Hundred Years War

The Hundred Years War was a long series of fights between England and France during the Middle Ages. It lasted from 1337 to 1453. The two kingdoms battled over who should rule France and who controlled certain lands. Even though the name says "hundred years," the war actually went on for 116 years. There were also long stretches of peace mixed in with the fighting.

The war started over a question of inheritance. In 1328, the king of France died with no son. His closest male cousin, King Edward III of England, said the French throne should be his. The French nobles disagreed and chose a French cousin instead. Edward was furious. In 1337, he led an army across the English Channel to take the crown by force.

The early years went badly for France. English armies won three huge battles: Crécy in 1346, Poitiers in 1356, and Agincourt in 1415. The English had a secret weapon, the longbow. A trained archer could shoot ten arrows a minute, and the arrows could pierce armor from 200 yards away, more than two football fields. At Agincourt, a small, tired English army crushed a much larger French force. France seemed close to losing everything.

Then came one of the most surprising figures in history. In 1429, a teenage farm girl named Joan of Arc said God had told her to save France. Somehow she convinced the French prince to give her armor and soldiers. She led the French army to victory at Orléans, a city the English had been trying to capture for months. Joan was captured a year later and burned at the stake by the English. She was only 19. But the French had their courage back.

After Joan, the war slowly turned. France built one of Europe's first regular armies that was paid by the king. They also began using cannons, a new invention from China. Stone castles that had stood for centuries could now be smashed in days. By 1453, the English had been pushed out of almost all of France.

The war changed both countries forever. England lost most of its land in France and turned its attention back to its own island. France grew into a stronger, more united kingdom. The age of armored knights on horseback was ending, and the age of guns and national armies was beginning. The Hundred Years War sits right at the line between the medieval world and the modern one, with one foot in each.