100 YEAR WAR PART 6: THE FINAL WAR

>February
The end of the second term of the Languedoc lieutenancy of Berry after another long shitty 10 years had been celebrated throughout Languedoc, who wholeheartedly turned pro-burgundian, without entering the civil war though.

It triggered a series of moves from Paris to finish off the core regions of the nobles in Alencon, Poitou and Bourbon.

The Count of Alencon and Duke of Bourbon had governed their realms pretty successfully, so the population stood with their lords, but Poitou kicked out their Berry governeurs.

_______
Burgundy now planned for a final campaign into the Loire valley to end the war: He raised two armies (the second one under the Count of St-Pol should try a second time to subdue Alencon which was too strategically placed to be left alone) and got all his massive artillery park south that he had no opportunity to use against Calais.

It was financed by a gigantic taille of 900k (the largest ever and first since 1406). Yes, yes, he was supposed to be against that stuff, but it was for one last effort.

>April
Louis II of Anjou had returned from Italy after three years of trying to regain Naples in vain.

He supported now St-Pols attacks against Alencon from his own territories, both had 3k active, which overrun much of the County, but failed at siege of the largest fortress of Domfront.

In the south the hopes of keeping the civil war away were not completely fulfilled, the new captain-general of Languedoc, the Count of Foix battled successfully against the armagnacian positions in Rodez and Comminges (Armagnac was a core leader of the orleanist alliance and of course bitter rival of the Foixes for most of the last century)

>May
In London the orleanist embassy ceded Aquitaine in its full bretigny-era borders -including Poitou wich would be handed over once its rightful owner the Duke of Berry had died- to the English for their support to repel the Loire offensive.

They also promised to pay whatever army the English would send from their own money.

______
The Loire Offensive finally started with an army of 9k, officially led by King Charles VI and his son the Dauphin Louis of Guyenne personally.
Real command was of course by John the Fearless. The Duke of Anjou and the Provost of Paris Essarts both moved with them.

They crossed the Loire north of Nevers into the Duchy of Berry to target the largest city of the region Bourges.

For the Duke of Berry, who believed with all his heart into the traditional role of the monarchy, the confrontation with his nephew the king himself was his worst nightmare come true.
Still, he thought he could not surrender without the monarchy falling into the hands of the hatred Burgundy.

He and the rest of the rebel nobels took the line that they would never raise arms against their king, but would resist Burgundy until the death.

>June
The Siege of Bourges began.

The city was defended by 1,9k and had not only be embellished by multiple churches and palaces by Berry but also given state-of-the-art defenses and multiple new walls.

The city was reduced to ruin by continuous artillery fire, as voices on both sides cried for an end of this madness.

But the longer the siege continued the harder the situation got for the besiegers, many fell ill on dysentery in the hot summer and constant sallies from the city and surrounding areas caused large casualties.
The supply situation was improved as the town of Sancerre on the Loire was captured, but not enough to really feed the whole army.

It all would have probably still be enough for Bourges to fall (especially with the army for once well paid), but noone in the royal army really wanted a merciless siege and many probably questioned for what reason they were destroying one of the richest and largest cities of the kingdom.

>July
There have been more and more rumours that an english relief army might land every day now and also the breton position become rather unclear (it had been neutral, but the brother of the Duke, Artur de Richemont, was pro-Orleans and was assisting in the resistance in Alencon)

All sides opened talks to maybe end the Siege of Bourges before more blood is senselessly spilled.

To the protest of the other orleanist princes, the Duke of Berry agreed to open Bourges to the King and the civil war was to be stopped right now.
All dismissed orleanist nobles and government officials should be re-integrated and their confiscated titles and lands restored. All treaties with the English were declared as void.

The resolution of the Bourges Siege dissatisfied Burgundy, who had wanted to crush the noble party for good; but the Orleanists also considered the outcome as a burgundian victory and felt like Berry had surrendered.

>July
Only hours after Bourges had capitulated, the King relapsed into insanity.
The Loire campaign had been his longest period of sanity for a very long time, but even then he had by now become nothing more then a marionette and hardly understood what was being done in his name.

>August
The english relief army of 4k landed in the Cotentin Peninsular. It came a little bit late.

There had been harsh criticism by the Prince Henry, who wanted to ally with the other side and who was then completely excluded by his father.
It was thus commanded by another son of the king, Thomas of Lancaster who was raised to be Duke of Clarence; as well as the half-brother of the king, Thomas Beaufort, [the later Duke of Exeter, who right now was raised to be an Earl]

The army, as it moved south, was joined by the local norman and breton forces of the Count of Alencon and Artur de Richemont (who had 2,6k under arms)

Together they secured the Alencon again.

______
In the town of Auxerre the burgundian and orleanist sides gathered under the guidance of the Dauphin to pledge the new peace and reconciliation under the Bourges terms.
John the Fearless and Charles of Orleans officially embraced and swore to end all enmity.

But noone was fooled, it was just another version of the failed Chartres and Bicetre Peaces.

>October
For the last two months negotiations went on how to deal with the English.

They were busy going through Maine, Anjou and the Loire valley, plundering and pillaging as they wanted.

Charles of Orleans offered to pay off the army that he had initially bought, but the terms and large amounts of money that the English wanted made any agreement hard.

>November
The Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon and Berry reached finally an understanding with Clarence, they would pay him 200k to withdrew, while the local towns of Poitou paid him another amount of money to have him take another route not through their lovely countryside.

>December
Thomas of Clarence arrived with the english army in Bordeaux.

The whole expedition had been pretty successful, they all were rich (or would be when the money is paid) without any fighting, they all could have freely plundered and it really made it clear to the English just how fucked and dysfunctional the French Kingdom had become.

>Winter
Burgundy had resisted the reinstallment of the orleanist nobles and officers, the government was controlled like always by him and the Dauphin was a willing tool for him. At the same time Orleans was impoverishing himself to pay off his own allies who had done nothing.

Burgundy might not have won militarily, but the year had still ended good enough.

The downside was that the country was bankrupt and still no major reforms had been done.
John the Fearless forced against the royal wishes an Estates General for the next year to start a radical reform program.

>1413
>January
The two southern lords, the Count of Armagnac (the only noble officially refusing to accept the Auxerre/Bourges agreements) and Charles d'Albret (mad to not be reinstalled as Constable) allied with the Duke of Clarence for a possible united military campaign in Guyenne.

nice numbers

>January
In Paris the Estates General opened, presided by the King and flanked by the Dauphin and John the Fearless, it still was like the one two years ago not representative and dominated by the Pariseans.
It also faced the dilemma to tackle corruption while not touching the Duke of Burgundy who by now profited the most by said embezzlement.

It established a special commission to review and restructure the financial administration, and cut any remaining grants to other nobles.

This though heavily costed Burgundy of his remaining non-parisean support, as the Duke of Anjou and the dismissed Provost of Paris Essarts both went over into the rival camp.

>Spring
Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence returned from Guyenne.
In the end neither the orleanist nobles nor the government could pay him the agreed sums, so he took with him the younger brother of Orleans, John of Angouleme, as hostage to get that sweet though kinda undeserved money in the future.

Beaufort [Exeter] was left to govern Guyenne for a bit.

>March
Henry IV died with 45 years, after having ruled for 13,5 years.

He had established the Lancaster branch of the Plantagenets on the throne and led England through one of its lowest periods in recent history, disfigured and prematurely aged by illness he had stepped away from the public until recently.

Always a soldiers, who never really cut a convincing royal figure and little understood or cared for policy and finances, he had the fortunte to have the right people around him who did understood these matters and in the end he left England comparatively a lot stronger then in the previous decades.

Henry left four male sons, who all rose up to adult age and important roles in the 100YW.
His oldest son followed as Henry V (26), who due to his unsteady past caused quite a bit of unease among the english political class, who might have preferred one of his brothers instead.

IT'S HAPPENING LADS, FUCKING AGINCOURT AT LAST. THIS DAY ON THE 25th OF OCTOBER IS THE FEAST OF CRISPIN. GRAB YOUR LONGBOWS AND UPON THIS CHARGE CRY "GOD FOR HARRY, ENGLAND, AND SAINT GEORGE!"

Thats for today, I will continue tomorrow with still civil wars in France mostly

we will skip Agincourt, its not that important and had besides a number of dead french nobles no strategic consequences at all.

>skip agincourt
Look pal, if you're going to b8 it has to be at least somewhat convincing

Just want to let you know that I'm reading your threads and loving them. Keep up the good work

bümp-

Bump

>the orleanist embassy ceded Aquitaine in its full bretigny-era borders -including Poitou wich would be handed over
FUCKING.
TRAITORS.

The french government had from the 80s and 90s the position that they would restore Aquitaine not only in its pre-war borders but quite enlarged, if only it would lead to a permanent peace and not just new english invasions whenever France was busy somewhere else.
Somehow they never really thought of conquering it for good or they also considered core Guyenne rightful english (when they overrun it in previous wars they always had given it back afterwards)

And to be fair, while both sides would declare it a major victory if a provincial capital like Saintes, Limoges or Agen was taken, these are not exactly among the most valuable towns of France. Really, apart from the Languedoc cities there was little in southern france at that time that anyone in Paris gave a shit about,

The main issue would just be the extent as normally Poitou is too valuable to be given away for free and its the only bit of the atlantic coast afterall that the french kings possessed back then.
The other issue is sovereignity and apart from the solution back in the 90s to give it to an english royal branch there never had been any good answer; and probably there wouldnt be unless one side would fold or a total victory by either side.

