Henry IV of England died in 1413

Henry IV of England died in 1413 and was replaced by his eldest son Henry V. Because of Charles VI of France's mental illness, his power was exercised by royal princes whose rivalries continued to cause deep divisions in France. Henry V was well aware of these divisions and hoped to exploit them. In 1414 while he held court at Leicester, he received ambassadors from Burgandy.^[51] Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/G battery

Henry accredited envoys to visit the French king and make clear his territorial claims in France; he also demanded the hand of Charles VI's youngest daughterCatherine of Valois. These demands not being met by the French Henry prepared for war.

In August 1415 Henry V sailed from England and landed with a force of about 10,500 fighting men and laid siege toHarfleur, Sony VAIO VPCF24M1E battery

the city resisted for longer than expected, but finally surrendered on 22 September 1415. Because of the unexpected delay most of the campaign season was gone. So rather than march on Paris directly, he elected to make a raiding expedition across France toward English-occupied Calais. In a campaign reminiscent of Crécy, Sony VAIO VGN-AW110J/H Battery

he found himself outmanoeuvred and low on supplies, and had to make a stand against a much larger French army at the Battle of Agincourt, north of the Somme. Despite the problems and having a smaller force, his victory was near-total; the French defeat was catastrophic, with the loss of many of the Armagnac leaders. Sony VAIO VGN-AW11M/H Battery

About 40% of the French nobility was lost at Agincourt.^[52] Henry apparently concerned that so many prisoners were a security risk, as there were more French prisoners than the entire English army, he ordered their killing.

Henry retook much of Normandy, including Caen in 1417 and Rouen on January 19, 1419, making Normandy English for the first time in two centuries. Sony VAIO VGN-AW11S/B Battery

A formal alliance was made with the Duchy of Burgundy, who had taken Paris, after the assassination of Duke John the Fearless in 1419. In 1420, Henry met with king Charles VI, they signed the Treaty of Troyes, by which Henry finally would get to marry Charles' daughter Catherine of Valois and Henry's heirs would inherit the throne of France. Sony VAIO VGN-AW11XU/Q Battery

The Dauphin, Charles VII, was declared illegitimate. Henry formally entered Paris later that year and the agreement was ratified by the Estates-General.^[51]

On 22 March 1421 Henry V's progress, in his French campaign, experienced an unexpected reverse. Sony VAIO VGN-AW11Z/B Battery

Henry had left his brother and heir presumptive Thomas, duke of Clarence in charge while he returned to England. Clarence engaged a Franco-Scottish force led by John Stewart, Earl of Buchan at the battle of Baugé. It seem that Clarence attacked before his army were fully assembled. He was killed and the English defeated in the ensuing battle. Sony VAIO VGN-AW120J/H Battery

Henry returned to France and landed at Calais on 10 June 1421. From Calais he went onto Paris then visiting Chartres and Gâtinais before returning to Paris. From there he decided to attack the dauphin held town of Meaux. It turned out to be more difficult to overcome than first thought, the siege began about 6 October 1421 and the town held on for seven months before finally falling on 11 May 1422.Sony VAIO VGN-AW150Y/H Battery

At the end of May Henry was joined by his queen and together with the French court, they went to rest at Senlis. While there it became apparent that he was ill(possibly dysentery) and when he set out to the Upper Loire it was evident that he would not be able to make it so was diverted to the royal castle at Vincennes, near Paris where he died 31 August 1422.^[51] Sony VAIO VGN-AW160J/Q Battery

The elderly and insane Charles VI of France died, two months later, on 21 October 1422.^[54] Henry left an only child, his nine month old son, Henry, later to become Henry VI.^[54]

On his deathbed, Henry V had given the duke of Bedford the responsibility of English France (as Henry VI was only an infant). Sony VAIO VGN-AW170Y/Q Battery

So the war in France continued under Bedford's generalship, and several battles were won. The English won a decisive victory at the Battle of Verneuil, (17 August 1424). At the battle of Baugé Clarence had rushed into battle without the support of the English archers. At Verneuil the archers were used to devastating effect against the Franco-Scottish army. Sony VAIO VGN-AW180Y/Q Battery

The effect of the battle was to virtually destroy the dauphin's field army and to eliminate the Scots as a significant military force for the rest of the war.^[54][55]

Joan of Arc's appearance sparked a revival of French spirits and the tide began to turn against the English.^[54] Sony VAIO VGN-AW190JAH Battery

In 1428, the English laid siege to Orléans. Their force was insufficient to fully invest the city. Then in 1429, Joan of Arc convinced the Dauphin to send her to the siege, saying she had received visions from God telling her to drive out the English. She raised the morale of the local troops and they attacked the English Redoubts, forcing the English to lift the siege. Sony VAIO VGN-AW190NAB Battery

Inspired by Joan, the French took several English strong points on the Loire.^[56]

Shortly afterwards, a French army broke through the English archers at Patay defeating an army commanded by John Fastolf and John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. This victory opened the way for the Dauphin to march to Reims for his coronation as Charles VII (16 July 1429).^[56] Sony VAIO VGN-AW190NBB Battery

Joan changed the way that the French forces engaged with the English in battle. Her tactics were not to engage prepared English lines, with a full frontal assault, as had been the traditional way.

