By the end of the fourteenth century, the long war with France, known as the Hundred Years War, had already been going on for over fifty years. But there had been long periods without actual fighting.
When Henry IV died in 1413 he passed on to his son Henry V a kingdom that was peaceful and united. Henry V was a brave and inteligent man, and like Richard I, he became one of England s favourite kings.
Since the situation was peaceful at home Henry V felt able to begin fighting the French again. His French war was as popular as Edward III s had been. Henry had a great advantage because the king of France was mad, and his nobles were quarrelsome. The war began again in 1415 when Henry renewed Edward III s claim to the throne of France.
Burgundy again supported England and The English army was able to prove once more that it was far better in battle than the French army.
At Agincourt the same yecar the English defeeated a French army three times its own size. The English were more skilful, and had better weapons. Between 1417 and 1420 Henry manged to capture most of Normandy and the nearby areas. By the treaty of Troyes in 1420 Henry was recognised as heir to the mad king, and he married Katherine of Valois, the king s daughter. But Henry V never became king of France because he died a few months before the French king in 1422. His nine-month-old baby son, inherited the thrones of England and France.
As with Scotland and Wales, England found it was easier to invade and conquer France than to keep it. At first Henry V s brother, John duke of Bedford, continued to enlarge the area under English control. But soon the French began to fight back. Foreign invasion had created for the first time strong French national feeling. The English army was twice defeated by the French, who were inspired by a mysterious peasent girl called Joan of Arc, who claimed to hear heavenly voices. Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians, and given to the English. The English gave her to the Church in Rouen, which burnt her as a Witch in 1413. England was now beginning to lose an extremely costly war. In 1435 England s best general, John of Bedford, died. Then England s Breton and Burgundian allies lost confidence in the value of the English alliance. With the loss of Gascony in 1453, the Hundred Years War was over. England had lost everything except the port of Calais.
Henry VI, who had become king as a baby, grew up to be simple-minded and book-loving. He hated the warlike nobles, and was an unsuitable king for such a violent society. But he was a cicilised and gentle man. He founded two places of learning that still exist, Etnon College not far from London, and King s College in Cambridge. He could happily have spent his life in such places of learning. But Henry s simple-mindedness gave way to periods of mental illnes.
England had lost a war and was ruled by a mentally ill king who was bad at choosing advisers. It was perhaps natural that the ...
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