Hundred Years' War

The Battle of Castillon on 17 July 1453 is generally regarded as the final major engagement of the Hundred Years' War. Fought in Gascony near Castillon, it ended in a decisive French victory and showcased the effectiveness of entrenched artillery and more centralized royal military organization. The defeat destroyed England's last serious field army in southwestern France and led to the loss of Bordeaux shortly afterward. Although Calais remained English for a time and a formal comprehensive peace came later, Castillon effectively ended England's long attempt to dominate the French crown and mainland kingdom.

At Formigny on 15 April 1450, French forces defeated an English army in Normandy, accelerating the collapse of English rule in the region. The battle showed the growing effectiveness of French command and the crown's increasingly organized war machine, including the use of artillery and coordinated field operations. Formigny was important not simply because it was a battlefield win, but because it opened the way for the reconquest of Normandy, one of the principal zones of English occupation. By this stage, the strategic initiative had passed firmly to Charles VII, and England was struggling to hold even its remaining continental strongholds.

The Treaty of Arras, concluded on 21 September 1435, reconciled Charles VII with Philip the Good of Burgundy and ended the most damaging internal political fracture in France. Since Burgundian support had been essential to English power after 1419 and especially after Troyes, the diplomatic shift isolated England and weakened its ability to hold territory. Arras therefore mattered far beyond court politics: it changed the strategic balance of the entire war. With the French civil conflict easing, Charles VII could focus more consistently on expelling English forces and strengthening royal administration and military command.

Charles VII was crowned and anointed at Reims Cathedral in July 1429, an event made possible by the rapid French advance after Orléans and the Loire victories. The coronation carried immense symbolic weight because Reims was the traditional site for French royal consecration. By securing the ceremony, Charles answered the dynastic claims embodied in the Treaty of Troyes and reinforced his standing as the legitimate king of France. The event did not immediately end the conflict, but it transformed the political landscape by giving the Valois monarchy a sacred and public confirmation that many subjects could recognize.

On 8 May 1429, after a series of French attacks inspired in part by Joan of Arc's leadership, the English abandoned the siege of Orléans. The lifting of the siege was a major turning point in the Hundred Years' War because it ended the aura of inevitable English success that had followed Agincourt and Troyes. French morale surged, and the victory energized a broader Loire campaign. More importantly, it re-legitimized the Dauphin's cause in the eyes of many contemporaries by linking military recovery with a sense of divine favor, political renewal, and national resistance.

The English siege of Orléans began in October 1428 and posed a direct threat to the remaining territories loyal to the Dauphin Charles. Orléans was a crucial strategic city on the Loire, and its fall would have opened the way for deeper English penetration into central and southern France. The siege became a psychological as well as military contest, symbolizing whether the Valois cause could survive. By the spring of 1429 the city was under immense pressure, and the crisis created the setting in which Joan of Arc emerged as a powerful rallying figure for French resistance.

The Treaty of Troyes, sealed on 21 May 1420, represented the high point of English diplomatic success during the war. Under the agreement, Henry V married Catherine of Valois and was recognized as heir and regent of France during the lifetime of Charles VI, while the Dauphin Charles was effectively disinherited. The treaty rested on English military strength and on the alliance with Burgundy, but it did not secure broad national acceptance. Instead, it hardened divisions inside France and created a succession crisis that would erupt again after the near-simultaneous deaths of Henry V and Charles VI in 1422.

After renewing English claims in France, Henry V won a celebrated victory at Agincourt on 25 October 1415 near Azincourt in northern France. His tired and outnumbered army, positioned on constricted muddy ground, used archers and disciplined defensive tactics to devastate repeated French assaults. Agincourt quickly became one of the defining battles of the war because it revived English fortunes after decades of mixed results and elevated Henry's prestige across Europe. The battle also deepened the French political crisis, especially amid factional conflict between Burgundians and Armagnacs, making later English diplomatic gains possible.

By 1369, the peace settlement of Brétigny had unraveled and large-scale war resumed. Charles V of France, aided by commanders such as Bertrand du Guesclin, avoided the kind of reckless set-piece battles that had favored the English earlier in the conflict. Instead, the French crown pursued a more deliberate strategy of attrition, sieges, and local reconquest, gradually stripping away English-held territories. This renewal marked an important shift in the war's character: rather than relying on knightly prestige, France increasingly used administrative coordination, taxation, and patient campaigning to rebuild royal authority and reverse many of England's earlier gains.

The Treaty of Brétigny, agreed on 8 May 1360 near Chartres and later ratified at Calais, temporarily ended the first major phase of the war. Under its terms, Edward III renounced, at least formally, his immediate claim to the French crown in exchange for enlarged sovereignty over substantial territories in southwestern France and around Calais. For France the treaty represented a severe setback after years of battlefield defeats and the captivity of John II. Yet the settlement also proved unstable: unresolved rivalries, financial pressures, and competing interpretations of sovereignty meant that the war would revive within a decade.

On 19 September 1356, near Poitiers, the army of Edward, the Black Prince, defeated King John II of France in one of the most dramatic encounters of the war. The French king was captured in battle, an outcome that plunged the French monarchy into crisis and imposed enormous financial and political strain through ransom demands. Poitiers confirmed that the English victories at Sluys and Crécy were not isolated accidents but part of a wider pattern of tactical success. The shock of a reigning king taken prisoner destabilized France internally and opened the way for hard peace terms in the years that followed.

Following the Crécy campaign, Edward III invested the port city of Calais and forced its surrender in August 1347 after an exhausting siege. Calais became the most important English possession in northern France, serving as a fortified bridgehead for trade, diplomacy, and future military expeditions. Its harbor allowed English rulers to move troops efficiently across the Channel, while its defenses made it difficult for France to recover quickly. The city's capture turned a battlefield success into a durable geopolitical advantage and ensured that the war would continue on a broad strategic front rather than as a single campaign.

At Crécy in northern France on 26 August 1346, Edward III's army defeated a much larger French force led by Philip VI. The battle became famous for the devastating effectiveness of English and Welsh longbowmen, whose volleys shattered repeated French attacks. Crécy was more than a battlefield victory: it exposed weaknesses in traditional mounted knightly warfare when faced with disciplined infantry and missile troops. The result strengthened English prestige, encouraged further campaigning, and helped pave the way for the subsequent siege and capture of Calais, a strategic foothold that England would retain for generations.

The Battle of Sluys, fought on 24 June 1340 off the coast of Flanders near the port approaches to Sluis, gave Edward III a decisive naval victory over the French fleet. By destroying or capturing much of France's sea power, the English gained crucial control of the English Channel. That advantage protected England from immediate invasion and made it easier to transport armies and supplies to the Continent. Sluys was the first major military clash of the war and demonstrated how sea control could determine the tempo of later campaigns in northern France.

On 24 May 1337, King Philip VI of France declared the duchy of Aquitaine forfeit, arguing that Edward III of England had failed in his obligations as a French vassal. The act transformed a long-running dynastic and feudal dispute into open war. Edward responded by pressing his claim to the French crown through his mother, Isabella, sister of the last direct Capetian king. This opening rupture is conventionally treated as the start of the Hundred Years' War, a prolonged and intermittent struggle that reshaped monarchy, taxation, military organization, and political identity on both sides of the Channel.