1 0 0 Y E A R W A R

That shitty year is over soon and the next one probably wont be any better.

I'm bored to death, so lets have a 100 Year War thread.

I will write down a detailed account of the origins of that conflict and then move to a month by month narrative of the war itself (or rather the beginning, there is no way that I will finish it) with lots of pretty pics straight from Google.

Also, feel free to discuss muh longbows, who was in the right or if the French or Anglos won in the end.

the english won the war due to their use of bren guns that were ideally suited to mowing down french knights in the mud

I will use that 1477 map that is often posted in map threads, its the best for detailed medieval France and its feudal borders. I have changed it a bit to reflect the situation at the beginning of the 100YW

In short, France has been centralizing like hell, but there are still practically independent realms, like the Duchies of Burgund and Brettany, the english Duchy of Guyenne or the County of Flanders.
Other regions like the Dauphine will soon be annexed.
Regions like the Provence, Lorraine or the southern Low Countries are heavily french influenced but still nominally part of the HRE

For the general european situation at the beginning of the 14th century:
In Spain the Reconquista had won, though there is still a vasall Emirate of Granada in the south. Castille is prevented by intern squabbles from assuming a more prominent role as first-rate power. Aragon has been acting as such in the Mediterrean, but now took a backseat for a while; there are still aragonese dynasties ruling in Sardinia, Sicily and Greek.
A series of Holy Roman Emperors tried to reverse the splitting and dissolution of their Empire, but without much success. Its the time of the last german attempts to project imperial power into Italy.
The Low Countries and Italy became industrial powerhouses but are internally split
Hungary has regained its posture after the mongol destruction and slowly is ending its anarchy and going towards a golden age internally, but still has to found their role as european power (similiar to Castille)
Byzanth had regained Constantinoble from the Crusaders, but has sunken to a middle power, clinging to the last towns in Asia Minor and Europe, pressured by Bulgars, Serbs, Albanians and Turks
On the western edge of Anatolia a small turkic tribe called the Ottomans became more agressive.

So lets get started at the very beginning:

>911
Vikings settle on the norman coast, quickly getting assimiliated into France

>1066:
Duke William of Normandy conquered England
The Normans became the new nobility with their french language, government system and court; but the rest of the anglo-saxon society kept their customs and administrative structure.

>1144
The french Count of Anjou married the daughter and heiress of the english king Henry I (son of William the Conqueror)
Its primarily done to get the Normandy for himself.

>1152
Henry, son of the above and now Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, married the Duchess of Aquitania (who actually was betrothed to the french king, who didnt found the whole affair very funny, but couldnt do much against it).
He thus united his own lands in the north and middle of France, with Aquitania/Guyenne in the southwest, a region with french, basque and spanish roots; founding the so called Angevin Empire (after his title of Anjou)

>1153
Henry goes to England, where there is no generally accepted king and secured as grand-son of Henry I the throne for himself as Henry II, establishing the Plantagenet dynasty

He ended the anarchy there and laid the groundwork for the Common Law.

Meanwhile in France the conflict with and the efforts to break apart the Angevin Empire was the foundation of the modern medieval french nation, as the king was pushed to the forefront; the struggle against the Angevins became at the same time one to strenghten the monarchy and reform the nation into a strong feudal state.

>1189
Henry II died, he is followed by his son Richard Lionhart, both defended their realms against all french attempts

>1199
After Richard followed his brother John Lackland (with a nickname like that you know that things wont look too good anymore)

>1204
The french king Phillip II August conquered the Normandy, the whole Angevin Empire is finally breaking down.

>1206
King John recognized the loss of his northern (Normandy) and middle clay (Touraine, Maine, Anjou), leaving him only with the ill defined Aquitania

All the conquered land goes directly into the crown domain.

>1214
Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV -mad that the french supported a rival claimant- allied with King John against France.

While the english invasion force was pushed back, the royal army destroyed the imperial army at the Battle of Bouvines near Lille.

Bouvines spelled the end of the Angevin Empire as well as further fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire.
Both made France the premier european nation.

>1216
The weakened John I had to recognize the Magna Charta, granting various rights to the english lords.
He refused to accept that, leading to civil war.

Phillip August jokingly asked the english lords if they wanted his own son as new king and the madmen actually agreed.

Sadly, later that year John I Lackland died and now the lords actually considered a child king a better alternative and recognized the son of the dead king
Henry III (9) became the fourth Plantagenet king

>1223
Phillip II August died after 43 years of successful rule, his son (the almost english king) became Louis VIII (Louis the Lion), he ruled just for over three years before dieing as well.

During the last years of Phillip August and the reign of Louis the Lion the Albigensian Crusade destroyed the independent structures of southern France (the so called Languedoc), imposing a french prince on them.

>1226
Louis IX (St Louis) became new king.
He is the most successfull of the french medieval kings, leaving during his long rule a prosperous, heavily populated and rich kingdom, that stands far above the rest of europe.

>1241:
St Louis named his brother Alphonso of Toulouse as Count of Poitou.

Poitou was still considered as belonging to the Plantagenet, though not as part of Guyenne.

Henry III declared instantly war, which was mostly fought in the Saintonge, the region between Guyenne and Poitou.
But the English had the problem that they had no way to ship soldiers to the south in large enough numbers and had to fight a war with the local troops, which just didnt work (though the king himself went there)

>1242
At the Battle of Taillebourg Henry III was almost captured by the royal army, ending the short conflict with a clear french victory.

>1253
While St Louis was down in Egypt crusading (and getting raped by the Mameluks), Henry III landed in Bordeaux to pacify Guyenne, which was moving slowly towards independece.

He also agreed with the King of Castile, that the Spanish had no suzerainty over Guyenne.

>1259
To finally resolve all the open questions from the end of the Angevin realm, Louis IX and Henry III sat down in Paris and signed the Paris Treaty.

Henry III recognized the loss of his angevin clay, but was confirmed in his possession of Aquitania as french duke.
Aquitania was described as encompassing beside Gascony, the Saintonge in the north, Perigord and Limoges in the northeast and the Agenais in the east. Most of that is actually part of Languedoc or Poitou, so with no english authority there.

Far from clarifying the situation, the Treaty of Paris was a clusterfuck, with none of the territory actually going to Henry III and him being sovereign King (of england) and vasall of France (as Duke of Guyenne) at the same time.

Pretty much it worked at the moment, because the Plantagenet were still considered a french dynasty, but the more the english identity grew the less worked the agreement.

Why didn't the French went on the Plantagenet side? It would have only expanded their kingdom...

>1270
Louis IX began his attempt to reconquer Northern Africa for the christian faith and almost instantly died on illness; his son and heir almost died as well and his brother Alphonso of Toulouse actually died on the way back.

Phillip III followed as new king, reigning 15 years before dieing as well on illness while trying to annex Aragon.

There is one golden opportunity though in the whole debacle: with Alphonso dead without children, all the Languedoc (southern France) is annexed to the royal domain, extending France for the first time down to the Mediterrean.

It although led to the justified demand of the English to get all the clay they had been promised at Paris and that is now available again.
The French agreed in principle, but said they had to take a good look at the Treaty before.

>1272
Henry III died after ruling 56 years.
He was not exactly a successfull or strong king, but at least better then his predecessor.
His son followed as Edward I (33), but was actually busy in the Holy Land.

>1273
Travelling back to England, Edward I made a stop in Paris and did homage to Phillip III
He recognized the reality, that Limoges and Perigord were independent, but vehemently demanded the Agenais and Saintonge.
It took a whole 7 years until the French finally gave the Agenais to the English.

>1283
Edward I fully conquered Wales and annexed it to England.

>1285
Philip the Fair followed as french king.
He became the third of the big three french kings after Phillip Augustus and Saint Louis.

He ruled with a iron hand, raising massive taxes and suppressed all opposition, but at the same time build a highly centralized state with a "modern" bureaucracy, took over german lands on the border of the Holy Roman Empire and subdued the church

He also finally gave Saintonge to the English after they had kept whining for 15 years about it.

Not exactly sure what you mean.
The Plantagenet were a french noble dynasty. Maybe if they had further grown or won the conflict with the french king then maybe they would have been one day the new kings of France, but they lost.

>1292
Scotland had no accepted king and threatened to descend into civil war, so Edward I was nominated to arbitrate and nominated John Balliol as weak ruler, which made him almost an english vasall.

>1293
Gascon and norman traders had first fought a merchant war, that soon escalated into naval clashes.

The french parliament demanded that the gascon governeurs and officials should appear to justify their behaviour.
The English refused as that would practically mean that the french institutions had judicial power over the Duchy of Guyenne.

>1294
Phillip the Fair summoned Edward I as his vasall, who refused

The Parliament of Paris declared as answer the ducal title of Guyenne as forfeited and a french army marched into the Duchy, taking it over without oppossition.

