Hundred Years' War, 1337–1360
The first phase of the Hundred Years' War between England and France lasted from 1337 to 1360. It is sometimes referred to as the Edwardian War because it was initiated by King Edward III of England, who claimed the French throne in defiance of King Philip VI of France. The dynastic conflict was caused by disputes over the French feudal sovereignty over Aquitaine and the English claims over the French royal title. The Kingdom of England and its allies dominated this phase of the war, and Edward's sovereignty over Aquitaine was confirmed in the Treaty of Brétigny, although he renounced his claim to the French throne.
Edward had been granted the duchy of Aquitaine in 1325, and as Duke of Aquitaine he was a vassal to Philip VI of France. Due to political trouble in England during his early reign as a minor, Edward initially accepted Philip as King of France, but the relationship between the two kings soured in the 1330s when Philip allied with Edward's enemy, King David II of Scotland. Edward in turn provided refuge to Robert III of Artois, a French fugitive. When Edward refused to obey Philip's demands for the expulsion of Robert from England, Philip confiscated the Duchy of Aquitaine. This precipitated war and, in 1340, Edward declared himself king of France. Edward III and his son Edward the Black Prince, led their armies on a largely successful campaign across France with notable victories at Auberoche, Crécy, Calais, and La Roche-Derrien. Hostilities were paused until the mid-1350s for the deprivations of the Black Death. Then war continued, and the English were victorious at the Battle of Poitiers where the French king, John II, was captured and held for ransom. The Truce of Bordeaux was signed in 1357 and was followed by two treaties in London in 1358 and 1359.
After the treaties of London failed, Edward launched the Rheims campaign, which, though largely unsuccessful, led to the Treaty of Brétigny, which settled certain lands in France on Edward for renouncing his claim to the French throne. This was in part caused by Black Monday, a freak hailstorm that devastated the English army and forced Edward III into peace talks. This peace lasted nine years before a second phase of hostilities known as the Caroline War began.
Background
When Charles IV of France died in 1328, the nearest male in line to the throne was Edward III of England. Edward had inherited his right through his mother Isabella, the sister of the dead king; but the question arose of whether she should be able to transmit a right that she, as a woman, did not possess as only men could be monarch. An assembly of the French aristocracy decided that the nearest heir through male ancestry was Charles IV's first cousin, Philip, Count of Valois, and that he should be crowned Philip VI. The establishment of a legal succession to the French crown was central to the war and Edward III and succeeding generations of English monarchs laid claim to it.After some initial reluctance, the seventeen-year-old Edward III paid homage to Philip VI in 1329. Gascony, which had been incorporated into Aquitaine, was located in south west France just north of the Pyrenees. The Gascons had their own language and customs. A large proportion of the red wine that they produced, was shipped in a profitable trade with the English. The trade provided the English king with a lot of revenue. The Gascons preferred their relationship with a distant English king who left them alone, to a French king who might interfere in their affairs.
Despite Edward's homage to Philip the French continued to interfere in Gascony. There had been a series of skirmishes at some of the walled towns along the Gascon border. Agenais was an area of Gascony in French hands, and the officials there put pressure on the English administration. A chain of religious houses, although in Edward's jurisdiction, had cases held by French officials. Philip also contracted with various lords within Gascony to provide troops in the event of war with England.
Gascony was not the only issue; in the 1330s, France's support for Scotland caused problems for the English. Loyalties in the low countries were split. In Flanders, the towns were dependent on supplies of English wool, whereas the aristocracy supported the French king. Another element was that of naval power. Philip had intended to go on a crusade and had assembled a fleet off Marseille. These plans were abandoned in 1336 and the fleet moved to the English Channel off Normandy in an obvious act of provocation against the English. One of Edward's influential advisers was Robert III of Artois. Robert was an exile from the French court, having fallen out with Philip VI over an inheritance claim. In November 1336, Philip issued an ultimatum to the seneschal of Gascony threatening that if Robert of Artois was not extradited to France then great peril and dissension would follow. When Philip confiscated the English king's lands in Gascony and the county of Ponthieu the following year, he laid emphasis on the case of Robert of Artois as one of the contributing causes.
