100 YEAR WAR PART 3: NO WAR ANYMORE

>May
The threat of another english intervention loomed over Spain, especially with the 100YW calming down.

John of Gaunt intently urged that english efforts should be focused on making him King of Castille, because that would eliminate the strongest french ally and at the same time probably reverse the fortunes of the diminished Duchy of Guyenne.
The expedition would be financed by some degree by himself and would be led by his brother [the later Duke of York]

In Iberia once again Portugal turned towards the English, despite having been btfo hard 8 years ago when they tried it the last time.

King John of Castille didnt want to take any chances: He intensified the french alliance by finally recognizing the Avignon Pope and then started another preemptive war against Portugal.

>June
The newly rebuild portuguese navy (22 galleys, 4 sails) attacked the unprepared castilian fleet (17 galleys) outside Sevilla, who first tried to flee, but then had to turn and face the attack.
From this point on everything went wrong for the Portguese -who probably thought the battle as good as won- and they suffered a crushing defeat at the Naval Battle of Saltes, where they lost their whole new fleet, including 6k man.

There is nothing they could to then but stand by, as two large castilian armies marched into the portuguese borderlands.

>June
These were bad times even in England, ravaged not by war but pestilence, rising wages (and laws to prevent that) and constantly heavy taxation.

A normally small peasant uprising in Essex instantly spinned out of control, a similiar one happened in Kent, the major towns of Canterbury and Rochester were taken.

Before the english government really realized what the hell was happening, the peasants marched into London, burning, plundering and murdering everyone associated with the government and taxation offices
Unfortunately the only standing force was under John of Gaunt on the scottish border, but even if it had been close by, probably shit was hitting the fan too fast for any swift military response.

The child king Richard II then went before the peasants and promised to abolish serfdom and lower taxes, but the peasants joined by London mobs opened the gaols, destroyed the Savoy Palace of Gaunt (after it had only closely been prevented four years earlier) and finally managed to enter the Tower of London where they killed the chancellor and High Treasurer

Two days after the occupation of London Richard II met the rebel leader Wat Tyler outside the capital for a parley, where he was seized and killed by the royal party.
The rebel crowd was paralyzed and couldnt believe what happened, but finally dispersed.

In the next days and weeks Robert Knolles with the local royal troops and soon Gloucester returning from Brittany crushed all the revolts and pacified the countryside. All rebel and peasant leaders were executed (though by far not as bloodily as similiar uprising had been and will be crushed in France or Germany)
None of the concessions were ever granted and the revolt had not even lasted a month.

Still, it shocked the english government to the bone and they were for a long time in constant fear of renewed social tensions and feudal uprisings.

>July
Gaston Phoibus played both sides in the Languedoc crisis, accepting their leadership while meeting Berry and promising him to pave the way for him as long as the Foix power in the south was further expanded against the Armagnacs.

With Berry agreeing and the crisis supposedly over, the Duke dissolved his army of 2,5k (mostly armagnacian) troops, but at that moment they were not longer a royal army and could be freely attacked by Phoibus, who ambushed them at Rabastens and wiped the army out, leaving Gaston Phoibus as sole political and military arbiter of the south
(Berry did get his lieutenancy, so he didnt care)

_____________
The Ghent siege was still going on, the city was fully besieged and blocked now, but they still held out knowing they would suffer horribly if they submitted.

The fate of Ghent had become the major topic in the Low Countries, where many of the large towns symphatized with them and organized relief efforts while it became of utmost importance for the rulers of the principalities in the region to end the siege lest their own populations would get funny thoughts.

_______________
An english expedition army of 3k under the Duke of York landed in Lisbon.
It was supposed to defend the country against the Castilians and smoothing the way for the main army under John of Gaunt, which would (hopefully) arrive next year for the invasion of Castille.

But it also had a nice side effect in Portugal itself; because the Portuguese really needed the english help (who were still considered the best soldiers of western europe), so they agreed to marry the daughter and heiress of King Ferdinand to the son of York
Also, they would recognize the roman pope

[That meant that the three cousins, Richard II, and York and Lancasters son would be kings of England, Castille and Portugal soon]

>August
Charles of Durazzo had invaded Naples with an army of 8k Hungarians and taken the capital.
Now its main fortress capitulated and Queen Joanna was imprisoned; while Durazzo crowned himself king of Naples

________
The castilian war effort had been centered around the main border fortress of Almeida, which now fell.

But King John had his periodic fits of weakness and illness, together with the news of the landing of the english army, the main army stopped around Almeida, while the second southern army was completely dissolved.

>1382
Okay, that will get confusing, because a lot of things will happen at the same time.
I had initially planned to split the year in its separate theaters, just like I did with Flanders at the beginning of the thread, but then decided against it. I like that strictly chronological order.

>January
>Flanders
There is an ever more vocal movement in besieged Ghent to submit after the situation had become totally hopeless.

As response the rebel leaders appointed Philip Van Artevelde, the son of the revolutionary leader 40 year ago, as captain of the city with full powers.
Philip had been a nobody before, but he soon proved effective in bringing the city back under control, purging all the peace mongers and defeatists.

The Ghent leaders established a strict war economy and raided agressively by water and land to bring in food to the starving city.

>France:
After several failed attempts, the two rivals Burgundy and Anjou united to press through renewed high taxation, a customs duty is partially announced, while the old salt taxes and the aides were reimposed in secrecy because they knew people will chimp out

>January
>England:
John of Gaunt at the same time failed in his attempt to impose a new tax subsidy for his castilian army.

The regency council, Parliament, the nobles and the economic elite were in intense debate throughout the year in regards to the merits of largescale intervention in Spain.

