GUERRA DEI CENTO ANNI. – In 1336 Edward III of England, who had initially recognized the new king of France, Filippo VI of Valois, claimed his crown, basing his claim on the fact that his father Edward II had married Isabella, daughter of Filippo il Bello. Thus began the war, which lasted for more than a century (from 1339 to 1475), but with long interruptions. From 1346 (the battle of Crécy) to 1360 (the Peace of Brétigny), France suffered a series of reverses, aggravated by a twofold internal revolution: that of the bourgeois of Paris (to establish a free commune) and that of the peasants (Vacquerie); from both movements the English derived considerable advantage.
France recovered under Carlo V (1364–80), who was able to make use of a great captain, Bertrando Du Guesclin: England, then troubled by the Lollard movement, was obliged to request a truce that lasted several years. But under the mad king Carlo VI, the internal struggle between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs once again plunged France into anarchy. With the help of the Burgundians, Enrico V landed in France and defeated the French at Azincourt. In 1420, the Treaty of Troyes established that Enrico V should be regent of France and, upon the death of Carlo VI, his successor. When Carlo died, Enrico’s son, Enrico 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 Carlo VI’s heir, Carlo VII, had been reduced to a few lands in central France; but Giovanna d'Arco revived the irresolute sovereign, led him to be crowned at Reims, and to attack the English who were besieging Orléans. The heroine’s mystical fervor restored the French confidence in themselves, and even after Giovanna was captured by the English and burned, their momentum did not cease: in 1453 only Calais remained in English hands. Finally, Luigi XI reconciled himself with the English and brought the war to an end with the Treaty of Picquigny (1475).