke Charles the Bold one. However Warwick, called " the maker of rois" , is the principal craftsman of the accession of Edouard to the throne. This last solves the situation while banishing influence it Warwick (1464), then by drawing aside from the capacity the whole of the Neville clan. Constrained to take refuge in France, Warwick is reconciled with the Lancaster. Louis XI holds in respect Yorkistes by the bluff: in 1468, it mobilizes a fleet in Normandy, letting suppose that it prepares an unloading in England, whereas it did not recruit of army. In July 1475, Edouard IV of England, unloads in Calais, the request of Charles the Bold one, and goes on Rheims to the head from 20.000 to 30.000 men to be made crown king de France. At the end of August, the two kings meet with Picquigny. Louis XI offers 300 charriots wine. Edouard IV, who finds himself with the head of a avinée army, negotiates his departure against 75.000 ecus payable immediately, and a pension of 50.000 ecus for the nine years to come. It is possible that Louis XI promised more not to interfere in the English businesses and that Edouard IV did not want to risk a defeat which would have weakened its crown whereas Charles the Bold one was in difficulty against the Swiss ones (it must raise the Siège of Neuss in front of the arrival of the imperial army) and was not able to support it with the need. The Treated of Picquigny mark the end of the One hundred Year old war. Moreover, the operation of Louis XI discredited the English, who preferred the wine with the combat, and broke their alliance with Burgundy. That involves an important renewal of the minor nobility which will contribute to its loss of being able: in Beauce for example, about 1500, only 19% of noble can be prevailed of a title former to the 14th century! Comparatively the Grande Plague of 1349 was a plague largely more devastator: between the beginning of the 14th century and the medium of the XV {{E}} century, the Occident lost 30% of its population. She was not only devastator in 1349 but with have recurrences during long years. These recurrences are all the more devastators that rides (and tactics of the deserted ground) and plunderings of the companies durably touched the campaigns: Grounds are turned over in waste lands, of the periods of food shortages were noted in 1345-58, 1351,1361,1368,1373-75 with each time an increase in mortality. In France, towards 1310 - perhaps 1320 one counts 21 million inhabitants in the current borders; one century later, in 1430, it counts nothing any more but 8 to 10 million approximately inhabitants; with a loss of 60% of its population, it returned on the level of the An Millet. Then the population growth begins again and towards 1450 the population counts between 10 and 15 million inhabitants. One observes in England a turning into a desert of the campaigns which accentuates the transition towards a commercial company with a strong capacity from the cities whereas France keeps a population with 90% agricultural. Since the movement of the Peace of God at the 10th century, the Church imposed on the warlike elite codes of conduct. Thus to belong to the nobility it is necessary to justify of a honourable control. The war is the occasion for each knight French to justify his social status: It must make watch of bravery but also of honesty on the battle fields. The capture of unfavourable knights is a good source of revenue via the ransom, with the result that the risk to be killed are weak and that the lure of gain pushes to charge in first line with the combat.

This strategy of frontal load is beaten in breach at the beginning of the 14th century because a hedge of piquiers is enough to break the loads of knighthood: thus with Courtrai the Flemings crushed the French knighthood and with Bannockburn, the Scot crushed the English knighthood: the knights désarçonnés and engoncés in their heavy armours are easy preys for the infantrymen. The Scottish wars made it possible English to improve the principle by organizing their army around many Archer S and men-at-arms to foot (progressively the archers armed with a sword play the 2 functions) protected from the loads by a hedge of piles. This tactical system will make it possible English to connect the victories crushing in spite of a great numerical inferiority with Crécy, Poitiers or Azincourt. In addition, these armies of pedestrians have only to make chivalrous code of honor: in numerical inferiority it is preferable to neutralize a maximum of adversaries definitively: thus with Courtrai, Crécy, or Azincourt the French knights are massacred rather than made captive to draw ransom from it. Same manner, the English archers very long to involve are mutilated so as to more be able to draw.

