The Hundred Years’ War: From Edward III to Henry V
The Hundred Years’ War
Henry V by William Shakespeare (1599)
Westmorland: O that we now had here…But one ten thousand of those men in England.
King: What’s he that wishes so? My cousin Westmorland?
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, written in 1599. It tells the story of King Henry V of England, focusing on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt (1415) during the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453).
The situation is that the French army is much bigger than the English one, and these men are very discouraged because they think they are going to be defeated. The King (Henry V) encourages them. The main idea of the text is the encouragement of unity, family pride of being an Englishman, England as a nation fighting together with a purpose (to defeat France); he wanted to establish brotherhood.
The Beginning of the War
Edward III’s war was entirely with France. In 1337, Edward refused any longer to pay tribute to Philip and claimed the throne of France through his mother. Therefore began the Hundred Years’ War. English sovereigns did not formally renounce their claim to the French throne until the Peace of Amiens (1802).
The most significant point to emerge from the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War was that the French army could not beat the English; at the same time, however, England could never conquer France.
Richard II’s Reign
In 1337, Edward III was succeeded by his young grandson, Richard, son of the Black Prince.
Richard was just ten years old, and power was therefore exercised by a regency council headed by the Black Prince’s younger brother, the powerful John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
In 1348-1350, a plague swept over the country, killing about one-third of the population. Feudalism was already breaking down before the arrival of the Plague. It was not possible to keep peasants on one estate when a neighboring lord was willing to offer employment at higher wages. The feudal system was upheld by the Statute of Labourers, passed in 1351. The Act was detested by the peasantry, which also suffered from terribly heavy taxes, which the government imposed to pay for the costs of the war and for an increasingly expensive administration.
The complaints of the peasantry came to a head in 1381. Led by Wat Tyler, angry peasants marched to London. At Smithfield, the young King Richard II met the rebel leaders. They demanded the withdrawal of oppressive statutes, the abolition of serfdom, and the division of Church property. Richard had no intention of giving in to rebel demands, and all who had rebelled were punished.
The monarchy and the aristocracy undertook a campaign against the followers of a religious reformer, John Wyclif. He wished to clean the Church of corruption and to reform it.
Richard II tried to build a party around himself. The great nobility, led by the Earls of Gloucester, Arundel, and Warwick, disliked the royal policy of excluding them from influence, and they attacked the King’s party in 1386.
In 1396, after the death of his first wife, Anne of Bohemia, Richard married Isabelle, the daughter of Charles IV of France. Richard made peace with France, therefore reducing his spending, in an effort to make himself independent of Parliament and nobility. In 1398, Richard also exiled Henry, his cousin, the son of John of Gaunt. In February 1399, on the death of John of Gaunt, Richard disinherited his cousin and seized his estates.
Henry IV and the House of Lancaster
In July 1399, Henry of Lancaster came back to England and defeated and captured Richard. Henry had himself declared King in 1399. In 1400, Henry ordered the murder of Richard, who had been kept in prison since his overthrow.
After Henry’s seizure of the crown, the House of Lancaster, to which Henry IV belonged, was not allowed to rule in peace. The battles between the Houses of Lancaster and York (1455-1485) are known as the Wars of the Roses.
Partly to occupy the nobility and partly to enlarge England’s French empire, Henry reopened war with France. In 1420, by the Treaty of Troyes, Henry was recognized as heir to Charles VI, the French King.