What Were The Causes Of The Year (1337-1457)

In the years, 1337-1457, a struggle took place in France between the English and the French. The cause of this was due to French kings beginning to try and remove the English from the country due to the underlying issue as to who should be the rightful kings of France since Isabelle, mother of Edward III, was French. This breach of peace is what we now call “The Hundred Years War”. This struggle between the countries can be classified into phases.

The first phase, for nearly two decades from 1337-1357 had the Sluys, Crecy, and Poitiers battles all of which were English victories. Although the English were the smaller of the two countries, they did win those three major battles and this can be contributed to the fact that the English longbow
With this being the case and the English making successful raid expeditions on France, in 1360 the Treaty of Bretigny took place. The English were able to increase territory in Gascony, Guienne, and Ponthieu. However, things began to take a turn for the better of the French during phase two when Charles V “the Wise” took to the throne (Gillum K. Fred). He recognized that battling the English head on was not an effective way of defeating them. Since they needed a way to win the war without actually fighting, he left the “how” of that to the military constable of France, Bertrand du Guesclin (Gillum, K. Fred). Du Guesclin rallied some bands of outlaw freebooters to harass English towns while the actual French army took the job of raiding the English towns and their supply routes. In 1369, Charles was prepared to take back English lands in France and by 1380, English held lands in Guienne had been reduced to the size of but a coastal strip (Gillum, K. Fred). overthrew the government of Charles VI. The
The Duke of Bedford, John Lancaster, could have potentially been a better leader if his efforts had not been haunted due to the lack of funds in the 1420’s because the parliament of London refused to finance the war (Gillum, K. Fred). The English thought the Siege of Orleans in 1428-29 would end the war but it did not because Joan of Arc expelled the English from Loire Valley which seemed to foreshadow how the war would eventually end. The English took a major blow when in 1435, Burgundy decided to pull out of the alliance with the English for support of France. They took what could be seen as the last blow when the final actual leadership ended when Lancaster died. A year later, they abandoned Paris. After some restructuring by Charles VI, the French artillery was able to quickly and effectively destroy English strongholds. While Jean and Gaspard Bureau are well known for expelling English forces from France and preventing them from returning during the attempt made in 1453. The only land to remain in English hands until 1558 was the port of Calais (Gillum, K. Fred). In conclusion, no other treaties were ever signed and the drawn out was given the name “Guerre de Cent Ans” (Hundred Years’ War) in 1861 when a French publication referred to it as