Only half a year later an english fleet appeared, securing again the second city of Bayonne but failed at the capital of Bordeaux.

>1295
English opposition in Guyenne, apart from Bayonne, is crushed by Charles of Valois, the brother of the King.

>1296
Edward I is mad, that the Scotish did not help him in his conflict with France and got the reply that they saw no reason to fight somewhere in southern France when they had more then enough problems at home.

Edward I considered the answer, then invaded Scotland, captured his puppet king Balliol and practically annexed it to England.

Meanwhile in France, King Phillip the Fair was also increasingly annoyed by Flanders being neutral in the war despite being a french fief on paper.

Just like his english counterpart he saw this as great opportunity and summoned Count Guy of Flanders to Paris, and when he refused took it over.

Flanders was probably the most industrialized area in Europ.
But they also depended on english wool and thus would never openly fight against them, no matter how bad the English are losing.
Also, the powerful towns resented their duke and intrigued to come under direct french royal power to have a distant king as overlord instead (you know, someone famous for centralized rule and heavy taxation, the whole masterplan was not really well thought out)

The flemish approach to England was not tolerated; Phillip IV summoned the Duke and took the principal cities under royal protection

>1297
Charles of Valois marched from Gascony into Flanders and occupied the County.

In Octobre a truce between Flanders, France and England was brokered by the Pope.


Meanwhile things turned south really fast in Scotland: The major english army of 9k had marched in to defend scottish rebels but had to fight a battle at Stirling Bridge, the english cav proved ineffecitve on the boggy ground and soon the fucking bridge itself collapsed.

Having lost in the battle and wild flight afterwards nearly 6k man, the english rule in Scottland broke down.

Damn, its still 40 years until the 100YW starts.

>1298
King Edward I was almost captured, when the people of Ghent rose up against him, he fled Flanders back to England, only to get news how bad his commanders fucked up in Scotland.

>1301
Edward I launched another two-pronged campaign into Scotland, the Scots refused to offer battle.
In the next years he tried to get the country under control again.

>1302
>May
The flemish cities are dismayed about the new taxation, in a fresh rebellion every Frenchman in Bruges was killed; apart from Ghent all the flemish cities rose up

>June
The french army marched into Flanders to supress the uprising; with 8k troops and much of them elite heavy cav it was even more powerful then the armies that had initially taken Flanders and Guyenne.

Near the town of Kortrijk the flemish rebels had placed their army in a great defensive situation, protected by marshes.
The french heavy cav was repulsed with huge casualties and finally broke down, when most of the nobles and commanders had been killed. 1k elite knights died against a bunch of city militias.

The Battle of the Golden Spurs fully liberated Flanders and shocked France. But it was seen as a freak incident, something that would never happen a second time and there was never any serious thought about the benefit of throwing cavalry against rested, well-placed pike infantry.

>Winter
Bordeaux rose up and kicked out its french garrision.

>1303
>May
France and England ended their conflict in nominally white peace: Gascony was restored to Edward I and Philips daughter Isabella of Valois married the english heir.
In reality the French kept the Saintonge (that had only recently been given to the English) for themselfs.

>Oktober
In conflict over the centralization of the french church, the Pope had excommunicated Philip the Fair.
A french army was send to Italy, allied with papal enemies and slapped the Pope right in the face, who died from humiliation.

>1304:
New french armies were fighting in Flanders, they secured the southern french speaking regions, but not the actually important towns (Ghent, Bruges, Ypres)

>1305
>June
The flemish conflict is ended.
The independence of Flanders is acknowledged (still as a french fief), but they had to cede southern Walloon Flanders (with Douai and Lille).
The French declared it as victory, but the fact that they were stopped from full annexation by militia still hurt.

Meanwhile a new Pope is elected as Clement V, who apologized to Philip the Fair for the previous Pope having accidently situated himself in the way of that hand movement; and that of course its completely normal for the french church to be cucked by the state.

>August
William Wallace (the guy from Braveheart) is captured and executed, it is seen as end of the scottish struggle for independence, but it flared up yet again next year.

>1307
Edward I (68) died.
He had been a martial and somewhat successful king, who also enacted many judical and parliamentary reforms, but in the end he failed in the question of Guyenne, and with his death the scottish situation once again broke down.
He got Wales at least.

His son Edward II inherited the ongoing scottish war and an empty treasury, he soon also broke apart with the leading english nobles and it didnt help that he was very 'close' to his royal favourites.

>1308
Edward II travelled to France to finalise the peace treaty, get his french wife and give homage for the Duchy of Guyenne.

Sadly, he made a poor impression on Philip the Fair, who contrasted him negatively to his more royal father.

>1309
Clement V moved the papal court from Rome to Avignon

>1310
Castille conquered Gibraltar from the Muslims.

French troops marched into the Free Imperial City of Lyon.
Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich VII broke all contacts with the french court and declared them worst enemies ever of the Germans. The French kept Lyon though, its a nice city.

>1314:
>March
To get more money the Knight Templars were persecuted in France (then playing essentially the role of the Jews).
In a highly controversial move the last Templars leaders were now burned on the stage; with their last breath they cried a curse upon the french monarchy, the king and his successors and the shitty pope.

>April
Avignon Pope Clement V died in torment of a disease, a month later the First Minister (who had humiliated the last Pope).
The jokes about the Templar curse suddenly died out.

>May
Practically all english castles in Scotland had fallen and Stirling was besieged by rebel leader Robert the Bruce.

Edward II finally got off his arse and led the united strenght of the english monarchy north.
In the Battle of Bannckburn, the initial struggle over the crossing of the stream was won by the English, but next day they were suddenly attacked by the scottish army; the Anglos were too packed, their cavalry ineffective and their archers could at so close quarters not be employed.
The scottish spearman crushed the army, inflicting on of the heaviest defeat in english history.

It was the final blow against english attempts to hold Scotland and it destroyed every little bit of popular support that King Edward II ever had.
In contrast to the french experience in Flanders though the English actually studied the battle and tried to learn from their mistakes and what went wrong.

The Black Prince was badass as hell, if he inherited the throne, there would be no French

good thread

>November:
Philip IV suffered a cerebral stroke during a hunt and died a few weeks later-
His reign marked the transition from a charismatic monarchy -which could all but collapse in an incompetent reign- to a more bureaucratic one; at the same time the country was broke and his death was seen by many as liberation from oppression by the state.

Philip had three healthy kids though, so no problems.
The oldest became Louis X (25), he was a nonentity but had the good habit to listen to all the competent advisers of his father.

>1315
A mini ice age erupted in europe, together with the rapidely growing population in northern europe, it leads to starvation in England, France and Germany.

>1316
>Juni: after an exhausting tennis match, Louis X drank too much cool wine and suffered pneumonia, from which he died after one and a half years of rule.

This raised in question one of the greatest feats of the french monarchy, the so-called Wonder of the House Capet. Every single french king was always followed by his son, century after century. Most dynasties never managed to do this for more then a single century

Louis X had just a daughter, but his wife was pregnant.

While everyone was holding their breath, behind the scenes there was a power struggle between the leading noble Charles of Valois (brother of Philip the Fair) and Prince Philip, brother of the now dead king and next in line without any male heirs of Louis X. The later actually won the struggle.

>August
After far over two years without a Pope, the french succeeded in pushing through another one.
While he proved pretty competent he fulfilled the worst fears of the church by staying in Avignon

>November
The kid of the late Queen is born and its a .....
.
.
.
.
son.

SO MUCH FOR THE CURSE
GET FUCKED TEMPLARS

t-t-thanks, user.
there will be a short break, i intend to go until the start of the war and then lets see how far.

Actually, the problem was at that stage not a military one for the English, but rather that France was that much more populous, richer and centralized.

The Black Prince was a good military leader, but a pretty bad politician, so no, I really cant see any way that the English would have fared better if he had survived longer and hadnt fallen ill

Yeah, great thread m8

Damn, that took longer then expected,
Lets continue that stuff until the beginning of the war.

>November

After five days the newborn king dies already.
Well, damn. You cant beat dem templars.

The Miracle of Capet might have ended, but at least the competent brother of the dead king follows as Philip V (24)

>1319
The Scots had captured the important border fortress of Berwick, against which now a large english army under the king marched.

The Scots responded by launching raids deep into England, at which the Englich had to raise the siege of Berwick in humiliation.

>1320
Away from shitty Scotland and rebellious english lords, Edward visited beautiful France and did homage to Philip V.

He still raised his objections about the Saintonge, that the French have kept since the last war; and about him having to do liege homage personally and especially what he saw as an infiltration of french judicial institutions into Guyenne.

>1321

The scotish desasters and famine led to open civil war in England against the royal party and his favourites.

