1. The Root Causes of the War

The Hundred Years War was the name given by historians to a series of battles between England and France about English lands in Northwest France, the war as a matter of a fact lasted more than a century and affected the whole European continent. To understand the tensions between the English and French thrones over continental land, we should go back to 1066 when William of Normandy conquered England that we have discussed in the second lecture. In the third lecture, we explored how his grandson Henry II had gained further lands in France, by inheriting the County of Anjou from his father and ruling the Dukedom of Aquitaine through his wife. Tensions grew even more between the kings of France and English Vassals. In lecture four, we saw how King John of England lost Normandy, Anjou, and other lands in France in 1204, and his son was forced to sign the Treaty of Paris ceding this land. He kept Aquitaine and other territories to be held as a vassal of France. according to Robert Wide " "This was one king bowing to another, and there were further wars in 1294 and 1324 when Aquitaine was confiscated by France and won back by the English crown. As the profits from Aquitaine alone rivalled those of England, the region was important and retained many differences from the rest of France" (p 13).

In 1337, King Philip of France seized the Duchy of Aquitaine while King Edward III of England was at war with David Bruce of Scotland. According to many historians, this was considered to be the direct cause of the Hundred Years War, especially that Edward III claimed to be the righteous Heir of the French throne and named himself King of France. His claim was based on the fact that he was the direct heir, from his mother's side, of the French throne after the childless King Charles IV died. Edward was 13 at that time so the French Assembly elected Philip de Valois to be King. France was already fractioned from the inside between the King's men and major nobles about ports and lands. This Fraction weakened the kingdom and made it easy for Edward to infiltrate it.