Of course Gaunt had good arguments and an english king in Castille would have been awesome (and could be counted on in contrast to that asshole Peter I in the 60s to refinance the costs), but Spain was far away, there was no fleet large enough to transport any major army there not to mention no money for any major undertaking; and all english policy in Spain had failed in the past.

Another question was the Flanders rebellion and if it was in english interest to help its Count to end the siege of Ghent, maybe making him more pro-english after France had refused to help him, or if a triumph of the towns against their count -no matter how unlikely it recently looked like- would renew the flemish-english alliance from the beginning of the 100YW

All the while noone bothered to ask the king.
Richard II took over the next months increasing steps to assert his own authority in policy making.

>February
When news got around of the new taxes, open revolt broke out among the poor of Rouen, then still the second largest city of France.
The government lost control of the whole city, which was plundered for three days in a wave of destructive but unbloody violence.

This came after a major uprising in Florence -the most industrialized city of europe- four years ago, the urban revolts in Flanders and the anti-taxation uprising in Languedoc three years ago, the english Peasant Revolt last year and the continuing resistance in southern France.

While today its accepted that these events had no direct links, but were just caused by the general mysery in europe at the end of the 14th century, back then it was beliefed that there was some concerted action against the feudal society in general.

>March
King Charles VI and Burgundy left Paris with a larger armed force to pacify Rouen and punish the ones responsible for the violence there.

But obviously the Rouen rioters had a lot of symphatizers among the urban french population, especially as it became clearer that the government indeed wanted to bring back all the hated taxes-

In Paris the poor armed themselfs with iron mallets (maillotins, after which they are named) and took control of the streets.
They expressed their demand, that the king should not have been able to just revoke all his concessions regarding taxation made at the death of Charles V and the General Estates.
When the horrified royal army turned around, the gates of Paris were closed in their face.

>March
While the french government enacted a siege of their own capital, inside royal officers were killed and the Maillotins freely looted.
In the larger northern french cities similiar revolt erupted, in Amiens, Caen, Orleans and Reims. While still limited to the cities in the north, in the south in Languedoc a general -though low level- insurgency sprang up.

At the end of the month the situation was calmed down by the guilds and the upper classes in the towns, who feared it might evolve into class warfare or the destructive conflict that could be seen in Flanders.
In Paris it was agreed that the king should return and the leaders of the Maillotins were given up and executed, but in general there should be a pardon and of course no new taxes.

With Paris under truce, the royal army finally went to Rouen where heavy fines were imposed and all its urban liberties revoked

>Spring
While the government in England still debated about a possible largescale expedition to Spain, the situation in Portugal fell apart.

There was no fighting there anymore apart from border clashes, the Duke of York had little authority and the portuguese king was not able to appear in public anymore.
All the while the unpaid english troops had to get their food and money themselfs from the population, plundering the countryside and villages that they were supposed to protect.

The portuguese queen, the real power in the country, only wanted an agreement to keep her influence, most of the portuguese elite saw the current war with Castille as completely pointless, while the local population hated the English.

>May
There was a general fear that urban revolutions might break out across the large cities of the Low Countries as well and a desire to finally end the Ghent revolt-.

The rulers of the principalities again and again made universal appeals to Louis II of Flanders to allow for a peace conference to end the siege.

But the count remained hard, in his eyes he had done so much for the region throughout his reign, he had shielded them from all troubles and war and that was how they thanked him?
For Ghent there was only total submission and nothing else; and he made very clear that there wouldnt be much mercy afterwards.

Inside the city the situation was desperate, despite the measures of Artevelde since the beginning of the year.
The blockade had lasted for 21 months now, the population was starved and they were at the end of their abilities to resist.

In a last desperate attempt, Artevelde and the radical militia leader van den Bossche mobilized all still able bodied man and marched outside with 4-8k, through the blockade ring and directly against Bruges.

In Bruges there was a holiday right now, it was unseasonable hot and everyone was drunken as fuck, they reacted with surprise on the news that some half-famished Ghent scum was coming their way, everyone grapped their weapons and stumbled towards them.

In the Battle of Beverhoutsveld the unorganized mob of the Bruges citizens were met with volleys or arrows and crossbowbolts in their faces and then a fanatical attack by the Ghent militia.

It was over in an instant and then nothing more then a massacre.

(cont.)
At the very same time the rest of them fled to Bruges, where Louis II organized some resistance, but yet again their own weavers inside the town went over and opened the gates, throughout the late afternoon and evening the resistance of Bruges was broken, the Count himself could just narrowly escape and then went on an odyssey across his realm to France.

The victory of Ghent against all odds electrified the rest of Flanders and in the next days Ypres and other cities rose up, with yet again all of Flanders falling under revolutionary control.

>June
The remnants of the original siege army around Ghent had fallen back to the town of Oudenaarde down the Scheldt river, which was now mostly abandonded.

The flemish revolutionaries besieged it, but it was held by pro-count forces against all attempts, practically now recreating the Ghent siege for the other side.

Pumped for Agincourt

I love you OP

>Like I always said, I will just cover the first half of the war
Come on OP, you also said there would be no part 3. I know you also want to see it through.

There wont be. This one will probably go just until the end of the century, if I even reach it.

There is just not enough material for the last years to do the kind of indepth narrative. And just to tick off the major cities and battles would be boring.
At the same time there are time restraints. There would be at least six parts, probably more if you consider that the last ones were over long holiday weekends.
And I dont want to do it just at some random time a month or two from now, which probably would be just as shitty for the guys who are reading all the stuff until now. Its not like a blog here, where everyone can just check when new content is available.
But you are right, I initially couldnt image going so far and would have ended a lot earlier.

