Lecture 5 Late Middle Ages: The Hundred Years’ War and the Wars of the Roses

The Hundred Years’ War, lasting from 1337 until 1453, was a defining time for the history of both England and France. The war started in May 1337 when King Philip VI of France attempted to confiscate the English territories in the duchy of Aquitaine (located in Southwestern France). It ended in July 1453 when the French finally expelled the English from the continent (except for Calais). The Hundred Years’ War (see map 5) was a series of chevauchees (plundering raids), sieges and naval battles interspersed with truces and uneasy peace.

Map 5 (Hundred Years’ War)

The background of the conflict can be found 400 years earlier, in 911, when Carolingian Charles the Simple allowed the Viking Rollo to settle in a part of his kingdom (a region known afterwards as “Normandy”). In 1066 the “Normans” were led by William the Conqueror (the Duke of Normandy) and conquered England, defeating the Anglo-Saxon leadership at the Battle of Hastings, installing a new Anglo-Norman power structure. It is important to note for future events that starting with Rollo, Norman leaders were vassals to the King of France, even after they also became kings in England.

Following a period of civil wars and unrest in England known as The Anarchy (1135-1154), the Anglo-Norman dynasty was succeeded by the Angevin Kings. At the height of power the Angevins controlled Normandy and England, along with Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Gascony, Saintonge and Aquitaine. Such assemblage of lands is sometimes known as the Angevin Empire. The king of England, who was still a vassal of the King of France, directly ruled more French territory than the King of France himself. This situation – where the Angevin kings owed vassalage to a ruler who was de facto much weaker – was a cause of continual conflict. The French resolved the situation somewhat in three decisive wars: the conquest of Normandy (1214), the Saintonge War (1242) and finally the War of Saint-Sardos (1324), thus reducing England’s hold on the continent to a few small provinces in Gascony and the complete loss of the crown jewel of Normandy. By the early 14th century many in the English aristocracy could still remember a time when their grandparents and great-grandparents had control over wealthy continental regions, such as Normandy, which they also considered their ancestral homeland, and were motivated to regain possession of these territories.

Notably, the Hundred Years’ War is seen by many scholars as a chapter in the seemingly perpetual conflict between the English and French nations, as disputes and open war were frequent, which continued as late as the Napoleonic era, and which extended well beyond Europe as the two battled for global empires. The significance of the Hundred Years’ War in this context is the rise of nationalism it engendered, compared to earlier medieval conflicts.

Causes of the war.

1) One of the central causes of the Hundred Years’ War centered on the relationship between the Kings of France and England regarding the duchy of Aquitaine located in Southwestern France. In 1259, the Treaty of Paris designated that Henry III (1216 - 1270) held the duchy as a fief of the French king. As a vassal to the King of France Henry was required to pay liege homage to the king. (This meant that the King of England was required to do homage whenever the kingship of either England or France changed hands.) However, Henry was the King of England; how could a king be in turn a vassal?

2) Control over the French throne further complicated matters. In 1328, Charles IV, King of France, died without a male heir. Edward III, the King of England, held claim to the throne via his mother who was Charles’ sister. The other important claimant was head of the Valois house (Philip VI) grandson of Philip III. Philip VI gained the throne and moved to confiscate Aquitaine in order to consolidate his power. Edward led a raid into French territory in 1338 to defend his claim and two years later declared himself the true king of France.

3) The French planned to seize town in Flanders which meant loss of markets for Britain.

The War. In the history of the war four stages can be singled out between which there was no actual fighting:

STAGE ONE (the beginning of the war, 1337 – declaration of temporal piece in Brẻtigny, 1360)

During this first stage England had success at war. The English army was better organized and it defeated the French in two important battles of this period – at Crecy (1346) and Poitier (1356). At Poitier the French lost their king who was captured by the English and had to buy his freedom for an enormous ransom. The other success for the English was besiege of Calais (1347) which gave England an important military base in Northern France. The major reasons of the English success were the discipline of the army and the usage of the longbow by the archers.