Its also interesting that in contrast the Calais issue had been settled: The English did held three bridgeheads (Calais, Brest, Cherbourg) that were considered unassailable by the French, gave back two voluntarily and could keep the third.

Also OP here and it will only continue later, so in 7-8 hours

bump

We left yesterday with a new english king.

Henry V tried a change of image and now did cast himself as a sage and just priest-king, always virtuous and calm.
How much that was show and in how far it was believable might be another question, at least he presented himself better then hoped.

He also remained behind this facade highly ambitious, feeling that before him was an unique chance of french weakness and comparatively english strength.

>March
The brother of the french queen, Louis of Bavaria, the dismissed Provost Essarts and Philip of Vertus, one of the Orleans brothers, convinced the Dauphin of the danger of the burgundian reform program that was currently worked out; and how it would undermine the royal family in favour of Burgundy.

The Dauphin agreed to work against it with them.

___________
Thomas Beaufort [the later Duke of Exeter, right now just an Earl], who had been left behind in Guyenne, for the first time in ages pushed the borders again, taking over the lawless coastal regions of Saintonge and Poitou

>April
Essarts planned to take the king away from Paris to rob Burgundy of his main source of legitimacy.
But his plan blew up and a mob of enraged Parisians gathered, to them these kind of corrupt officials who wanted to abduct their king and stop the reforms at all costs, were exactly the source of anything that was wrong with France at the moment.

Essarts managed to flee into the Bastille, where he was surrounded by the mob who bellowed for his death.
The Duke of Burgundy at last could convince his former friend and ally to surrender to himself for his own protection.

But in the next days it became clear that there was a wider network at work here and their anger was directed at the Dauphin, who was accused of letting his own kingdom down to ruin.

Most of Paris was soon griped by organized violence and armed bands, led by the Butchers and Skinners Guilds (one of the largest best-organized guilds) and radical students of the university. They were derisively called Cabochians after the nickname of one particular brutal skinner.
They arrested people all across the city; at least it was relatively unbloody for a revolution, though here and there people were also murdered.

It escalated when they stormed the palaces of the Dauphin, arresting all his advisers and taking the prince under their control to guide him to grow up to be a proper king. Yeah right, that will surely work.

The Duke of Burgundy found himself increasingly under pressure to control the mob violence, while finding himself in the dilemma that the chaos costs him much of the rest of the support of the upper classes, thus driving him in even closer alliance with the lowly mob, thus depriving him even more of the remaining backing.

>May
The King had partially recovered from insanity, but was as much as possible shielded from whats going on outside of his palaces in Paris.

When he, his queen and the dauphin resided over a noble wedding in the Hotel St-Pol, the parisean mob actually stormed the palace, breaking up the ceremony and forced all the nobles present to surrender to them, where they continued to arrest whatever enemies they found there.

It was the moment where Burgundy, who was also present, completely lost face and control of the masses.

The mob forced in the next days the king to pardon all their acts and to give full authorization to the reform ordinances of the General Estates, restructuring the french finances and administration from the bottom.

The University, the city officials and much of the well-off Pariseans increasingly split with the violent and low-born masses of the Cabochian Revolution.

>June
Some of the most prominent prisoners were executed, among them Essarts (who ironically had played a leading role in the fall and execution of the former leading minister Montaigu)

In the rest of the country the hope that the revolution might collapse on its own was fading, as the Counts of Alencon and Armagnac gathered the power of the noble armies, threatening to storm Paris.

>July
The Duke of Burgundy and the old Duke of Berry opened negotiations with the nobles to prevent a bloodbath and renewed armed conflict.
They agreed to implement the Peace of Auxerre and reinstall all Orleanists and in principle they would lead the noble troops into Paris to resecure the capital.

>August
A royal council argued about opening Paris to the nobles; most of the city authorities and the Duke of Berry were in favour.

>August
As a last resort radical Cabochians stormed the royal meeting to adjourn it.
But it became clear that they had lost the favour of the majority of the population, who wanted the revolution to end.

The Dauphin meanwhile named the Breton Tanneguy du Chatel as his own Provost of Paris, who organized a counter-coup for him and mobilized armed support of the Pariseans against the Cabochians, who saw their cause collapse for good.

With most of the fortresses, palaces and strongpoints in the capital taken over by anti-revolutionary city authorities/dauphinist forces, most of the cabochian leaders fled Paris.

Just days later the discredited John the Fearless followed after them.

>September
The noble army, led by Armagnac, Alencon, Anjou, Bourbon and the Orleans brothers entered Paris.

They declared that finally the evil presence of Burgundy had been banished, all organizations and the administration were cleaned of his influences and all revolutionary resolutions were taken back.

But this sadly also meant the end of any effort of reform and the return of unlimited corruption.

_________
The new english king Henry V reaffirmed his plans to continue sending english troops to France.
He had send a large embassy to Paris to trade with Burgundy about an alliance against his foes, which now had to be redirected to Lille and Bruges.

But while he personally kept favouring Burgundy, he had to admit that the alliance with the Orleanists and the concessions they had been ready to made last year were also promising.

The new government in Paris agreed to send an embassy of their own to London.

The french priority was mostly to prevent an english-burgundian league and they were willing to talk about a marriage contract, but were not really interested in a permanent peace for the 100YW as it would mean they had to cede larger parts of southwestern France.

>October
The hopes to have with time all christian nations going over to the Pisan Pope had not been fulfilled.
The troops of the pro-roman King of Naples even chased him out of Rome.

In Florence he had at least been contacted by the german Emperor Sigismund, who convinced him to open another Ecclesial Council next year, this time in Germany in the free city of Constance

>November
Fresh troops under the Duke of Bourbon went south to stop the English in their attempts to expand north.
But it was a far cry from the (unsuccessfull of course) armies that had operated there in the 1405/06

>December
The London Conference opened; the first direct contacts since Richards II times.

The French with this also acknowledged the lancastian dynasty as english kings.
On the other hand there should be a truce as long as needed to get a peace treaty done.
Henry V though suspected -rightly so- that they just wanted the Peace of Leulinghem to continue, maybe again cemented by a marriage of Henry V to a daughter of Charles VI, but not any real peace.

____
The Duke of Burgundy met his allies and relatives in Antwerp and they decided to keep challenging the government and to try to bring Paris again under their control

Burgundy presented a batch of faked letters, in which the Dauphin allegedly asked for help to free him of the evil Orleanists.

>1414
>February
A burgundian army of 5k marched through northern France towards Paris.

Many towns, like Compiegne, Noyon and Soissons, opened their gates to them.

Arriving at St-Denis, John the Fearless personally went to the northern gates of Paris, hoping for an uprising.

In the city the Dauphin was nominally put in command of Paris to deny the lie that he was a prisoner of the nobles.
All the major fortifications, the Louvre, the Bastille, the main gates were all held by noble troops, while Paris still recovered from the violence of the Cabochian Revolution last summer.

After eight fruitless days Burgundy had to leave Paris in a serious reverse for his cause.

>March
Another massive taille of 900k had been decreed and large troops hired for the defense of Paris.

That was now not necessary anymore, so the royal council decided to switch to the offensive, to end the danger of the murderous Duke of Burgundy once for all.

>April
A large royal army of 15k marched into northern France, so pacify the Champagne and Picardy, before going to Artois and Flanders.

While it was led by the sane but half-concious Charles VI, real command lay with the Count of Armagnac.

>May
The town of Compiegne had to be besieged, and after it also Soissons.

At Soissons the patience run out: How can anyone support the bloody Burgundy with such enthusiasm after all he had done? Hell, how can anyone dare to stand against their rightful monarch?
Soissons was brutally sacked and its citizens massacred in another escalation of the civil wars.

At the end of the month the royal army split into two, with the smaller part heading towards the Duchy of Burgundy, the main army into Artois.

>June
The brother of John the Fearless, Philip of Nevers, who had command over the burgundian corelands, saw the cause of his brother as truely lost.

He now surrendered to the royal mercy.
Luckily for John, only Nevers fell under control of his opponents, while his wife kept defending Burgundy.

>June
The burgundian-english alliance was yet again discussed as John the Fearless urgently needed help.
But it failed on the strategic goal of Burgundy to have control over the king and the kingdom, not to destroy it.
He would ally with the English against the Orleanists and their noble supporters but not against Charles VI

Henry V could not even discuss Guyenne with him, because John was not in control of the government anymore and it didnt look like he would be again anytime soon.

At this time in England there was a vivid debate about whom they should ally with, as Henry V and his brother John of Lancaster would favour the Burgundians; his other brothers Clarence and Humphrey of Gloucester would favour the Orleanists.

There was of course always the alternative to fight as their own faction.

In the end, no matter what, a large-scale expedition under the king himself was now taking form for next year.

________
A burgundian force (as in: troops from the Duchy of Burgundy) had moved into the Low Countries, it was hard hit by the pursuing cavalry of Bourbon and Armagnac, but managed under losses to reach John the Fearless.

At the same time there were further moves on the diplomatic frontline.
The Duke of Burgundy had send his brother Anthony of Brabant and his sister Margaret of Hainaut into the royal camp on the Somme.

As first cousins and as Dukes/Duchess, they had every right to met the King and the Dauphin in private talks, circumventing the ever-present orleanist advisers.
But despite the horror of the nobles who feared that the weak prince would easily be brought around, no agreement could be reached, probably because John the Fearless refused to acknowledge any crimes or beg pardon for them.

>July
The royal army finally moved over the Somme into Artois.

That had given the Burgundians time to fortify the region, especially its main city of Arras.
1,5k under the capable commander John of Luxembourg held the city, 1,5k defended the rest of the county, 2k relief troops under John the Fearless waited on the flemish border to threaten the royal rear.