And of course thanks for all the bumps

>Summer
Louis of Anjou had fielded an army of 8k in Avignon, paid by french, papal and provencial money.
His host now moved into the Provence (a german principality that had belonged to the neapolitan queen and thus now fell to Anjou), getting accepted there as ruler and then over the Alps.

When it marched through northern Italy tens of thousands of people flocked to him in expectation of rich spoils when he conquers southern and middle Italy.
There are reports that his army had grown to 40k when it finally crossed into Naples, though the numbers are questionable and most of them probably had little combat value.

With the news of the Anjou invasion, Charles of Durazzo didnt want to take any risks and executed the imprisoned Queen of Naples (he actually had intented to free her once she accepted him as her heir)

>August
Behind the english back Castille and Portugal made peace.

Portugal had to change its allegiance to the Avignon Pope and end the marriage contract of the royal heir to Yorks son and instead marry her to the son of the castilian king.
Still, it was a very favourable peace where Almeida and all other captured fortresses and ships were given back.

The English were furious, but there was nothing they could do, so they sailed away.

That certainly sucked.

>September
Louis of Anjou arrived in the Papal States (or whats left of them), but decided against a direct attack on Rome and would first go to Naples, secure his kingdom and then kick out the roman pope and take over the Papal States (as King of the Adria with avignon papal approval)

Too bad, I would have liked to hear more in detail the betrayal of Burgundy and the civil war, but I understand it must be time consuming for you. Thanks for all you did.

>September
With Berry down in Languedoc and Anjou in Italy, finally Burgundy had a free hand to control the regency council, he now opted for a french intervention in Flanders.
(It was supposed to fall to him in the future after all, so it would be very inconvenient if his father-in-law would lose control of it for good)

He pointed out that it would be a great opportunity to reassert french influence there, but still almost everyone else really didnt care about Flanders, though there is rising talk that the Ghent revolution had kicked off the urban revolts in northern France

>October
English parliament was still in major debate about a spanish or flemish strategy.

Spain promised to have direct results (a major english noble on the throne) but the opinions how realistic it was that John of Gaunt might actually conquer Castille were pretty divided.
The news trickling from Portugal were also not exactly encouraging.

Still, a possible way to tackle the issue of disastrous finances was to declare it as an urbanist crusade against the avignon heresy, which would point towards the spanish theatre, were now both Portugal and Castille were pro-avignon (Aragon still neutral)

On the other hand Flanders was easier to reach, with more promising immediate effects and an alliance with the Great Towns of Flanders might have its own worth, though it was conceded that the towns would rather not be dragged into the 100YW again.

In the end the parliament was split: the nobles under John of Gaunt and Gloucester were for the spanish expedition, the House of Commons for the flemish one.

Well the civil war would be in a potential Part 4 before the restart of the 100YW and Agincourt, so its not 100% ruled out, just not likely atm.
And I agree with you that it is one of the most interesting aspects of the whole war, just because how devastating it was and how it was obviously very downplayed in pro-english accounts of their later conquests.

>October
There had been a major effort of the french government to have a peace conference at Tournai between Louis II of Flanders and the flemish cities.
But just as he had before refused any negotiations, the towns were now also stubborn, they rudely turned down the french offer and also demanded for any possible talks with the count that he surrender Oudenaarde first.

Artevelde knew that the French were not on Louis II side, that they didnt want to be drawn into the flemish quackmire again -especially with their own towns in half-revolt - and they could count on the English to rush to their aid.

He could not image how much the french pride was hurt, afterall they were overlords of Flanders, and they saw themselfs after the 100YW had ""ended"" back to be the old supreme nation of Europe.
It was the last impetus that Burgundy needed to convince the rest of the government to intervene in Flanders by force.

At the very same time the flemish embassy arrived in Westminster, where they listed their demands for an alliance with the English.
These were mostly trade concessions and payment of 140k pound that they thought they still were owed from the beginning of the 100YW
The english councillors were taken aback that they should actually pay for the privilege of sending assistance to Flanders. They first thought it was a joke.
When the Flemish were finished and had left, they actually burst out laughing, rolling on the floor (and yes, that actually happened)

It was true that the English couldnt allow a french intervention, but the Flemish had grossly miscalculated the danger they were in.

>November
First a look at Italy

Louis of Anjou had crossed the neapolitan border and advanced into the hills around Naples, but at this point his campaign came to a halt.
Durazzo was holding the capital and neither came out to offer battle nor negotiated. And neither could Naples be effectively besieged.

While his armies encamped in the hills in a loose siege, his money run out, his troops dissolved, illness broke out and everything just went worse and worse with each passing week.

>Flanders
The Duke of Burgundy had brought the king (still only 14) to Arras, where a large army had gathered in incredible short time, joined by the Constable Clisson, the Marshall Sancerre, by Coucy and the royal uncles Berry and Bourbon.

Most of the nobility in France saw the flemish revolt as a direct challenge to their class and there was still the suspicion that Ghent had encouraged the recent urban revolts, so they all rallied voluntarily
Almost 10k had come to Arras, the largest french army since Poitiers in 1356 and it would combine with the flemish troops still loyal to Louis II

In Arras itself Louis II had come to do liege homage to Charles VI, something that he had categorically refused before, he also changed his allegiance to the avignon pope.

On the other hand most of the french cities stood with Ghent, which was seen as their hero in their successfull resistance to the authorities.
There was also renewed movements of the Maillotins to bring Paris back under their control once the king was stranded in Flanders.