Awful defeat of the French allowed the English army to sack French towns and villages. In return the French townspeople and peasants started to organize partisan detachments for self-defense. It was the beginning of the future liberation movement in France. This made the English king – Edward III – to sign a peace pact with France (in Brẻtigny, 1360) which was catastrophic for France as it lost enormous lands in south-west. However France remained an independent country as Edward III gave up his claim to the French crown.

Temporal peace

STAGE TWO (1369-1396)

This stage of the war proved successful for the French. French king Carl V with the help of the population of France managed to reorganize the army and forced out the English from south-east of France. However the English stayed in possession of large and strategically important ports in France such as Calais, Cherbourg, Brest, Bordeaux and Bayonne. Another peace pact was signed in 1396 due to heavy exhaustion of both the French and the English armies. This peace however did not solve any problems between the two countries which meant that there would be the continuation of the war.

Temporal peace (during the temporal peace at war England, however, faced some problems within the country – English Peasants’ Revolt under the leadership of Watt Tyler (1381) fuelled by bitter resentment of the unfair Poll Tax raised to pay for the costly French wars).

STAGE THREE (1415-1420)

The shortest and the most dramatic period for France. After a new wave of the English army which landed out in Northern France and the French defeat at Azincourt (1415) French freedom was at stake. English king Henry V managed to subdue half of the French territories and the French king signed the Treaty of Troyes with Henry V agreeing to English rule over Northern France, and that Henry would inherit the crown of France on his death – to run the two countries as a dual kingdom.

Temporal peace

STAGE FOUR (1420s-1450s)

This is a stage of liberation war in France which struggled for the opportunity to be an independent country and form its own national government. In 1429 a peasant girl – Jeanne d’Arc – inspired by “voices of angels” roused the demoralized French troops and saved Orleans from the English siege and managed to organize the coronation of the true heir to the French throne – Carl VII. The French army reorganized by Carl VII managed to defeat the English in several important battles. England started to lose an extremely costly war and with the loss of Gascony in 1453, the Hundred Years’ War was considered over, though a formal treaty between England and France was only signed in 1475.

In this war England lost all its French territories except the port of Calais.

The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) was a series of civil wars fought over the throne of England between adherents of the House of Lancaster and the House of York. Both houses were branches of the Plantagenet royal house, tracing their descent from King Edward III. The name “Wars of the Roses” was not used during the time of the wars, but has its origins in the badges associated with the two royal houses, the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York. Although the roses were occasionally used as symbols during the wars themselves, most of the participants wore badges associated with their immediate feudal lords or protectors.

The Wars were fought largely by the landed aristocracy and armies of feudal retainers; supporters of each house largely depended upon dynastic marriages with the nobility, feudal titles, and tenures.

Origins of the Conflict.  When Edward III died in 1377, he left behind him several sons. In order to care for his brood, he had created the first English dukedoms for them, bestowing unprecedented power upon the royal litter. After the old King’s death, though, it was not a son but a grandson who succeeded him: Richard II, the youth who, in his fourteenth year fared so admirably during the Peasant’s Revolt. Unfortunately Richard never demonstrated such leadership, wisdom and ability again, and later in his reign managed to alienate both his family and the nobility. Inevitable disaster struck in 1399, when his powerful cousin, Henry of Lancaster mounted a successful coup d’état and took the crown. For the next few decades Henry’s heirs ruled England in relative peace, until the early 1450’s when Richard, Duke of York, a descendant of Edward III started making trouble.