>1322
>Januar
Having fallen ill the previous summer, Philip V died of dysentery, he had ruled just for five year.

Thus the last of the three sons of Philip the Fair followed as Charles IV (27)
The new king stopped many of Philips reforms and went a more conservative way. His uncle Charles of Valois gained practically full power.

>Mai
The rebellion in England was crushed; for the first time Edward II emerged victorious.
Through fines and seizures of the rebels he also grew rich.

>1323

The french judical system sent a clerk to the small village of St-Sardos in Aquitania to press for a specific case.
The inhabitants told him to fuck off and on the response of him declaring himself responsible for the village, he was lynched.

The Senechal of Gascony was summoned to Paris to explain himself, when he didnt come it led once again to diplomatic crisis.

>1324:
>April
An english embessy was send to deescalate the St-Sardos crisis, but it stuck on the question of how much influence and political and judicial power the french crown can claim in Aquitania.

The english king Edward II, fresh from his domestic victories, went for a hard line to not tolerate any more encroachment

>August
Its the old story once again: Charles IV declared the Duchy of Guyenne as forfeited and sent an army under Charles of Valois down there.

The royal forces entered the Agenais (where St-Sardos is located) and took the whole region.
It was even more helped when the great lords of the southeast, Foix and Albret, declared for the french side.

>September
The only english field force had fortified themselfs in the fortress of La Reole on the Agenais border; but it was taken as well by storm, ending all english resistance.

Good thread OP. Keep it up

>1325:
>Summer

The english Queen Isabella of France travelled to Paris to negotiate a peace in the St Sardos War.

The short conflict had in contrast to previous ones raised deep english feelings and a sense of english nationalism. This led to violence against any french people living on the island, among them the queen.

Isabella was also disgusted by her husband and his close ""friendship""" with his male favourites, so she was relieved to leave the hostile atmosphere of the court.

Lastly, as the sister of the three french kings, she was hoped to reach more lenient peace terms.

The French were willing to restore the Duchy of Guyenne, but wanted to keep the Agenais. The Anglos were glad to have the Duchy back and would accept these terms, but Isabella still pokered high by demanding the Agenais.

>September
Prince Edward, the son of the king, was given the Duchy of Guyenne from his father and then travelled to his mother in Paris to do homage to the french king (so Edward II didnt had to do it a third time)

With this the conflict ended, but still with the question of the Agenais open, which both sides wanted to examine closer in the near future.

>Winter
While concluding the peace, Isabella met the exiled Marsh Lord Mortimer and started an affair with him.
Both raised the possibility of a new noble rebellion against Edward II, especially with Prince Edward in their hands.

>December
Charles of Valois, the leading french noble, died.

>1326
>August
Queen Isabella married her son Edward to the daughter of the Count of Hainaut who gave as dowry his massive transport fleet of 123 boats
(Hainaut is a landlocked county, how does that work?)

>September
Queen Isabella sailed to England, where she openly rebelled against her husband.
Instantly many lords, including the half-brothers of the King, and the high clergy rallied to her

>November
Edward II had to flee his own wife from London, but he was soon betrayed and captured,

All his favourites were brutally executed and the king forced to abdict for his son Prince Edward, who became King Edward III (14)
Real power was by Isabella and her lover Mortimer, so in the end it was not much of an improvement.

>1327
>July
All efforts of the new english regime were focused on raising a new army for a new scottish campaign.
A scottish army itself penetrated deep into northern England, almost reaching the royal camp.

In the end another truce was agreed upon, but it became clear for the english elite, that Scotland could not be conquered anymore and they began to negotiate for a definite peace.

>September:
The imprisoned Edward II died suddenly on, uh, ""natural"" causes.
He had been king for 20 years, weak and hated though many of the problems were not of his own doing and continued on, but he was remembered for disastrous losses against the Scots, a lost war in Guyenne and being cucked by his own wife.

>1328
>February
Surprisingly King Charles IV died after ruling six years as well.
Thus in 14 years the healthy Philip the Fair and all his three sons have died in turns. (really, dont fuck with the Templars)

This led to the question of royal succession.
Philip the Fair and all his male sons are now dead, but he had two brothers (Charles of Valois and Louis of Evreux), both dead as well but both also with male sons.

With Valois being the elder brother, his son (and cousin of the three previous kings) Philip of Valois (35) inherited the french throne as Philip VI

He himself was like his father a quite noble without much ambition, so he was pretty surprised and unprepared to get the royal title.
He was not a bad person, but really unsecure of himself and his new dynasty and not familiar with the inner workings of the french state. If he had time and a peaceful reign he might grow into his role (spoiler: he will have none of that)

Philip the Fair had also gotten the throne of the small pyrenaen kingdom of Navarre for himself and his three sons had inherited this royal title.
With all of them dead, it went to his granddaughter, who was now married to Philip of Evreux. So he might have lost the french crown but at least can call himself King as well.

It was at that point, when everything seemed nicely settled, that Queen Isabella raised her objection:
Wait, its true that all the sons of Philip the Fair have died and none had male issue, but there is still a male descendant of him alive: Edward III, her own son and Philip the Fairs grandson.

The issue was quickly brushed aside in Paris, because they specified that their own version of Salic Law forbids inheritance of royal title through females, so yeah, bad luck.

None took Isabellas claim seriously and she herself let it rest as well, but this was exactly the issue on which the english kings would claim the french throne throughout the 100YW and more then 300 years thereafter.

Meh, that was a bit clumsily written, but the picture should make the two succession claims pretty clear. Hopefully...

>March
The Treaty of Edinburgh ended 32 years of english attempts to conquer and subdue Scotland.
Scottish independence under King Robert I is recognized with the same borders as before.

>Summer
The previous Count of Flanders was succeeded by his grandson Louis, who was born and raised in France and thus suspiciously eyed at home.
Early in his reign he already lost the country overrun by rebels, who wanted someone else instead.

Philip VI as new king saw this as a good opportunity to assert himself and fielded a large army of 14k

The flemish rebel army attacked the french army at the Battle of Cassel, destroying the center and killing the Duke of Lorraine and heavily wounded the Dukes of Burgund and Brittany, but were hit in the flank and once their lines broke, the heavy french cav finished them off.

The rebellion is crushed, french arms reign supreme, cavalry is the queen of the battlefield again, everything is fine.


>1329
>June
Robert the Bruce died (54) after having secured his realm last year, his son David (5) followed as King of Scotland

At the same time there had been heavy pressure on Edward III to come to France and do homage, which he wanted to refuse until the French gave back Agenais (and maybe Saintonge)
In the end he had no choice really.

>1330
>Oktober
Returning from France, Edward III found the whole country pissed off at the regime of his mother.

He acted instantly and organized a coup, arrested the favourite of Isabella and had her herself placed under house arrest.
She would still be rich as fuck, but just without any political influence.

Edward III now gained full control over his kingdom, reforming it, raising nobles to new titles and training longbow archers for the things to come

>1332
The scottish peace had disinherited many english lords who had held land and titles there.
They had gotten their hands on Edward Balliol, son of the scottish noble with whom all the shit had started some four decades ago (and who was happily living in exile somewhere on englands green hills), and raised him as rightful scottish king

Balliol with his english army landed in northern Scotland and defeated the royal scottish army, though their position collapsed swiftly soon after

Having followed all that, Edward III with a heavy heart gave Balliol his backing, thus returning to war against Scotland, though that policy obviously had not universal appeal in England.

>1333
>July
Edwards III main objective in the whole scottish mess was initially to get the important border fortresses, so he besieged Berwick, the strongest of them.

The Scots, somewhat unsure after the battle loss last year, still were anxious to inflict as much harm as possible to end the war as soon as possible.
They raised the largest army in their history (13k)

The English had the better cards: They placed themselfs on Halidon Hill in front of Berwick and waited for the Scots to make their move.
The scottish army had either to attack a strong defensive position or let Berwick fall.

In the end they charged with all their power uphill and were completely and utterly raped by hails of longbow arrows, and whoever reached the crest had no chance to break the english lances.
When they stopped the charges and began to retreat, the English attacked in turn, wiping the scottish army out.

>1334
The scottish child king David II had fled into exile in France, with Balliol recognized against strong opposition as king.

The new one made immediately clear where his loyalty lies, when he swore fealty to Edward III (making Scotland a vasal) and ceding in the Treaty of Newcastle all of Lothrian including Edinburgh and all border castles to him.

Somehow, the gamble of Edward III to renew the war had played out better then everyone could have hoped.

Still, the French were livid, they strongly condemned the english agression and demanded to let the rightful king back. The English at the same time raised the question of all the shit the Frogs were doing in Flanders.

Diplomatic relations froze between the two

>1335

While Edward III wanted an end of the liege relationship and both he and Philip VI accused each other of being bloody oppressors and trampling any law and honour in Flanders/Scotland, another issue rose to the front.

