It wasn't a single war. That’s the first thing you have to wrap your head around if you want a real summary of the 100 years war. It was more like a grueling, generation-spanning series of family feuds, broken truces, and sheer territorial stubbornness that dragged on from 1337 to 1453. Imagine a boxing match where the fighters take twenty-minute breaks between every round, and sometimes the sons of the original fighters step into the ring to keep the grudge alive. That’s basically what Europe dealt with for over a century.
France and England weren't even "countries" in the way we think of them now. They were messy collections of feudal loyalties. The whole mess started because Edward III of England thought he had a better claim to the French throne than the guy actually sitting on it, Philip VI. Edward was a Plantagenet, Philip was a Valois, and neither one was willing to blink first.
The Messy Origins of the 100 Years War
The spark wasn't some grand ideological shift. It was legal paperwork. Specifically, the confiscation of the Duchy of Guyenne (Aquitaine) by Philip VI. Edward III, who held that land as a vassal of the French king but was also a king in his own right, decided he’d had enough of the "vassal" label. He claimed he was the rightful King of France through his mother, Isabella.
History is rarely about just one thing. While the throne was the big prize, the wool trade in Flanders played a massive role too. English sheep farmers and Flemish weavers were basically the economic engine of the era, and French interference there was a direct hit to England’s wallet.
You’ve probably heard of the Battle of Crécy in 1346. It changed everything. Before this, the French knight was considered the ultimate weapon—a literal tank made of meat and steel. But the English brought longbowmen. These weren't professional soldiers in the modern sense; they were yeomen who had practiced since childhood. They could fire ten arrows a minute. When the French cavalry charged, they didn't hit a wall of spears; they hit a storm of bodkin-point arrows that could pierce chainmail. The "flower of French chivalry" was basically mowed down in the mud.
Why the Fighting Just Wouldn't Stop
Then the Black Death showed up. 1348. Everyone stopped fighting because everyone was busy dying. Roughly a third of Europe’s population vanished in a few years. You’d think a plague would end a war, but it just paused it. Once the survivors caught their breath, they went right back to burning villages.
The English had a specific tactic called the chevauchée. It was brutal. Instead of capturing cities, they just marched through the countryside burning everything. The goal was to destroy the French economy and make the French king look like a failure who couldn't protect his own people. It’s hard to overstate how much this traumatized the French peasantry.
The Rise of the Professional Soldier
By the middle stage of the war, things got weird. There were these "Free Companies"—mercenaries who fought for whoever paid. When there was a truce, they didn't go home. They stayed in France and operated like organized crime syndicates, holding towns for ransom. This is where we see the transition from knightly "honor" to the grim reality of professional warfare.
Bertrand du Guesclin, a French commander known as the "Eagle of Brittany," realized he couldn't beat the English in big open battles. He started using Fabian tactics. He’d pick off supply lines, harass small groups, and avoid the longbows. It worked. By the time Edward III and his son, the Black Prince, died, the English had lost almost everything they’d won.
Henry V and the Agincourt Miracle
Fast forward to 1415. Henry V is the English king, and he’s young, ambitious, and slightly fanatical. He lands in France and gets stuck. His army is decimated by dysentery. They are starving. They are trying to get to Calais to go home. The French catch them at Agincourt.
The odds were insane. Some accounts say the French outnumbered the English five to one. But the terrain was a narrow bottleneck between two woods, and the ground was freshly plowed and soaked with rain. The French knights, weighed down by heavy plate armor, marched into a literal swamp of mud. The English longbowmen again rained hell on them. When the arrows ran out, the English archers—lightly armored and mobile—dropped their bows, pulled out lead hammers and daggers, and waded into the mud to finish off the trapped knights.
It was a slaughter. It led to the Treaty of Troyes, where Henry V was actually named the heir to the French throne. England had basically won.
Except Henry V died of dysentery just two years later. His heir was an infant.
✨ Don't miss: The Brené Brown Vulnerability TED Talk: What Most People Get Wrong
Joan of Arc: The Ultimate Wildcard
In the late 1420s, France was a mess. The English held Paris. The "Dauphin" (the French heir, Charles VII) was hiding in Bourges, broke and discouraged. Then a teenage girl from Domrémy showed up claiming she heard voices from saints.
Joan of Arc is often treated like a myth, but her impact was purely strategic. She convinced Charles to let her lead an army to relieve the Siege of Orléans. She wasn't a general in the sense of drawing up maps; she was a catalyst. She brought a religious fervor that the exhausted French soldiers desperately needed.
- She broke the siege of Orléans in days.
- She marched Charles through enemy territory to be crowned at Reims.
- She gave the French a national identity that transcended feudalism.
Even after the English captured and burned her in 1431, the momentum didn't shift back. The French had found their footing. They started using gunpowder.
The End of an Era (and the Longbow)
The final act of this summary of the 100 years war isn't about knights or bows. It’s about cannons. At the Battle of Castillon in 1453, the French had a massive artillery train managed by the Bureau brothers. The English tried a classic charge, but they were ripped apart by French cannons.
🔗 Read more: Pasta alla Zozzona: Why Rome’s Messiest Dish is Actually Its Best
No one signed a grand peace treaty to end the 100 Years War in 1453. The English just... stopped coming back. They were too busy dealing with their own civil war, the Wars of the Roses. Bordeaux fell, and suddenly, the English were gone from the continent, except for a tiny toehold in Calais.
The Lasting Impact
This century of violence changed how we live today. Before the war, English kings spoke French. By the end, they spoke English. Both countries developed a sense of "us vs. them" that created modern nationalism.
Taxation systems were invented to pay for these standing armies. The feudal system, where a lord provided knights for 40 days of service, was dead. It was replaced by professional armies paid for by the state. The middle class grew because the labor shortage after the plague and the war meant peasants could actually demand wages.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs
If you're looking to dive deeper into this period, don't just stick to the textbooks. The nuances are in the primary sources and the geography.
- Visit the Sites: If you ever travel to France, the castles of the Loire Valley aren't just pretty houses; they were strategic fortifications. Places like Chinon are where the real drama happened.
- Read the Chroniclers: Jean Froissart is the main guy. He’s biased and loves a good story, but his "Chronicles" give you the flavor of the 14th century like nothing else.
- Watch the Evolution of Tech: Look at the transition from chainmail to "white armor" (full plate). It happened specifically because of the English longbow.
- Understand the Geography: Look at a map of Aquitaine. The English held it for 300 years before the war ended. To the people living there, "English" wasn't a foreign identity; it was just the way things were.
The 100 Years War taught Europe that technology and logistics matter more than "noble birth." It was the painful birth of the modern world. It was messy, it was long, and it was devastatingly human.
***