HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. - In 1336 Edward III of England, who had at first recognized the new king of France, Philip VI of Valois, laid claim to his crown, basing his claim on the fact that his father Edward II had married Isabella, daughter of Philip the Fair. Thus began the war, which lasted more than a century (from 1339 to 1475) but with long interruptions. From 1346 (battle of Crécy) to 1360 (Peace of Brétigny) France suffered a series of reverses, aggravated by a twofold internal revolution: that of the burghers of Paris (to establish a free commune) and that of the peasants (Vacquerie); two movements from which the English took good advantage.
France recovered under Charles V (1364-80), who was able to make use of a great captain, Bertrand Du Guesclin: England, then agitated by the Lollard movement, had to ask for a truce that lasted several years. But under the mad king Charles VI, the internal struggle between Burgundians and Armagnacs once again threw France into anarchy. With the help of the Burgundians, Henry V landed in France and defeated the French at Agincourt. In 1420 the Treaty of Troyes established that Henry V should be regent of France and, on the death of Charles VI, his successor. When Charles died, Henry's son, Henry VI, was proclaimed king, but the fact that he was still a child favored the French recovery, and the dynastic war became a war of national independence. The domains of Charles VI's heir, Charles VII, were reduced to a few lands in the center of France; but Joan of Arc revived the irresolute sovereign, led him to have himself crowned at Reims and to attack the English who were besieging Orléans. The mystic fervor of the heroine restored to the French confidence in themselves, and even after Joan was captured by the English and burned, their momentum did not halt: in 1453 only Calais remained in English hands. Finally Louis XI was reconciled with the English and put an end to the war with the Treaty of Picquigny (1475).
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Roberto Palmarocchi