This is actually about complex inheritancestuff. To make it short, at the beginning of the century the Count of Artois had died (in the Golden Spur battle against the Flemish), but Artois did not went to his grandson [Robert of Artois], but his daughter, who in turn married her daughters to royal children (the whole thing was designed to integrate Artois into the royal domain).
It didnt worked out with all the Kings dieing all the time and Artois finally found its way to Burgund and later Flanders. But thats not the problem.
Robert of Artois had still demanded his right to the county but faked documents, apparantly pretty badly, and had to flee to London.

The french king now protested, not simply because Edward III had given exile to him, but rather that he as french vassal was not allowed to give exile to individuals prosecuted by french law.

Edward III pointed out that the guy is living in England, uneffected by french law.
The French responded that he was still Duke of Guyenne and even acting as english king he was accountable to french law as Duke.

Obviously thats pretty much bullshit and Edward III made this really clear.
Renewed war between the two became ever more realistic.

>1336
>July:
France threatened to directly intervene in Scotland and land an army there to free the country.

While its galley fleet mobilized, Edward III acted first and marched into northern Scotland, where he burned down Aberdeen, the planned landing place

>December
Philip VI officially demanded that Edward III extradite Robert of Artois.
The Parlament of Paris confirmed that if he doesnt do it, he would violate his feudal obligations, giving the king a free hand to once again seize Aquitania.

Edward III himself planned for war, building alliances in Germany, forming a fleet and recruiting his army.

>1337
>May
Aquitania/Guyenne is declared forfeited

As answer Edward III raised his claim to the french throne anew, declaring war.

Thus the Hundred Years War officially started

OP here, thats it; i thought it would be faster.

If the thread survives for 12 hours or so, I will continue tomorrow with the first years of the war up to Crecy and the norman civil war; maybe if it goes well up to Poitiers

Damn you really know your shit my dude, props

the good guys won

great thread

>Henry goes to England, where there is no generally accepted king and secured as grand-son of Henry I the throne for himself as Henry II

My only point of contention in your otherwise excellent thread. Henry II had already been promised the Anglo-Norman throne. The agreement between Matilda (Henry II's mother) & Stephen (a distant cousin who claimed the throne as the closest non-grill relative of Henry I) specified that Henry II would inherit the throne on the death of Stephen, which happened quickly

ive never lurked so hard in a thread
keep it up!

what books would you rec user?

Please, more!

MOAR

Good thread, great content.

Great work man, we are gonna bump this thread until you get back

I meant, why did they fight for the French kingdom when they could have fought for the Plantagenet empire ?

>1144
>The french Count of Anjou married the daughter and heiress of the english king Henry I
The date is wrong, the marriage occured in 1128. Future Henry II was already alive during his grandfather's reign.

detailed medieval maps always make me want to throw up

Thanks guys for having that thread bumped.

Now have the real war starting. But what I wanted to show with all that stuff before is, that its really just another episode in a conflict thats going on for a long time. There was little indications, that now something larger and far far longer would start, besides a new still insecure dynasty (or rather a branch of the old dynasty) on the french throne and a militarily improving english side.

1144 was when he got the Normandy, so yeah, it was wrongly written by me.
I really have just passing knowledge about the time; i just wanted to swiftly state how the Angevin Empire was formed.

I'm still not entirely sure what you mean with "them". The population? Who gives a shit about them, its the High Middle Ages, these are mostly peasants.
And for the nobles you need legitimacy and there is only one clear sovereign already there, so you cant just decide to go for another king.
Lastly, it was not a case of supporting a powerful noble to weaken a king, because the french king at that time was super weak himself.

Also, England was not really seen as anything impressive. Sure, might be nice to get a large island, but there is nothing of worth there. London had grown in recent times, but is still the size of a french city like Amiens or Bruges and four times smaller then Paris. Bristol might be the second largest english city and its the size of a middle-large french city, which there are dozens.

Jonathan Sumption.
He wrote the ultimative account, you cant get more detailed. And at the same time its very easily readable and really covers every aspect, every military move, every small intrigue.
The downside is its size (four very large books) and that the last volume is actually just being written, so for now it stops with the death of henry v in 1422

Okay, now for the war.
(I see I have still not posted any pics of the two main guys, Edward III and Philip VI, so lets change that)

Edward III knew from all the last Guyenne conflicts, that its impossible to fight in the Duchy effectively, and he also saw as only real alternative the attempt that his grandfather had done in the 1290s, to fight the French in the north and pray that the Duchy might hold out long enough.

The attempts of alliance building of Edward I had failed back then, but Edward III worked with more money and better arguments.
In principle he build a block with imperial support of all the Low Country statelets minus Flanders (Hainaut, Brabant, Holland, Liege, Julich, Guelders) and with the HRR itself, financed by english money.
The plan is to engage and defeat the French in the Low Countries
.
The HRR wanted to stop France from gobbling up imperial clay
The allies wanted to stop growing french influence in the region
England wanted to exchange their virtual "right" to the french throne against full sovereignity of Guyenne (and depending how well the war went, getting Agenais and Saintonge back)

The French in turn did not really worry much.
Guyenne could be overrun like always. The HRR was a becoming a joke, who gives a fuck about them. And a bunch of Belgians and Anglos should not be hard to defeat.

Its not really clear what their war aims where though. Would they restore the Duchy back to the English like all the 3 or 4 times before? Just minus new territory annexed? Would they give the Duchy to someone else (which would be pointless) or keep them for themself and annex it to the royal domain?
Philip VI probably didnt really know either.

Oh, there is also the problem of Flanders, which -economical closely linked to England and ruled by very pro-french Count- turned neutral.
This was not acceptable for the Anglos, who needed their financial power and would want to operate from Flanders, so they triggered a boycott of flamish goods and blockaded the county since last year.
It was also not acceptable for the French, who fought there all the time and were now content with having a super pro-french count, so at least he should be openly on their side.

>1337
>July:
French armies opened the war with a campaign in the south, securing the left-over places in the Agenais and then moving upstream from their key fortress of La Reole (captured in the last war) to the next key fortress of St-Macaire, which they couldnt capture though.

>August:
The HRE openly allied with England against the French, promising money and troops.

>December:
Faced with a ruinous english boycott, the Big Three cities of Flanders (Ghent, Ypres and Bruges) revolted.
The patrician Jacop von Artevelde took over Ghent from the Count and the other two cities allied with him. There was on paper still flemish neutrality, but it became clear that it would turn in praxis pro-anglo.

>1338
>March
For the first time since all the Guyenne conflicts, the French employed a naval component, by directly targeting the english coast.

Portsmouth is burned down.

>June
To not make matters worse in Flanders, despite the King himself being very much against it, for the time being France had to acknowledge flemish neutrality and hoped for the Count Louis himself to sort out his realm soon

>July
Edward III landed in Antwero with an army of 4,5k, while his allies would field another 7k

The Bishop of Cambrai had declared as only ruler in the Low Countries pro-french, while the independent city of Tournai was under french sovereignity.
So both, Cambrai and Tournai were primary targets of any first campaign

>August
King Phillip VI fielded his army on the Somme in Amiens.

>September
The Imperial Diet (Reichstag) opened in Coblenz, with all german rulers there and Edward III coming over.

Emperor Ludwig IV here named Edward as Imperial Vicar for Gaul (actually a made up title) and declared the struggle as a fight to protect imperial borders.

Its all nice, but pledges of money and troops would have been better.

>October
Reinforced by genuese galley fleets that have been bought, the French made an unhindered naval campaign against the english coasts in the coming months:
Southampton is captured and destroyed in a major shock to the English; Plymouth and Hastings burned down.

>1339
>April
Over the winter the armies in the south had risen even further.
With campaign season opening, the French employed 12k among multiple frontlines around Guyenne.

A further triumph happened, when a galley fleet returning from raiding the Channel Islands, lands north of the Gironde Estuary (the big bay seen on the maps on the northern end of the Duchy) and takes the key fortresses/towns of Bourg and Blaye

>July
The southern Count of Foix united many of the smaller armies on the Garonne and marched on Bordeaux.

From Bourg a second army went over the Girone Estuary and appeared in front of the city from the northeast.

English defenses were hardly there, and the french storm brought them right into the city, but in the end they were pushed out again.

That was actually pretty bad, because the French had hoped to take the city on their first attempt and there were no supplies or money for any real siege.
So Bordeaux was safed for the time being.

Naturally, Edward III still had to answer some serious questions about his strategy.
Guyenne was almost overrun, the scottish situation didnt looked much better (the seat of his client king Balliol in Perth had fallen to scottish loyalists), the financial burden became ever more heavy for the English, their coast was raided with impunity and unless he finally began to act up in the north the whole war would be just as swiftly over as all the previous ones.

