This is for AP Euro!. Can you proofread my answer on the Hundred Years War!. This is just one of Many Midevil topics for my AP Euro Summer Assignment!. Even though they say to write in a paragraph or 2 i went all out and put through a college level analysis!. Proofread! How is it!? Those who know their history! Easy Ten points!
The Hundred Years’ War was an armed conflict between France and England from 1337 to 1453!. This war was actually dozens of little wars and hundreds of battles and sieges that went on for over a century with periods of truce that went in between those battles!. The conflict lasted 116 years but subtracting 2 long periods of truces (1360-1369 and 1389-1453) made the actual war (battles) lasted 81 years!. This is why this conflict is named The Hundred Years’ war!. Neither side won in any real sense!. This war resulted from disputes between the ruling families of the two countries, the French Capetians and the English Plantagenets, over territories in France and the succession of the French throne!.
The background to the conflict can be found in 1066; When William, Duke of Normandy (A vassal of the French King), led an invasion of England where he defeated the Anglo-Saxon King Harold the Second at the Battle of Hastings!. As a result of this victory he had himself crowned King of England!. William was still Duke of Normandy, where he remained a vassal of the French King, and it was required to swear loyalty to the latter for his lands in France!. Back then, for a king to swear commitment to another king was considered humiliating, and the Norman Kings of England generally attempted to avoid the service!. On the French side the Capetian ( The French Dynasty) monarchs resented a neighboring king holding lands with their own area, and they sought to neutralize the supposed threat England had towards France!.!. Following a period of civil wars and violent political rule in England, known as The Anarchy (1135-1154), the Anglo-Norman Dynasty was succeeded by the Angevin Kings!. The Angevin blood-line (England) controlled Normandy (France) and England, along with other provinces of France!. The King of England directly ruled more French territory than the king of France himself!. Since the Angevin kings owed vassalage to a ruler who was much less powerful than them-was a cause that contributed conflict between the two Nations!. The group of lands ruled by the Angevin Dynasty known as the Angevin Empire somewhat resolved the hostile situation in 3 wars: the conquest of Normandy in 1214, the Saintonge War in 1242, and the War of Saint-Sardos, thus reducing Angevin hold on France to a small few provinces in Gascony and the complete loss of Normandy!. When King Edward 1( English King after William 1) died in 1307, few of the territories of France remained in English rule!. The most important of these remaining few was Gascony, a valuable wine-producing region in southwest France!. Although this region remained under English rule, the French kept trying to extend their legal authority to the land, and the two countries often fought with over control of Gascony and other areas like this region!. Situations like this example grew more complicated in 1308 when Edward 1’s son Edward the Second married the daughter of King Philip the Fourth!. Their son, Edward the Third had a claim to the French Throne when Philip the Fourth’s last son died in 1328 without producing a male heir!. Though Edward the Third was capable of claiming the French throne, the French nobles were unwilling to consider 15 year old Edward as their king!. They stated that the French crown could pass only to a man whose claim to the throne was through is male ancestors!. Edwards claim to the throne was through his mother!. This statement resulted in Phillip the Sixth, a nephew of Philip the Fourth, becoming king of France!. These conflicts of complications between monarchy and territorial rule are what set off war between the two nations!.
Before describing the course of this war the weaknesses of these countries must be stated!. France had three times the population of England!. France also was the wealthiest of the two countries and had the advantages of fighting on its own territories!. But until 1415, for most of the conflict, England was claimed victorious!. The reason for these failures were internal disunity caused by social conflict in the nation!. Unlike England, France was still struggling in the 14th century from a fragmented feudal society!. The nation was trying to convert this fragmented feudal society to a modern state!. Desperate to raise money for War, French kings chose to such financial policies such as depending and borrowing heavily on Italian bankers, which lead to internal conflicts within the country!. In 1355 the King of France called together a reprehensive council of townspeople and nobles that was known as the Estates General!. Members used the kings dilemma to increase their own local rights and privileges by intensifying territorial divisions!. England had a more superior and skilled army than France!. Their youngsters were well disciplined, which produced a more superior armed forces to fight for England!. England had more advanced weaponry than France in addition to their skilled army!. This weapon, known as the longbow, it was capable of firing 6 arrows a minute with enough force to pierce the armor of an opposing knight 200 yards away from the shooting area!. Another disadvantage France had was the lack of skill about France’s royal leadership!. English kings possessed intelligence, insight, and sound judgment, especially in business and politics!.