The Siege of Arras was similiar to the Siege of Bourges two years ago: under a witless king, with brutal artillery bombardement, a skillful defense, large losses on both sides and the question in both camps for what exactly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of the kingdom had to be reduced?

>August
A complex network of three-way diplomacy developed.

Burgundy still negotiated for an english alliance, but wanted it mainly used as a threat against the royal camp.
He could not convince himself to openly place himself against the french king as was demanded by Henry V

At the same time the mission of his siblings continued outside Arras; the Dauphin agreed that peace was needed and some sort of balance between the orleanist and burgundian sides, but it failed on any possible submission of John the Fearless and him accepting his guilt.

The Duke of Berry had been left in Paris, he was too old for this stuff.
He received another english mission and reaffirmed the understanding from 1412 that the government was willing to restore Aquitaine in essential its Bretigny borders, just without his own Poitou. Maybe other clay could be given up instead.
But it failed on the old and constant question about sovereignity.

>September
The curtain was finally raised over the diplomatic shuffle

The Dauphin reached an agreement with the Burgundy siblings.
Formally it would confirm the Duke as being defeated: The reconciliation of Chartres/Bicetre/Auxerre was once again agreed upon, but John the Fearless would be banned from power and forbidden to enter Paris unless recalled; his siblings would beg for him to get pardoned, all negotiations with the English were cancelled, the cabochian leaders in exile would be given up and Arras and all remaining towns in northern France handed to the king.

In a secret clause it was specified, that Arras would only surrender formally (a single guy would go in and be declared to be in command, the royal army had to stay out) and that John the Fearless would be pardoned with his closest advisers.

Understandably it caused outrage among the radical nobles, who saw yet again the whole comedy of the Bourges Siege repeated and still no decisive victory for either side.
But most of the other ones were probably thankful to not have to storm a french city and to concentrate on the english threat.

>Herbst
The main loser of the whole Arras show was still Henry V, who had been duped by both sides.

It was at that time, that the king decided to restart the 100YW as his own faction and to mount a major invasion next year to have the Frenchies remember what happened if you piss off the Anglos.

Pretty much all the english nobles supported a new war after the misery of the last decades (though not neccessary as its own party), war material on a vast scale were gathered from across the whole kingdom, as modern plate armours, longbows, siege engines and these sweet new gunpowder artillery were brought together.

Parliament got fresh money ready and a massive fleet was hired.

>October

Arras had revealed that for the first time the young Dauphin Louis of Guyenne was capable and willing to act on his own.
Together with his firm ally Tanneguy du Chatel he pressed for the return of the burgundian officials to counterweight the power of the orleanist nobles.
He also got direct control over the incoming taille money, using it to buy support and influence.

Obviously, that cant be allowed for long.
The Dauphin was invited into Arthur de Richemonts (brother of the breton Duke) castle and then practically held there under arrest, as the government was cleaned from his supporters.

When he was allowed to return, the Orleans brothers, Bourbon, Alencon and Armagnac were all again in full control of Paris and its institutions.

Btw, there is a Duke of Orleans, a Duke of Bourbon, a Duke of Berry, a Duke of Anjou, despite the Counts of Alencon and Armagnac having more and more the central role in the party.
Okay, thats understandable because all the first ones are royal relatives and Armagnac just a simple southern noble (albeit a major one)
But what is with poor John I of Alencon? He after all is also descended from a royal branch, his grand-father had been the brother of the first Valois King.

Well, for him to quit whining his County of Alencon was raised to a Duchy.

>November
The Council of Constance opened.

Interestingly it was seperated into five 'nations' that would vote each with one voice.
There was an english, a french, an italian, a spanish and a german nation (the last one including Hungary, Scandinavia, Poland, Bohemia)
This was quite unfair if you consider that a massive concentration of populace like in the german nation or a relatively tiny national church like in England had the same weight like everyone else.

The Emperor forced it through, so no complaining, pls.

forgot the picture

>1415
>January
The burgundian representatives had gone to St-Denis to ratify the Peace of Arras, but with the radical nobles in control in Paris, the conference was pushed back as they refused to allow the Burgundians to return to the government.

>February
Despite the king being insane at the moment, the Orleanists issued a royal ordinance in his name which would place John the Fearless at the mercy of the king and would exclude a large number of his allies from any possible amnesty.
The burgundian embassy pointed out that this was completely unacceptable.

But there would be yet another peace conference with the English held in Paris next month, and the Orleanists reminded their counterparts that an agreement was very close, opening the way for a large anti-burgundian alliance.

That was not neccesary just under a pure party perspective, as the English might want to get their control in Flanders back, the Germans wanted the Low Countries restored and the french king the burgundian and artois lands reintegrated into the crown domain.
In the end, even if they are siblings, someone like Anthony as Duke of Brabant or the Duchess of Hainault/Holland might look out for themselfs among a darkening future.

Most of that were pure lies, but it worked.

The burgundian delegation signed the Peace of Arras in its current form.

>>March
The Paris conference opened.
(i dont know about you guys, but I'm kinda tired of that endless list of meaningless peace conferences, but i wont leave them out either)

The English pointed out, that its actually pretty generous of them to be always concerned with Guyenne only, as the angevin heritage included a lot more.

Here we have to go back to the very first posts in the first thread: The Treaty of Paris of 1259 had acknowledged Aquitaine as english, who in turn had given up their claims to Anjou, Maine and Normandy and the exact boundaries agreed there were the basis for all the conflict and problems that followed.

But the English now said, that they could just as well demand Normandy or Anjou as rightfully theirs.
Bretigny-Aquitaine was actually just the lowest possible solution and the French should be grateful for that.

Well, all shittalking aside, the French would still not accept an enlarged Aquitaine to encompass Poitou (its after all the only atlantic coast they had).
They would on the other hand pay a large dowry for the french princess and maybe consider other land instead of Poitou.

The conference ended like all the ones before; but the French were now getting quite nervous with the english armaments and declared to be quite close to an agreement and were allowed to send a delegation of their own to England.

>April
An army of 12k had been formed, which included pretty much the whole nobility of England as well as the largest artillery train of their times.
The fleet had grown to 1k vessels, which would be able to ship over the whole army in one go.

It would land in Normandy, but not for a chevauchee or to threaten Paris or march to Guyenne like always in the past, but to directly conquer parts of Normandy to have yet another chip to enforce a final solution to the Aquitaine and sovereignity issue (the question if something in Normandy should be kept, was left open)

>April
The Dauphin had managed to install his partisan Tanneguy du Chatel as Provost of Paris.
Together they won over the Constable Charles d'Albret and the Bretons of Arthur de Richemont and with this the main military forces in Paris.

At a huge noble gathering for the Queen in her island fortress of Melun, the Dauphin excused himself and then took over Paris for himself, closing the gates and only leaving in the nobles as requested and without military escorts.

For the first time since the Queen tried it at the beginning of the century a third neutral party was growing.

>May
The Pisan Pope may had opened the Council of Constance, but he had to face the fact that he lost all influence there and finally fled.
The Council with this declared to constitute a quorum even without a pope, and when he was finally captured and imprisoned he was denounced as schismatic and heretic.

This in turn would cause the roman pope to recognize the Council and send his own delegates to 'reopen' it again.
There would be an agreement for him to resign but no other Pope being elected as long as he lives.

>June
Not surprisingly John the Fearless refused the last agreements with the orleanist-dominated government and questioned that the Dauphin would act now as his own party.

Still, he did accept the Arras Peace and reconciliation in general (as his only way back to power without english help)

>July
The last-ditch peace attempt was held in London.
It proposed to leave Aquitaine without Poitou but added the large area of Bas-Limousin, it also enlarged the dowry for a possible marriage. The sovereignity issue was left out.

There were voices that this was a pretty reasonable offer, especially under the light that the English actually lost the war.
But Henry V was convinced that it was just another attempt to win time. He wanted right now a full peace treaty or there would be a new war.

The French asked to be allowed to return to Paris, get new instructions and then continue the conference in autumn/winter. Henry V would have none of it.

At the end it fully broke down in personal attacks.
The english king pointed out, that he was willing to forego all his rightful lands in Normandy and Anjou just for sole Aquitaine in the name of peace, while he was cheated out even of that and that again and again and again and again the French just lied, broke all treaties or played the innocent English for fools.

The French returned that First the angevin possessions had been long ago abandoned by the Plantagenets, that Second its not their fault that the Anglos cant read treaties properly, and Third its completely meaningless what the Plantagenets owned or not, because quite clearly Henry V was not their lawful successor but just some usurper on the english throne.

At that the king lost his cool and would have them executed and everything went down to shit,

Thats not how you are supposed to do diplomacy,

Okay, lets for a moment forget how history will continue and just look at the issue from the point of view of England in Spring 1415

The strategy of Henry V to fight for neither side was highly controversial in both countries.
The best tool of english diplomacy and to achieve their goal of an enlarged independent Aquitaine would be the threat of an invasion. But exactly thats the problem: the THREAT

An actual invasion would be in the eyes of many an error, because no matter how successful, it would still be less effective then just simply threatening with it.
It would end all peace efforts for the moment (and at a point where the French were willing to concede) and just show the limits of english power.

Sure, if the English conquer all of Normandy or maybe even just major towns, it might be exactly the final straw to push the French to a permanent peace on english terms, but you cant plan with a best-case scenario.

And even if the English were more successfully as could be expected, wouldnt that be just because of french divisions?
And wouldnt these divisions vanish with any english success?
Would any english offensive thus naturally be contra-productive?