>August
The french treasury was also not bottomless and the war as good as over.
So they kindly asked the Genuese to fight without pay for a bit and next year they would get half the money. Maybe.

The Genuese surprisingly told Philip VI to fuck himself and left.
This practically removed 2/3 of the french naval strenght, and the well-trained and equipped thirds.

>September
Finally the anglo-allied armies in the north were ready.
They had assembled 13k in Hainault and now marched into the pro-french Bishopric of Cambrai.

The problem was, that just like down in the south noone was ready for a siege and just hoped the city would capitulate on its own. It didnt.

>October
Unable to do anything in front of Cambrai but finally with a fine army under his command, Edward III went south and crossed into France, advancing to the Somme.

It was a fun time. Picardy is lovely, there are endless villages to loot, cute grills to rape, everyone was rich as fuck.

When they crossed back over the Somme to return to Hainault, the french army finally began to move. It had previously waited in St Quentin to hit the retreating Anglos in the rear.

At the town of La Chapelle the English stopped and placed their army on a gentle hill, with their flanks and back protected. It was the formula of Halidon Hill

(...continued)

(....continued)

The french army, larger and with far more cav, had doubts about attacking frontally, or better the king had doubts, while the commanders wanted to storm head-on.
In the end the risk was too much and Philip VI ordered his army to retreat. This was very much resented by the nobility and army commanders; they murmured that a true king of France would never have hesitated.
The burning fields of the Somme valley probably didnt make it much better.


The whole expedition became the prototype of a new english strategy, called Chevauchee. It was essentially a massive plunder campaign, designed to do as much harm as possible, to kill peasants, burn down crops and villages and loot the shit out of everyone.
Its main objective, besides loot and destruction, was the humiliation of a supposedly all-powerfull monarch.

(Compare that to a hypothetical american-mexican war where the frontlines somehow have stalled. If mexican troops could cross into Texas and plunder the shit out of them, they didnt need to capture anything and still the situation would be deemed unacceptable in America)

>November
The Flemish had contemplated joining the war to regain the southern Walloon Flanders region that had been lost at the beginning of the century.
But with the Cambrai campaign having failed, they remained neutral, just made anglo-flemish and braband-flemish defensive alliances.

Its still not acceptable by the Count and with no way to push back the urban revolutionaries he fled to France into exile.

>Winter
The southern lord of Albret (who ruled all the areas between Bordeaux and Bayonne) turned back pro-english; while the two other major lords, Armagnac and Foix, battled each other (the two lords themselfs were actually in the north in the royal army) over some pyrenaen valleys.

>1340
>Januar:
To press his claims further, Edward III was officially crowned as King of France in Ghent.

The French were not happy: all flemish good were boycotted and the Avignon Pope placed Flanders under interdict.
_

At the same time the english ships hit back, raiding Boulogne, where they burned the french galley fleet and the whole town with them.
Still, much of the french naval effort was concentrated on the flemish port of Sluys (under noble control) where a massive invasion fleet against England was growing each day.

>April
The anglo-allied armies opened their second campaign, but it was ill coordinated.
The English were worried about Sluys and hardly participated; a flemish army marched into Walloon Flanders but was repulsed before it even reached Lille, the Hainault army just plundered shit in the east; a second flemish army went to the main goal of the Low Country lords at Tournai but everyone lost interest half-way.

>May
The most important english ally to this day had been the Count of Hainault (Edward had married a Hainault princess, he was thus the brother-in-law of the Count; btw a sister of her had married the Emperor, not bad for a small state like Hainault)

The French (10k) started their campaign into Hainault, soon joined by the defensive army from Tournai, that had nothing better to do, against the town of Valenciennes.
The whole thing didnt fared much better then the anglo-allies the month before: The french troops were ill coordinated and easily pushed back, and partially resolved soon after, the rest returned to Cambrai and Tournai that summer.


>June

The English had no real navy, but had to confiscate trade cogs. They did that on a massive scale and fortified the ships a bit, then filled them with archers.

The whole fleet (120 ships) then sailed straight to Sluys to destroy the invasion fleet.

The operation went far better then expected.
The french, castilian and genuese ships (up to 200) had been gathering in peace and were not prepared to be attacked, but still filled with troops. They were unable to manoeuvre and presented only parts against the impact of the whole english fleet.
Lastly the wind was exactly right, the English could just easily engage ship after ship, swiping them clear with their archers, land their man-at-arms when neccessary and then went on to the next.

The results were impressive: pretty much the whole fleet was destroyed with massive casualties
(actually, Wikipedia but also many books give 16-18k, stating the main contemporary source, but that seems overblown, even if you count a lot of sailors and non-combat staff among them)

That fucking hurts.

Keep going user, this is the best Veeky Forums thread in weeks.

this is literally the best thread I've seen in this board

>July:
Fresh from the failure of the french Valencienes campaign and the disaster at Sluys, finally the anglo-allied army could get shit done.

A two-pronged assault unfolded: Edward III would bring the main armies (30k) before Tournai to finally capture it.
Robert of Artois (the guy who started the whole bussiness) would lead a small english army with a large flemish troops (15k) to free his Artois.

In Artois operated the Duke of Bugundy, who would inherit the county, and the Count of Armagnac with a heavy cav force of 3k, they instantly went to St Omer, which would be the first target of Robert.

Robert truely went there, and would have besieged the town, but he heard that the main royal army was also coming his way, so he offered battle.
In the Battle of St Omer Armagnac defeated the left wing of Robert and then followed the retreating flemish masses, while Robert with his english troops won on the right against Burgundy. When night fell Robert of Artois considered himself the clear winner, until he found out in horror that Armagnac had wiped out the whole retreating Flemish, killing some 8k and pretty much annihilating the army.


>September
With the Artois not threatened anymore, Philip VI could go to Tournai, which was besieged in vain by the Anglo-Allies. There were 6k french troops inside the city, which was pretty much unassailable now.

For a moment it looked liked Philip VI might attack the enemy at Tournai, maybe it would have been the right decision if the Tournai garrision would fallen into the back of the exhausted English, but in the end like always he hesitated.

On the next day the english (Counts of Braband, Hainault, Julich, Duke of Guelders) met the French (Count of Flanders and Armagnac, King of Bohemia) and agreed to a 9 month truce across all battlefronts.

>The kid of the late Queen is born and its a
I'll admit, you had me on tenterhooks here

I like this war, I like this bread. Nice work, op.

>Jonathan Sumption
It only starts from 1329 though

Okay, lets continue.
Luckily the Low Countries bullshit is over, so its easier to follow. Sadly, the breton bullshit now begins.

Yes, and then the asshole just dies. If he survived the English would have no claim and there would be no war. But as a newborn king that would mean a long regency council, who knews how well that would go. The premier french nobles of the last decades were all friendly towards their king, while the ones from the end of the century would use a weak king to absolutely destroy the country.

So, there is a truce and a time to reflect for the English.
The war had been going on for close to 3 years, Guyenne was as hard to defend as everyone feared, the french king was unexpectedly hesistant to wage a major battle, and Sluys had been an awesome success.

At the same time, the Germans were absolute dissappointing, far from getting their shit together again they rather further transformed into the famous > > >
The Low Country Alliance was also not producing any results at all.

The whole thing had just devoured massive amounts of money without any greater benefits.
England itself was in the autumn bankrupt, leading to the collapse of the largest florentine banks (the main creditors of Edward)

At the same time Scotland was collapsing.

Still, its hard to stop now and France was obviously not interested in any white peace.

Yes, thats where the crisis started that led to the beginning of the 100YW
He still writes about the prelude

>November:
With insufficient funding to continue, Edward III returned surprisinly home and purged the royal administration of a great number of ministers and judges.

This led to a standoff with parliament during the winter.
In the end Edward accepted severe limitations to his financial and administrative freedom, in return for a grant of taxation.

>1341
>March: Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV doesnt care anymore and ended all contacts with the English.
Both France and the HRE restored all diplomatic links

>April
The Duke of Brittany died without sons, ushering into a succession crisis.
Noone really cared outside Brittany at the moment, but that would soon change.

The issue is between two breton noble houses, the Montfort and Blois.
John of Montfort was a halfbrother of the dead Duke, but had explicitely excluded from succession. In his last days the Duke decided the other way and recognized him as successor.

This was not accepted by the breton nobility, who declared the closest kin, the daughter of a brother of the dead Duke, as Duchess of Brittany, married to Charles of Blois

Montfort knew he had little chance unless he acted fast and took over the main breton city of Nantes and the capital Rennes.
________________

At the same time far north, scottish royalists took heavily defended Edinburgh by surprise, reducing english presence to the border fortresses and isolated Sterling Castle.

At these news the king David II returned out of french exile to Scotland, but real power lay with the scottish nobles and commanders.