Henry VI was eventually crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey on 5 November 1429 and king of France at Notre-Dame, in Paris, on 16 December 1431. Sony VAIO VGN-AW190NCB Battery

Joan was captured by the Burgundians in 1430, Charles refused to pay her ransom so she was sold to the English, they tried her as a witch, Joan was found guilty and executed by being burned at the stake on 30 May 1431.^[56]

After Joan of Arc's death the fortunes of war turned remorselessly against the English.^[57] Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YAB Battery

Most of Henry's royal advisers were against making peace with the French.^[54] There were different factions, the duke of Bedford wanted to defend Normandy, the duke of Gloucester was committed to just Calais whereas Cardinal Beaufort was inclined to peace. Negotiations were stalled. It seems that at the congress of Arras, in the summer of 1435, Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YBB Battery

where the duke of Beaufort was mediator, the English were unrealistic in their demands. A few days after the congress ended in September, Philip III, duke of Burgundy deserted to Charles VII, signing the Treaty of Arras that returned Paris to the King of France. This was a major blow to English sovereignty in France.^[54] Then the duke of Bedford died 14 September 1435 and was replaced by a lesser man.^[57]Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YCB Battery

Burgundy's allegiance remained fickle, but their focus on expanding their domains into the Low Countries left them little energy to intervene in France.^[58] The long truces that marked the war also gave Charles time to reorganise his army and government, replacing his feudal levies with a more modern professional army that could put its superior numbers to good use, and centralising the French state. Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YDB Battery

A castle that once could only be captured after a prolonged siege would now fall after a few days from bombardment by cannons with the French artillery having the reputation as the best in the world.^[57]

By 1449, the French had retaken Rouen, and in 1450 the Count of Clermont and Arthur de Richemont, Earl of Richmond, Sony VAIO VGN-AW220J/B Battery

of the Montfort family (the future Arthur III, Duke of Brittany) caught an English army attempting to relieve Caen at the Battle of Formigny and defeated it, the English army having been attacked from the flank and rear by Richemont's force just as they were on the verge of beating Clermont's army.^[59] Sony VAIO VGN-AW230J/H Battery

After Charles VII's successful campaign in retaking Normandy in 1450, he concentrated his efforts on Gascony the last province held by the English. Bordeaux, the capital of Gascony, was besieged and surrendered to the French on 30 June 1451. Largely due to the English sympathies of the Gascon people this was reversed when John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury and his army retook the city on 23 October 1452.Sony VAIO VGN-AW235J/B Battery

However, the English were defeated at the Battle of Castillon 17 July 1453. Talbot had been persuaded to engage the French army at Castillon near to Bordeaux. During the battle the French appeared to retreat towards their camp. The French camp at Castillon had been laid out by Charles VII's ordinance officer Sony VAIO VGN-AW290JFQ Battery

Jean Bureau and this was instrumental in the French success as when the French cannon opened fire, from their positions in the camp, the English took severe casualties including the death of both Talbot and his son.^[60]

After three hundred years, English rule in Gascony was over as was the hundred year war. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41JF Battery

The Battle of Castillon is considered the last battle of the Hundred Years' War.^[60] The English were in no position to carry on the war as they faced several years of unrest at home, culminating in a civil war known as the Wars of the Roses that started in 1455.

The Hundred Years' War was a time of military evolution. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41JF/H Battery

Weapons, tactics, army structure, and the societal meaning of war all changed, partly in response to the demands of the war, partly through advancement in technology, and partly through lessons that warfare taught.

Before the Hundred Years' War, heavy cavalry was considered the most powerful unit in an army, but by the war's end, this belief had shifted. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41MF Battery

The heavy horse was increasingly negated by the use of the longbow (and, later, another long-distance weapon: firearms) and fixed defensive positions of men-at-arms — tactics which helped lead to English victories at Crécy and Agincourt. Learning from the Scots, the English began using lightly armoured mounted troops — later called dragoons — who would dismount in order to fight battles. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41MF/H Battery

By the end of the Hundred Years' War, this meant a fading of the expensively outfitted, highly trained heavy cavalry, and the eventual end of the armoured knight as a military force and the nobility as a political one.^[61]

The war also stimulated nationalistic sentiment. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41XH Battery

It devastated France as a land, but it also awakened French nationalism. The Hundred Years' War accelerated the process of transforming France from a feudal monarchy to a centralized state. The conflict became one of not just English and French kings but one between the English and French peoples. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41XH/Q Battery

There were constant rumours in England that the French meant to invade and destroy the English language. National feeling that emerged out of such rumours unified both France and England further. The Hundred Years War basically confirmed the fall of the French language in England, which had served as the language of the ruling classes and commerce there from the time of the Norman conquest until 1362. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41ZF Battery

