Honestly, the name is a total lie. It wasn't 100 years. It was 116. And it wasn't even one long, continuous fight—it was more like a series of bloody, bitter family feuds and massive geopolitical temper tantrums that dragged on so long that the people who started it were long dead before the last arrow flew. When we talk about the 100 year war France endured, we're talking about a period from 1337 to 1453 that basically ripped the heart out of Western Europe and then stitched it back together in a completely different shape.
You’ve probably heard of Joan of Arc. Maybe you know about the longbows at Agincourt. But most people miss the point. This wasn't just about who got to sit on a fancy chair in Paris; it was the painful birth of "France" and "England" as actual countries, rather than just a collection of noblemen owning patches of dirt.
Why the 100 Year War France Faced Even Started
It’s kind of ridiculous when you look at the paperwork. In 1328, Charles IV of France died. He didn't have a son. This was a huge problem because, thanks to a very old and very convenient set of rules called Salic Law, women couldn't inherit the throne.
Edward III of England was Charles’s nephew. He thought, "Hey, I'm the closest male relative, the crown should be mine." But the French nobles weren't exactly thrilled about being ruled by an Englishman. They dug up Philip VI, a cousin, and said he was the guy. Edward wasn't just some random king across the pond, though. He already owned a massive chunk of land in Southwest France called Gascony. He was technically a vassal to the French king for that land, which meant he had to kneel to Philip. Imagine being a king and having to kneel to another king. It was awkward. It was insulting. Eventually, Edward just said, "Forget this, I’m the rightful King of France anyway," and the war was on.
The Longbow vs. The Knight
For decades, the French thought they were invincible. They had the best heavy cavalry in the world. Knights in shining armor were the tanks of the 14th century. But then came Crécy in 1346.
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The English brought these six-foot-tall sticks of yew called longbows. They could fire faster and further than anyone expected. The French knights charged through the mud, and the English archers just... deleted them. It wasn't even close. This happened again at Poitiers in 1356, where the French King John II was actually captured and taken to London. Imagine the chaos. Your king is gone, your knights are dead, and suddenly the "peasant" with a bow is the most dangerous person on the field.
The Black Death Made Everything Worse
Just as things were getting really bad, the Plague showed up in 1348. Talk about bad timing.
The war actually had to take a break because so many people were dying of the Black Death that there weren't enough soldiers left to kill each other. In some parts of France, half the population disappeared. This changed everything. Suddenly, labor was expensive. Peasants realized they had a bit of leverage. If you survived the plague, you weren't just a cog in the feudal machine anymore. You were a valuable survivor. This shift in social power is a huge reason why the old-school feudal system started to crumble during the 100 year war France struggled through.
That Joan of Arc Factor
By the 1420s, France was basically a mess. The English, led by Henry V (the guy from the Shakespeare play), had smashed them at Agincourt. The French king, Charles VI, was literally out of his mind—he sometimes thought he was made of glass and would shatter if touched. The English controlled Paris. They controlled the north. It looked like France was going to become an English province.
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Then a teenage girl from a village called Domrémy showed up.
Joan of Arc didn't know anything about military strategy, but she had "voices" and an incredible amount of confidence. She convinced the Dauphin (the French heir) to let her lead an army to Orléans. She didn't just fight; she changed the vibe. She turned a dynastic quarrel into a holy war. Even though she was eventually captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, and burned at the stake in 1431, the momentum had shifted. The French started feeling like Frenchmen.
The Burgundian Betrayal
We can't talk about this war without talking about Burgundy. This wasn't just England vs. France. It was a three-way mess. The Dukes of Burgundy were incredibly powerful and basically acted like their own country. For a long time, they sided with the English. When they finally switched sides and joined the French king in 1435 (the Treaty of Arras), the English were finished. Without the Burgundian alliance, England couldn't hold onto their French territories.
How It Actually Ended (And It Wasn't With a Treaty)
There was no big peace conference. No grand signing of papers. The English just slowly lost ground. By 1453, the French had developed something the English weren't ready for: professional artillery.
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At the Battle of Castillon, French cannons tore through the English lines. It was the end of an era. The longbow, which had dominated the start of the war, was now useless against gunpowder. The English were pushed back to the coast, eventually leaving only Calais in their hands. The war just... stopped. England got distracted by their own civil war (the Wars of the Roses), and France started the long process of rebuilding.
Why This Matters to You Now
If you visit France today, you see the scars of this conflict everywhere. Those massive, thick-walled châteaus? They weren't just for show. They were built because for over a century, raiding parties called écorcheurs (skinners) were roaming the countryside, burning crops and robbing everyone in sight.
The 100 year war France fought changed the world in three specific ways:
- The End of Knights: Armor couldn't stop bullets or heavy cannons. The age of the chivalric knight was dead, replaced by professional, state-sponsored armies.
- National Identity: Before the war, a peasant in Aquitaine didn't care about a king in Paris. By the end, they were French. The English felt the same way about being English.
- Taxation: To pay for a 116-year war, kings had to create permanent taxes. This gave birth to the modern "state" as we know it today.
What to Do If You're a History Buff
If you're heading to France and want to see this history for yourself, don't just go to the Louvre.
- Visit Orléans: They still have a massive festival for Joan of Arc every May. It's intense and very local.
- See the Bayeux Tapestry: Technically it's about the 1066 invasion, but it sets the stage for why the English thought they owned France in the first place.
- The Castle of Castelnau-la-Chapelle: Located in the Dordogne, this is a literal fortress from the war. It faces a rival castle across the river. It's the perfect visual for how close the "front lines" were to people's front doors.
- Read Froissart’s Chronicles: If you want the "vibe" of the era, Jean Froissart was the journalist of the 1300s. He’s biased, he loves the nobles, and he’s often wrong, but he captures the drama perfectly.
The 100 Year War wasn't just a long fight. It was the messy, violent transition from the Middle Ages to the modern world. It’s why France speaks French and England speaks English, and why the map of Europe looks the way it does today. It was a century of total chaos that somehow created two of the most powerful nations on Earth.
To really understand the period, look into the Battle of Agincourt's tactical records and compare them to the Siege of Orléans. The shift from archery to "divine" inspiration and gunpowder tells the whole story of a continent in flux. You can find detailed primary source translations through the ORB: Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies or by looking up the works of historian Jonathan Sumption, who has written the definitive multi-volume history of this specific conflict. Seeing the transition from feudal levies to the Compagnies d'ordonnance (the first standing army) is the "aha!" moment for anyone trying to figure out how modern government actually began.