The Black Death and peasant uprisings occurred against the backdrop of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), which actually lasted 116 years, making it by far the longest armed conflict in history. Fought between France and England, the "war" was really a series of wars broken by long periods of truce, and the combined duration of all major battles was less than a month. The real devastation of the war came from the long sieges against towns, as well as periodic raids during times of official ceasefire. In both cases, it was France that sustained the injury.
The first phase of the war saw a series of English victories, most notably at Poitiers (pwah-tee-AY) in 1356. The hero of the latter was Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376) of England, whose military leadership gave England power over northern France. Discontent over Poitiers in turn spawned the Jacquerie, but by 1360 the war had entered a second phase, when little happened except for occasional French raids against the English.
Then after more than fifty years, the English returned to the offensive under Henry V (ruled 1413-22), who led them to victory at Agincourt (AH-zhin-kohr) in 1415. Henry, whose deeds would later be celebrated in several plays by William Shakespeare (1564-1616), solidified his power by marrying Catherine of Valois (val-WAH), daughter of the French king, in 1420.
English victory appeared certain, yet the French were about to unleash a secret weapon. This was a teenaged girl named Joan, just three years old at the time of Agincourt, who at the age of twelve believed she had heard the voice of God telling her to follow the path of holiness. When she was sixteen, this voice commanded her to come to the aid of the crown prince or dauphin (doh-FAN), Charles VII (ruled 1422-61), and so Joan of Arc (1412-1431) embarked on one of history's shortest and most brilliant careers. Once she had the dauphin's attention, she laid out a plan to force an English withdrawal from the French city of Orleans (ohr-lay-AWn). Clad in the armor of a boy, she and the tiny army Charles gave her broke the English siege on May 8, 1429, turning the tide of the war.
A year later, in May 1430, Joan was captured by a force from Burgundy, which had temporarily sided with England, and was sold to the English six months later. The English did not simply execute her, but sought to destroy French morale by trying her for heresy. A highly biased court composed of pro-English French priests found her guilty of witchcraft and burned her at the stake. Yet the French initiative in the war did not die with Joan, and France enjoyed victory under Charles. By 1453, the English had lost all their gains in France, and they returned to England in dejection.
More war awaited them in England as the houses of York and Lancaster launched the Wars of the Roses (1455-85), so named because of the flowers that symbolized the competing dynasties. The Lancaster line emerged victorious when Henry VII assumed the throne. Henry's son Henry VIII (ruled 1509-1547) would become one of England's greatest kings, and would father its greatest queen, Elizabeth I (ruled 1558-1603).
World History