Against that army Artevelde had blocked the river Lys and brought all his troops and militias from across Flanders, with numbers that ranged from 30-40k.

I will wait for you, OP.
Reading what you've wrote so far, I understand more how what the dukes of Burgundy tried to do (independance and the resurrection of Lotharingie) could happen. Too many major nobles are self serving and try to seize more power instead of working for the national and collective goal. It's also mirrored in the french and english sides, Anjou with Italy, and Gaunt for Spain. Things would have been very different if they had been more down to earth and realistic.

Clisson, in command of the royal army as Constable, knew that he needed immediate results because there was neither the money to keep the army together for any longer time nor was there any wish to fight a winter campaign.

He directly marched to the Lys, shipped over some men near the destroyed bridge of Comines and let them fall into the flanks of the local defenders.
In the confusion the broken bridge was seized and somewhat repaired; when the main flemish forces (1k, Van den Bossche) had formed themself for a counterattack, Clisson could bring parts of his heavy cav over the bridge and secure the crossing, though the whole action had cost a lot of casualties for both sides.

In the next days the french army moved into Ypres, while their own forces and pro-count forces fanned out into the countryside in a orgy of violence and destruction.

Van Artevelde meanwhile marched with his gathered might (according to sources ranging from 14k to 40k) against Ypres; the French united their troops northeast of the city (9-16k) and attacked first.

In the Battle of Roosebeke, Clisson had his infantry attack frontally to pin the enemy down, there was heavy fighting and the French were about to break, when the french cav (under Bourbon and Coucy) fell into both flanks at the same time.
The densely packed flemish formations were unable to manouvre, they were pressed against each other with hundreds suffocating or being pressed to death, when they broke in panic, even larger numbers were trampled to death.
The rest of the day was hunting down the fleeing masses and riding them down.

The Battle of Roosebeke was the big victory that the French needed. It was a success in almost any perspective
It ended the Flemish War in the swift victory that everyone had dreamed of, it brought back french influence and power in that region.
It restored the french pride in battle and revenged their earlier loss in the Battle of the Golden Spurs at Courtrai at the beginning of the century (which was for many the first signs of the humiliations to come and actually the battlefield was not too far away)
It also again confirmed the supremacy of heavy cavalry over light infantry (city militia or english longbow archers are practically the same, r-r-right?)

The numbers of casualties are hard to establish, they went up to 27k. But surely a massive number of them had been killed, among them Artevelde himself.

The french army stayed in Flanders, where all the other towns but Ghent surrendered.
Courtrai, where still the memory of the Battle of the Golden Spurs remained, was burned down in an act of petty revenge.
In general the French were allowed to murder and blunder as they wanted.

i will suck your dick

(its sad that there are no awesome oil paintings of that battle, despite that being one of the decisive battles in flemish history, ending their independence; but I guess they didnt want to paint their own crushing defeat)

thats kinda gay user. you should feel bad

With this Louis II was back in power.
But Flanders was destroyed, its economy was devastated for decades, its role as most wealthy region of the Low Countries would move to Brabant.
The County itself was french administered and fell fully under french royal control, all trade links to England were severed.
And of course freaking Ghent still held out..

Well there was a small cold comfort, because Louis II mother, the Countess of Artois and Burgundy, died at the same time.
The french province of Artois (directly south of Flanders) and the german imperial County of Burgundy thus fell to Louis II

_________________
Actually, there is still other stuff happening in europe in 1382; like the powerless Queen of Sicily being rescued and shipped to Aragon, where she would marry an aragonese prince, which would lead over the next years to the aragonese claim to Sicily.
A catalan company also conquered Athens and held it in the name of the aragonese king.
Also, the Turks under Murad I took the bulgarian capital Sofia and reached the Danube.

>1383
>January
The King and Burgundy led the victorious army out of Flanders and into Paris, where the Maillotins were crushed, the 100 leading figures in the revolts who had escaped last spring were executed and the parisean city rights partially revoked.

In the coming weeks many of the rebellious northern towns met the same fate and in the next months so it happened in Languedoc-.

Everywhere royal authority was reestablished, everywhere urban rights revoked, everywhere massively wealth confiscated, everywhere the taxes renewed, often at even higher levels then before.

Generally, the french throne now established the principle of taxation without consent, laying the cornerstone for an absolute monarchy, or at absolute as it gets in the middle ages.

For the population, well a shitty century just became a lot more shitty.

>anglos intervene in Castilian civil war
>anglos get btfo
>anglos get razed and looted all over the english coast
>call for peace
>end of the castillian phase of the 100 yrs war

The english claims to Castille were in hindsight indeed unrealistic, but at the time it looked different; the Trastamares were still a new dynasty with a more questionable claim then John of Gaunt and the first time they had gained the throne they were kicked out shortly after by the Black Prince, so it was hoped that Gaunt might repeat the stunt.

It was also pretty realistic to have an english prince in Portugal and Anjou should have gotten Naples normally (his plans to annex the Papal States is another matter)

The castilian naval campaign did indeed drove home to the English how much times have changed, but lets be honest, it did mostly psychological damage.
It also neither ended the Lancaster claim to the castilian throne nor pushed the Anglos to make new concessions to the French.
And the castilian phase ended with an english army on spanish soil.

Its just so strange, that Castille then decided to stay out of the whole rest of the war.
Its not even that they had other things to do like their neighbours (with Portugal exploring shit and Aragon with their mediterranean adventures), they just stayed out of world politics for some 50 years or so

What is there strange in it?

