War with long pauses
A reader looking only at famous battles might imagine constant fighting. In fact, the Hundred Years’ War was a story of campaigns separated by truces, some lasting a few months and others many years. Diplomacy was always going on, partly because campaigns were expensive and partly because both sides knew that a clear military victory was hard to achieve. This article looks at the main truces and treaties and at why they so often failed.
How medieval diplomacy worked
Peace talks were conducted by envoys, bishops, lawyers and nobles, often meeting in a neutral place and sometimes with the pope or his representatives as mediators. In the fourteenth century the popes lived at Avignon, in territory close to France, which made their neutrality questionable in English eyes, but they still tried to bring the kings together. Agreements were often sealed with marriages, oaths and the exchange of hostages. The problem was that the central dispute, who was the rightful king of France and whether the English king owed homage for Gascony, was one neither side could easily compromise on.
Early truces
After the fighting of the 1340s and the arrival of the Black Death in 1348, both kingdoms were glad of a pause. Truces were arranged and extended several times. These agreements often reflected exhaustion rather than any real settlement, and negotiations on the larger questions failed to produce a final treaty. The capture of King John II at Poitiers in 1356 changed the balance, since a captive king could be forced to agree to terms, though the French council and the dauphin were reluctant to accept them.
Bretigny, 1360
The Treaty of Bretigny, agreed in May 1360 and confirmed at Calais that October, is the best-known agreement of the first phase. Its main terms, in outline:
- Edward III received a greatly enlarged duchy of Aquitaine, held in full sovereignty rather than as a vassal, together with Calais and some other territories.
- Edward was to give up his claim to the French crown, and John II was to give up French claims to sovereignty over the English lands.
- John II was to be released on payment of a large ransom, set at three million gold crowns.
On paper this looked like a lasting solution, but the key renunciations were meant to be exchanged at a later date and never were fully carried out. Many nobles in the ceded regions disliked the change of ruler, and the ransom was hard to pay. When John’s son, held as a hostage, escaped, John returned to captivity in England in 1364 as a matter of honor, and died there. In 1369 Charles V, with legal grounds from the appeals of the Gascon lords, reopened the war.
Truces under Richard II
From the 1380s both sides were under strain, and a series of truces followed, after talks at places such as Leulinghen near Calais. A major step came in 1396, when Richard II married the young daughter of Charles VI, Isabella, and the two kingdoms agreed a long truce of many years. It was a rare moment of hope for lasting peace. It was also controversial in England, and Richard’s deposition in 1399 ended it. The Lancastrian usurpation brought a new king who needed to prove himself, and who did not feel bound to the old policy.
Troyes, 1420
The treaty of Troyes in May 1420 was a different kind of diplomacy. It grew out of the French civil war between Burgundians and Armagnacs. After the assassination of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, in 1419, his son joined the English side. The treaty, made with Charles VI, who was unwell, did several things:
- Henry V was to marry Catherine, a daughter of Charles VI.
- Henry was to become regent of France and, after Charles VI’s death, king of France.
- The dauphin Charles, the king’s son, was in effect disinherited.
Henry V died in August 1422, before Charles VI. The treaty was accepted in the English-held and Burgundian areas, and rejected by the dauphin’s supporters south of the Loire. It therefore settled nothing for the French court as a whole and reflected the strength of the English army at one moment.
Arras and the end game
The key English ally was Burgundy, and the key diplomatic event of the later war was the Congress of Arras in 1435. After English envoys left the talks, Duke Philip of Burgundy made peace with Charles VII, recognizing him as king and ending the alliance. This did more damage to the English position than many battles. In the 1440s a truce was agreed at Tours in 1444, and the marriage of Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou in 1445 was meant to cement it. But English concessions of territory and the renewed fighting that followed ended it, and by 1453 the French had reconquered Normandy and Gascony.
Why peace did not last
Three patterns recur. Treaties often depended on one person’s lifetime, so death or capture could unravel them. Fundamental claims were postponed rather than solved. And the people who had to pay, from ransom taxes to garrisons, often did not accept what the kings agreed. The war ended in 1453 without any formal treaty at all, and the broader pattern of campaign, truce and renewed claims is outlined in the account of the war’s phases.