The Age of Chivalry (29 page)

England's declaration of war in 1415 sought to capitalize on the French domestic mayhem that followed cessation of hostilities between the two nations in the late 1390s. In 1414 Henry V had turned down an offer from the Armagnac faction to support his claim to the throne in return for their restoration of the frontiers established under the Treaty of Brétigny signed in 1360. Henry's declared war aim was the restoration of the French territories possessed by the English during the reign of Henry II (1154–89).

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Henry V is portrayed in this elaborately gilded anonymous painting of the 15th century
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In pursuit of this highly ambitious goal, Henry arrived with an army at Harfleur in August 1415 and, after taking the town, he marched on toward the safety of English-occupied Calais. However, he now found himself outmaneuvered and his supplies were running low. He therefore decided to make a stand at Agincourt, a site north of the River Somme. In the ensuing battle (October 25th, 1415) a comparatively larger and better-equipped French army was defeated by the English. Subsequent English propaganda may have inflated the disparity in numbers in order to emphasize the scale of the victory, but there can be no doubt that, for the French, Agincourt was a defeat on the scale of Crécy and Poitiers. Henry went on to take most of Normandy, including Caen in 1417 and Rouen in January 1419. Normandy was once again under English control for the first time in two centuries.

These were great victories for English arms, but they also owed much to the intensity of French factionalism. Charles, duke of Orléans, was captured by the English at Agincourt, and Bernard VII, count of Armagnac, was murdered in 1417 by a mob of Burgundian supporters in Paris. After 1417 the Burgundians controlled both Paris and the king himself, and their conflict with the Armagnacs meant that French forces could not concentrate on the campaign against the English in Normandy. Although the two factions agreed to a truce in 1419, the Burgundians retained their ambitions and the grouping decided to ally themselves with England.

It was this Burgundian influence that brought pressure to bear on Charles VI, who had now descended into insanity. Under the terms of the Treaty of Troyes signed in 1420 the French king recognized Henry V of England as his heir. Henry would marry Charles's daughter Catherine, and Henry's heirs were recognized as rightful rulers of France. The dauphin, later Charles VII, was declared to be illegitimate and thereby disinherited. Late in 1420 Henry entered Paris in triumph, and the Anglo-French agreement was ratified by the Estates-General.

It was at this point, however, that the Scottish dimension to the conflict reemerged. A substantial Scottish force led by the earl of Buchan landed in France and engaged the English in battle. Thomas, first duke of Clarence, was killed at the Battle of Bauge in 1421 and most of the other English commanders were either killed or captured. The death of Henry V at Meaux in 1422 was followed by that of Charles soon after. Henry's infant son was crowned as Henry VI, king of England and France. The Burgundians continued to support him as English allies, but the Armagnacs' fidelity to the cause of Charles's son ensured the continuation of the war. By 1429 the English were besieging Orléans, a city that seemed on the point of surrender. It was at this stage that a remarkable peasant girl named Jeanne appeared, and her message transformed French prospects.

Jeanne d'Arc maintained that she had received a vision from God telling her that it was her destiny to drive the English out of France. In 1429 she appeared before the dauphin and persuaded him that she should be sent to Orléans, where she had a galvanizing effect on morale. The French troops subsequently went on the offensive and forced the English to lift the siege. The French proceeded to take several English positions along the Loire valley, and at the Battle of Patay (1429) a French army defeated a superior force led by John Talbot, first earl of Shrewsbury. Not even the famed archers of England and Wales, hitherto an invincible military resource, could withstand the French advance. With his position thus strengthened, the dauphin was able to march to Rheims where he was crowned Charles VII that same year.

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A late-15th-century miniature portrait of Jeanne d'Arc, who inspired French soldiers with her leadership and divinely inspired sense of mission
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Jeanne was subsequently captured by the pro-English Burgundian faction, sold to the enemy and burned at the stake. For a while the French advance ground to a halt as both sides engaged in peace negotiations. The breakdown in relations between the English and the Burgundians heralded the end of the war. The infancy of King Henry VI of England had been marked by quarrels between his uncles who ruled as regents. One of these uncles, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, was married to Jacqueline, countess of Hainault. Humphrey decided to invade the province of Holland in order to regain her former territories, and this action brought him into direct conflict with Philip III,
duke of Burgundy. In 1435 Duke Philip changed sides, and the Burgundians therefore decided to sign the Treaty of Arras, a development that enabled French royal forces to regain control of Paris. From now on the Burgundian faction had to concentrate on defending their interests in the Low Countries, and that strategic need dictated their withdrawal from the French civil war.