It started off with the civil war. Once John won it, retaliated against England and Portugal, and secured the throne, why continue it? For what fucking purpose?

Besides, the higher nobility was the one actually holding the power and they were pretty comfy making lots of moneys after kicking England out of the wool trade with Flanders.

>John won it

Enrique II won it. His son Juan simply continued the war with naval raids on England and a failed invasion of Portugal until John of Gaunt renounced all claims to the throne and France and England signed peace in 1389.

bump only good thread on Veeky Forums

Thanks

>March
Epidemics had decimated Anjous army around Naples; his main italian backer the Count of Savoy had died and he now retreated with his army into the southern parts of the kingdom, to at least try to secure the rest of the realm.

Anjou also send urgent pleas to Paris to bring new troops and especially money, but with the government under control of his rival and brother Burgundy he was ignored

>May
The portuguese-castillian treaty of last year was modified for an even closer alliance and the portuguese heir would now not marry a son of King John of Castille, but him directly
(He still promised to give Portugal to his second son, so it would remain independent)

__________
An english expedition force was finally assembled for Flanders, it was dressed as a crusade against avignon heretics and to bring back Flanders under control of the roman papacy.

The whole force was organized and led by Bishop Despenser, though many of the old captains took part for a last time (like Calveley and Knolles).
It garnered quite some english public enthusiasm and 8k gathered at Calais.

>June
The english crusade took the coastal towns of Gravelines and Dunkirk and defeated the flemish troops of Count Louis II.

With their unexpected successes and local defenses in shambles, it was agreed with Ghent to attack Ypres together, the third largest town of the county and supposedly hardly in any state to defend itself.

But once the siege opened the resistance was unexpectedly tough. Maybe Ypres was warry of getting plundered and sacked by both sides all the time.
Even with its walls and natural defenses heavily damaged by the events of last year it resisted with fury.

Still, there was nothing to worry, as the armed might of Ghent under Van den Bossche -who had survived the Lys fighting last year- joined the English at the siege (raising their combined siege army to up to 20k) and noone thought that Ypres might resist for long.

>August
The King Charles VI and Burgundy were raising a large relief army at Arras, which was fast growing in seize.

After 9 weeks of terrible assaults Ypres was reduced to ruins but still held out.
The English decided on one last all-out attack, but when even that one was repelled they gave up the siege.

The Ghent army, who had fielded most of the manpower but did not suffer that many casualties, was dissappointed, because they thought that with just a couple of days longer the city might have fallen.
But alone they didnt dare to continue the siege, especially with the French in their back.

At least when returning back to Ghent they surprised the garrison of vital Oudenaarde and took the town by surprise,

>September
The french royal army had grown to 20k and included all major nobles, among them for the first time the montfortist Duke of Brittany.

The large host moved north, while the English fell back to the coastal towns.

John IV of Montfort arranged with his old comrades a truce and then negotiated a treaty by which the English would leave Flanders and could be evacuated; the French moved in later and sacked these towns.

It was probably the best deal for both sides, because the English prevented a total debacle, while the french campaign achieved their goals without blood and could end the insanely expensive campaign without larger sieges.

Still, it was resented by both sides, the french army wanted to kill some Anglos and felt that the Duke of Brittany had betrayed them, while the English gave away all captured positions without a fight.

There were also murmurs, that the campaign should have been used to follow the retreating english army and advance against Calais, but that was probably completely unrealistic.

While the French felt bitter against Brittany, the English against the leaders of the crusade where Bishop Despenser was impeached.

Also, as addendum, Ypres itself may have resisted, but was completely destroyed and while it had been one of the Three Big Towns of Flanders before, it now slipped into irrelevance until the small town gave the name to a number of famous WW1 offensives.

>September
Down in southern France another explosion of free company activity swept over the impoverished countryside. There is no leadership for Languedoc anymore (Berry never went there) and the towns and local nobles who usually organized some defense were ruined by heavy taxes.

With english money and urgings, gascon companies moved into Saintonge and the lost regions of Guyenne.

>October
The king of Portugal, Ferdinand, died.
He had had a promising start and tried to use the castilian chaos, but achieved nothing but losing three wars in a rown against Castille.
With just a daughter as heir his dynasty ended with him.

>December
A sense of foreboding went over Portugal when it became clear that this would not be a new independent Trastamare dynasty under the Queen of the late Ferdinand, just as had been agreed, but that King John I of Castille wanted to take over control of the country himself.

Many portuguese patriots feared that the castilian king might soon move into the direction of wholesale annexation and declared for a half-brother of the late king, Don Joao, as alternative ruler, but unfurtunately he was under arrest in Castille.

In this toxic mood stepped John, the Master of Avis (another half-brother of the dead king, but a bastard with no legit claims), who murdered the lover of the Queen and triggered a general anti-queen uprising (who was accused of delivering the country into castilian clutches with her fatal policy of the past) in Lisbon.

Lisbon declared Don Joao as rightful king and as long as he remained imprisoned the Master of Avis as his regent.

>1384
>January

>Spain
King John of Castille marched into the Tegus valley, where he met the desperate late queen, who was ready to transfer all her (nominal) powers to him.
He of course accepted, then locked her up into a faraway monastery, declaring himself ruler of Portugal for his son.
He did not clarify for which one of his two sons, but that made it even more clear that Portugal was meant to be united with Castille-

Everyone in Portugal hated it, but noone saw any other alternative, so the nobility and the rest of the country apart from Lisbon submitted (though of course Lisbon was by far the most relevant part of the whole kingdom)

>100YW
In the abandoned small village of Leulinghem at the edge of Calais another peace conference started, with John of Gaunt on one side and Berry, Brittany and Louis II of Flanders on the other side)

It was deliberately choosen here instead of a big city so noone was distracted and noone had to impress anyone else with useless stuff.