Low Countries (1337–1341)
The confiscation of Gascony by Philip VI precipitated the war in 1337. In response, Edward's strategy was for the English in Gascony to hold their position while his army would invade France from the north. The English forces would be supplemented by a grand alliance of continental supporters whom he promised payment of over £200,000, valued at £65,000,000 in 2018. To pay for the war Edward had to raise large amounts of money for his own forces and also his allies on the continent. It was unlikely that the English parliament could raise the requisite sums quickly, so, in the summer of 1337, a plan was developed to make virtually all of the nation's wool stock available to help finance the war. 30,000 sacks would be sold by the English merchants, and the sum would be lent to Edward. To pay the fees promised to his allies, Edward was also forced to borrow heavily from the great banking houses of Bardi and Peruzzi. Late in 1338, when he had exhausted the funds from the banking houses, William de la Pole, a wealthy merchant, came to the king's rescue by advancing him £110,000. Much of the money that William de la Pole lent the king was raised from other English merchants. Edward also borrowed money from merchants in the Low Countries, who charged extortionate rates of interest and demanded more solid guarantees of repayment. In 1340 the Earls of Derby and Northampton were held as surety for the repayment of loans. In the summer of 1339, Edward had asked the Commons for a grant of £300,000. In early 1340 they offered the grant in return for concessions from the king. Edward, delayed by his money-raising efforts, was temporarily unable to proceed with his invasion plans.Meanwhile, the delay in invasion meant that the French government could use its resources elsewhere. In December 1338, Gascony was invaded by the French, who took Saint-Macaire and Blaye. The Englishman charged with the defense of Gascony was the seneschal of Gascony, one Oliver Ingham, who had been in and out of favour with Edward III and his father Edward II. He had proved himself to be an able soldier being a "remarkable improviser". As the English strategy was to invade France from the north Ingham received neither troops nor funds from England, but had to rely entirely on local resources. These were very scarce, so ultimately his strategy was for the English to wall themselves up in their castles and hold on as best they could. He was able to persuade the lord of Albret to switch sides from the French in 1339 and with his help conduct a raid into French territory.
The English parliament, in February 1339, had called up ships from the various ports around the English coast to provide for two naval fleets. This had not happened so the French who had hired galleys and crews from Genoa were able to strike almost at will upon the English coast. Portsmouth was raided, Southampton sacked, and Guernsey captured. The French campaign at sea continued in July 1339 when the French fleet set sail for the south coast of England where they intended a great raid on the Cinque Ports. Their first objective was Sandwich, in Kent. However, the Kent levies were waiting for them in force along the coast so the fleet continued onto Rye where they landed some men and proceeded to raid the area. However, the English had finally put together two fleets and both of them under Robert Morley arrived to confront the French. The French, with their Italian mercenaries believing that the English fleet was larger than it actually was, re-embarked in their ships and headed for the French coast. They escaped into the harbors without there being a naval engagement. In August the French naval campaign came to an abrupt end when, after quarrelling over pay the Genoese crews mutinied and taking over their galleys they returned to Italy.
Apart from a few notable exceptions, such as unwalled Hastings, which was burnt to the ground, the English coastal defenses had been fairly successful against the French raiding. However, with many English going to France at the beginning of the war and others being used to defend the coast against the French, the available troops in the north and Scotland was diminished. With the English presence reduced, the Scots were able to recapture many strong points, such as Perth in 1339 and Edinburgh in 1341.
Threatened with the immediate collapse of his plans, Edward desperately needed some positive military results. In September, Edward assembled an army consisting of about 12,000 men in the Low Countries. His army included elements from his various allies. Cambrai was an ally of the king of France, so, on 20 September, Edward's army marched into the bishopric. A two-week siege of Cambrai ensued. The whole area was laid waste but Cambrai was not taken, then on the evening of 9 October, Edward's army gave up and advanced into France proper. While Edward had been besieging Cambrai the French king had time to call up his army. On Edward's invasion, the French army advanced to Péronne, close to the border. While Edward's army laid waste to a twenty-mile-wide strip of French countryside, plundering and burning hundreds of villages, Philip's army shadowed Edward's army. On 14 October, Edward advanced toward the French army and battle appeared imminent. Edward moved away again plundering more territory. The French continued to shadow the English. Ultimately battle lines were drawn in the province of Picardy between La Capelle and La Flamengrie, both now in the Vervins arrondissement just inside northern France. With both sides facing each other a battle was expected to take place on 23 October, but nothing happened. At nightfall Edward marched his troops out of France, the French did not pursue Edward, this resulted in the campaign coming to an abrupt end.