Many thanks user, and merry christmas

>June
The King of Majorca (an aragonese prince) took a page from the English and declared full sovereignity over the french town of Montpellier, that he ruled as fief.

Sadly for him, he doesnt seem to have realized that there is a small difference between the Kingdom of England and the mighty Kingdom of Majorca.

Montpellier was taken by french troops and annexed; Majorca was abandoned by their big brothers in Aragon and in the next two years annexed by the aragonese kings.

>November
The french army (nominally under the Prince John, real command is by Burgundy) intervened in Brittany on the rightful Blois side, defeating a small Montfort army and taking Nantes after a short siege.

Montfort himself went to Paris to plead his case, but was just thrown in prison.

>1342
>March
After a long siege the last english fortress in Scottland, Stirling Castle, surrendered to David II

>May
Rennes was retaken by Blois troops and the Montfort cause is practically finished, though they still were holding some possessions on the northern coast, among them Brest.

Embessies were send to England, pointing out the close trade links of the breton merchants and requesting help.

>August
Hainault and Brabant left the english alliance and concluded a seperate truce with France.
They would keep out of the war, unless french armies entered Flanders.

>August
Brest was besieged by land and sea, when suddenly an english fleet under the Earl of Northampton appeared, brushed aside the genuese blokade ships and landed a small army.

The Blois army retreated from Brest.

The news caused panic in Paris where it was unclear if this was just an one-time expedition to fuck with a pro-french party or if the English were about to intervene in Brittany in strenght.

>November
That was answered, when Edward III himself landed with 4,7k at Brest, securing the Montfort possessions, then went to Vannes and Rennes.

During the siege of Vannes, Robert of Artois (the one who started the war) was heavily wounded and died on the way back home

>1343
>January
Philip VI marched with the royal army into Brittany.

The English had to end the siege of Vannes and prepared for battle, but just like in Tournai two years ago the french king was just content with having ended the threat to the city.

Papal envoys soon appeared to negotiate with both sides. Surely, there were more worthy opponents for christian kings to fight. Castille and Portugal were clashing with northern african Muslims, Byzanth was unable to stop Ottoman Turks and the Holy Land had also just been lost half a century ago.

At the Truce of Malestroit, both sides agreed to stand down for 3,5 years and end the war.
Each side can held what they did in Brittany, while Vannes went into papal hands as long as it hasnt been figured out if Blois or Montfort were rightful Dukes,

>September
Phillip of Evreux, King of Navarre, the cousin of the french king, died.
His wife was for the moment Queen of Navarre, but six years later on her death their son Charles would inherit the title.

Charles of Navarre would soon play a prominent role for years to come (he had the nickname "Charles the Bad" so take a guess in which direction it will go)

thanks and nice dubs (but i somehow have a feeling i should do something else at Christmas then being concerned by a 700 year old war)

>Autumn
Montfortist elements inside Vannes rose and kicked out the papal garrison.

In response Phillip VI had many prominent supporters of Montfort execuded.

The Truce of Malestroit almost broke down, but in the end everyone concered tried to work out some peace formula

>1344
nothing happened

>1345
>March
John of Montfort had been released to come to terms with the Blois party, but he rather escaped to England.
His cause though in Brittany had collapsed, his loyalists just held Vannes and Brest (both could under the Malestroit Truce not be attacked)

Speaking of the truce:
Both sides had no idea how a peace might look like. The French wanted to look like victors, even if it would be a White Peace. The English wanted to exchange their claim to the throne with full sovereignity of Guyenne, but that claim was considered absurd in Paris.

Normally, the truce would hold until summer 1346, but both sides moved towards resuming hostilities in the summer. I mean, why pointlessly wait for a year

>June
The English were sending out armies to begin three simultaneously campaigns: Edward III would go to Flanders to reopen the northern front, the Earl of Northampton and John of Montfort would return to Brittany to continue the war, while the Earl of Lancaster would sail south to stabilize the situation in Guyenne

>July
The popular ruler of Ghent, Artevelde, was increasingly marginalized in the urban policies and now murdered by the mob.

The Flemish agreed to uphold the status quo (no open war against France, no new ruler, but allied with England) and invited their old Count Louis back, but only when he allied with England as well.

For the count as loyal french subject that was unacceptable.

>August
The Earl of Lancaster landed in Bordeaux, immediately he took action, gathering all available and new troops into a large but rather shitty army of 6k and declared he would go onto the offensive asap. Noone wins a war by waiting to be overrun by superior enemies.

(Actually, he was just the son of the Earl, but his dad died next month. Lancaster was the grandson of the brother of King Edward I and by far the richest english lord. And a great commander as it will turn out)

>August
Lancaster (6k) marched up the Dordogne valley and surprised a french army in front of the major bridge town of Bergerac, following the fleeing enemy into the southern part of town and onto the bridge, where the pressed French were killed and their commanders captured.

The French were cought on the wrong food and had never expected any offensive moves by the Anglos. Their positions in Perigord broke down.

>September
Edward III found out that he had no money to pay for three campaigns, the winds were shitty and Flanders was unwilling to host an english army, so that campaign was cancelled.

It had immediate negative consequences for Brittany because free french troops from the northern front could be switched here.
Montfort had not planned to deal with superior armies and his expedition force was soon pushed back and dissolved.

On the flight back to the coast John of Montfort himself died.

>Oktober
Prince John again as nominal commander gathered the southern armies; while the Duke of Bourbon fielded an army of Languedoc.
Both bodies of troops were deployed to prevent an english capture of the provincial capital of Perigeux and split up to secure all the surrounding hamlets, hills and fortresses.

The largest of these armies (3k) besieged the small castle of Auberoche, when Lancaster appeared before them with a relief force, the chaotic battle in falling darkness followed no plan as everywhere just fought the guy close to him, but it was decided when the gascon garrison of the castle sallied out.

The Battle of Auberoche was not much bloody, but the pursuing english cav captured many of the french leaders (all worthy nobles) and the french camp where all their supply and money was stored.
In medieval battles, most of the time if you fight against another civilized opponent (so no militia or archers), you were far better off not killing your enemy but capturing him and ransoming him back, and thus get stinking rich.
Auberoche was a great example of that.

With his core troops, leaders and supplies lost, Prince John stopped all operations and dissolved his army over the winter. Bourbon also returned to Languedoc.
Unfortunately Lancaster didnt care and just continued his operations.

>December
Lancaster overrun the area between the Dordogne and the Garonne, reversing all successes of the French this war.

The Agenais rose up in english favour, going over to them.

Shortly before the end of the year, Lancaster moved against La Reole, the main fortress of the Garonne, that had been so prominent in the last war and the starting point of the French this year.
It was hardly defended and the citizens opened their gate.

Somehow, and noone knew why, the whole southern frontline for the French was collapsing.

You've got to do a compare & contrast between the English claim to the French throne in the 100 Years War & Lancastrian/Yorkist claims to the English throne in the Wars of the Roses. Not just for my sake, but because there is considerable intersection. I have my opinions, but I want to hear yours 1st

God bless you 100YW user

Got my Christmas handing out of presents (what is the english word for Bescherung?) over.
I dont know if I should be feel bad for not giving a fuck at all and just faking excitement.
Whatever, lets get back. It will just cover the next two years until another longer truce and I will call it quit for today, but there will happen enough stuff.

>1346
Well, that was a shitty year in the south, but enough is enough,
The french treasury poured freely money out to enable Prince John to field a massive army of 15-20k to resecure the south and maybe bring down Bordeaux for good.

The prince (who himself was athletic and well-build, and a competent fighter, but had no clue and interest in generalship) was joined by the Dukes of Burgund and Bourbon and the Constable d'Eu (the Constable is the senior military post in the french army)

>April
The southern host moves down the Garonne to resecure the Agenais and with their first objective being La Reole.
But before they even reached the fortress, they were held up by the small town of Aiguillon, situated where the Lot flows in the Garonne.

Aiguillon might be a strategic place, but was hardly fortified and defended just by a small troop.
Still, its position made a full encirclement very difficult and the English could just flow in supplies and defenders by the river.

John let many of his soldiers secure the surrounding fortresses and kept Aiguillon just blocked, hoping that it would surrender on its own.

But week after week passed, the town still was holding and attacks were again and again repulsed. It soon became embarrasing, but its strategic location meant it couldnt just be ignored (besides it now became a matter of honour)

>Summer
Edward III wanted to definitely lead a campaign this year and fielded a large army and the largest fleet of transports in Englands history with 750 ships (though it meant that practically the whole merchant fleet of the kingdom had to be confiscated)

The aims of the campaign were rather unclear: The Breton Civil War was over and Flanders didnt want to host an english army, even if allied with them.

So it was decided to go for another Chevauchee, this time right into Normandy, probably the richest part of all of France.