The conference was not taken very seriously at first, but it actually achieved a lot by agreeing to a possible solution to the core issue and a truce till November for further negotiations.

The problem of sovereignity would be solved by giving Aquitaine as french fief to John of Gaunt himself as nearest male relative to the english king.
The French in turn would give back large parts of the regions ceded at Bretigny.

Everyone agreed that this might be a good starting point for a final peace.

>January
While the conference was adjourned, Louis II of Flanders travelled back and died on the way.
He had ruled almost for four decades and managed as competent ruler to keep Flanders out of all trouble, as well as expand his power into Brabant, only to see his country burned to the ground at the very end.

With this his realm and inherited clay fell to his daughter and her husband Philip of Burgundy.
The couple united the Duchy and County of Burgundy, the nearby Nevers, the french province of Artois and the Rethel region of Luxembourg with Flanders; as well as would get for their son the inheritage of Brabant once its current ruler died.
Not to forget that the Duke of Burgundy right now controlled the french government.

>February
After 14 years the peace with England is breaking down on the scottish border, as the Douglas clan raided against royal orders into english Cumberland.

>April
To bring the Scots to their senses, all three brothers, Lancaster, York and Gloucester, led an english army of 4k over the border and took undefended Edinburgh.

But with no decisive battle or engagement at all, the army had to retreat back without any results. Its the same dilemma that Edward III had faced before.

>May
The Leulinghem truce explicitely also covered Flanders.

Philip of Burgund as new ruler ignored it though and retook Oudenaarde from the Ghent militia.
This was the beginning of increasing attempts to finally bring fucking Ghent down for good.

>May
King John had mobilized all the power of his kingdom to capture rebellious Lisbon and end the portuguese resistance against his rule.

His army of 6k fully surrounded Lisbon and began a great siege, while his fleet of 40 galleys blocked all naval access.
It soon though became clear why his father had failed here as well, because Lisbon was a large city and it was hard to effectively besiege it. But its seize worked against it as well, because famine broke out pretty soon in the city.

_________________________
In England the parliament debated about the Leulinghem treaty, especially under which condition Aquitaine should be granted to John of Gaunt and how large it needed to be.
Other people vehemently rejected the idea to acknowledge it as french fief, this was after all the issue about which the whole war was fought for.

During the debate the Earl of Arundel as most outspoken advocate of an agressive war policy launched into an intemperate speech, where he conjured up a future where England had become completely cucked, where it forgave all the french treachery and gave up all that the previous hero generation had fought for and how the current government had made the strongest nation Europe had ever seen into a laughingstock and third-rate power.

Obviously the whole thing could be kinda interpreted as an attack against the king, and Richard II almost physically attacked Arundel, before John of Gaunt calmed the situation down again.

>July
Robert II of Scotland confirmed to the English that there was still peace between the two nations and that noone would profit from renewed war.

All the while raiding from the border lords on both sides continued.

>July
France had a bit of time and money now with peace all around.
So they decided to finally send a relief force down to Naples to free Anjou.

It marched under Enguerrand de Coucy to Milan where a milanese-french alliance was agreed upon, and then down to Tuscany, where the further advance was stopped by florentine moves and lots of diplomacy (Coucy was a top level diplomat, a warrior who had excelled among other at Roosebeke, and a noble who had once been son-in-law of the english king, so he was very suited for that job)

____________________
Lisbon struggled with famine and no hope of any relief (the Master of Avis had a rebel army under his command, but it was far too tiny to try anything).
At least a small relief fleet managed to break through the naval blokade, though 3/4 of it was lost in the process.
There was a feeling that further resistance was pointless, but also that with its surrender Portugal might lose its independence.

The other side didnt looked so bright either: typhus was ravaging the siege army and money had run out long ago.

For both sides it was a war of endurance: Lisbon beliefed it needed to hold out for just a tiny bit more before the siege might get raised and John I of Castille that just one or two days more and Lisbon might finally surrender.

>September
In Apulia Louis of Anjou died on illness.

His dreams of being ruler of an italien kingdom, of acting as regent of France, all had turned to dust.
It was a lesson for any future french prince who might think about taking over the Kingdom of Naples, but of course it was lost on the French, who would try exactly that for the next 150 years.

He was succeeded by his 7 year old son Louis II, who was acknowledged as neapolitan king by France and the Avignon Pope.

_________________
The Great Siege of Lisbon ended.

And the victor was ...

Bump

B A S E D Jeanne
Much respect from Korean
But Katy Perry ruined her

Fuuuuuuck these threads are the best

In the context of the hundred years war, what were some technological innovations that impacted the conflict? When did plate start showing up?

The battle opened shrouded in fog, which, according to one source, disappeared on the unfurling of the oriflamme. This was the king’s banner, originally the sacred banner of the Abbey of St. Denis. Once raised, no prisoners were to be taken until it was lowered.

bumping this

This sounds like classic medieval myths but it's true that flanders can get pretty foggy. If it's true it must have been pretty epic.

Plate was there the whole century and was at the current moment (1380s) widely used.

Other innovations were the advent of siege artillery, which would completely transform the second part of the war (as you may have noticed, pretty much any single siege of any decent seized city had failed till now), where the strongest fortresses and largest towns could suddenly be taken in a reasonable frame of time.

Not technical, but the formation of a standing army (with a full siege train) was what is often credited as having won the war for the French; as well as the establishment of a system of direct taxes in the 1360s .

