Hundred Years' War

The Hundred Years' War is the name modern historians give to what was actually a series of related conflicts fought over a 116-year period between the Kingdom of England and France, beginning in 1337 and ending in 1453. Historians group these conflicts under the same label for convenience. The war was primarily fought in France, and though in retrospect it has the feeling of a French civil war as much as an international conflict, the historian Philippe de Vries suggested that it had "taken place at a more or less provincial level." Fernand Braudel, quoting him, adds that "England acted as a province (or a group of provinces) within the Anglo-French unit" that was both battlefield and prize (Braudel 1984 p. 353).

Early origins: 911–1314

The background to the conflict can be found 400 years earlier when Frankish Carolingian ruler Charles the Simple allowed the Vikings of Rollo to settle in a part of his kingdom known as Normandy in 911. The Vikings, known as Normans (Northmen) and led by William the Conqueror invaded England around 150 years later in the Norman Conquest of 1066, defeating the Anglo-Saxon leadership and installing a new Anglo-Norman power structure as William took the English throne as William I of England.

Related Topics:
Carolingian - Charles the Simple - Vikings - Rollo - Normandy - 911 - Normans - William the Conqueror - Norman Conquest - 1066 - Anglo-Saxon - Anglo-Norman

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The Anglo-Normans ruled both Normandy and England for over 150 years. However, in 1216, the Anglo-Normans lost their possessions to France. English nobles in the 14th century were recent descendants of the Anglo-Normans who still spoke a version of French, and could remember a time when their grandparents had owned Normandy. The nobles had never fully given up the dream of one day reconquering their homeland in Normandy; it was a very rich land and England stood to become very wealthy by retaking it. The war was both a "national" desire to re-take a former kingdom, and personal desires on the part of the nobility to gain wealth and increase prestige.

Related Topics:
1216 - 14th century - French - National

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