One hundred Year old war in Normandy

The Normandy plays a big role lasting the One hundred Year old war (1337 - 1453). If it is not at the origin of the conflict, it quickly becomes a stake between the king d' Angleterre and the king de France. The richness of Normandy, its common past with the English (before 1204, the Duchy of Normandy and the kingdom of England had the same Master), his geographical proximity with the island explains this typical location.

Two periods emerge in this One hundred Year old Guerre: Initially, the intervention of the English is episodical since they are satisfied to launch Chevauchée S destroying through the area. However, a powerful Norman lord, Charles the Bad, by its rallying with the English, lights a civil war which opposes the Norman ones between them. In the second time, the English presence is much heavier since they occupy the area during more than three decades (1417 - 1450). In 1420, the Traité of Troyes makes of king d' Angleterre the heir to the kingdom of France. Normandy then seems the central element of English France. Finally, the king of France Charles VII reconquers the rich person province and forgives with Norman which collaborated with the enemy. Normandy finds peace but leaves very weakened conflict.

The first misfortunes: the ride of 1346 and the Black Death (1346-1350)

At the beginning of the war, the king of France Philippe VI request assistance of the Norman ones. The latter provide him in particular marine and boats. Indeed, Rouen is at the time the only shipyard of the kingdom able to build warships. In the other Norman ports, trading vessels are armed. Unfortunately, this dark fleet vis-a-vis the English in the Battle of the Lock, close to Bruges (1340).

In 1346, Normandy enters the war on one level. The king of England Edouard III in person and his army unload with Saint-Vaast-the-Hougue in Cotentin. Its goal is not the conquest of the kingdom, nor even of Normandy. Guided by a large Norman lord, the félon Geoffroy d' Harcourt, the English carry out a Chevauchée through the North-West of France in the only intention all destroying and plundering on their passage. The Norman ones are surprised: it has been almost 150 years that Normandy lives in peace; the ramparts and the fortresses are partly ruined because of a neglected maintenance. Result, the English army does not meet resistance on its way. Saint-Lo and Coutances is burned, Caen is taken except the castle. Edouard III crosses the the Seine, avoids Rouen and Paris, goes up towards North. The army of king de France is put then at the continuation of the English. The meeting takes place in Picardy, close to the village of Crécy. In spite of his numerical superiority, the French loses the battle. Edouard III can then besiege Calais.

The left English, a terrible plague are propagated through Europe: the Black Death. The Norman ones in their turn are struck by this epidemic particularly devastator during the summer 1348. In the two years space, the cities and the villages lose from 15 to 50% of their population.

The civil war in Normandy

In 1356, a new ride weakens Normandy. This year, the English have an ally of weight on the continent: the count d' Évreux and king de Navarre Charles the Bad. This one, seizes up about it with his/her father-in-law, the king of France Jean the Good, has many partisans in Normandy. Result, the nobility Norman is divided in two camps: Navarrese, combined them to the English them faithful of king de France This civil war obliges to raise the castles and the built ramparts of the time of the dukes of Normandy. The peasants give up their grounds in front of the exactions of the soldiers who live on the country. They flee in wood or the strengthened cities. The commercial relations are disturbed. The Anglo-Navarreses seize some castles at the edge of the Seine and thus control the commercial traffic on the river. Around Caen, they settle in the villages and set up a blockade of the city. In both cases, Rouen and Caen must organize an urban militia charged to besiege the fortresses and to release the transportation routes. The royal capacity does not react, handicapped by the defeat and the capture by the English of the king to the Bataille of Poitiers (1356). Finally, the situation improves under the reign of Charles V. New king de France manages to bring back a provisional peace thanks to the action of his captain Bertrand of Guesclin. In 1364, this one demolishes the Navarreses with the Bataille of Cocherel (the Eure). It reconquers in fortified towns Normans with the hands of the enemies. In 1380, only the north of the Cotentin, whose Cherbourg, remains with the hands of the English in Normandy.

Consequently, the truces with England follow one another. They bring finally a certain peace to Normandy and France between 1380 and 1412. However, this period is marked by anti-tax riots in some cities (the Révolte of Harelle in Rouen). The government does not seem to understand that the cities suffered much from the war and that their inhabitants cannot support additional taxes any more.