The Flemish ruler had remained loyal to the French king, consequently, Edward placed an embargo on all English goods to Flanders. In 1337, this precipitated a revolt in Flanders, because of the lack of English wool and food supplies. The leader of the revolt Jacob van Artevelde arranged for Flemish neutrality, in return for the lifting of the English embargo. By December, the Flemings were ready to formally join the anti-French coalition. The civic authorities of Ghent, Ypres and Bruges proclaimed Edward King of France. Edward's purpose was to strengthen his alliances with the Low Countries. His supporters would be able to claim that they were loyal to the "true" king of France and not rebels against Philip. In February 1340, Edward returned to England to try and raise more funds and also deal with political difficulties.
English defenses in Gascony had been severely strained for some time, relief came when two of the nobles who supported the French king pursued a family feud against each other rather than fighting the English. The two nobles involved were the Count of Armagnac and the Count of Foix. Also, further assistance was provided by the Albret family, with Bernard-Aiz, Lord of Albret declaring for Edward in 1339. The Albrets held one of the most important lordships in English Gascony and had been courted by both the English and French crowns. Albret financed Edward's campaign in Gascony and also with his family connections was able to find much-needed additional manpower for Edward's army.
In 1340, the French put together an invasion fleet containing French, Castillian and Genoese ships. The 400 or so ships were squeezed into the Zwyn estuary.
The English had no purpose-built warships, so had to make do with deep-draught, round-hulled merchant ships, known as cogs, that were converted for naval duties. Edward assembled a combined fleet at Orwell, in Kent and set up his headquarters on the cog Thomas. Although he knew that the French fleet was a far superior force to his own he sailed with his fleet on 22 June to confront the French fleet a day later. The French fleet assumed a defensive formation off the port of Sluys, possibly trying to prevent Edward from landing his army. The English fleet apparently tricked the French into believing they were withdrawing. However, when the wind turned in the late afternoon, the English attacked with the wind and sun behind them. Edward sent his ships against the French fleet in units of three, two ships crammed with archers and one full of men-at-arms. Because the ships of the French fleet were so close together it limited their maneuverability. The English ships with the archers would come alongside a French ship and rain arrows down on its decks, the men-at-arms would then just mop up. The French fleet was almost completely destroyed in what became known as the Battle of Sluys. England dominated the English Channel for the rest of the war, preventing French invasions.
In spring of 1340, Philip VI had planned to smash the anti-French coalition by attacking Edward III's allies. French forces invaded Hainaut in May. But when news reached him about the disaster at Sluys, he turned his attention to counter the new threat. Edward III split his army in two. The first, led by Robert of Artois invaded the province of Artois. But in a battle with the garrison of Saint-Omer 26 June, most of this army was destroyed, and Robert was forced to retreat. On the same day Edward III appeared before the walls of Tournai. The siege dragged out, and in September, Philip VI arrived with the main French army. Philip VI again refused to meet the English in battle. Both sides running out of money led to a temporary truce.
The Truce of Espléchin marked the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War and resulted in a cessation of hostilities on all fronts for nine months. The cost both politically and financially had been immense. Grand alliances could no longer be afforded and some allies could no longer be relied on. The German princes all backed out of the anti-French alliance, only the burghers of Flanders remained. In England; opinion was turning against Edward, his gains on the continent had been at a large cost and most of Scotland had been lost. Essentially bankrupt, Edward was forced to cut his losses. Those whose support he could not afford to lose were repaid, others were not. The contemporary Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani suggested that the banks of Bardi and Peruzzi failed because Edward III defaulted on the loans. Villani was not an independent source, his brother was a member of the Peruzzi company. Villani said that Edward owed the Bardi 900,000 gold florins and the Peruzzi 600,000. But the Peruzzis' records show that they never had that much capital to lend Edward III. In reality the English crown had forced the companies to accept a smaller amount of debt and repaid some with cash and others with royal grants of wool, a principal export of the English economy at the time.
Further, at the same time Florence was going through a period of internal disputes and the third largest financial company, the Acciaiuoli, also went bankrupt, and they did not lend any money to Edward. What loans Edward III did default on are likely only to have contributed to the financial problems in Florence, not caused them.