Militarily it was shaped by the rise of infantry, the decline of the knight (mind you, not of cavalry) and how knights were now fighting dismounted, the rise to importance of tactical advantages and of course for the English the longbow and all its implications (it had been despite its successes against the Scots a supporting arm at the beginning, it had risen now to english armies consisting halfway or more of archers; at the time of Agincourt 4/5 of the english armies were archers)

What about it is a myth for you? The oriflamme?

Lets continue, that was a bit of an abrupt stop last night.

well, Portugal is not really a part of Spain right now, so yeah, John I had to raise the siege in the end.
He still controlled much of the rest of the country.
It was not much comfort, because he lost many friends and many more troops in the unsuccessfull siege (among them his top commander and the admiral who had led the coastal raids against England and destroyed the portuguese fleet at Salses)

>October
Ghent finally submitted .... to the English.

Well, the Anglos didnt refuse and send a garrison of 400 troops.
Burgundy was likely not very amused.

>November
Isolated in Tuscany, the crazy bastard Coucy had actually taken over the second largest town in the region for himself, but with the news of Anjous death there was nothing more to achieve in Italy, so he sold the city to Florence for a safe conduct of his own troops and those remaining in Naples back home.

>December
The first son of the scottish king, Carrick, took over the reign from his father and initiated a more agressive scottish policy.

Scottish raiders took the major english border castle of Berwick in a coup, but soon sold it back to the Earl of Northumberland.

>1385
>January
Coucy led the rest of the french troops back to Avignon.
With this ended Anjous adventure. His family still controlled formerly neapolitan Provence.

In Naples itself Charles of Durazzo had now full control and thought the best course of action would be to piss of the roman pope as well, then go to Hungary to claim the throne there.
It actually worked for some weeks, then he was poisened in Hungary.

The Kingdom of Naples would now be split among the supporters of the small Durazzo kid and the small Anjou kid.

>Winter
With the Leulinghem negotiations last year having borne no fruits, Clisson announced farreaching plans to renew the Hundred Years War.
The financial situation was excellent, with the renewed taxes and a special one-time tax (a taille) for fleet building having brought in a record income. It was six times as large as the english maximum tax income of the last years.

Its core elements would be to bring the naval ressources of Flanders into play and build a massive fleet, then invade England together with the Scots.

In detail, it would intend for a french fleet under Admiral Viennes to land 1,6k knights in Scotland, later followed by the main army under Clisson, which would be 5-6k strong.
The Duke of Bourbon would pressure northern Gascony with 1,4k while Burgundy would lead 2,5k against Calais and Ghent.

[I'm just an armchair general but how about taking these 10k that are apparently available and first taking out all the towns and fortresses still on the continent, like Brest and Cherbourg and Bayonne and Bordeaux before going for any abstract naval invasion plans?]

>February
In a great council the english nobles were demanding a more agressive policy against the french threat from the king.

Richard II blocked all criticism and relations between him and the royal nobles broke down completely.

>April
The Duke of Burgundy celebrated an extremely lavish double marriage between his son and daughter to the kids of the Duke of Holland (and heir to Hainault), bringing the rest of the Low Countries even closer into his embrace, but not making himself much friends among the population, who languished in deep social grief.

>May
The Master of Avis in Portugal, as only one standing against the Castilians, took a step further and claimed the portuguese crown for himself, despite being just a bastard brother of the previous king. Parts of the north of the country went over to him.

John I of Castille saw this as direct challenge and announced another year of large-scale campaigns to bring the portuguese resistance down for good, despite the very strained financial situation at home and the loss of many leading military figures in the previous siege.

But things were really not looking good, with the garrisons in Portugal not being paid anymore and a smaller expedition into southern Portugal being beaten back.

_______________________
English ships attacked multiple times the french invasion fleet, that is being formed in Sluys, but with only limited success.

>June
Vienne landed with 1,6k french knights in Scotland.
He soon found out that the Scots envisioned a war of raids and not a full front war and that they were too poor to support any larger french force.

The French behaving like assholes towards the Scots also didnt helped much.

>June
With chaotic southern France being overrun, Berry was pressed to finally get off his ass and do something.
The Duke nominated the new Count of Armagnac as his military commander for Languedoc with full powers to fight the Free Companies, but Armagnac was like his master more interested in the financial and political advantages of his office and rather less about its responsibilites.

The Duke of Bourbon, soon joined by Marshal Sancerre with 3k, who were supposed to attack english Guyenne, are now busy to at least clear the companies from Saintonge,

>July
John of Trastamare finally had gathered a large army (20-25k strong) and advanced into Portugal.
He really had no clear goal and there was divided opinion if a second attempt on Lisbon should be tried.

At the same time John of Avis, the portuguese rebel leader, saw the situation a lot worse and feared that Lisbon would not be able to withstand any new siege.

_________________
Van den Bossche took 1,3k Ghent militia and surprised the small river town of Damme, halfway between Bruges and the harbour of Sluys.

The whole french invasion army was now redirected towards Damme.

>August
The threat of a french-scottish invasion had caused the largest english army for many decades to be raised (but of course of very low quality in contrast to what usually is raised against France).
14k soldiers, under the king himself, with all three royal uncles and the northern border lords, advanced into Scotland.

Sadly, it was exactly the same situation as last year: Edinburgh was taken, no battle could be provoked and less then twoo weeks later the english army returned.
Sure, there had been a bit of plundering, but mostly it was a huge waste of money for nothing.

