ENGLISH ARMIES IN FRANCE DURING THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR, 1337-1453

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Time of Knights 400 CE to 1453 CE

“In my youth, those Britons called English were taken as the most timid of barbarians. Today they are a very bellicose people.” So wrote the Italian poet Petrarch after the victory of the Black Prince Battle of Poitiers in 1356. English Armies in France during the Hundred Years War, 1337-1453: “A Very Bellicose People…” examines the English armies which established such a formidable reputation in France during the Hundred Years War. It deals with English strategy and tactics during the war, the raising of armies, the men who fought with the armies, the composition of expeditionary forces and garrisons, the weapons used, and the maintenance of discipline. The place of peers, men-at-arms, archers and other soldiers is explored, as is the evolution of the composition of armies, with major expeditionary armies and selected garrisons taken as examples, as the proportion of archers steadily increased throughout the war. The English system of recruitment through indentured service, which in the early years of the war produced much more professional armies than the French system which relied on an essentially feudal system, is discussed, as are the French reforms, notably those of Charles VII, which eroded the English advantage and contributed significantly to the final English defeat at Castillon in 1453.