Who Won the Hundred Years War? | England vs France

In 1337, England made a claim on the French throne. This resulted in what became known as the Hundred Years’ War. It actually lasted much longer than a hundred years. It was a series of wars that lasted 116 years. While they weren’t fighting for the entire 116 years, they had a series of wars throughout that time and there wasn’t a lot of time that they weren’t fighting.

France was angry that England had not held its feudal obligations to the French throne. Technically, the English king was still a vassal to the French king when the English king came into power. He still owned a- was controlling a Duchy in France, so he owed allegiance to the French king.

He didn’t give that up, so technically the English king was still a vassal to the French king. The French king was claiming that England as a country was supposed to show allegiance to France. England did not feel that way.

When England made a claim on the French throne, this renewed France’s anger that England wasn’t even showing allegiance but was now trying to take the French throne. It started the Hundred Years’ War. There were many military advances during this period. If you fight for over a hundred years, you’re bound to get pretty good at it.

The English started dismounting and using a longbow. Before this time, the English had been famous for having heavy cavalry and riding on horseback to fight. They started getting off their horses and using a long bow instead. They had a further range. They weren’t out in the open as much and they scored a lot of victories this way.

The English also used lightly-armored mounted troops instead of heavy cavalry. They made that switch. Instead of having these big horses with lots of armor on them, they put light armor on smaller horses and they were able to maneuver through areas that the heavy cavalry wasn’t able to. If they were in a marshy area, they could move through that easier, where it would slow down the heavy cavalry.

They could get around faster than the French, who were still using heavy cavalry. By the end of the war, both countries had retired the use of heavily-armored knights. Instead of having knights in lots of heavy armor, they would put less protection on so they could move around more easily.

They also retired the use of the expensive, highly-trained heavy cavalry that they had in favor for the lighter mounted troops and actually dismounting to fight instead of fighting from horseback. An important character that emerged toward the end of the war was Joan of Arc. She started as a French peasant, but led troops to several victories after saying she had been visited by God and told to do so.

She was very young when this happened. She was visited by God, and He told her to go and lead these troops to victories at certain places. At first, of course, people weren’t taking her seriously, but once they started saying that the places she was leading troops to victories were happening, more people started to put stock in her and give her more power.

She was able to lead French troops to victory at several different important battles. She was eventually captured, turned over to the English, and was burned at the stake after being put on trial for heresy and found guilty. She was only 19 when that happened. She was a young teenager when she was leading these- whenever she was leading these troops, changing from a peasant to a commander to great victories.

In the process, she revived the spirits of the French and they eventually won. At the time that Joan of Arc had her vision and decided to go and lead these troops, France hadn’t been doing very well. Their spirits were crushed. England had won a lot of victories. England had a ton of power and France was feeling like they were on the verge of losing.

Once Joan of Arc came in, it renewed their spirits and made them feel more confident. They won some victories under her and that encouraged other people. More victories started being won. Then, France eventually did defeat England. Both England and France enjoyed a renewed national pride. The French all wanted to support France. The English all wanted to support England.

They all became very anti the other country and pro their own country, when before the language of the English nobleman and the elite classes had been French. It had been like the higher language. That all stopped whenever they were having this Hundred Years’ War, because they were thinking “France bad, England good”.

England developed their own national pride and focused on English things. France did the same. It shunned all English things and devoted all of its pride to French things. Each nation developed their own sense of pride just solely on their own country. The bond and overlap that had happened there before had kind of gotten a very distinct line between the two countries.

Both sides suffered great losses that affected the future. England decided to focus on developing a strong navy and withdrew as a land power. In the end, England realized it didn’t have a great deal of land.

It wasn’t- England had won some battles against France, but in the end they lost. They realized as a land power they weren’t going to be that strong, but they could develop a very strong navy and conquer their enemies in the water. They decided to focus on a navy. King Louis IX of France took advantage of the chaos and consolidated power in the monarchy.

Where they still were having some dispute over regionalized territories, King Louis IX said, “Okay, I’m the monarch. Everyone needs to follow me. I’m France’s leader. Remember how proud we were of France whenever we had this renewed sense of national pride?”

He took advantage of the spirit of national pride and all the chaos and united France again, so it was all under control of one monarch instead of having lots of independent feudal territories. The big battle between England and France was actually a series of wars known as the Hundred Years’ War. It did last a long time. There were some pros to it.

Some military advances came out of it, but there were a lot of cons to it as well. Many people died. Both countries suffered significant losses. Lands were damaged. Homes were damaged. Populations were decreased. In the end, there were a couple more good things to come out of it, with England focusing on a navy and France uniting under one monarch instead of having different feudal territories.