For many Frogs and Anglos the royal strategy up to now had been exactly the right one: Use the french chaos, negotiate with both sides, raise an army and fleet for invasion and pressure the French into ever more concessions.
BUT DO NOT actually declare war, that is were Henry V overshot.

>July
Emperor Sigismund had been quite successful at Constance, with the Schism almost overcome.
He now travelled to the spanish border to convince the iberian kings to give up the avignon Pope as last pope standing.

But he also wanted to negotiate an end to the 100YW before it escalated again and for the Christians to concentrate on the Council of Constance.
And with the possible downfall of the Duke of Burgundy, he would like the Low Countries to return to the german umbrella.

Also, Jan Hus was burned.

>July
Just as the french delegation fled the wrath of the english king and the invasion fleet was ready to sail out, another plot was exposed.

The brother of the Duke of York had long resented how far his family had fallen from the days of Richard II when it looked like they would be royal heirs.

He planned to abduct the imprisoned son of the scottish regent Albany and then exchange him for scottish support for another anti-lancastrian rebellion.
It would place the Earl of March on the throne, but the Earl himself was not willing (and such a rebellion not realistic anymore) and confessed the plans to Henry V

The plot collapsed and York was executed (the Duke though was not targeted and would accompany the king to France)

>August
The gigantic fleet brought the english invasion army of 12k over to the Seine estuary, where they besieged the major port of Harfleur (defended by 400 man)

The french government had expected the landing in Normandy, but assumed it would be like all the times before in the Cotentin Peninsular, where local defense forces -not too many to begin with- were gathered under the Duke of Alencon and Marshal Boucicaut.

Harfleur had many advantages as starting point of the Normandy invasion, because it sat right on the Seine, threatening Paris and controlling the major river barrier. And as said above, its on the other side of the Seine from the defending forces.

The Siege of Harfleur was done as the first major artillery siege: Henry V posted his army on two sides, flooded the north, (the south was the Seine) and then used his artillery to methodically destroy all defenses.

...

>September
Harfleur is mostly destroyed, the defenders cant hold the ruins anymore. A relief force is nowhere to be seen and not to expect for the immediate future.
Thus, Harfleur surrendered.

It gave the English their bridgehead, the control of the Seine estuary, demonstrated the effectiveness of artillery and was a major blow to the new government of the Dauphin.
Thats the good news.
The bad? England practically lost.

The whole flooding the plain around the port had caused dysentery to break out and the major concentration of troops in such a confined space didnt help.
Henry Vs proud army had suffered 2k dead (including the Earl of Arundel, who was among the most experienced and valued commanders) and over 5k too sick to continue (including his brother Thomas, Duke of Clarence)

With this his invasion plans were over and exactly what everyone had feared happened: Henry V broke up all promising talks, declared war and then lost half his army on a single port and had to go back to his isle.

Fuck.

>October
With the ill people and siege equipment embarked and shipped back, Henry V still couldnt face to come back like that.

At least he would take the remaining part of his army to march to Calais and embark there, so they could plunder the Picardy a bit.
Its the old chevauchee strategy, and given the short way to Calais and the desolate state of his army it would not even be a large one.

Henry V left 1,2k with his uncle [Exeter] in Harfleur -who pointed out to him that the town was freaking destroyed and not really defendable-

With the rest, some 6k, he moved north towards Calais.

>October
There had been heavy criticism of the french war effort.
The invasion had been expected for a long time, so just standing by and watching was inexcusable.
Sure, it had landed somewhere else, but the royal army had been slow to gather and would neither move to end the siege nor hit the remnants of the english force as it was evacuated again.

But now in the October days it hit full gear: More and more men came together, enabling Constable d'Albret to fortify the Somme against any english move further north.
The Duke of Alencon and Marshal Boucicaut joined the Constable as commanders.

The Dauphin had gone to Rouen with the main nobles (Dukes of Berry, Anjou, Bourbon, Burgundys defected brother Count of Nevers) to build a second royal army. He also called on the Dukes of Burguny and Brittany to join the anti-english war.

When Henry V reached the Somme he realized his folly:
The river fords were all held by strong french troops, the minor bridges destroyed and the major ones too strongly defended. Only now did he grasp that the French might not have acted during the Harfleur Siege but he still was facing a major army.

He also cant turn around to Harfleur because behind him at Rouen was the second army (actually, it did hardly had enough troops to challenge him and the french main army was holding the Somme, so probably would not be able to react fast enough if he forced-march back to Harfleur, but Henry V did not knew it)

Interestingly, he found himself in a similiar situation as his great-grandfather Edward III had been during the Crecy campaign. The Battle of Crecy had kinda overshadowed that their original chevauchee had back then turned horrible wrong.

Had to cut it from the previous post, because it was too long:
(Boucicaut had an interesting vita; he had fought in the Nicopolis Crusade, then acted as commander of the french soldiers holding Constantinople, and once the turkish threat had subsided he ruled as french governeur in Genua, fighting for french-genuese interests in Italy and Cypern. Now with Genua independent again he returned as famed hero to France)

>October
Henry V marched with his army along the Somme eastwards, around Amiens his last rations run out and his soldiers began to starve.
Luckily the Somme had a major bend further up, so while the French had to go all the way around he could just cut across on the direct way, reaching the Somme first and to cross it between Peronne and St Quentin.

In both towns were larger garrisons, but they reacted too late.

Charles d'Albret, the Constable, had often been questioned about his competence, but he did exactly the right thing now, having all french troops immediately fall back and build a second line centered on Arras and its nearby crossings on the river Scarpe and the small Ternoise stream.

___
Some of the Rouen troops under the Duke of Bourbon and the burgundian Count of Nevers had departed and joined the new defensive line at the Scarpe.

In Rouen itself there were hasty negotiatons to have the Bretons and Burgundians on their side.

Way back in 1381 when the English had tried to capture the island town of St Melo it had been held by royal troops and since then practically annexed to the crown.
John V of Brittany wanted St Melo back for his participation, and it was now given to him.

He led his breton army slowly northwards, as his (orleanist) brother Arthur de Richemont took the breton cavalry and joined the french lines.

It's going to be like Crecy all over again; the English downtrodden, worn out, cornered and defeated. I wonder what happens next...

(cont.)

It was more complicated with John the Fearless. He signalled his readiness but demanded to join the army in person. This was refused by the Dauphin, because it would just split and paralyze the army.
The Burgundians could point out of course, that many of the orleanist nobles were already there (like Alencon and Bourbon, and the young Duke Charles of Orleans himself was right now joining as well)

At least the Dauphin could offer a full amnesty, like agreed on the Peace of Arras last year and Burgundy remained ambivalent, he wanted to not miss a major victory in battle but also wanted to sell his power as high as possible.

The main burgundian force was concentrated in southern Flanders and was not allowed to join until John the Fearless personally allowed it, but his brother Anthony of Brabant had enough authority to take some of the heavy cavalry with him.

_____
Meanwhile the starving english army crossed southern Artois in heavy rain.

Henry V only chance to prevent a total debacle was to outmanouvre the French, by going west and targetting the Ternoise not the main crossings on the Scarpe.
Indeed he managed to find the stream unguarded and brought his army over, it was now only a short way over open ground to Calais and the English were out of.......

At that moment his scouts came back and reported movement of the french cavalry north of the Ternoise valley, cutting the only road. In the next hours they were joined by the main french army.

GAME

FUCKING

OVER

BUT WAIT

Where the heck do you get all this info from? Even Wikipedia has nowhere near as detailed an account of ths hundred years war. Were you there?

at Crecy the English were well rested on a defensive position and the French acted like retards.
Not so much luck now.

Henry V marched with his starved ragged 6k a bit further onto the road, flanked on both sides by heavy woods.
He knew he could not push through the french lines because he lacked heavy troops, he could not go around them, he could not find any defensible position and either way he could not wait for the French to come because he himself was close to starvation.
When the English army went to sleep it was with the expectation that pretty much anyone of them would be dead next day.

The french army had grown massively, reaching now 14k, among them 9k knights and heavy cavalry, some of the strongest french army ever gathered in the 100 Years War. They were well rested and fed.

They also had learned from their past mistakes. There had been a clear batteplan for many years now, that if there would ever be a major battle again against the English, that the cavalry would first be used to neutralize the archers, that the french knights would fight dismounted and that all the power was concentrated to hit at once, not peace-meal like in Poitiers and Crecy.

But all was not well. The military commanders (Boucicaut, Constable) were always in conflict with the great nobles (Bourbon, Orleans, Alencon) who as dukes refused to listen to them and wanted to command the battle in person.

Sorry if it last so long to post, 3/4 of the time between posts is solving retarded captchas

Sumption books

Bump for reading material tomorrow morning. Appreciated as always, HYW user.

At the morning battle was joined.

This time the English advanced cautiously, attacking the densely packed French with arrowfire.
At that the two-pronged cav attack started. Unfortunately the plans were tactically sound but had assumed a battle on open ground, not flanked by woods. Thus the cav was hardly efficient, was reduced by the arrows and stopped by stakes planted in front of the archers.

Okay, who cares. The main attack now unfolded as the mass of armoured power walzed towards the english position.
But they were packed too densely, the ground was muddy as hell by the rain and previous cavalry attack, making them move slow and awkward.
Also, there kinda was no satellite imagery available back then, and it was not obvious at first sight, but the forest lane was narrowing towards the English so they were pressed more and more against each other, becoming immobilized apart from the forward momentum.

When they crushed against the english line, they pushed by sheer momentum the English back.
On the english right the commander, the Duke of York died
(there are two versions, either he was killed, or wounded and lost his footing and then pressed into the mud by the fighting and suffocated; a pretty shitty end for the one who had been under Richard II the designated heir to the throne)
in the middle the youngest royal brother Humphrey of Gloucester almost was killed and King Henry V wounded.