Gradually, the armours evolve/move to be less vulnerable to the arrows. The coat of mail is gradually replaced by punts which cover initially the members before protecting all the body. At the end of the conflict, the horses are protected and less vulnerable to the arrows, the Artillerie of countryside disorganizes the unfavourable ranks of archers and makes it possible to the French to launch their frightening loads of cavalry on the dispersed enemy. This strategy remains paying until the Guerres of Italy where Marignan remains the best illustration of this combination cavalry/artillery, but gradually thanks to the appearance of the arquebus, the Swiss infantrymen then Spanish, will take a lead in the battle fields of the rebirth.

The appearance of artillery transforms also the art of the Fortification S. the walls thicken, one surrounds the fortresses of slope to stop the shootings of balls. With the Rebirth, (that some make start at the end of this war), the castles became unable to resist artillery and are transformed into roomy and comfortable residences to live. The strong Castle, symbol of feudality, disappears. Safety becomes spring of a capacity central, able to finance a standing army. The nobility loses of its influence to the profit of the Monarchie.

In all the fields, this long war marks the end of the feudal age and the decline of medieval civilization.

Economic consequences

The demographic consequences of the war and the Grande plague involve with money Supply constant an important rise of the prices. The products Orient with become more competitive then and it is established a Trade deficit with the profit of the East. That encourages the trade on long distance and technological advances in the field of the Navigation, but also makes rare the noble metals in the second time, which makes necessary of the monetary changes (which rarefy the noble metal rate in the cash). The economy succeeds in adapting:

Of technological advances was carried out as of the 13th century spreads and supports the maritime transport: the ships gain of handiness (Gouvernail of stern post), in the face, and the new techniques of navigation (the Boussole is improved thanks to work of Pierre de Maricourt on magnetism in 1269), mathematical correction of the magnetic Déclinaison and the crossbow which makes it possible to measure the latitude) appear.
the stop repeated of the traffic transmanche influence strongly the Flemish textile industry which, at the beginning of the conflict, imports English wool. To fill this lack, the English will make themselves less dependant on Flandres economically by directly transforming their wool into clothing. Vis-a-vis this situation, many tisserands Flemish itinerants come to try their chance in England. Before the Great plague, Flandres undergo a demographic crisis which involves a strong emigration). The Flemish clothiers import their wool of Spain then (what will economically make logical integration to the empire of Halsbourgs, whereas the bonds with France decreased with the loss of influence of the Foires of Champagne) and develop raw materials of substitution like the flax.
English competition decreasing the profits of the tisserands, the Flemish economy develops other activities like the banking environment.
For mutualiser the risks, the tradesmen join in firms and companies and create independent subsidiary companies: in the event of bankruptcy, the subsidiary company does not involve the collapse of the whole of the company.

Lastly, the progressive evolution towards the noble metal shortage and the increase in the trade with the East push with the establishment of shopping streets towards Asia and to find new sources of noble metals. Starting from the middle of the 15th century any growth with the Great discoveries.

Great schism of Occident

At the beginning of the conflict the Pape S sit at Avignon and are French, which confers an important diplomatic advantage to the French. However in 1377 Gregoire XI tries to make return papacy to Rome to put an end to the conflict with Florentins thanks to the mediation of Catherine of His. In 1378, the new pope Urbain VI is shown particularly despotic towards the French cardinals, those Ci thus show it to be elected under the pressure of the Roman street and elect the Antipape Clément VII in Avignon. The belligerents may find it very beneficial to have the support of a pope: England and the Saint Empire thus recognize Urbain VI whereas Castilian France and its allies and Scot support Clément VII.

The schism is solved only in 1415 with the Concile of Constancy where the two popes must abdicate what allows the election of a single pope: Martin V. To solve the conflict the Church must resort to the Conciliarisme: the Concile S (gathering of all the bishop S) have to be able more that the Pope him even and must meet regularly. Consequently papacy is very weakened what allows Charles VII to be essential in 1438 like the natural chief of the Church of France while being pressed on the French episcopate: it is the Gallicanisme.

