in 1329, and again in 1331, Edward III acknowledged him as his lord for the fief of Guienne (ge-en', i.e. Aquitaine). Other causes, however, soon led to war between England and France, and then the claim of Edward III to the French throne became a factor in the contest which we call the Hundred Years' War. A comparison of the development of France during the Middle Ages with that of Germany and England is instructive. In 266. French, Germany the decentralizing tendencies of feudalism preGerman, vailed. A minute territorial division was the result, and and English the Emperor was despoiled of all power, without profit to the people. In England the struggle between the feudal nobles and the crown produced a constitutional monarchy, under which the rights and liberties of the people rapidly developed. In France the crown grew at the expense of the feudal nobles; but this was without gain to the people, save through the greater security and better government which followed. develop ment After the fall of the Hohenstaufen house (§ 137) France became the most important country of Europe. The part which the Emperors formerly had played in Italy was now taken 267. French art and by the French kings. The intellectual and artistic inlearning fluence of France was also great. "Her intellect," says an eminent historian, "gave expression to the whole civilization of that period, religious, feudal, and knightly. The French wrote heroic poems, built castles and cathedrals, and interpreted the texts of Aristotle and the Scriptures. Their songs, buildings, and scholastic philosophy verged upon perfection. Lavisse, Gen- Already independent, already mobile and sprightly, the eral View of French mind freed itself from tradition and authority. It produced the aërial grace of Gothic art. Christian Europe copied French cathedrals, recited French heroic and humorous songs, and thus learned the French language. Almost all the universities of Europe were like swarms of bees from the hive of Mount Saint Genevieve [University of Paris]. A proverb said that the world was ruled by three powers, the Papacy, the Empire, and Learning; the first residing in Rome, the second in Germany, the third in Paris." the Political History of Europe, 61 62 IMPORTANT DATES 1108-1137. Louis VI reduces the crown domain to order. 1202-1206. Philip Augustus breaks the Angevin power in France. 1214. Battle of Bouvines. 1226-1270. Reign of Louis IX (Saint Louis). 1285-1314. Reign of Philip IV. 1302. Battle of Courtrai. 1302. First meeting of the Estates-General. 1305. Seat of papacy transferred to France; beginning of Babylonian Captivity. 1316. Women excluded from the French throne. 1328. Claims of Edward III of England to the French throne rejected, and Philip VI, of the house of Valois, made king. TOPICS AND REFERENCES Suggestive Topics. · (1) How did the possession of England by the Norman dukes change their relations with the kings of France? (2) What does the length of the struggle to reduce the domain to order show concerning the power of the French crown at this time? (3) Make a list of the things which contributed to the growth of the power of the French kings. (4) What was the chief difference between the Parlement of Paris and the English Parliament? (5) What preliminary training of the English helped to make their Parliament more effective than the French Estates-General ? (6) What arguments could be advanced on the side of Philip IV and of Boniface VIII in their quarrel over taxation? (7) How do you account for the preeminence of France over other countries in the Middle Ages? Search Topics.(1) PERSONALITY OF PHILIP AUGUSTUS. Dunn Pattison, Leading Figures in European History; Hutton, Philip Augustus, 15-18, 204-225. (2) THE FALL OF THE ANGEVINS. Hutton, Philip Augustus, ch. iii. (3) BATTLE OF BOUVINES. Hutton, Philip Augustus, ch. iv; Oman, Art of War, 457–479. —(4) PARIS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. Tout, Empire and Papacy, 403; Encyclopedia Britannica (11th ed.), XX, 813818.(5) PERSONALITY OF LOUIS IX. Perry, St. Louis, ch. xi; Munro and Sellery, Medieval Civilization, 491–523; Ogg, Source Book, ch. xix. (6) PHILIP IV AND BONIFACE VIII. Milman, Latin Christianity, Bk. XI, ch. ix. (7) THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRENCH INSTITUTIONS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF ENGLAND. Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages, 320-331. General Reading. Adams's Growth of the French Nation is the best brief history of France. Other histories in English are Jameson's edition of Duruy's France, Masson's Medieval France, and Kitchin's History of France (3 vols.). CHAPTER XIII THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR (1337-1453) A. ORIGIN OF THE WAR MANY causes combined to produce the succession of conflicts between England and France which we call the Hundred Years' War. (1) The conquests of Philip Augustus had left 268. Causes a lingering hostility between the two countries, and the of the war rejection of the claims of Edward III to the French throne increased the feeling. (2) There was continual friction over the English possession of Guienne. (3) In Scotland the French aided the young king, David Bruce, against the English attempts at conquest. (4) Finally, there was a conflict of interests in Flanders, which led directly to the war. Although Flanders was a French fief, the prosperity of the Flemish townsmen depended on the manufacture of cloth which they made from English wool. In 1336 the French king, Philip VI, recklessly caused the arrest of all Englishmen who were in Flanders. In retaliation Edward III seized Flemish merchants in his kingdom, and forbade the exportation of English wool. The Flemish burghers thereupon rebelled, and formed an alliance with England to secure their accustomed wool supplies. To satisfy Flemish scruples against warring upon their king, Edward III took the title of king of France, a title which his successors did not finally abandon until the time of George III (1802). Previous wars between England and France had been feudal struggles between their kings, the people taking little part. French interference with English trade interests now aroused the English Parliament to enthusiastic support of the war. Edward's claim to the throne of France, on the other hand, made the war a life-and-death struggle on the part of the French monarchy. We may distinguish three distinct periods of active warfare in this long conflict. The first period lasted from its outbreak, in 1337, to the peace of Bretigny (brě-ten-ye'), in 1360. 269. Three periods of The second period began with the renewal of hostilities the war in 1369, and lasted to their decline following the death of the French king, Charles V, in 1380. After a long interval, filled with troubles in both countries, the third period of the war began with the invasion of France by Henry V in 1415, and lasted with some interruptions until 1453. 270. Naval Sluys (1340) B. FIRST PERIOD OF THE WAR (1337-1360) The operations of the first few years were carried on by Edward III in Flanders and were without appreciable results. In 1340, however, Edward and victory at his fleet met the French fleet near Sluys (slois), off the Flemish coast. The incompetent French commanders had huddled their vessels together in a narrow inlet, where maneuvering was impossible. The battle, therefore, resembled a land conflict. "Archers Froissart, ch. 50 1 Froissart's Chronicles is one of the most noted histories composed during the Middle Ages. It was written in French, and shows the dawn of the Renaissance spirit. Froissart was born in the neighborhood of Flanders just as the Hundred Years' War was beginning. He spent considerable time in England, Scotland, and Italy, as well as in France. He was personally acquainted with many actors in this great war, from whom he learned of the events which he narrates. "No newspaper correspondent, no American interviewer, ever equaled this medieval collector of intelligence." His history, however, is one-sided, for his sympathies were all with the knightly class whose picturesque deeds he recounts, rather than with the humbler townsmen and peasants. GENOESE CROSSBOWMAN |