The conquest of Normandy by the king of England (1417-1419)

The war begins again in 1415. The king of England Henri V unloads in Chef of Caux, close to the future city of the Havre with 13.000 men. He does not come to carry out one énième Chevauchée in Normandy but account to seize the area. II its moment chose particularly well to take again the hostilities: the king of France, Charles VI, is insane and Armagnacs and Bourguignons disputes regency manu militari : the Armagnacs on a side, Burgundian of 1 ' other. It is in this context of disorder and civil war that Henri V conducts his devastating campaign. II starts by taking the town of Harfleur then expels the inhabitants of them. They are replaced by English colonists as its predecessor Edouard III had made Calais in 1347. The dysentery which strikes its army obliges the king of England to defer his dreams of conquest. It decides to regain England via Calais. Its ride however is stopped close to Azincourt (Picardy) by the arrival of the French Army but the French knighthood pays its tactical insufficiencies and the weakness of its command: the English cut in part the flower of the nobility of France. They can return on their premises without concern with their spoils. This humiliation of the French worsens the dissensions within the kingdom and reveals with Henri V of England which it can return.

Two years after his victory with the Battle of Azincourt, the king of England returns with a powerful army to Normandy. The number of soldiers, 10.000 to 12.000 and the artillery with considerable fire which accompanies it show well that Henri V of England account to undertake well the conquest of the duchy of Normandy. Systematically, all the fortresses, cities or castles, fall in less than two years. Rouen, besieged, is reduced to the famine. The city finally agrees to open its doors with king d' Angleterre the January 19th 1419. This date, only the Mount-Saint-Michel resists.

In 1420, the Traité of Troyes devotes the victory of 1 ' England. The king of France recognizes as regent and heir to the kingdom Henri V. A page of 1 ' French history seems turned. The young dolphin Charles, which would have logically to succeed his/her father, is disinherited. He and its partisans must take refuge in the south of the Loire. Extremely of its title of regent, Henri V tries to subject it, helped in this task by the Bourguignons, combined to the English. However he dies in 1422, followed little by the king of France. The ex-dolphin Charles consequently has opposite him a new adversary: Henri VI, wire of Henri V, one year old only. Considering its incapacity to reign immediately on the double kingdom which his/her father leaves him, regency is entrusted to the Duc of Bedford, brother of fire king. Does this gap of the capacity profit to 1 ' ex-dolphin become for its partisans Charles VII? At the beginning, not. In 1424, the great offensive which was to enable him to drive out the English of France fails in the south-east of Normandy, close to Verneuil, where 1 ' French Army is overcome once again. The defeat of Bataille of Verneuil has an important psychological effect on Charles VII. It confines it on the defensive for one good moment.

English occupation (1419-1450)

But the Duc of Bedford knows that the possession of the duchy of Normandy and the remainder of France passes, in addition to the military victories, by the conciliation of the local population. It profits already from certain supports among the elite of the company Norman: majority of the high-clergy, the civils servant, some noble. To safeguard their interests, the middle-class men and merchants seem to adapt to their new chief as long as the war does not disturb the area and their trade does not threaten. Some form even part of the entourage of the regent. With these testimonys of collaboration, are opposed hostile acts. Peasants practice the guerilla, organize themselves in bands, tighten ambushes on the roads. To cross the Bessin, the Flat of Caen, the Country of Caux or the Valley-of-Transfers appears perilous for the English. The latter manage to crush the insurrectionists and send some of them to the gibet to be hung in front of the people of the cities. Moreover, some cities (Rouen, Cherbourg, Nickel silver, Sées, Louviers…) are also 1 ' object of plots of groups of patriots ready to release their city of the foreign domination. However the majority of the knacks fail because the majority of Norman remains wait and see with respect to 1 ' English occupation. No general rising of Normandy occurs against the invader. When in 1432, of the French arrive by surprised and audacity to be seized the Château of Rouen, they are constrained to go one month later fault of the support of Rouennais.