In the years that followed it became obvious that Charles VII had made good use of the long truces that punctuated the war in France, since he went on to pursue long-term changes in French military and civilian administration. A more professional army and a more centralized state, supplemented by the du Guesclin strategy of avoiding battle, meant that the French could inflict regular defeat on the English. Rouen was retaken in 1449, as was Caen in 1450, and Bordeaux and Bayonne fell the following year. The final engagement of the Hundred Years' War was fought at Castillon in 1453, when the superior cannon of the French commander Jean Bureau defeated John Talbot's Anglo-Gascon force.

A period of over a century was inevitably one that saw major military, social and political changes. The Hundred Years' War reflected those developments, while also contributing to them. Parliament's power to approve taxation gave 14th-century England a new source of centralized authority, and the country's feudal levy was replaced by a paid army whose professional captains recruited troops. In terms of technology, the war gave a significant boost to the artillery; the longbow—and at a latter stage of the conflict firearms as well—grew to rival the cavalry in importance. English innovations in military strategy also transformed the art of war, and the victories at Crécy and Agincourt owed much to the deployment of men-at-arms occupying fixed defensive positions. The typically English deployment of lightly-armed mounted troops—later called dragoons—who dismounted in order to fight would be adopted on a pan-European scale. These changes brought about a gradual decline in the use of heavy cavalry, which came to be seen as expensive and inflexible. The social and cultural position of the institution of knighthood declined as a result.

But despite enjoying these institutional and strategic advantages, England was faced with an insuperable difficulty: the enemy's territory was simply too extensive for it to be occupied for any substantial period of time. France's land mass was three times the extent of England's, and the French population was four times greater. English forces did occupy large parts of France during the war, but since such areas needed to be garrisoned, the ability of the occupying army to campaign and strike at the enemy was compromised. Shrewsbury's army at Orléans had 5000 men, but that was not enough to take control of the city since it was greatly outnumbered by the French troops within
the city and its environs. Once the inspiration of Jeanne d'Arc had raised the morale of French troops their victory was well-nigh inevitable. John Talbot was one of the most aggressive and effective of all English commanders, but even he could not prevail against the inherent strategic disadvantages of the English position in France.

These prolonged wars also had profound effects on the civilian population. The French countryside experienced widespread devastation, but the suffering also contributed to a new sense of national identity. When victory came at last it was seen as being due to the French government's ability to organize men and materials more effectively than in the past; the country's feudal structures were giving way to the evolution of more systematic and centralized methods of government. England's culture was affected in similar ways, with a national spirit of resistance being reflected in the rumors that a French invasion would mean the extirpation of the English language. From the time of the Norman Conquest the culture of England's ruling élites had been French. But by the end of the 14th century that dominance had passed. England's economic base also shifted. Before the war England had been a massive exporter of raw wool to the southern Netherlands where weavers then turned the wool to fine cloth. The unpredictable alliances of the dukes of Burgundy disrupted that trade, as did the high levels of taxation imposed on exports by the English Crown in order to help pay for the war. As a result weavers in England started to develop their own textile industry, and cloth from their looms acquired an international renown.

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After each of his four elder brothers died without producing an heir, Charles VII became king of France in 1422. This contemporary portrait was painted in
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1444–51 by Jean Fouquet (1420–81)
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The war confirmed the longbow's technological superiority over the crossbow. While the longbow required immense strength and great expertise to use, it was extremely accurate. The crossbow, on the other hand, was relatively easy to use and had great fire power against both plate and chain mail, but it was a cumbersome and heavy weapon that took time to reload. Bowmen serving with the Welsh and Scottish armies had taught their English enemy a painful lesson: deployed in fixed positions, they could inflict immense damage from a distance and so destroy a cavalry charge. The same strategy was deployed by the English on French soil: after choosing a site of battle they would fortify their position and subsequently destroy the enemy. But although the triumph of the longbow was a significant feature of 14th-century Anglo-French warfare, it became less important in the early 15th century; by then, advances in plating techniques meant that
armor could resist penetration by arrows. The introduction of gunpowder and cannon to the field of battle in the late 14th century transformed the art of war, and artillery was a deciding factor in the French victory at the Battle of Castillon (1453), the last major engagement of the Hundred Years' War.