A Short History of the Hundred Years War

Description

The conflict that swept over France from 1337 to 1453 remains the longest military struggle in history. A bitter dynastic fight between Plantagenet and Valois, the Hundred Years War was fought out on the widest of stages with battles often epic in scale. In his vivid new history, Michael Prestwich shows that it likewise involved large and charismatic individuals: Edward III, claimant to the French throne; his son Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince; condottiere John Hawkwood, commander of the White Company who exported the war to Italy; wily architect of the first French victories, Bertrand du Guesclin; inspirational leader Henry V, unlikely winner at Agincourt (1415), who so nearly succeeded in becoming King of France; and the martyred Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc, thought to be divinely inspired. Offering a bold new analysis of military strategy and tactics, including the deadly power of English archery, the author sets the wider politics in a masterful account of the war as a whole: from English victory at Sluys (1340) to the turn of the tide and French revival as the invader was driven back across the Channel.