>July
Edward III landed with 10-12k in the norman Cotentin Peninsular, together with the Earl of Northampton as subcommander and his oldest son Prince Edward

There were no defenders here and the whole Cotentin was freely plundered, its main town of St-Lo sacked and then the English moved east to the norman capital of Caen.

The Constable d'Eu had immediately hurried back north and was supposed to organize the defense of Normandy, but there was simply no time.

The English appeared surprisingly outside Caen, beginning to storm the outlying districts. There was confusion among the defenders when it wasnt clear what parts should be defend and what given up, in the chaos the English broke into the town.

Caen was vigorously sacked for 5 days before the English left again, laden with immense wealth.
(the Constable was captured and when some years later freed executed for his failure to defend Caen)

The news brought shock and disbelieve to the french elite, who still thought themselves clearly winning the war. There now were ever louder voices against a shitty king, who did nothing as his country was burned down by a second-rate power like England.
His government style, his insecurity, his disinterest to disclose his decisions and plans were all critized.

At Amiens now a large royal army was gathering

>August

The english army had moved to the heavily flooded Seine, going down to Paris and sacking the suburban villas of the french nobility.
There were plans to march even closer to Paris, but in the end the situation had become too dangerous with the gathering armies and flooded rivers, so Edward III decided to go back home.

But things suddenly looked ever worse for the English, because the next days they found out that the next river, the Somme, was guarded and the army at Amiens grew ever larger.
Turning back was also impossible, because the Seine was not passable anymore; Edward III looked increasingly trapped in the great plain between Somme and Seine.

-
-
In the south meanwhile everything had changed with the landing of the english army in Normandy.
Prince John was urgently ordered to bring his army north, many of his nobles had already left.

There was no alternative: the French had to raise the siege of Aiguillon, despite the Prince having sworn to rather die.

Back in the north the English had all the undeserved luck possible, when they found a ford over the Somme, wider then expected and just easily guarded. Their longbows cleared the defenders out and Edward III escaped out of the trap into the unspoiled countryside of Picardy.

He now planned to either capture some port to directly sail to England or if the french army came after him to march north into the Low Countries,
But he had underestimated the blind fury of the French after all that destruction, who immediately hurried after him over the Somme.

There was no time to march away.
The English (14k, King Edward III) did what they used to do in the past, to search a nice hill, protected on the flanks by the woods of Crecy, then await the enemy and let him attack if he dared.

The French (25k, King Philip VI, King of Bohemia) caught up the next day late at afternoon, all of them full of rage and glad to finally have met the despised enemy.

The Count of Alencon, brother of the king, immediately ordered to attack with whatever troops arrived first. There were crossbowman in enough numbers and naturally all the cavalry arrived next, so there was no reason to wait for the rest of the army.

The battle started when the crossbowman advanced, but exhausted, without their shields and on lower ground, they were easily decimated by the longbowman, who also could fire more rapidely.
When the crossbowman wavered back, they collided with the advancing cavalry, leading to even more chaos.

The cavalry itself, charging uphill without formation, were killed and wounded by the archers with no problems, hardly anyone even reached the english lines.
More and more french cav arrived on the scene and joined the attacks, only to be slaughtered. There was no order, no battle plan, no attempt to outflank the hill or stop the suicidal attacks.

Only in the night King Philip VI restored some order and led the rest of the army away; the English meanwhile came down the hill and killed all the wounded enemies or engaged remnants of the french troops wandering through the woods without clue what the hell is happening and where their army went

Only on the next morning it became clear what a devastating victory the Battle of Crecy had been:
10-12k French were killed, among them their best troops. The blind King of Bohemia, the Duke of Lorraine, the exiled Count of Flanders and the royal brother Alencon had all fallen on the field

The outcome and course of battle was not believed in Paris, even when the wounded king returned, it was widely believed to be anglo propaganda and even afterwards many were wondering in what a fucked up world they were living where something like that could happen: a major army led by the french royalty destroyed by a bunch of lowly archers.

What did NOT happen was some reflection, why exactly the battle had been lost in that way, and if maybe it might have been better to not act like utter retards.

A last point, something that is often forgotten when speaking about Crecy: The battle proved the superiority of longbows and proper tactics, it transformed the prestige of english arms as one of the best in europe, maybe the very best; it hit the French deep in their self-image as leading christian nation possessing the flower of european knightliness. It further heralded the end of the mounted knight as ultimate weapon.

But it did not change the course of the war, it had no immediate strategic consequences besides a lot of dead nobles and the king could just raise another army with no problems

The French chivalry made repeated attempts to charge up the slope, only to come to grief among the horses and men brought down by the barrage of arrows. King Edward’s five cannon trundled forward and added their fire

At this time a messenger arrived at King Edward’s post by the windmill seeking support for the Black Prince’s division. Seeing that the French could make little headway up the hill, Edward is reputed to have asked whether his son was dead or wounded and on being reassured said “I am confident he will repel the enemy without my help.” Turning to one of his courtiers the King commented “Let the boy win his spurs.”

From Crecy is also pic related, one of the most famous paintings, often posted in Painting Threads.

Its Prince Edward, the Black Prince, discovering the dead body of the King of Bohemia, the so-called King of Chivalry.

Also, someone noticed that in the pic above not a single archer could be seen, despite them more or less single-handedly winning the battle?

>September
Edward III went back to his original plan to capture a harbour for the travel back home and choose Calais, a small town where the Channel was the narrowest.

The town was badly fortified, but the area was very marshy and its difficult to position and feed an army, norman medieval siege methods also hadly worked.

Edward III summoned his fleet, taking in all the loot and wounded, and had it coming back with more and more soldiers.
Still, Calais could not be taken.

>October
There had been a plea since last year, for a large scottish move to bind some english troops on the island.

Only now did David II react, invading northern England in Cumberland and Northumberland with 12k Scots.
He actually profited with all left-over soldiers being shipped to Calais.

Yorkshire militias were hastily raised, combined with border troops, the local commander could still get 6-7k together, even with multiple longbowmen, but the quality was obviously very low and the Scots outnumbered them.

Having placed themselfs like always on a hill, both sides confronted each other, but finally the Scots attacked in cut-up territory, their scattered troops being wounded by arrows, and when the first troops were repulsed when reaching english lines, the military leader abandoned their army and the English defeated the unorganized rest.

In the Battle of Nevilles Cross 1-3k Scots died, among them most of their nobility, the King David II fled, but was soon captured.
The scottish threat ceased to exist.

:::::::::::::::::::

While the scotish invasion force was destroyed and Calais besieged, Lancaster in the south also wanted some of the glory.
With all french troops going north, he led a huge chevauchee into Poitou (the rich province north of Guyenne), getting into the capital Poitiers by surprise and sacking the town.

He returned over the Saintonge back south, where he established multiple garrisons.

The English took 80 French standards in the battle. On the following day the display of standards was taken by the French country folk as indicating that the French army had prevailed. They gathered to celebrate at Creçy only to be pillaged and murdered by Edward’s foot soldiers.

>1347
>March
The old Count of Flanders was dead, the young new one was accepted back, but was forced to wed a daughter of Edward III, at which he promptly fled back to Paris.

While this was pretty pathetic beginning, Louis II of Flandern would grow up to become a great politican and realist

>Spring
The old King of Bohemia had died at Crecy, but his son Charles had escaped at the beginning, only to be told that he had been voted as new Emperor of the HRE in opposition to Ludwig
He now begins a campaign in Tyrol and Brandenburg, but that has probably little to do with the 100YW.
When the emperor died later that year, he became uncontested ruler.

>April
Calais was fully surrounded, but still could not be stormed.

More and more troops arrived, in the summer the Earl of Lancaster, coming from the south to England and immediately raised local troops for Calais, brought even more.

The siege army reached 30k in July, the largest concentration of english arms in the whole 100YW (but probably not all combatants)

>May
Phillip VI had raised a new army at Arras, but he couldnt bring all of them to Calais, because he feared being attacked in the rear by the Flemish.

His popularity reached new lows.

:
Charles of Blois (3,8k) meanwhile was besieging the town of La Roche-Derrin in Brittany to lure the english troops still present in Brittany out.
They indeed came and were just as planned defeated, but just when everything seemed fine the garrison sallied out, defeating the split up troops of Blois in detail and finally captured him himself.

So, in not even 10 months the main french army was destroyed, the south collapsed, the scottish king captured and the breton civil war reopened.
Not bad.

lol, the good old times where being complete assholes was considered chivalric and normal, so long as you dont do it to fellow nobles

>July
Philip VI (15k) arrived south of Calais, which couldnt hold out much longer.
On the marchy ground it would be very hard to attack with whatever new cav he had gathered and the English were in great positions.
He just could play for time and hope that the English attacked themselfs first (they didnt)

>August
Philip VI knew he would be condemned all over the country, but he really had no choice but to march away from Calais.