The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Normandy between 1135 and 1153, characterised by a breakdown in law and order. The conflict originated with a succession crisis towards the end of the reign of Henry I, when the king's only legitimate son, William Adelin, died aboard the White Ship. Henry's attempts to install his daughter, the Empress Matilda, Sony VAIO VGN-AW41ZF/B Battery

as his successor were unsuccessful and on Henry's death in 1135, his nephew Stephen of Bloistook power with the help of his brother, Henry of Winchester. Stephen's early reign was marked by fierce fighting with English barons, rebellious Welsh leaders and Scottish invaders. Following a major rebellion in the south-west of England, Matilda invaded in 1139 with the help of her half-brother, Robert of Gloucester.Sony VAIO VGN-AW50DB/H Battery

Neither side was able to achieve a decisive advantage during the first years of the war; the Empress came to control the south-west of England and much of the Thames Valley, while Stephen remained in control of the south-east. Sony VAIO VGN-AW51JGB Battery

The castles of the period were easily defensible, and much of the fighting was attritional in character, comprising sieges, raiding and skirmishing between armies of knights and footsoldiers, many of them mercenaries. In 1141 Stephen was captured following the battle of Lincoln, causing a collapse in his authority over most of the country. Sony VAIO VGN-AW52JGB Battery

The Empress Matilda was forced to retreat from London by hostile crowds before she could be crowned queen; shortly afterwards, Robert was captured at the rout of Winchester and the two sides agreed to swap their respective captives. Stephen almost seized Matilda in 1142 during the siege of Oxford, but the Empress escaped from Oxford Castle across the frozen River Thames to safety. Sony VAIO VGN-AW53FB Battery

The war dragged on for many more years. Matilda's husband, Geoffrey of Anjou successfully conquered Normandy, but in England neither side could achieve victory. Rebel barons began to acquire ever greater power in northern England and in East Anglia, with widespread devastation in the regions of major fighting. Sony VAIO VGN-AW70B/Q Battery

In 1148 the Empress returned to Normandy, leaving the campaigning in England to her young son, Henry Fitzempress. Stephen unsuccessfully attempted to have his own son, Eustace, recognised by the Church as the next king of England. By the early 1150s the barons and the Church mostly wanted a long-term peace. Sony VAIO VGN-AW71JB Battery

When Henry re-invaded England in 1153, neither faction's forces were keen to fight. After limited campaigning and the siege of Wallingford, Stephen and Henry agreed a negotiated peace, the Treaty of Winchester, in which Stephen recognised Henry as his heir. Stephen died the next year and Henry II began the long period of reconstruction in England. Sony VAIO VGN-AW72JB Battery

Chroniclers described the period as one in which "Christ and his saints were asleep" and Victorian historians called the conflict "the Anarchy" because of the chaos, although modern historians have questioned the accuracy of the term and some contemporary accounts.

The origins of the civil war of the Anarchy lay in a succession crisis involving England and Normandy.Sony VAIO VGN-AW73FB Battery

In the 11th and 12th centuries, north-west France was controlled by a number of dukes and counts, frequently in conflict with one another for valuable territory.^[2] In 1066 one of these men, Duke William II of Normandy (William the Conqueror), mounted an invasion to conquer the rich Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England, pushing on into south Wales and northern England in the coming years. Sony VAIO VGN-AW80NS Battery

The division and control of these lands after William's death proved problematic and his children fought multiple wars over the spoils.^[3] Henry I of England seized power after the death of his elder brother William Rufus and subsequently invaded and captured the Duchy of Normandy, controlled by his eldest brother Robert Curthose, defeating Robert's army at the battle of Tinchebray.^[4] Sony VAIO VGN-AW80S Battery

Henry intended for his lands to be inherited by his only legitimate son, William Adelin.^[5]

In 1120, the political landscape changed dramatically when the White Ship sank on route from Barfleur in Normandy to England; around three hundred passengers died, including Adelin.^{[6][nb 1]} With Adelin dead, the inheritance to the English throne was thrown into doubt. Sony VAIO VGN-AW80US Battery

Rules of succession in western Europe at the time were uncertain; in some parts of France, maleprimogeniture, in which the eldest son would inherit a title, was becoming more popular.^[8] In other parts of Europe, including Normandy and England, the tradition was for lands to be divided up, Sony VAIO VGN-AW81DS Battery

with the eldest son taking patrimonial lands—usually considered to be the most valuable—and younger sons being given smaller, or more recently acquired, partitions or estates.^[8] The problem was further complicated by the sequence of unstable Anglo-Norman successions over the previous sixty years: there had been no peaceful, uncontested successions.^[9] Sony VAIO VGN-AW81JS Battery

With William Adelin dead, Henry had only one other legitimate child, Matilda, but female rights of inheritance were unclear during this period.^[10] Despite Henry taking a second wife, Queen Adeliza, it became increasingly unlikely that Henry would have another legitimate son and instead he looked to Matilda as his intended heir.^[11] Sony VAIO VGN-AW81YS Battery