But once the first impact was weathered, the french mass was not able to move anymore and could be easily slaughtered.
Similiar to other battles like recent Othee or Roosebeke the French were also dieing in large numbers by suffocation or pressed forward from behind against the English spears and swords.

When the onesided massacre was over, the English advanced to a second body of troops left behind, but there were no french commanders left alive and without command they were easily beaten.
(cont.)

(cont.)

At the afternoon the battle concluded with a pretty fucked up episode, as french remnants tried to rally in the distance.
The noise was interpreted as new french armies arriving and the spread out, exhausted english soldiers had no capability to keep their many captured prisoners in check, so the order went up to kill everyone.
Only after it was realized that it was a false alarm the slaughter stopped, but 700 bounded prisoners had been killed.

The battle was only later named after a nearby tower as Agincourt and was of course the most famous of all battles of the war.
It had placed an english army at its worst without any of the tactical advantages that they usually enjoyed in their victories against a far superior french army which had utilized in many ways an improved tactic compared to their major losses at Crecy, Poitiers or Nicopolis.
And still against small english losses (120-400) there had been 5,8k killed and 1k captured. The numbers are of course debatable, but the whole military and noble leadership was wiped out.

Killed: Constable d'Albret, the Duke of Alencon, Philip of Nevers, his brother Anthony of Brabant who joined in the middle of the battle and had like his brother his throat cut in the prison massacres.
Captured: Charles of Orleans, Arthur de Richemont, Marshal Boucicaut, Duke of Bourbon and many other middle nobles.

In England it was seen as triumph of english military prowess against all odds and increasingly interpreted as divine sign.
From one moment to the other Henry V strategy of reopening the war was supported by everyone and the Lancaster Dynasty accepted as divinely approved rightful rulers of the kingdom.

In France obviously it was received with horror. It was not only the repeat of the long ago humiliations that everyone had hoped to forget, but in many ways it was so much worse by all the advantages that the French had enjoyed this time.

I dont want to sound too anti-french here, but it caused some general loss of heart, and self-confidence. French martial valour had become the laughing-stock of europe, unable to ever challenge the superior english soldiers in open battle in 80 years of war.

There were other explanations: divine punishment for how the noble class had destroyed the french monarchy and the misery it had caused; also it was pointed out that the Burgundians and Bretons had not joined in force (though what good exactly would have done even more soldiers?)
In general it was an 1940-moment of total hopelessness.

Restore the Angevin empire

So, what went wrong?
Obviously the French should not have attacked, the cav attack against the archers had to be modified to account for the narrow environment, the main french army was too densely packed, command was split too much and not all nobles and commanders should have fought in the first line and be taken out first; and someone should actually lead during the battle to account for changed circumstances.

In short, tactics are really important, folks.

A last curious point:
The Battles of Agincourt, Crecy and Poitiers all masked that the campaign themselfs had all been catastrophic failures for the English, only to be saved at the very end by winning the final battle.
It prevented any critical thinking of the English about the campaigns themselfs. This was an ill omen for the future.

Also, really last point:
Agincourt is super famous, but it did not improve the english side at all. It only prevented a huge defeat and the loss of the king.
Still, the campaign was a failure and only destroyed Harfleur had been captured.

Pic of the Duke of Alencon kicking down poor Humphrey and trying to take out Henry.

He is also sometimes credited with killing the Duke of York

>November
Henry V returned from Calais to England, where he was welcomed as national saviour and hero-king among a general euphoria.
His way towards London was just one single triumphal march.

Finally, the good old times of Edward III had come back.
(nevermind everything that had gone so terrible wrong in the days before the battle)

_______
With practically the whole orleanist leadership wiped out (Armagnac is still there and the youngest of the Orleans brothers), it once again opened an opportunity for John the Fearless to mount a comeback -though his role in the Agincourt disaster had tarnished his reputation among the people-

He raised a new army of 3-5k to march on Paris.

>December
The Dauphin organized a defense of Paris, that was just as much directed to the outside as the inside where a popular rising was feared.

He issued a direct royal order for Burgundy to either stop his march or drop any pretence to act on behalf of the royal party and be considered a traitor to the crown.
John the Fearless just ignored it.

The Dauphin Louis of Guyenne was maturing in these days into an effective politician, restoring confidence, trying to get the finances in order and somehow raise a defense of the capital.
He also named the Count of Armagnac, the last surviving orleanist leader but also one of the last remaining major nobles with military experience as new Constable.

Of course G'D hates France and of course we cant have any nice things, so the dauphin -already sick of dysentery and overworking himself- died with just 18 years.

As I said to the user above my main source in these threads are the Sumption books and the author had stated that in his view the dauphin was severly underrated and that he was at least in the last months growing -just like his grandfather Charles V did in the aftermath of the collapse of the monarchy in the late 1350s- into someone who could be a competent king.

But in general Louis of Guyenne is very negatively seen, as someone just dedicated to pleasure and luxury and acting as puppet to everyone around him, while Agincourt was also blamed on him.
Its probably fair to conclude, that even as kid/teenager he could have played a more prominent rule but also that he had managed to build a neutral royal party of his own and might have ended the civil war.

He was followed as dauphin by his younger brother John of Touraine (17).
(Even in his insanity the king had fathered several children, so there is even yet another son available behind John)

This brought another new element into the play.
The new dauphin had married the daughter and heir of Duke William of Hainault and Holland and was supposed to be the new ruler there.
His mother had been a sister of John the Fearless and he himself resided in Valenciennes, the capital of Hainault. But his father refused to let his son be a mere burgundian puppet and wanted to now play for himself a major role in the whole drama.

_____________
After two months of fruitless discussions, the last reigning pope, Avignon Pope Benedict XIII refused to step down, but at the same time Emperor Sigismund had finally convinced the kings of Castille, Aragon and Navarre to renounce their allegiance to him.

>1416
>January
The new Constable Bernard Count of Armagnac arrived in Paris with 3k soldiers.

He immediately assumed total control of all instances of government, finances, administration and military matters, essentially becoming a military dictator.
With the king insane, the Dauphin a far-away puppet, Berry too old and Anjou dieing there are no other power-centers left.

He also took the former closest ally of Louis of Guyenne, Tanneguy du Chatel, as his right-hand man, forming the orleanist/noble party into an armagnacian one.

Conditions though in Paris sharply deteriorated, with its supply lines cut by fighting, the princely courts and their appeal to businesses and political/economic networks gone; and the capital practically becoming an occupied town.

John the Fearless still had many troops around Paris, but without money to pay them they slowly dissolved or became robber bands.

>March
With the Papal Schism almost finished, Emperor Sigismund went to Paris for his diplomatic mission to end the Hundred Years War.
The Emperor saw himself as the leading european figure, the ruler of a soon to be reborn Holy Roman Empire, having secured Hungary against the Turks (though of course the Turks had only been stopped by the Timurids), ended the schism and now wanted to tackle the french-english antagonism.

His stay in Paris was sobering.
There was no king to talk to, not really much of a royal administration left, no other senior nobles left and the Emperor looked down on Armagnac, while the latter ignored him because he had better things to do.

Okay I will end for now; i thought I would go until the start of the next Normandy invasion, but its too far, its too late here and the captchas are driving me insane.

I will continue in 12h

...

>1415
>mfw French
>mfw disaster incoming

>The French returned that First the angevin possessions had been long ago abandoned by the Plantagenets, that Second its not their fault that the Anglos cant read treaties properly, and Third its completely meaningless what the Plantagenets owned or not, because quite clearly Henry V was not their lawful successor but just some usurper on the english throne
>At that the king lost his cool
Couldn't handle the bantz

Jesus fuck they should have encircled them and slowly suffocate the anglos, force them to attack

Something I never understand in medieval warfare is why no troops were ever used to flank through forests. Just sending a couple hundred dismounted knights through the woods to rape the english longbows and allow an encirclement of the english position would have won the battle.

But even in Boudicca's time the forests seemed to be some kind of impassable barrier for flanking forces, why?

Visibility I guess, hard to locate your troops and the rest of your army, but with knowledge of the area it should be easy, just take some local villagers around, especially when you're on your own territory.
Cavalry is no go, but as you said, infantry would work, and with such a number difference it would pose no problem on the rest of your army.
I might be wrong on this, I'd like an user to correct me on this if needed, but I doubt there was any real low level hierarchy either. Romans had decurions and centurions, but that organization was long gone, and if you couldn't see your lord or king, you didn't know what to do.
Even if you don't want to go in the forest, just split your army and send on halth around it to block their retreat, that way they're screwed.

Yeah really puzzling, but I guess the visibility/communication problem is a huge part of the explanation, you're right.

Another factor is that its looked down upon as dishonorable.
You have to attack your foe head on in the open.

Honor must be one of the biggest memes in history. Sure, don't be a dick but don't be retard either, use your fucking brain.

>March
While the Emperor spoke about peace, the French were thinking about Harfleur.

Taking the harbour back would at least somewhat reduce the shame of the last year and drive the point home to the English that they had achieved nothing with the Agincourt campaign.

The [later Duke of Exeter] Thomas Beaufort had taken most of his garrison out for long-range raiding to supply himself, but was cut on his return by a french force of 1,8k under the Count of Armagnac personally.

He managed to get himself out of the immediate danger and next day broke through the french lines and reached Harfleur.
Both sides named it as victory, as Exeter had escaped certain defeat but also lost 400 man in the battle, a third of his garrison.