(It was on this occassion that the brothers of Gaunt were raised to Dukes of York and Gloucester, but the goodwill that the king showed was ruined when he also elevated his favourite the Earl of Oxford to the questionable title of Marquess of Dublin)

>what were some technological innovations that impacted the conflict

i can't comment on the impact of the tecnological innovations but the HYW period had lots of new things being used such as gunpowder artillery starting to be used in the european battlefield, the english used five ribauldequin to BTFO advancing french in the battle of crecy, in the end of the 14th century man portable guns start to show up.
also the HYW saw the end of the "transitional armour" period as the coat of plates started to get made of bigger and bigger plates, by the late 14th you had solid single piece breastplate and at the end of 14th beginning 15th the development of backplates made the use of a haubergeon redundant thus ending the age of mail since now mail would only be used to cover the gaps left at the articulations where plate can be put.
my favourite invention of this period is the pigface/houndskull/smiling bird visor for the bascinet that shows up in the late 14th, the protruded face, eye holes and very narrow eye slits are designed to encorage anything coming at your face to glance away instead of delivering the full force and minimize the chances of anything getting through the eye holes makeing it ideal for advancing on the enemy formation while getting shoot by longbow/crossbow which were popular in these times

>August
The castilian army (20k) had moved slowly against Lisbon, still unsure what to do and not really with money for any longer campaign.

But John of Avis (12,5k militia) finally decided that it couldnt be allowed for the Castilians to come any closer to Lisbon and they blocked the road on an elevated position.

The Castilians had learned something from the 100YW and the dangers of frontal attacks; so they ordered their army to go through the heavily forested terrain around the flanks and attack the portuguese army from behind.
Sadly the Portuguese werent stupid either and just wheeled around, they had after all more then enough time.

[armchair comment: just leave a bunch of troops in your original position and attack now into the back of the enemy??]

John I forbade any immediate attack and wanted to look at the situation again next day and decide if a battle should be launched or not.
But this were of course the middle ages and there was no radio, so the first castilian troops arriving on the frontline just attacked and everyone else struggling out of the forests -exhausted and hungry- just followed their comrades.

The Portuguese had deployed archers after the english model and could engage the tired enemy piecemeal a la Crecy.
It was a slaughter and just made worse that noone could stop if for a long time, before finally the royal orders were enforced and the senseless attacks stopped.

At the Battle of Ajubarrota the Castilians lost 7,5k casualties, among them all their cav and many of the leading nobles. It was the spanish version of Crecy/Agincourt.

With this any castilian plans came to a halt, the country was bankrupt, all its military leaders dead and the portuguese annexation -so close all the time- vanished in smoke.

Here the battle plan. It actually looked pretty good on paper but did not work at all in reality

And again, why not attack from back and frontally at the same time? The Castilians had almost double the numbers, so that shouldnt be any problem.

Thanks.
But what I find interesting is that I cant remember any specific battle where full plate armour really made a difference.
Either they were raped either way (like Sempach, Nicopolis, Agincourt), or it looks like they would have won regardless if they had worn full plate or plate mail

Thank you, you autistic faggot. This thread is exactly what I needed.

>August
The main french army at Sluys had attacked Damme, which was held for a long time against the vastly superior numbers by its small Ghent garrison.
The heroic last stand inspired the Flemish, but not enough to consider a general anti-french rising to regain their independence.

Burgundy himself gave up the invasion plans for good and marched the army against Ghent but a couple of assaults later he had to agree with his dead predecessor, that Ghent was unassailable.

>September
Scottish raiders and the french knights of Vienne had descended into english Cumberland and Westmoreland, devastating the countryside but achieving nothing of strategic value.

Vienne wanted to at least bring down the major isolated border fortress of Roxbourgh, but the Scots really did not care about doing a formal siege; and the French would leave the country in disgust later that month.

>December
Burgundy asked Ghent under which conditions they would submit to him.
They demanded a full pardon, urban rights acknowledged, their own rule inside the city and no punishments for all their rebellions.

Well whatever, the Duke actually agreed and with this could now govern in peace in his realm.
The rebellions that had ravaged Flanders for seven years were over.

Ghent kinda had the last laugh, but it would never regain its dominant role of this century, neither in european nor flemish affairs and while still being a sizeable city, it had been the second-largest city of northern Europe at the beginning of the country and was now pretty far away from these numbers.

Not the oriflamme but the fact that the fog disappeared just as the oriflamme was unfurled.

I'm not educated on tactics during the Middle Ages, but I imagine a cautious general would be weary to split his forces at any time. However, you'd think a superior cavalry force would allow you the confidence to use mobility against a militia you're opposing. Innovative tacticians are few and far between. Psychologically, having your troops in a single element probably makes them feel more confident than if you were to split your forces. At a time where the first to rout determines victory military leaders are going to be cautious. If I'm not mistaken we aren't looking at the most professional of forces (although they may have experienced units within the whole army.) Hindsight and all I guess.

I've spent my morning reading your three parts HYW user. Thank you for this contribution to the board.

bump

Maybe they unfurled it when they saw the fog disappearing.
After all it is not very useful if it can't be seen.

That does seem likely indeed but it sounds so much cooler to say that the flamboyant red banner made the fog disappear and i'm sure many commoners would have believed that in this era.

OP here
And sorry, I had not really as much time/impetus today and the weekend in general as I thought I would.

But thats also why I said I wont cover the whole war: This thread only did 5 years (though granted, it was also a lot of slightly off-topic stuff in Flanders, Spain and Italy) out of a war that lasted 116 years.
Its just too much to do it regularly

I will definitely continue the coming weekend or even Friday with all the stuff that was supposedly to be in here, either in this thread if its somehow still alive or make a fourth