Download PDF | David Nicolle - The Fall of English France, 1449–53-Osprey Publishing Ltd. (2012).
98 Pages
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
After a period of uneasy truce, the Hundred Years War flared up again early in the 15th century with yet another English invasion of France, marked by a crushing English victory at Agincourt in 1415, soon followed by the signing of an Anglo-Burgundian alliance. In 1418 the Burgundians took control of Paris and in 1420 the Treaty of Troyes recognized Henry V of England as heir to the aged and mentally unstable Charles VI of France. Henry V then married Catherine de Valois to unite the ruling houses of England and France.
On the face of it England had won the war, but Charles VI’s disinherited son, the Dauphin Charles, refused to recognize the treaty and established a rival court in the central French city of Bourges. This ‘Kingdom of Bourges’ was financially and militarily weak but became the centre of an increasingly effective resistance and, after Jeanne d’Arc had convinced the ex-dauphin, now the self-declared King Charles VII, into having himself crowned in the sacred city of Reims (see Campaign 94: Orléans 1429, Osprey Publishing Ltd: Oxford, 2001), the balance gradually shifted in his favour.
Charles VI of France and Henry V of England both died in 1422, leaving their theoretically joint Crown to the infant Henry, called the VI of England and the II of France (though this title is not accepted by French historians). The concept of two kingdoms coming together in such a personal union was widely accepted in late medieval Europe, and many English historians still
harbour a nostalgic feeling that it would have been a reasonable way to end the long conflict. Nevertheless, English and Burgundian armies failed to take control of the whole country, and the English faced huge difficulties maintaining order in the vast areas they ruled after the Treaty of Troyes. Whether this territory really formed an ‘English France’ during the 15th century remains controversial. Meanwhile, the English position in south-western France had hardly been affected by the great victories in the north. Here there was no significant expansion, and what might be called ‘French France’ under Charles VII still controlled the Mediterranean coast and an Atlantic coast between Gascony and Brittany. Then there was Brittany itself; this Duchy was a powerful military force that overlooked the strategic sea lanes between England and Gascony. Both sides were eager to draw Brittany into their fold, and Charles VII’s eventual success in doing this was a major boost to his cause.
The apparently deep-seated pro-English sentiment in Gascony was in reality an attachment to local autonomy strengthened by commercial selfinterest. Put simply, the people of Gascony preferred the distant rule of England to that of an increasingly centralizing and powerful French monarchy. The link between London and Bordeaux was particularly strong, English settlement in Gascony being primarily focused upon Bordeaux, Bayonne and Dax. Here the resident English included merchants and craftsmen as well as garrisons. Most seem to have been prosperous, with the only exceptions being some rural parishes where poorer English settlers may have been involved in wine growing.
Meanwhile the situation in England was surprisingly complex for a country that believed that it had won the war, with widespread criticism of the cult of royal militarism. Some even linked the war with the stories of King Arthur and prophesied that - as in the Tales of the Knights of the Round Table — all would end in catastrophe. The high hopes of King Edward III’s reign had largely evaporated and an increasingly unpopular war had become a political burden for Henry VI’s government. Even the King’s marriage to another French princess, Margaret of Anjou, did little to raise the Crown’s prestige, and the unfortunate Margaret was seen as an interfering foreigner.
he situation in France outside those regions under English rule was dominated by relations between the Duke of Burgundy and his cousin, King Charles VII. While the alliance between Burgundy and England endured, Charles VII had little hope of expelling the invaders and his struggle was as much diplomatic as military. There were also deep-seated tensions between other senior aristocratic families, not least between the houses of Bourbon and Burgundy. To further complicate the issue, the reforms that characterized Charles VII’s reign were intended to strengthen the King’s position, thus weakening that of the great nobles upon whom the King’s military power ultimately rested.
Meanwhile the Duke of Brittany became a somewhat reluctant ally of Charles VIL, largely owing to pressure from his brother, Arthur de Richemont, the Constable of France. Unlike their ruler, however, the people of Brittany remained strongly pro-French and furnished the royal armies with large numbers of committed troops. One major diplomatic triumph nevertheless trumped all others when, in 1435, the Duke of Burgundy changed sides and formed an alliance with Charles VII. This was seen as a betrayal in England, where Parliament approved a large sum of money to continue the war. On the other side, Burgundy’s new stance meant that Charles VII’s overstretched armies could focus on their struggle with the English in Normandy and Gascony.
The following year the English evacuated Paris, and in 1441 the French broke through to the English Channel, taking Pontoise, and then launching an offensive in the south-west. In 1443 the French took Dieppe, thus acquiring a major port in Upper Normandy and making English shipping in the Channel highly vulnerable. Indeed English armies sailing for France now tended to embark at Portsmouth rather than higher up the Channel, where the English were losing control of the sea.
Under such circumstances the truce agreed at Tours in 1444 came as a relief to the English, not least to those governing Normandy. It would be renewed until 1448, though in the meantime Henry VI secretly agreed to hand over the province of Maine — a move that would precipitate the final crisis.
Link
Press Here
0 التعليقات :
إرسال تعليق