The Hundred Years' War: How England Nearly Conquered France

TL;DR

England nearly conquered France through military victories and the Treaty of Troyes but ultimately lost due to French military reform, Joan of Arc, and artillery.

Key Points

• 1.The war's origins stemmed from feudal tension over Guyenne and dynastic rivalry. England held Guyenne as a French vassal for 150 years; when Philip VI confiscated it and blocked English wool trade, Edward III claimed the French throne as a grandson of Philip IV, formally beginning the conflict.
• 2.English longbowmen and chevauchée tactics gave England decisive early advantages. At Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), English and Welsh archers devastated the French cavalry; chevauchées — plundering raids — financed campaigns and destabilized France without risking pitched battles.
• 3.The Treaty of Brétigny (1360) gave England a quarter of French territory. France paid 3 million gold écus for John II's release, and Edward III formally renounced the French throne — but Charles V later undermined the treaty through strategic attrition led by Bertrand du Guesclin.
• 4.Charles V's military reforms and scorched-earth strategy reversed English gains. He built a centralized professional army, used the Castilian fleet to destroy England's at La Rochelle (1372), and systematically emptied the countryside, starving English chevauchées into exhaustion.
• 5.Henry V came closest to conquering France, winning at Agincourt (1415) and securing the Treaty of Troyes (1420). The Burgundian-Armagnac civil war enabled his conquest of Normandy; the treaty disinherited Charles and made Henry V heir to the French throne, with Paris welcoming him alongside Charles VI.
• 6.Joan of Arc reversed the English siege of Orléans in ten days (1429) and crowned Charles VII at Reims. Though later captured, tried, and burned at the stake in Rouen, her intervention galvanized French resistance and proved the turning point that ended English dominance.
• 7.France's new light artillery ultimately expelled England, ending 116 years of war by 1453. French forces retook Normandy and Guyenne in two years; England retained only Calais, and both kingdoms lost roughly 40% of their populations, taking two centuries to recover demographically.