He conquered Wales and attempted to use a succession dispute to gain control of the Kingdom of Scotland, though this developed into a costly and drawn-out military campaign. After the disastrous reign of Edward II, which saw military losses and the Great Famine, Edward III reigned from —, restoring royal authority and transforming the Kingdom of England into the most efficient military power in Europe.
His reign saw vital developments in legislature and government—in particular the evolution of the English parliament—as well as the ravages of the Black Death. After defeating, but not subjugating, the Kingdom of Scotland, he declared himself rightful heir to the French throne in , but his claim was denied. These years saw a great deal of battle on the continent, most of it over disputes as to which family line should rightfully be upon the throne of France.
The root causes of the conflict can be found in the demographic, economic, and social crises of 14th-century Europe. The outbreak of war was motivated by a gradual rise in tension between the kings of France and England about Guyenne, Flanders, and Scotland. The dynastic question, which arose due to an interruption of the direct male line of the Capetians, was the official pretext.
The dispute over Guyenne is even more important than the dynastic question in explaining the outbreak of the war. In practical terms, a judgment in Guyenne might be subject to an appeal to the French royal court. The king of France had the power to revoke all legal decisions made by the king of England in Aquitaine, which was unacceptable to the English.
Therefore, sovereignty over Guyenne was a latent conflict between the two monarchies for several generations. The war owes its historical significance to multiple factors. Although primarily a dynastic conflict, the war gave impetus to ideas of French and English nationalism.
By its end, feudal armies had been largely replaced by professional troops, and aristocratic dominance had yielded to a democratization of the manpower and weapons of armies. The wider introduction of weapons and tactics supplanted the feudal armies where heavy cavalry had dominated. The war precipitated the creation of the first standing armies in Western Europe since the time of the Western Roman Empire, composed largely of commoners and thus helping to change their role in warfare.
With respect to the belligerents, English political forces over time came to oppose the costly venture. The dissatisfaction of English nobles, resulting from the loss of their continental landholdings, became a factor leading to the civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses — In France, civil wars, deadly epidemics, famines, and bandit free-companies of mercenaries reduced the population drastically.
Deprived of its continental possessions, England was left with the sense of being an island nation, which profoundly affected its outlook and development for more than years.
Historians commonly divide the war into three phases separated by truces: 1 the Edwardian Era War — ; 2 the Caroline War — ; and 3 the Lancastrian War — , which saw the slow decline of English fortunes after the appearance of Joan of Arc in It was a series of punctuated, separate conflicts waged between the kingdoms of England and France and their various allies for control of the French throne.
He refused, however, to acknowledge his fealty to Philip, who responded by confiscating the duchy of Aquitaine in ; this precipitated war, and soon, in , Edward declared himself king of France. Hostilities were paused in the mids for the deprivations of the Black Death.
Then war continued, and the English were victorious at the Battle of Poitiers , where the French king, John II, was captured and held for ransom. The Truce of Bordeaux was signed in and was followed by two treaties in London in and After the treaties of London failed, Edward launched the Rheims campaign. This peace lasted nine years, until a second phase of hostilities known as the Caroline War began. This truce was extended many times until the war was resumed in It followed a long period of peace from , at end of the Caroline War.
This phase was named after the House of Lancaster, the ruling house of the Kingdom of England, to which Henry V belonged. After the invasion of , Henry V and, after his death, his brother John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, brought the English to the height of their power in France, with an English king crowned in Paris.
This policy and its brutally sophisticated implementation are clear from a letter written in by Sir John Wingfield, who served in the retinue of Edward the Black Prince —76 :. It seems certain that since the war against the French king began, there has never been such destruction in a region as in this raid.
The Black Prince, however, was not content merely to orchestrate and witness the destruction, he wished to determine its exact extent, and so he brought officials such as Wingfield with him to calculate the precise cost to the French treasury.
The psychological cost of this sort of raiding — the fear and insecurity it surely engendered — is more difficult to measure, but as the war drew on in France the ringing of church bells might as easily mean an impending raid as a call to prayer.
The battle of Agincourt began at about 11am on 25 October the feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispian. It had not been a pleasant night: heavy rain had turned the ploughed field between the two armies into something approaching a quagmire. The English and French forces had deployed in the cold before dawn, and hours had passed without either side making any move. Finally, King Henry V r—22 ordered an advance.
But before they moved forward, a fascinating and seemingly extraordinary act took place: each man knelt — archers and men-at-arms alike — kissed the ground, and took a little earth in his mouth.
This collective and yet deeply personal ritual seems to have been sacramental; a ceremony that combined elements of the Eucharist with the burial service. It served as a blessing, a purification, and a preparation for death. Throughout the Anglo-French war, battles had enormous religious and symbolic significance. Not only was victory or defeat an indication of divine judgement, but for many it might bring one decidedly closer to divine judgement of a very personal nature. While chronicle accounts allow us to reconstruct the narrative of the battle of Agincourt with some precision, the size of the opposing forces remains a matter of contention.
Shakespeare would have us believe that in the English were outnumbered at least to-one. Such a number was shaped by dramatic necessity and also by various contemporary and near-contemporary English sources that suggested the French army totalled between 60, and , men. Recent work makes it clear that the Valois army was considerably more modest in size, perhaps 20,—30, troops. And, indeed, in her account of the battle, Anne Curry argues that the French army was smaller still, numbering no more than 12, soldiers.
By comparison, Henry commanded between 6, and 9, soldiers — the anonymous author of the Gesta Henrici Quinti The Deeds of Henry V , who witnessed the battle, suggested he led 5, archers and around 1, men-at-arms although the numbering is not precise.
The French, therefore, outnumbered the English by two to one, but probably no more. Among such developments, the evolution of gunpowder weaponry was particularly significant. That evolutionary process was, however, a slow one. At Agincourt, for example, it appears that French artillery accounted for a solitary English archer during the battle, and in Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, fired cannonballs into the town of Lagny and succeeded only in killing a chicken.
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