Franco-English cleavage

The intervention of Jeanne d' Arc seals the emergence of two different nations with a different operation.

England, whose rainy climate lends itself badly to agriculture, supports the breeding and the trade of the Laine. The craft industry and the cities develop. The Middle-class and the Parliament (this one relieves Richard II in 1399 when this last tries to reinforce the monarchical capacity), take power more and more the more so as with the Grande Plague of many English villages were deserted. The country is less and less agricultural and increasingly artisanal and tradesman. Because of the recurring difficulties to export wool towards Flandres, the heaviness of the taxes on wool and the appearance of concurrent raw materials (flax, silk and Spanish wool inter alia), England became directly producing clothing and cloths: its economy becomes increasingly industrial. The Noblesse which does not fulfill any more its role of security of the campaigns discredits while extorting from the peasants of the heavy taxes to finance the effort of war. However the less and less many peasants estimate that their social role should be better recognized (more especially as many battles of the One hundred Year old war were gained thanks to their talents of archers) and answer favorably the sermons of the Lollards which spread the ideas of John Wyclif. Their revolt against Richard II is subdued but this last ends up being reversed: the English Monarchie lost credibility and capacity. John Wyclif is a precursor of the Réforme and the country accommodates favorably the Protestantisme with the Rebirth. In addition the shopping streets are more maritime than in France, therefore the need for a capacity centralized extremely making safe the roads is less obvious: the nobility is less and less essential. One moves towards a less and less absolute capacity and individual freedoms can be gradually asserted. The Rebirth brings the catch of religious autonomy of England, then the progressive advent of a Constitutional monarchy. France, country supported for the Agriculture, made it choice of a religious company on a stable rural structure with a powerful monarchy with the be able centralized, extremely and guard. The urban development made it possible the middle-class to dispute the capacity of the nobility unable to justify its statute on the battle fields. The use of the general states becomes frequent, the Bourgeoisie takes place in the company thus. But with the advised monarchs (Charles V and VII), which could gather around them the campaigns then the country by using the national feeling being born, reinforce finally the royal capacity. They benefit from the insecurity generated by the conflict (which generates disorders in the campaigns but which also resounds on the trade by touching the transportation routes) and which cannot be managed by the minor nobility any more, by making safe the territory thanks to a standing army financed by a tax and administrative system modernized. The Noblesse loses all gradually Contre-pouvoir vis-a-vis the sovereign, and the feudalism protestor and claimant, heritage of the Early middle ages, disappears vis-a-vis the authority from the king. The ground is ready for the evolution towards the Absolute monarchy. In addition, compared to the rest of Europe, the war slowed down the projection towards a more urban civilization in France. One notes in the rest of Europe a pre-rebirth and the evolution towards a capacity increased for the cities. But France escapes this evolution and develops a Absolute monarchy of divine Droit extremely centralized. This war contributed, inter alia, with the creation of the two State-Nations whose recurring confrontations mark the continent during many centuries, France and England.

Principal events of the One hundred Year old war

See also: List of the battles of the One hundred Year old war, List of the seats of the One hundred Year old war, Ride

