Hundred Years' War and Late Medieval Warfare
The Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) between England and France epitomized the prolonged, transformative conflicts of the later Middle Ages, accelerating changes in armies, tactics, finance, and the state.
Definition
The Hundred Years' War was the intermittent series of conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France from 1337 to 1453, rooted in disputes over the French succession and English holdings in France; late-medieval warfare more broadly denotes the period's evolving art and organization of war.
Scope
Covers the causes, phases, and consequences of the Hundred Years' War, alongside broader developments in late-medieval warfare: the rise of infantry, the longbow and gunpowder, paid and standing forces, war finance and taxation, chivalric culture, and debates over a late-medieval 'military revolution'.
Core questions
- What were the dynastic and territorial causes of the war?
- How did tactics and technology (longbow, gunpowder) change warfare?
- How did war drive taxation, finance, and state development?
- Was there a late-medieval 'military revolution'?
Key theories
- Late-medieval military revolution
- Clifford Rogers's argument that the Hundred Years' War involved successive 'military revolutions' — in infantry tactics and later gunpowder artillery — that reshaped armies and contributed to the growth of state fiscal and administrative power.
History
Triggered by the English claim to the French throne and conflict over Gascony, the war saw English victories at Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415), then a French recovery associated with Joan of Arc and the consolidation of royal armies and artillery, ending with the expulsion of the English by 1453. It accelerated changes in military organization, taxation, and national sentiment.
Debates
- Military revolution thesis
- Historians debate whether late-medieval changes in tactics and technology constituted a 'revolution' and how directly they drove state-building, or whether change was more gradual and contingent.
Key figures
- Jonathan Sumption
- Christopher Allmand
- Clifford J. Rogers
- Philippe Contamine
Related topics
Seminal works
- allmand1988
- sumption1990
- contamine1984
Frequently asked questions
- When was the Hundred Years' War?
- Conventionally from 1337 to 1453, though it was a series of intermittent conflicts rather than continuous fighting.
- Why did England ultimately lose?
- French recovery, more effective royal armies and artillery, financial and logistical strains on England, and shifting alliances all contributed to the English expulsion from France by 1453.