A formal siege of the already destroyed Harfleur was opened by the French.

>April
Emperor Sigismund left Paris in disappointment. He always knew that he shouldnt have trusted the French.
He continued on to London.

On the way he got news from Duke William of Hainault who raised new hopes of a peace mission.
Hainault, as the controlling factor behind the Dauphin, would come to London, and there he also would find the imprisoned Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon and together they would represent the true french government

___
In Paris an anti-armagnacian plot to get rid of the hated count is discovered.
That unfortunately took the focus from Harfleur to Paris.

Armagnac agreed to a truth for the next month with [Exeter], then hurried back to Paris to brutally suppress all opposition against him with mass executions.

>May
In contrast to Paris the Emperor is welcomed with all deserved pomp in London.

Together with the french nobles (who had been told that they would only get released with a permanent peace), the hainautian party, the Burgundians and the English the Emperor spend the next weeks in negotiations.

The French wanted a three-year truce (but only after Harfleur had been retaken) to open a major peace conference as it had been done numerous times in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
The English might have agreed to a short truce, but it had to come into effect right now, meaning the end of the Harfleur siege.

In general Henry V wanted full bretigny-Aquitaine plus Harfleur ceded as compensation for his norman claims.

He despised that the French again and again made these peace negotiations and bold promises without ever intending to observe them.

>June
The Duke of Berry (76) died as the last of the generation of the 1370s and the last of the royal uncles.

He left over the next years and centuries a better reputation then he probably deserved. For one he was still associated with the golden years of Charles V, but also always had been a voice of moderation and de-escalation, so he was contrasted with the powerhungry nobles that had brought down France right now.

Also, he spend a lot of his plundered wealth on art, manuscripts and building beautiful stuff, which is of course appreciated by the later generations, who did not want to ponder where that money had come from in these desolate times.

His Duchy of Berry and formally his ruled Poitou were both given to the Dauphin, to build him some powerbase and to get these regions back into the royal domain once he became french king.

>July
The French in London still dragged out the proposed truce.
The situation for the English in the ruins of Harfleur had become hopeless, just through the energies of [Exter] they were still clinging on miraculously.

The french government in Paris had issued a second taille in under 12 months to raise 600k for the siege and primarly to equip and pay a strong fleet that would prevent any relief attempt by sea.
While the fleet was french, the most powerful components by far were the genuese and castilian carracks.

>August
300 smaller and middle-large ships found anywhere in english harbours had been united for a last-ditch relief, then over 6k soldiers crammed on them.
It was commanded by another brother of Henry V, John of Lancaster raised to be Duke of Bedford.

In the first days of the months they entered the Seine estuary to confront the far smaller, more thinly manned but more powerful french-allied fleet.

Conditions there were pretty bad, because the taille money had only sporadically come in and the fleet was essentially unpaid and not exactly eager to now fight a major battle.
During the night and next morning the Castilians fled and many genuese galleys kept out.

The French would open the naval battle on their own and it would be centered around seven large genuese sailing carracks. They were hard to board and could lay devastating fire from their large castles to the attackers.

Still, in the end all seven carracks were taken and 4 galleys destroyed, with 1,500 French/Genuese killed and 400 captured; the rest of the hopeless french fleet fled.
On the other hand it had cost 2,7k English killed and a whole 20 ships sunken. That was the kind of pyrric victory you dont want to repeat all too often.

But who cares, Harfleur could be supplied with food, weapons and fresh soldiers and with this the siege had been raised.
For his prominent role Thomas Beauford (then just an Earl of Dorset) was raised to be Duke of Exeter.

>August
Henry V had enough.
He would continue next year with another -hopefully more successful- invasion of Normandy, now that France just continued to fall apart.

This should be done in a repeat of the large international coalition of the beginning of the 100YW, as both the HRE and Burgundy would ally with him.

Sigismund himself gave up any neutral role and declared himself as anti-french and intended to regain the lost german border regions.

>September
With the London truce having failed and a larger war to resume next year, the Dauphin finally declared to return to Paris to unify the nation behind him.

>October
For a long time there had been conferences in Calais about the three-way alliance.

But it failed on the enmity between John the Fearless and Emperor Sigismund. Sigismund saw himself as great patriot for the renewal of german power but was with this adamantly opposed to the burgundian influence in the Low Countries and their rule of the german Free County of Burgundy.
John the Fearless also did not really care to make the HRE stronger and more powerful, while still maintaining his image as a french hero.

In the end Burgundy would simply be neutral in any future conflict and not aid the armagnacian government against England and the HRE

(an interesting point is that Burgundy and the Emperor knew each other from the Nicopolis Crusade, that the two had commanded; the first just as burgundian heir and the last as hungarian king.
But the campaign was probably not something that the two wanted to recall)

_______
Parliament met in Westminster and still under the impression of Agincourt, they gave money on an unprecedented scale, with taxation at its highest level during all of the 100YW (and in relation to their population base higher then at any time during the next three centuries)

All the national ressources were mobilized for the great invasion of Normandy.

>November
John the Fearless had gone from Calais to Valenciennes, where he agreed with his brother-in-law Hainault to let the Dauphin return to Paris, but once there he should finally press through the pardon for the Burgundians that was still missing since the Peace of Arras two year ago.

>1417
>January
Armagnac strongly refused to ever allow Burgundy to return to Paris, he knew he would be hardly able to keep himself in power.

The travel of the Dauphin John of Touraine had stopped at Compiegne north of Paris, where his mother the old queen Isabella met him and tried to end the impasse

>February
For a short time the Queen could build on the antipathy against the armagnacian government and her own status as formal regent to counteract the Count of Armagnac and tried to reform with her son the kind of third party that Louis of Guyenne had done in the last months of his life.

But soon after the Count was in full control again.

>March
William of Hainault personally went to Paris to threaten Armagnac that either the Dauphin would be allowed to act independently and the french civil war was ended by a burgundian pardon or he would be brought back to Hainault.

Armagnac intended to imprison Hainault and bring back the Dauphin by force, but just hours before he could act, William of Hainault slipped out of Paris, ending all negotiations for a return of the Dauphin.

____
Returning from his long travel around western Europe, Sigismund was again in Constance were still the Church Council was held.
Here he openly declared war on France.
----
---
--
... and then again we are reminded of which Empire we are talking about here, as all the german lords simply vetoed the war declaration and went on with their own business.

The Emperor was finally convinced, that he would undo his greatest success if the French would withdraw from the Council of Constance and recognize another Pope.

So, no war it is.

>April
The confused situation with the Dauphin solved itself.
John of Touraine had grown an abscess on his neck and now died after having been just a bit over an year the royal heir. That was fast.

After him the last and final son of Charles VI, also named Charles (14), would get his chance.
He had grown up on the Anjou court, was just as sickly as his brothers and a colourless prince that noone expected to live long.

As sidenote: If he would die as well, then the main Valois line would die out and it would switch to the nephews of Charles VI of the Valois-Orleans line.
The two oldest were both in jail in England. It looked like soon the English would have the second time during the war the french king in prison (and the scottish king at the same time as well)

________
The Queen Isabella and her son Charles were summoned by the Count of Armagnac and swiftly the queen was arrested and thrown into Tours under house arrest to become a nun, her main adviser executed and the Dauphin brought under full armagnacian control.

This of course made great propaganda for John the Fearless, who pointed out that the queen and the dauphin had the real power (on paper) during the insanity periods of the king and that the armagnacian government was fully illegal now.

Also, just as a thought: The death of the previous Dauphin John had come pretty convenient for Armagnac.
And the one before, Dauphin Louis, had died just when the Count arrived in Paris [actually, i believe he had come a week or two later, but who needs facts].
Really makes you think, doesnt it?

>April
And more deaths:

Duke Louis II of Anjou (39) died on bladder infection, he had been duke for three decades and more-or-less King of Naples for a decade; but never played the dominant role of his father.
He left various male children, who all would grew up.

This really left all senior noble houses of France empty or headed by children, with the exception of Burgundy and Brittany (and both were quasi independent duchies)

>May
Another taille was announced, again it could not be collected. Most of the coins were devalued to raise money.

Burgundy, speaking as true representative of the king, ended all major taxation and ordered the towns to refuse to pay it to the illegal Paris government.
The tax strike immobilized practically all of northern France and the royal army ceased to exist as the Count of Armagnac could just count on his own troops in Paris and orleanist partisans in the Loire valley.

Btw, thats not a good state to reopen the Hundred Years War.

>June
Burgundy had demanded that Armagnac would release the King and the Dauphin and now declared open war on him to free them by force.

_____
The english fleet under the Earl of Huntingdon sailed again into the Seine estuary and surprised the french fleet there.
Its strongest components, the four large genuese carracks, were taken and the coast was with this secured, as the last remnants of the rebuild french fleet fell into disrepair.

>July
Rouen, the second largest city in the kingdom, recognized the Duke of Burgundy as true authority in France.
The young Dauphin was send with the Loire troops (some 2-3k) to Rouen to resecure the city and end its rebellion, which was done in a week.

Across Champagne the largest cities (Chalons, Reims, Troyes) were taken over by local uprisings and burgundian troops.

________
In the last days the english invasion fleet was ready to sail.
It consisted of a smaller but more powerful fleet then two years ago, but again with the same number of soldiers (12k), with the same massive artillery train and led by Henry V and all the major english nobles.

So, we have the English with 12k

The Burgundians had their main army under John the Fearless (7k) in Arras and a secondary army of 4k in Champagne, so another 11k

The french government had 2k in Rouen under the Dauphin and 3k in Paris under Armagnac.
Yeah, they are so fucked.