The current king of England, Henry VI was a weak and ill man, little suited to the burdens of kingship. Henry had no children at the time so the Duke of York was considered next in line for the throne. Unfortunately York had not the power that befitted his status as Henry’s heir; other nobles constantly persuaded Henry to keep him out of politics by giving him overseas duties (in reality exiling him). After some years as Captain of Calais, York had spent thousands of pounds of his own money paying the garrison and providing for their needs (Henry repeatedly failed to send any money). He was then relieved of his post by the Duke of Somerset – the king’s favourite – who had already been advanced tens of thousands of pounds for his services to the crown in France. If this injustice failed to anger York, his own appointment of Captain of Ireland and subsequent exile must have, as he watched Somerset surrender the cities and towns that had belonged to England for decades. After the fall of Rouen Somerset returned to England and to the surprise of everybody was welcomed home by King Henry.

In 1452 York returned secretly to England and marched with several thousand retainers and supporters on London, halting at Blackheath where he found the road blocked by the Royal army. York demanded that Somerset be put on trial for his disastrous conduct in France. After assurances this would be done York disbanded his army, only to be temporarily arrested.

In 1453, York’s relatives by marriage, the Nevilles, found themselves in a deadly feud with their northern neighbours the Percy family. In a great diplomatic move York and the Neville made an alliance and enlisted each other’s help against their enemies. So, when the King was taken ill in 1454 the Nevilles stormed Somerset’s council with a few other Lords and elected York as Protector, even in his absence. York instantly imprisoned the Duke of Somerset in the Tower, while the Percies suffered greatly at the hands of the Nevilles. When the King recovered his health in 1455, Somerset was released and in turn allied himself to the Percies. Shortly after, the Yorkists were publicly dismissed from their government posts. York and his Neville allies the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick fled London and upon Warwick’s advice they wasted no time in raising an army for the purpose of an armed return to power.

The Wars’ opening battle took place on May 22, 1455 at the fortified town of St Albans. In the conflict that followed York and the Nevilles would be known as ‘the Yorkists’, while King Henry, the Duke of Somerset and the Percies would be known as the ‘Lancastrians’.

The Battles of the war.

The First Battle of St Albans 22 May 1455	The Battle of Hedgeley Moor 25 April 1464
The Battle of Blore Heath 23 September 1459	The Battle of Hexham 15 May 1464
The Battle of Northampton 10 July 1460	The Battle of Edgecote Moor 26 July 1469
The Battle of Wakefield 30 December 1460	The Battle of Losecote Field 12 March 1470
The Battle of Mortimer's Cross 2 February 1461		The Battle of Barnet 14 April 1471
The Second Battle of St Albans 17 February 1461		The Battle of Tewkesbury 4 May 1471
The Battle of Ferry Bridge 28 March		The Battle of Bosworth 22 August 1485

Outcome of the war. Henry Tudor’s forces defeated Richard’s at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and Henry Tudor became King Henry VII of England. Henry then strengthened his position by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and the best surviving Yorkist claimant. He, thus, reunited the two royal houses, merging the rival symbols of the red and white roses into the new emblem of the red and white Tudor Rose. Henry shored up his position by executing all other possible claimants whenever he could lay hands on them, a policy his son, Henry VIII, continued.

Many historians consider the accession of Henry VII to mark the end of the Wars of the Roses. Others argue that the Wars of the Roses concluded only with the Battle of Stoke in 1487, which arose from the appearance of a pretender to the throne, a boy named Lambert Simnel who bore a close physical resemblance to the young Earl of Warwick, the best surviving male claimant of the House of York. The pretender’s plan was doomed from the start, because the young earl was still alive and in King Henry’s custody, so no one could seriously doubt Simnel was anything but an impostor. At Stoke, Henry defeated forces led by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln—who had been named by Richard III as his heir, but had been reconciled with Henry after Bosworth—thus effectively removing the remaining Yorkist opposition. Simnel was pardoned for his part in the rebellion and sent to work in the royal kitchens. Henry’s throne was again challenged with the appearance of the pretender Perkin Warbeck who, in 1491 claimed to be Richard, Duke of York. Henry consolidated his power in 1499, with the capture and execution of Warbeck.

The Epoch of Tudor reign starts.