Thread by @lafayettepod

Let’s dig into the conclusion of the Hundred Years’ War. The final events and battles that led to the end of that extraordinary conflict between France and England. Get ready for a nice #thread 🧵 👇 #history #medieval
You can listen to the episode here: lafayettepodcast.com/1969630/114014…

After Jeanne D’Arc’s intervention and Charles VII’s crowning, the English keep suffering defeat after defeat. Henri VI tries to legitimize his claim to the French throne by being crowned king of France in December 1431 in Paris, but it doesn't help his cause.

The English army in France starts showing cracks and the English king is under pressure from his own nobles regarding the recent setbacks. Charles VII of France, reinforced by his military successes, starts new negotiations with the Burgundians.

Philippe the Good, Duke of Burgundy, accepts to switch sides and signs the Peace of Aras in 1435. The Duke earns a lot in this treaty, various cities and abbeys, but the French king needs peace with his fellow Frenchmen. The English king loses a precious ally.

The next eighteen years will be marked by a huge French reconquest. Even though Charles faced some dissension and even a rebellion of some high-ranking nobles in the 1440s, he manages to stay in power and even to reinforce the French royal authority.

At the same time, England experiences many internal problems and has to sue for peace. A truce is signed at Tours in 1444. Charles makes the best of the time he just earned. He reforms the French financial system as well as the structure of the army.

This allows him to raise a better-led, more professional army very quickly. He accepts the new role of missile troops instead of the old-fashion cavalry and forces the French nobles to accept it too.

He disposes of a standing army of 7,000 troops, well fed and prepared for combat. These are called the companies of the Grande Ordonnance, because of the ordinance of Nancy of 1445 that created them. Charles places troops around Normandy and Guyenne, ready to strike the English.

If the early English victories during the war were impressive, the final French ones are even more so. Le Mans falls in 1449. Following that, the new Duke of Brittany, François, allies himself with the French. The English just lost their last ally on French soil.

The next target is Normandy itself. Not wanting to go without a fight, Henry of England sends an army in France to meet Charles. They arrive at Cherbourg in March 1450. The two forces meet at Formigny a month later.

The English hope to make another Crécy or Azincourt, and this time they actually have more men than the French! But the French have two couleuvrines, small canons that wreck havoc in the English archers.

They don't kill that many, but they annihilate the English strategy of waiting for the French to come dying under their arrows. The English have no option but to charge the French. The resulting fighting is extremely brutal and long.

Both armies fight for hours with no clear winner in sight. That's when Arthur de Richemont, a Briton noble, veteran of Azincourt and future Duke of Brittany, arrives on field of battle with 2,000 men.

The scene could have inspired Tolkien for the cavalry charge during the Battle of Helm's Deep. The Briton cavalry routs the English and the French victory is total. The English leave over 3,800 men dead on the field and have just lost Normandy.

This terrible loss creates turmoil back in England where William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, who organized the whole campaign is arrested and sent to the Tower of London. He's executed on May 2nd 1450.

To make matters even worse, the French population living under English rule in Guyenne starts rebelling. Charles doesn't miss his chance and attacks. Bergerac falls in 1450. The king then sends a huge army commanded by Dunois to take Bordeaux. It's done the Summer of next year.

There is one last effort from the English in late 1452, led by John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. Talbot is a renowned commander and was successful against French armies in the 1420's and 1430's.

Now aged 65, he leads an English army in Aquitaine and retakes Bordeaux as well as other towns. Charles answers quickly and sends an army to meet him. They meet on July 17th 1453 at Castillon, now named "Castillon-la-Bataille" in honour of the French victory there… spoilers.

The English outnumber the French, around 12,000 men against 10,000. But just like in 1450, the French have a technological advantage: gunpowder artillery. The English launch early assaults that are stopped by French infantry.

After this first encounter, the French artillery opens fire at close range on the English ranks. The English suffer greatly from this and Talbot himself is killed during the exchange. As they did three years prior, the Breton cavalry proved instrumental in the victory.

They charged the English just at the right moment. The other French troops, seeing this, charge the English centre. The English army is routed, the French victory, total. Bordeaux falls again in French hands in October 1453. The last English soldier has left Guyenne for good.

After the loss of Guyenne, the English only had one possession in France: Calais. It will remain in their hands until 1553. Although there is no peace treaty in 1453, the war is, in effect, over. England has lost its possessions in France and is humiliated.

Henry VI suffers an immense psychological shock after learning of the fall of Bordeaux. He will never recover and will have mental health issues until his death in 1471. England soon enters a dark time in its history in 1455: the War of the Roses, a direct consequence of the war.

At the end of the conflict, France is, of course, scarred by over a century of combat on its soil. Also during this time, waves of the Black Death killed millions of its inhabitants. The country is exhausted, but united to an all new level.

French monarchy comes out of the conflict stronger than ever. Charles VII will keep reforming the country and reinforcing his own authority. His son, Louis XI will complete what his father began, by uniting the French kingdom and assimilating many territories under his banner.

One of the territories he will take is the Duchy of Burgundy, but that is a story for another day. Overall, France as a nation really starts to emerge out of the French Kingdom, because of the victory. The French victory of 1453 also marks the end of English incursions in France.

Both kingdoms have links that go back to the XIth century, when William the Conqueror, a French Norman lord, took over England. The French and English royal families have a strong and explosive relationship.

They fought each other on and off for a couple centuries, until they started this all-out conflict that we talked about today. After this, they won't fight each other in France very much, but their armies will meet many times abroad over the next centuries.

Thanks for reading this last thread on the Hundred Years' War. Don’t forget to subscribe and review on your favourite podcast platform! They can all be found here: lafayettepodcast.com/share