The Hundred Years' War
Last Updated    12/16/2007     12/15/2007      12/14/2007     12/11/2007

In the 1300s England still controlled land in France.
The kings of France wanted them out.
1337, Edward III, declared himself the King of France.
England and France begin battles known as the Hundred Years' War.
When the war began, France had a population of about 17 million.
England had about 4 million.
France had the most knights in Europe.
The war began with the England winning control of te sea by defeating the French fleet.


Battle of Sluys 1340
1340 June 30, the French fleet of 190 ships was at anchorage.
The fleet had been gathered for an invasion of England.
The English had 200 ships and Flanders provided 50 more.
The battle turned to hand-to-hand combat.
The French fleet was almost completely destroyed at the Battle of Sluys.
The French would not be able to invade England.


Battle of Crecy 1346
1346 August 26, French defeated in Normandy at the Battle of Crecy.
8000-12000 English men led by Edward III.
Philip IV of France had 30,000-40,000 soldiers.
French knights had to go through mud to charge uphill.
Horses had no armor.
Horses were killed or disabled
English longbows penetrated the knights armor while they floundered in the mud.
1/3 of the French nobility died.
Beginning of the end of chivalry.
Prisoners and wounded were killed.


Siege of Calis 1347
King Edward laid siege to the port city of Calis for 11 months.
Edward ordered all the citizens killed.
He would spare the city if 6 of the main citizens would give themselves up to die.
When they came to be executed  his wife got him to spare their lives.
Edward drove out most of the French citizens.
He repopulated the town with English.
England held the town for the next 200 years.

Battle of Poitiers 1356
1356 September 19, English were led by the Black Prince Edward.
French were led by King John II, King of France.
The English retreated to a strong defensive position at Poitiers.
French knights attacked the English line.
English archers flanked the knights and shot at the horses.
The French Dauphne's infantry then attacked.
Heavy fighting ensued.
The French withdrew to reqroup.
The next wave of infantry saw that the Daupene's infantry was not attacking.
They turned back and panicked.
English archers were out of arrows.
They joined the infantry and some joined the cavalry.
The English reserves circled the French.
The French tried to escape.
King John was captured.
The Second Treaty of London was signed.
England gained possession of Aquitaine.
John was freed after France paid a ransom that was twice as much as their yearly income.

1358, Edward invades France a third time.
There is no army to fight him.
He still cannot take Paris.
1360, Treaty of Bretigny signed.
The English controlled about 1/4 of France.
It made Edward renounce his claim to the French crown.
1369, Charles declares war again.





Battle of Agincourt
1415, French were defeated at the Battle of Agincourt.
The English were led by Henry V.
The French were under the command of Charles VI.
Charles did not actually lead the army.
The armies met between two forest in a recently plowed field.
English longbowmen were on each flank.
They were protected with pointed wooded stakes.
They were planted in the groud to protect the archers from cavalry.
French horsemen attacked to early.
They dug up the plowed field and wwere not abble to get past the stakes.
As they retreated, the calvary rode through the advancing French infantry.
The French infantry struggles to get through the muddy field.
The French were massed in a small area.
They were tired from fighting the mud.
The French were slaughtered or taken prisoner.
Second wave French leaders were killed or taken prisoner.
The third wave leader attacked alone, as their soldiers ran away.
Henry ordered all the French prisoners killed when his baggage train in the rear was attacked.
The nobles refused.
The common soldiers executed the prisoners.
The next morning the English killed any wounded French still on the battlefield.
The English lost approximately 450.
The French lost thousands.


1429, much of France was controlled by England.

New Weapons of War
English used a new weapon, the longbow.
The French used the crossbow.
The longbow used steel-tipped arrows and had a greater distance.
At Crecy the English used a very crude cannon.
It was a metal tube on a pole.
1380, cannon mounted on wheels.
The cannon led to the end of the Middle Ages.
Castles ccould not withstand an attack by cannons.
At the battle of Agincourt pilasts.
They were pointed wooden stakes planted in the ground protectes archers from cavalry.



Joan of Arc
1429, the French dauphin was fighting the English for the Freench throne.
Jeanne d' Arc, a French peasant girl, who said "voices of angels" told her to save France.
She told Charles that if she had an army she would free Orleans.
Orleans had been besieged for seven months.
Charles gave her an army, a suit of armor, and a whitelinen banner.

Battle of Orleans
Joan led the attack against the English.
In ten days the city was free.
The Dauphin, with Joan at his side, was crowned King Charles VII of France.
A French traitor captured her and sold her to the English.
She spent a year in jail.
She was tried as a witch, for wearing men's cloths,  and burned at the stake.
She was 18 years old.
She could not read or write.
Twenty-four yaers later she was proclaimed innocent.



End of the War
The French drove the English out of their strongholds.
By 1453, the French drove the English out of France.
England still held the port of Calis until 1558.
The war was over.
A formal treaty was signed in 1475.

Results of the War
1485, Henry Tudor becomes king of England.
By 1500, France was unified.
Common people became more important.
They were needd as workers because so many had died in the wars.
Peasants began to make demands.
They forced the nobles to pay them wages.
They were allowed to move.
They revolted when the nobles tried to force them back.
Most peasants became farmers who rented land from the nobles.

Bibliography
"Battle of Agincourt." Wikepedia On Line Encyclopedia. 14 Dec. 2007. 16 Dec. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt.

"Battle of Cercy." Wikepedia On Line Encyclopedia. 11 Dec. 2007. 14 Dec. 2007.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cr%C3%A9cy.

"Battle of Poiteiers." Wikepedia On Line Encyclopedia. 25 Nov. 2007. 16 Dec. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poitiers_%281356%29.

"Battle of Sluys." Wikepedia On Line Encyclopedia. 17 Nov. 2007. 15 Dec. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sluys.

Greenblatt, Miriam, and Lemmo, Peter. Human Heritage A World History. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill, 2001.

"Hundred Years' War 1337-1343." Nord-Past de Calais. 6 Nov. 2003. 16 Dec. 2007. http://www.theotherside.co.uk/tm-heritage/background/100yearswar.htm.

"ImageAgincourt minature.JPG." Wikepedia On Line Encyclopedia. 24 Dec. 2005. 14 Dec. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Agincourt_miniature.JPG.