Behind his back Calais surrendered after 11 months of siege.
-

There was a heartwearming scene, when Edward III eschewed the customary sack (especially after such a long defense) and just told the leading townsmen to choose six men among them to be executed in place of the rest of the population.
The six leading burghers volunteered, but in the last second the Queen convinced Edward to spare them as well.

Calais is what transformed the military victory of Crecy into a strategical victory.
If it was that difficult to take the hardly defended town with such giant numbers, once it was properly fortified and garrisoned the town would be unassailable and would act from now on as permanent bridgehead on the continent for the English

Agincourt and Calais were what changed a standard medieval conflict into a hundred year war.

Last one for today. I can continue tomorrow, but someone has to bump the thread meanwhile.

>September
Papal mediation brought yet another truce, this time until next summer, but it was soon extended further.

Maybe some sort of compromise could be found, now that the French had clearly lost the war.

In Paris the king, world-weary and obese, retreated even more from public affairs.

>Oktober

People across France just sighted, noone believed that peace would return anytime soon, noone had trust that the french leadership would get their shit together and turn the war.

What awaited them was just more war, more devastation, more english chevauchees, more taxation, more brigandry and unemployed soldiers running amok.
At least everyone agreed that it hardly could get any worse.

At the very same time genuese trading galleys sailed into sicilian Messina, with most of their crew dead or dieing on a strange illness and covered by huge black bubuos, and lots of rats on board.

Bump

bumpity bump

Bump for the morrow

Great thread op, bumping

Bumping la

bump

bumpology, the study of bump

Bump

Necessary bump

Bump for best thread

Battle of Najera, and Battle of La Rochelle. Many brits or french don't know that Castile participated in the 100 years war.

>At least everyone agreed that it hardly could get any worse.

>At the very same time genuese trading galleys sailed into sicilian Messina, with most of their crew dead or dieing on a strange illness and covered by huge black bubuos, and lots of rats on board.
Oh fuck me.

Thanks for bumping.

Sadly, I dont think I will reach until the spanish battles. Probably I will end at the Peace of Bretigny that was supposed to end the war.

>1348
>January
For the first time cases of the Black Death appeared in the ports of southern France.
Hopefully, the illness was not as bad as the reports coming from Italy suggested

>Summer
The Black Death reached Lyon, Bordeaux and spread to northern France in autumn, creating apocalyptic scenes where whole villages and town are wiped out.
At the end of the year it would reach Paris.

There are many people wondering what had gone wrong with the world. The largest and most christian nation is being humbled and humiliated, most of the government structures, especially in the south, are desintegrating and now a pestilence unlike anything seen before is depopulating the land.

>August
Norman ships brought the Black Death to Bristol; in November it would reach London with full force.

>September
Flanders is seething, especially at what is considered as hegemony of Ghent political structures over the rest of the country.

The exiled count, Louis II, immediately used the chaos to return as rightful lord and gathered the flemish nobles around him.

The armies send by Ghent and Bruges against him where stopped by internal squabbles (and maybe the Black Death coming north), in the end the Bruges army mutineed and went over to the Count.

>Oktober
Ypern is besieged by Louis II, who is soon joined by the Count of Brabant, who recognized him as rightful Count

>November
Edward III travelled to Calaos and met Count Louis II
England didnt need Flanders as bridgehead anymore, so they could accept flemish neutrality as long as they didnt join France and kept close economic connections.

The two entered into a complex agreement, at which Edward III recognized Louis II as Count of Flanders, who in turn was doing homage to Philip VI as his sovereign, while the towns of Flanders should recognize Louis as their lord, but would not accept overlordship of the french king.


>1349
>January
Ypres surrendered and after them very disgruntled so did Ghent
Thus ended the Flemish Urban Revolution of 1339 after a decade.

Still, Louis proved a great ruler who brought the region to new heights, while extending his influence into Brabant and Artois.

>September
Southern France is nothing but a cemetery.
But some guys noticed that technically the truce of Calais had run out, so there is nothing wrong with starting a new campaign.

Multiple french armies now moved against the Saintonge/southern Poitou area (the one above Guyenne), soon reinforced by spanish galleys in french sold.

As you can image, it very soon dissolved into pure chaos; especially when you consider that hygienic conditions in army camps were not exactly great.

>December:
The Earl of Lancaster returned to Aquitania, and responded in kind by launching a chevauchee eastwards deep into Languedoc, reaching the gates of Toulouse.

There is not even much to loot thanks to the catastrophic conditions in Southern France at the moment, it is mostly meant to bring the French back to the truce.

>1350
>January
The French initiated a surprise attack on Calais, coordinated with traitors in the city, who let in the forward units.

The gates were still closed soon enough (or the supposed traitors were actually double agents), trapping the cav inside, while the English outside beat back the french attackers.

It was a nicely planned coup, but failed badly.

>Februar
There is a truce for the Agenais put in place, which was soon extended to the whole country.

Both countries agreed to first try to cope with the Black Death before killing each other again.

>August
In a large naval battle a castilian fleet attacked an english one south of Winchelsea, but was beaten back with heavy losses on both sides.

In March there had been a new king in Castille since the old one died on plague, and he is mostly concerned in stabilizing his rule, so the castilian naval element is soon removed from the french side.

>August
King Philip VI of France died, 56 years old and having ruled for 22 years as first Valois King.

Its hard to assess him fairly. He was extensively hated at his death and he had surely many faults, but a lot of the ills that had befallen his kingdom were not really his fault and he could have done a lot worse.
He was probably just an average king in a very bad time.

The problem is, that his son, following as John II (31) is not much better. A down-to-earth, jovial, good-natured king, but not the brightest bulb in the box, he might pose as a good enough king in stable times, but was totally the wrong one in difficult times like these.

>October
John II is crowned king
Well, he looked better, he returned to Paris (Phillip VI had hated big cities) to the joy of the population, he promised reforms and the Black Death was ebbing.

So maybe truely better times were ahead.

>November
The old Constable back from Caen is released and executed.

The new one is Charles de La Cerda, the spanish childhood friend of John II, scion of an exiled branch of the castilian royal family that had contested the throne last century.

He is instantly opposed by the french nobles, who wouldnt accept a Spanish in one of the most prestigous and lucrative positions of the state.

..............

Edward III needed more money and proposed a deal to the imprisoned scottish king David II
He should pay a bit money and reinstate dispossessed english nobles to their scottish land and might then return.

But so long as he hadnt any children, the third son of Edward III (the first would get England, the second Ireland) would follow on the scottish throne

David II would have accepted, the Scots who actually rule his kingdom for him refused violently

>Winter
The Black Death had subsided.

It had killed a third of the english population, a half of the french and generelly between one and two thirds of the european population.
It would also return in waves in the coming decades.

Besides the fact that it killed a shitton of people, it also had grave economic and social consequences, because the lack of manpower drove up wages and further ruined economies.
Also, suddenly serfs, peasants and workers began to wonder, if they maybe, just maybe actually had some worth for their societies.


>1351
Okay, the Black Death is over, lets continue the war.

The new Constable Charles de La Cerda opened a campaign against the fortresses in Saintone, besieging St Jean de Angely, the largest of them.

The English ordered Lancaster (raised from Earl to Duke, just the second Duke at all in England after Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall) to launch raids from Calais, burning down the countryside in Picardy.

>August
The campaign had been badly planned, the attempt to stop an english relief force was bloodily beaten back and everyone hated La Cerda, but still somehow St-Jean-d'Angely falls.

A new truce is agreed by all sides, for half a year.

>September
John II suspends payment on all debts and went bankrupt, despite new and high taxation.

>1352
John II married his daughter to his Second Cousin Charles of Evreux/Navarre,
Charles is still very much pissed, resenting his low influence and power.

>March
Everyone thought the truce would be extended, but John II desperately needed some good news, so he started three campaigns.
The fighting in Saintonge resumed, a new attack against Calais was launched and troops moved into Brittany.

In Brittany at the Battle of Malon the french army confronted the anglo-breton one and almost defeated them, but at the very last second they broke themselfs, losing its commander and some of the most prominent pro-french Bretons.

In the next one or two weeks the Calais and southern campaign failed with bloody losses as well.

The failure of the 1352 campaigns and the return to the truce hit the prestige of John II badly, with many people fearing that with him the dissappointments of his father would just continue.

>1353
>March
Edward III signed a treaty with Charles of Blois, to recognize (and free) him as Duke of Brittany, if he would pay 300k and ally with England.

Blois accepted, but the treaty collapsed because it would mean english garrisons in Brittany, something that was vehemently refused by both breton parties.

Edward III is in the strange situation, where he had his scottish and breton adversary captured and had agreed a satisfying deal with both, but still there is no peace because both countries refused those deals.