naval Battle of the Lock (June 24th 1340): the English destroy the fleet franco-gênoise and take the control of the seas.
Battle of Crécy (August 26th 1346): Edouard III, who plundered Normandy, goes up towards the north, continued by Philippe VI. He is joined in Crécy, but the English archers roll the French knighthood. This disaster discredits the French nobility.
Head office of Calais (1346): extremely of his crushing victory with Crécy, Edouard III besieges Calais. Philippe VI does not dare any more to face it and the city must go. It remains English until the 16th century.
Combat of the Thirty (*) (1351)
Battle of Poitiers (September 19th 1356): Prince Noir carries out a ride. He is continued by Jean II the Good and is joined in Poitiers. The French are close to the victory, but the king is captured. The consequences are disastrous because the capacity is discredited and the dark country in the civil war. The English in strong position obtain many territorial and financial concessions with the Traité of Brétigny.
Battle of Cocherel (May 16th 1364): Benefitting from the civil war which devastates the country, Charles the Bad asserts the crown of France. He east demolishes by Bertrand of Guesclin, elected by the king Charles V the Wise one.
Battle of Auray (*) (September 29th 1364): English Jean de Montfort and his allies beat Charles of Blois and Guesclin, which puts an end to the war of succession of Brittany (treated of Guérande).
Battle of Nájera (1367): In Castille, Pierre the Cruel one is put in great difficulty by Henri de Trastamare and Bertrand of Guesclin, it calls his brother-in-law Prince Noir in reinforcement. This last inflicts a defeat with the forces free-Castilians. Of Guesclin prisoner is made.
Battle of Montiel (March 14th 1369): Of Guesclin and Henri de Trastamare take their revenge. They beat an pro-English alliance carried out by Portugal. Pierre the Cruel one is stabbed in singular combat by Henri de Trastamare, which makes it possible this last to go up on the throne of Castille and to become a faithful ally of France.
Battle of Pontvallain (1370): Of Guesclin (constable of France since a few months), Olivier de Clisson and Jean of Vienna crush in Pontvallain (close to Mans) the English Knolles and Granson.
Battle of the La Rochelle (1372): The fleet Castilian, allied of France, destroyed the English fleet. This defeat deprives the English of logistical support on the continent. The French gradually drive out them by taking again one after the other the near total of their fortified towns.
Battle of Azincourt (October 25th 1415): Henri V benefits from the Civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundian to attack. He inflicts a severe defeat with the French and starts to conquer the northern part of the country.
Battle of Wallow (1421)
Battle of Cravant (1423): defeat of the French forces of Charles VII.
Battle of Brossinière (September 26th 1423): French victory.
Battle of Verneuil (August 17th 1424): French defeat.
Day of the Herrings (February 12th 1429): interception of an English convoy for Orleans. Mitigated French success (large losses).
Head office of Orleans (1429): Jeanne d' Arc, with the head of a convoy of supply, galvanizes the defenders who force the English to raise the seat in a few days.
Battle of Patay (1429): French victory which opens the way of the reconquest of the north of the country.
Raid on Rheims (1429): Blow of bluff of Jeanne d' Arc and Charles VII, which makes it possible to make it crown whereas Rheims east in full territory controlled by the Burgundian ones. The impact of the sacring is major. It installs Charles VII on the throne whereas its legitimacy had been questioned and that it had been disinherited by the Traité of Troyes.
Head office of Rouen (1431)
Battle of Formigny (April 15th 1450): This French victory allows the reconquest of Normandy.
Battle of Castillon (July 17th 1453): This French victory allows the reconquest of Guyenne. Fine soldier of the One hundred Year old War.

(*): battle being part of the War of succession of Brittany, secondary conflict of the One hundred Year old war

The One hundred Year old war in arts

Novels

romantic Series the cursed Kings of Maurice Druon:

Volume 6: the Lily and the Lion .
Volume 7: When a king loses France .

romantic Series the Cycle of Ogier d' Argouges of Pierre Naudin, 7 volumes at Pocket.
romantic Series the Cycle of Tristan de Castelreng of Pierre Naudin, 7 volumes at Pocket.
romantic Series the Cycle of GUI of Clairbois of Pierre Naudin, 9 volumes at Pocket.
Captive of time of Michael Crichton
Series romantic the light and mud of Michel Peyramaure:

Volume 1: When the star wormwood emerges.
Volume 2: empire of insane the .
Volume 3: iron pinks.

Films and televised series

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