THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR
______The most important thing to remember about the Hundred Years' War is that it actually lasted 116 years (1337-1453). Apparently even numbers appeal to historians a lot more than odd ones.
______The next most important thing you have to remember about the Hundred Years' War is that it was actually a series of wars fought between England and France. It began when King Edward III of England felt that, because of certain features in his family tree, HE and not Philip VI of France should have the French crown. King Philip had physical control of the throne ('nuff said!) and challenged Edward to enforce his claim if he could. Unfortunately for Philip, Edward's army proved to be very good at killing people and breaking things and was soon doing so all across the French countryside.
______Philip's initial attempts to annex the English domain of the Aquitaine (in southwest France) failed. Edward's attempts to invade France proper did not. Enlisting some of the French nobles who recognized Edward's claim to the French throne the English king would succeed in conquering much of France (although very slowly by today's standards).
______In 1356 the disastrous defeats for France culminated in the Battle of Poiters in which the King of France (by now it was Jean II, Philip VI having kicked the bucket) and many of the highest-ranking nobles of France were captured. A treaty was signed in 1360 between France and England but it was really no more than a pause in the fighting for the main belligerents; unpaid mercenaries continued to loot and pillage France as if the war were still going on. A war of attrition began between French holdings and British holdings, punctuated by several rebellions within each of the camps. King Richard II attempted to moderate the war (Edward III having moved on to another plane of existence) but King Charles VI (both Jean II and Charles V having become room temperature) went mad and subsequent intrigues weakened the French crown further.
______Henry V (Richard II having moved on) began a new and aggressive campaign in 1415. His campaign started well, with a victory over the French at Agincourt where his archers devastated the superior numbers of the armored enemy. After this the English and their allies occupied much of northern France (including Paris), the French government moved to the south and Charles VII (Charles VI having gone mad) was forced to agree to the ascension of Henry V's son as King of France after the death of Charles VI. It looked as though the French were going to have to agree to the break-up of their kingdom, but as history would have it Agincourt was the last of the big English victories.
______Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who thought she was on a Mission From God, began rallying her countrymen for Charles. In 1428 she lifted the siege of Orleans and was clearly doing a better job of leading French armies than many of the nobles had been doing. Unfortunately for her she was a little TOO popular and some believe that the crown conspired to have her captured by Burgundians and turned over to the English to be burned as a heretic in 1430. Given the fact that the French seem to be better conspirators than fighters, there may be a grain of truth in that.
______First John of Brittany defected from the English to the French camp. Then Philip of Burgundy changed sides. Charles VII managed to reorganize his forces into a true national army and succeeded in beating the English on the field, picking his battles with better skill than his predecessors. Henry VI (Henry V having left the stage) was too young to continue the war on his own and deal with internal problems stemming from the increasing cost of the war. When the war ended both sides gave a sigh of relief.
______The Hundred Years' war ended with the English in control of the Channel Islands and Calais, but the English would even lose the Calais toehold in a hundred years or so.
WHERE CAN YOU STILL SEE ALEXANDER THE GREAT'S HANDIWORK?