The duke of Bedford understands that the fidelity of the cities is paramount because they constitute the principal strengthened points of the kingdom. In order to reconcile 1 ' elite Norman, it creates the Université of Caen (1432-1439). Paris was before the destination impossible to circumvent of the students of the area. If this creation makes it possible to form the future administration executives, legal and policies of Normandy, it ensures also certain intellectual autonomy the duchy. This skilful political operation does not displease with Norman which sees there a beginning of emancipation with respect to Parisian hegemony since 1204.

Jeanne d' Arc completely upsets the plans of the duke of Bedford. This 17 year old young woman has just obliged the English to raise the Siège of Orleans (1429). Orleans, one of the last grosses places held by Charles VII in the north of the Loire. On the impulse of Jeanne, the events accelerate; 1 ' balance of the forces rocks. Charles VII escorted by Jeanne d' Arc arrives until Rheims, in full enemy territory to be crowned there. With the eyes of a greater number of French, it then seems the true king and Henri VI of England like a usurper. The English feel the wind to turn, the country escapes to them gradually progressively from the exploits of Jeanne d' Arc. Unfortunately, in 1431, it is captured by the Bourguignons, combined to the English. The latter hasten to pay its ransom to be able to judge it. A judgment aiming at showing that this girl is only one insane and a witch and not guided by God. The lawsuit takes place with the castle of Rouen in which it is locked up, and the Minutes of its lawsuit show in this girl of the people of the coherent and well articulated answers on the contrary.

The interrogation is not carried out by the English: the Duc of Bedford leaves of it the care to French who are devoted for him. The bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon, chairs the court, surrounded essentially of canons of Rouen, which shows the tender of the high-clergy to the English occupants. The May 30th 1431, one lights one to rough-hew on the place of the Old man-Market - which always exists - in the capital Norman. Condemned like apostate, heretic and relapse (because it had put on again its clothes of man… his others having been confiscated him!), Jeanne d' Arc is burned.

In spite of that, the dash of reconquest which she impelled does not break. With the treated of Arras, the Bourguignons give up their English alliance to reconcile with Charles VII. It is a decisive diplomatic victory for the king of France. The effects are not long in coming: one year later, in 1436, Paris opens its doors with Charles VII after having driven out the Duc of Bedford. The same year, Dieppe, Have, Aumale are released. The soldiers of king de France are with the doors of Normandy. After almost thirty years of peace, the area prepares with the war. The English reinforce the garrisons and activate work of fortification. Rouen loses its commercial relations with 1 ' Parisian back-country from now on with the hands of the French. In spite of their efforts, the English move back. Évreux, Louviers, Granville is taken again by daring French captains. These cities constitute as many points of resistance in countries controlled by the enemy. Finally, Charles VII lance in 1449-1450 a great offensive to recover entirely and definitively Normandy. Supported by a disciplined army, its powerful artillery makes wonders at the time of the seat of the cities. It is a methodical conquest which the royal armies undertake. The French projection is facilitated all the same by the attitude of many Norman which accepts the return to the domination of Valois. II has there many reserves at some but Charles VII prefers not of it to hold account. II grants letters of remission and of grace, maintains the honors, freedoms, franknesses and right from the cities. The University of Caen, English creation, is thus maintained. The king of France seeks the appeasing and not revenge.

In 1450, the English play their last chart: they send an army ordered by Thomas Kyriel of England in Normandy. Close to Bayeux, with Formigny precisely, this task force meets the French Army ordered by the Count de Clermont. Its compatriot, the constable of Richemont, joined it during the battles and causes the defeat of the English. After Transfers and Caen, Cherbourg, the last English fortified town in Normandy, falls on August 12th, 1450. the One hundred Year old war is completed for our province. It continues three more years in the south-west of France until the final departure of the English.

From 1346 to 1450, the Guerre One hundred Year old indeed lasted approximately a century in Normandy. Admittedly, a hundred and four years ago of combat, seats, rides. The many truces, the long winters stopping military operations reduced this time. But during all the century, the population lived in the fear of the armed bands, the insecurity, fear of a resumption of the war, in economic stagnation. Normandy leaves particularly ruined this period. The extent of devastations, the province answers, after 1450, by the speed of its raising.

See too

War One hundred Year old
History of Normandy