Stage one of the war started off when Edward the Third restricted trade on English wool to Flanders!. This resulted in the spark of urban rebellions by merchants and people associated with trading this wool!. The Flemish cities revolted against the French and signed an allegiance with England in 1340, acknowledging Edward as the king of France!. The first great battle of the war took place on June 23 of that same year, Edward defeated the French fleet in the bay of Sluys, but his following effort to invade Flanders failed!. In 1346, Edward attacked Normandy, and after a series of small battles that ended in the battle of Crecy, which seized Calais (*Traditional English Pronunciation town located in Northern France)!. The exhaustion of both sides including the beginning of the deadly pandemic that killed 1/3 of Europe’s entire population called the Black Plague forced the truce at the end of 1347 and a brief break for both sides!. In the year of 1356, the English won a great victory near Poitiers by taking the French king, John Second the Good as a hostage back to England!. This kidnapping resulted in the political order to France!. The power in France laid with the Estates General which demanded and received rights so similar to those granted the English privileged classes in the Magna Carta To lock their rights, the Estates General forced the peasantry to pay increasing taxes and to prepare properties damaged by the war without any payment back by the new leadership!. This resulted in a series of brutal rebellions in several regions known as the Jaquerie in the year of 1358!. The nobility quickly put down the revolt!. On May 9th, 1360 a significant event of the war took place when England forced the peace of Bretigny on the French!. This agreement declared an End to Edward’s vassalage to the king of France and confirmed his control over the English territories in France!. Edward was still ambitious, he announced his claim to the French throne!. A separation of the French territorial rule was completely unrealistic, and observers on both sides knew this peace treaty would not last long!. France struck back in the late 1360’s and by time Edward the Thirds death in 1377 had beaten the English back to coastal closed societies and the territory of Bordeaux!. After Edward’s death the English war effort lessened, probably because of problems within England‘s internal affairs!. The next in line was Richard the Second!. On June of 1381, peasants and artisans dominated over the rulers and powerful people of England joined in a great revolt about the unprivileged classes under the leadership of John Ball, a non-religious priest!. Even though the revolt only lasted one year, it divided the country for decades!. Henry the Fifth (English king) took advantage of a controversial affair within France known as the control of the Duchy of Burgundy!. With France deeply divided!. Henry the Fifth started a battle in Normandy!. The Burgundians were enlightened to see France besieged!. The Burgundians watched battles from the sidelines!. Years later, the Burgundians realized that the defeat of France would leave them as pray for the English, due to that realization the Burgundians united with the French Royal Forces to prevent the English to posses more control over their nation!. But all of this ceased to exist when the Duke of Burgundy was assassinated!. His son wanted vengeance and joined forces with the English!. France became Henry the Fifth’s for the taking-not for long!. The Treaty of Troyes in 1420 disinherited the acknowledged successor of the French throne and proclaimed Henry the Fifth, the successor of Charles the Sixth!. Henry and Charles both died a few months apart, and the very young Henry the Sixth was proclaimed in Paris to be both the King of France and England!. The dream of Edward the 3rd instigated the war!. The son of the French King Charles the sixth moved away!. Because of the death of his father, he became Charles the Seventh and most of the French citizens, who ignored the Treaty of Troyes!. Displaying first-time national feeling inspired by Joan of Arc!.
The English were ready to pursue the war again, laying siege to Orleans!. There force was insufficient to fully surround Orlean, but larger French forces remained not working!. In 1429, Joan of Arc (A peasant born girl) convinced the throne of France to send her to the military operation, saying she received visions from God telling her to drive out the English from the city!. She raised the support of the local troops and they attacked the English Redoubts (Fort Systems), forcing the English to lift the siege!. Inspired by Joan, the French took several English strong points on the Loire!. Shortly after, a French Army (8,000 Strong men), broke through English archers at Patay with a large number on men with horses!. She defeated a 3000 strong English army!. This was the first major French land victory of the wars, this opened for the Dauphin of France to go to Reims for his coronation to make him king Charles the 7th!. Joan was captured by the Burgundians, convicted of hierarchy and was burned at the sake by the English in the town of Roeun (Burgundians sided with English as a result of the assassination of Duke of Burgundy)!. In 1435, the Burgundians (Under Philip the Third)switched sides, signing the Treaty of Arras and returning Paris to the King of France!. The long truces that marked the war also gave Charles time to reorganize his army and government, replacing his feudal taxes with a more modern army that could put its superior numbers to use, and to centralize France!. Even though a treaty was signed, the tactical superiority of English forces remained a potent factor!. By 1449, the French had retaken Rouen from the English, and in 150 the count of Clermont, Arthur de Richemont, and Earl of Richemont caught an English army attempting to relieve the town of Caen at the Battle of Formingy and defeated it, later the English army had been attacked from the flank and rear by Richemon’ts force just they were on the verge of winning over Clermon’ts army!. French armies completed an astounding victory of the Capture of Cherbourg, Bordeaux, and Bayonne!. Talbot (A famous English army commander) attempted to retake the city of Gascony but was killed in the Battle of Castillo in 1453 fought between the French, Bretons, and the English!. This was said to be the last battle of the Hundred Years’ War!.
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