>August
The English landed in Normandy for their next invasion.

The French were once again wrong-fooded, but in fairness they couldnt have done much against it even if they had guessed right.
The invasion was supposed to either land in Harfleur or in the traditional places in the Cotentin Peninsular, instead it went to the other side of the Seine Estuary (west of Honfleur, the counterpart of Harfleur across the estuary), not too far apart from where the WW2 landings will later happen.

The logical target might have been Honfleur, but the English headed right towards the norman capital of Caen, while their transport fleet went back to bring the other parts of the army over.

Caen was just made ready for a potential siege and its suburbs and monasteries on the surrounding heights were razed.
Henry V took over all these great sites without opposition and could place his artillery in perfect condition for a major siege.

___
John the Fearless marched from his own Artois into northern France, taking over the capital of Picardy, Amiens. The surrounding region capitulated to him.

At the end of the month both burgundian armies had united at Beauvais north of Paris.

>August
The scottish border lords, primarily the Douglases, wanted to join the fun.

The Earl of Douglas attacked the first border fortress of Roxbourgh, while the Regent of Scotland, the old Duke of Albany advanced against the second one at Berwick.
Raiding parties of both armies split off to invade northern England.

The Scots had modernized their army, with more heavily armoured cavalry, and for the first time with a supporting fleet and some primitive artillery.

The english border lords, the Percys and Nevilles, reacted fast and were soon joined by the Duke of Exeter, who should lead the last batch of troops to Normandy but instead went north to assume control of the scottish theatre.

The Albany army fled back and while the Douglases wanted to gamble on another major battle, they recognized that they had no chance alone.

The raid was a major failure and it spelled the end of the past great border wars, which caused a movement among the scottish warrior class to soon offer themselfs up as mercenary force.

But it triggered a small relief for the French as many english troops were for the moment going to the scottish border and into the further fortification of Roxbourgh and Berwick went a large part of the current english warchest.

>This should be done in a repeat of the large international coalition of the beginning of the 100YW, as both the HRE and Burgundy would ally with him.

>September
After two weeks of artillery bombardement the walls of Caen had grumbled down.
Henry V initiated a large attack on all the western walls and while all the defenders rushed over to hold the line, his brother Thomas of Clarence went over the now undefended eastern walls.

For the second time in the 100YW Caen was heavily sacked by the English and a large number of civilians massacred.

It took another 16 days to finally bring the citadel of Caen down, but by then the English had control of the norman capital and richest city.

Here Henry V announced his intention to conquer all of Normandy and to not use it as bargain chip but keep it under his personal rule.
Anyone can look at Caen or Harfleur to see what happens when he was forced to do a major siege, but at the same time he promised to spare anyone who surrendered and let them keep their land and riches.

A major concern besides the purely military component was to keep a steady flow of supplies and money to his armies (and hopefully soon a taxation system in the richest province of France) to have stern discipline, no plundering and no harm being done to innocents.
This was actually noted even by his french enemies to be extremely unusable for that time.

_____
North of Paris flowed the river Oise into the Seine, it was the primary defensive line for the capital against the Burgundians.

But the river line was forced in the middle by two burgundian armies as John the Fearless took Beaumont and John of Luxembourg (the defender from the Arras siege) took Senlis.

The Seine itself could not be held from south of the Oise and the Burgundians appeared southwest of Paris.

better picture

>all the german lords simply vetoed the war declaration and went on with their own business.
Blessed be the Holiest empire. You got me worried there for a second

>September
Sadly for the Burgundians, they failed to capture the bridge of St-Cloud, where they had won the Paris Campaign in 1411 (already six years ago)

Inside Paris the desperate government sold the last royal treasures, broke up the crowns and confiscated the wealth of the Pariseans that they could reach.
While intensely hated, the Count of Armagnac and Tanneguy du Chatel managed to keep the capital under control.

>October
The second phase of the Normandy Campaign began, as the English marched south into the Alencon and Perche, meeting little resistance despite a particularly hostile population (their very popular Duke had died at Agincourt, his grandfather at Crecy)

_____
The Count of Armagnac began to hit back around Paris, regaining the important Beaumont on the Oise and surprising and destroying a burgundian army south of Paris.

The Burgundians were busy to finally take the St-Cloud bridge, which failed and their troops further south who should secure the Seine upstream were defeated.

They were more successfull in the open plain west of Paris around Chartres, which was taken by them.

_____
Carcasonne, of the three administrative centers of Languedoc, questioned why it should pay taxes and the northern towns not.
The royal garrison was kicked out and tax unrest soon spred all over Languedoc

>November:
With Chartres under control, John the Fearless had taken up contact with the arrested Queen in Tours (she could move freely, just not leave the town)

He now managed a coup when he marched with a small army south, while the Queen Isabella slipped away from her captors and reached his camp.
Both allied with each other against the Armagnac government.

It went even better when the Tours authorities became worried about having held the Queen and surrendered to her, giving Burgundy a foothold on the Loire among the most hostile part of the country to him.

That was just such a great opportunity to get revenge for centuries of shitposting and they blew it.

>November
Duke John V of Brittany and Yolande of Anjou (mother of the new young Duke of Anjou) met Henry V in Alencon and got their regions recognized as neutral, which for the moment secured the western flank for the English
(though Henry V still disliked Brittany, who in his eyes should turn fully pro-english, after all english arms had won the breton crown for the Montforts)

_____
The retired Roman Pope had died last month, so the Council of Constance could finally vote on a generally approved pope.
The cardinals of all sides and the delegates of the Council choose an Italian as Martin V, ending the schism after almost 40 years.

>1418
>January
All the remaining local norman strength had been concentrated into the town of Falaise, which was taken by the English in a siege of two months.

Upper Normandy -the eastern part- saw no chance of any royal relief and changed to the burgundian side to save them.
On its second attempt the major city of Rouen kicked out its governeurs.

In the south pretty much all of Languedoc had went over formally to Burgundy, but like always they did not want to join the war and just be left alone.

_______
The Queen and Burgundy set up an alternative government in Troyes, building up new institutions and a new administration.

The Queen could still claim superior legitimacy under her regent role, so Armagnac had the regent powers transfered by royal decree to the Dauphin Charles.

Things were not all looking bad for him, as Burgundy had now also run into the financial troubles that were plagueing him and many parts of the burgundian army dissolved.

The troops of Tanneguy and Armagnac had no problems regaining the last strongholds and bridges around Paris, ending the blockade for good.

>February
With ever more growing english conquests, maybe it was time for John the Fearless and Bernard of Armagnac to open negotiations for a truce and to concentrate on a common enemy.

But at the same time the campaign to free Paris of all surrounding hostile garrisons continued, as Armagnac put the old confused King Charles VI at the head of an army of 4k to secure the Oise again.
Senlis as first major town on the river refused to have Armagnac enter, accusing him to have caused the ruin of the kingdom and a bitter siege erupted.

____
The Cotentin Peninsular had been cut off by the english conquests from the rest of the kingdom and was now cleared by the majority of the english army under the youngest royal brother Humphrey, new Duke of Gloucester (real command lay with the Earl of Huntingdon).
It profited that naturally all defenses had assumed an english landing from the north and could so be rolled up from behind.

In the next weeks all towns surrendered with hardly any resistance, but the most headache had caused from the beginning the fortress-town of Cherbourg.
The English had owned it long enough to fear its natural strength and its defenses had been in expectation of english landings only further improved in the last years. It was practically unassailable and the English prayed that it would surrender.

When they reached the fortress in March though it stood defiant and a major siege had to be started.

With Gloucester having most of the English with him, his brother Clarence and the Earl of Salisbury secured the eastern flanks towards the Seine and the Earl of Warwick starved out Domfront, the major fortress in Alencon that had been the only place to hold out against them.
I guess Henry V was in Caen, doing administrative stuff.

(the fourth royal brother, John Duke of Bedford, acted as regent in England and the Duke of Exeter from the Harfleur siege was still on the scottish border though he was about to join the fun at the mainland)

>April
Thomas of Clarence took the town of Harcourt, the seat of the most powerful norman noble house.
The Lord of Harcourt like the rest of the upper nobility of the province, had fled.

_______
Contacts were made between John the Fearless and the Count of Armagnac, but Burgundy demanded to be allowed back into Paris and to raise the siege of Senlis.
Armagnac himself knew his position would be strenghtened if Senlis fell and he redoubled his efforts, while promising to wipe its rebel population out if it would finally fall.

As the month continued the Siege of Senlis had become the major issue in the burgundian-armagnac conflict, even somewhat overshadowing the fall of Normandy

John of Luxembourg had brought burgundian troops south of the Oise, which Armagnac now went to confront, but at his back the besieged garrison fell out and destroyed the siege works, practically ending the siege.

Armagnac had to return to Paris, having lost prestige after his successfull prior movements and even worse, having lost much needed manpower and money.

>May
The Duke of Exeter finally arrived from the scottish border with new english reinforcements.

He started now with 8-10k together with his King Henry V (his nephew) an eastward campaign to conquer Upper Normandy, secure the Seine and as primary goal to take the major city of Rouen.

English troops took the cathedral town of Evreux
(the original seat of the line of Charles of Navarre from back from the first threads; if he had gained the throne and ended the Valois Dynasty then we would have gotten an Evreux Dynasty, though the House of Navarre had long ago lost the city to the french kings)
..... and reached the river Eure, which flows from Chartres into the Seine south of Rouen.

>May
Burgundian officers had intrigued with parisean citizens to open a gate of the capital.

In the middle of the night the southern Porte Saint-Germain was taken over by the small burgundian detachment, who entered Paris.
At the news the parisean population rose up against the hated armagnacian government, storming the palaces and taking possession of the confused king, the Count of Armagnac himself and all his leading officials.

The only one who kept his mind in the chaotic night hours was Tanneguy du Chatel, who directly went to the bedchamber of the Dauphin and took him into the Bastille.

(pic related, certainly and in no way gay, just a concerned officer rescuing his prince)

From the Bastille Tanneguy could escape and reenter Paris at will.
He immediately ordered all his troops from the strongholds around Paris to him and three days later he stormed together with the Marshal Pierre de Rieux (the guy from Wales, who resurfaced again) through the Bastille into the capital.

It almost worked: His troops pierced through the baricades of the Pariseans and reached the center near the Hotel de Ville, but in the narrow streets his men were stuck and they were finally overwhelmed by superior numbers.

With this the armagnacian government was overthrown, the king again inside the hands of the pro-burgundian camp and Paris had yet again a popular uprising. Never seen that before.

Tanneguy du Chatel took his troops into the remaining strongholds up the Seine (Corbeil, Montereau and especially the impregnable former island-fortress of the Queen at Melun), while he himself went to fortify Meaux on the Marne.

The Dauphin was send south to the orleanist/armagnacian corelands on the Loire.

>June
There were rumours that another armagnacian army was marching on Paris and that plots were hatched to open the city gates to them as well.

The mob didnt want to take any risks and stormed all the different prisons and judicial buildings, murdering most of the inhabitants, including Bernard Count of Armagnac, all his officers and government officials, the imprisoned members of the clergy and leading university members.

This wave of murder and a similiar one two months later killed over 1,500 people, making the recent Paris violence far worse then anything before (there had also people been killed at the municipal rising of Marcel Etienne in 1368, the tax riots of the Maillotins in 1381 and the Cabochian Revolution of 1413, but not in these dimensions; it might be the same numbers as the famous prisoner massacres during the Great Revolution) and it was followed by the looting of the foreigner quarters who were partially burned down, driving the last remaining flemish or italian merchants away.

The murders shocked even the burgundian side.

>July
The main english army of Henry V and Exeter had reached the Seine; a troop under the Duke of Clarence penetrated the river and the major bridge town of Pont-de-L'Arche was besieged on both sides.
The bridge was the largest south of Rouen and the town agreed to surrender in two weeks unless it was relieved.

___
The Duke of Burgundy and the Queen Isabella entered Paris and took over the government (most of the improvised institutions remained in Troyes though, you never knew when the population will chimp out again)

The first priority had the defence of Upper Normandy. All the towns there, no matter pro-armagnacian or pro-burgundian, had united to organize some relief and wanted now urgent action from John the Fearless.

For everyones taste the war had come too close to Paris and Rouen, the leading towns of the kingdom.

>July
The burgundian government was just as cash-strapped as the armagnacian.

At the same day Pont-de-L'Arche surrendered, opening the whole Seine, as did the major fortress of Domfront, securing Alencon.
Morale hit rock-bottom, as the remaining besieged garrisons at Cherbourg and Honfleur lost all hope.

At the end of the month the Duke of Exeter arrived with the first english units before Rouen.

_____
It was not just the English:
Pro-armagnac bands took over the largest town on the Oise, Compiegne, together with the Seine and Marne forts further strangling Paris.

In the starved capital smallpox had broken out, killing people on a rate not seen since the darkest days of the Black Death.

>August
The Siege of Rouen was fully opened.

Henry V conceived the siege as purely a blockade to not destroy the city that was supposed to be his french capital.
It also worked well to use the immense size of the second-largest city against itself, as it would soon lead to starvation of the masses inside.

He himself, his brother the Duke of Clarence, his uncle the Duke of Exeter and the Earl of Salisbury surrounded the city on the landside.
The southern riverside of the Seine opposite the town was held by the Earl of Huntingdon and all riverways to Rouen blocked.

The Earl of Warwick, who had starved out Domfront, brought his troops to the Seine to clear over the month the Seine between Rouen and Harfleur of the last french presence.

Still, the largest task was to keep the massive english army somehow supplied and fed, as a constant flow of food, water and other supplies was shipped from England to Harfleur and then sailed on barges up the Seine.

>August
A second wave of murder swept over Paris, killing everyone supposed to be allied or friendly to the Armagnacs.

The violent mob moved outside to continue his work in the surrounding countryside, at which the disgusted John the Fearless closed the gates behind them and threatened to directly attack them.

In the future he and the queen and most of his officials would leave Paris to go somewhere more safe.

It caused in general an influx of fleeing, expelled and dismissed peope going to the Loire, as France was increasingly split between a pro-burgundian side and the orleanist/armagnacian side around the helpless Dauphin.

>September
After a bitter siege of 6 months with many english casualties Humphrey of Gloucester finally stormed Cherbourg, where the last food had long run out.

With this the Cotentin Peninsular was secured and even more english troops freed.

>November
The Earl of Salisbury had gone to Alencon and would for the next years take command of the western flank of English-Normandy.

He met a dauphinist embassy, which proposed to recognize the maximum demands of the English: bretigny-era Aquitaine including Poitou and the Larger Normandy currently being conquered.
In turn they would ally with the Dauphin against Burgundy and then divide his realm between them.

But even the Dauphin would not let Rouen fall to the English and he still would want to be overlord of the ceded parts of France, so an agreement failed.

>December
New english troops came over the Channel and from Cherbourg to help in the Siege of Rouen, which looked increasingly hopeless.

The Duke of Burgundy was urged to do something, but he had neither money nor the manpower to field any relief army and certainly nothing the challenge the massive numbers of English around there.

>December
South of the Loire the only pro-burgundian town of Tours (which had went over when the Queen was freed) was stormed by dauphinist forces.

The Dauphin Charles now declared himself Regent of France and dismissed the burgundian government in Troyes and Paris.
Out of his own regions and those of his Anjou, Armagnacian and Orleans allies he created practically a new kingdom spanning middle and southern France (Poitou, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, Saintonge, Orleans, Berry, Dauphine, Armagnac, Rodez) with its capitals in Poitiers and Bourges.

The various Bourbon lands were officially neutral as they had links with both governments (the Duke was in english prison, his kids in Paris), but in truth became dauphinist.

This left in the south Lyon contested, where the city was taken over by Dauphinists but the surrounding land was pro-Burgundy; and the Languedoc, which had asked the Count of Foix to act as their Lieutnant, his role was accepted by Paris and Bourges.

>1419
>January
Rouen had dispelled its young and old and sick, because they couldnt be fed anymore, but the English refused to let them through their lines, so they died in large numbers beneath the city walls.

The general view of hopelessness and a clear message of John the Fearless that he cant help them, gave the garrison no alternatives anymore.

Shortly after New Year they surrendered to Henry V
It was a national shame and a major humiliation for John the Fearless who did not even dared to return to Paris and show his face.

It also proved impressively how artillery was changing warfare, and that now even the strongest fortresses and largest towns could be taken in a reasonable timeframe
(if you have enough troops and the opponent was inactive, also it couldnt be overstated how super important the superior logistics of the english war effort were)

>Winter
Castille had pondered if it should reenter the 100YW.
There were also some thoughts to enter as its own party and conquer Guyenne or at least the southern parts of it for themself (they would held it as french fief, so would not declare war on France)
Nothing came out of it.

>February
With the fall of Rouen, all resistance broke down in the rest of Normandy.

Dieppe, Eu and the harbour of Honfleur (which somehow had defied the English since they first landed nearby) surrendered.

The Seine strongholds of Mantes and Meulan south of Rouen were taken as well.

>Spring
Henry V made Rouen the capital of a new English Normandy
The country would have its own government, administration and a newly-build palace, it should be standing on its own feet through its own taxation system.

Also with all the upper nobility having fled, the english nobles could take over as new landowning replacement.
Henrys brother the Duke of Clarence got several viscounties on the norman coast, the Earl of Salisbury for his services was raised as Count of Perche (Perche had belonged to the Dukes of Alencon), the Beaufort Duke of Exeter became Count of Harcourt, the Earl of Warwick became Count of Aumale, some english knight became Count of Tancarville, the current Captal de Buch (and brother of the french Count of Foix) became Count of Longueville.

Yeah it doesn't sound like artillery had much of a role in this siege.

>April
With neither of the two french parties forthcoming to recognize Henry V conquests, he continued cleaning up around the southern edges of Normandy.

Humphrey of Gloucester took the Eure fortress of Ivry by storm, Warwick needed another month to clear the Seine from french control, while the Duke of Exeter besieged Chateau-Gaillard south of the Seine, the largest medieval castle currently in France.

_______
Dauphinist forces kept being active around Paris, slowly strangling the ragged capital.

They captured the major river town of Beaumont on the Oise, Soissons on the Aisne and besieged again Senlis, closing the river routes to Paris.

>May
At Meulan, that had been taken in February and was the closest english point to Paris, the Burgundians and English agreed to negotiate about an alliance against the dauphinist southern France.

The Duke of Burgundy, the Queen and the King (who though was too insane to attend) were supposed to meet Henry V and his brothers.

Henry V and Burgundy were the old wannabe-allies for some time, but by now the english position was clearly far more superior. Still, John the Fearless was probably the only person not affected by Henry V charisma and authority, as he himself was far too self-centered to acknowledge anyone above him.

Burgundy would agree to have bretigny-era Aquitaine and Greater Normandy ceded to the English, which was a far step towards the english maximum goals.
But he still did not want to cede them in full sovereignity, pointing out that it would be impossible even for a king to do that, and that they should be given as fiefs in some sort of more relaxed liege relationship.