HUNDRED YEARS' WAR, the name given to the prolonged struggle between France and England which began in 1337 and ended in 1453. Among the chief of the immediate causes of the war was Edward III's claim to the French throne, but the keen rivalry of the two nations rendered conflict inevitable. It lasted during the reigns of five English kings, Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI, and of five French kings, Philip VI, John II, Charles V, Charles VI and Charles VII, ending in the expulsion of the English from France. The most important events were: Defeat of French fleet at Sluys (1340); defeat of French at Crecy (1346); siege and capture of Calais (1347) ; defeat of English at Saint Omer (1352) ; defeat of French at Guines (1352) ; defeat of French and capture of John II at Poitiers (1356); Treaty of Bretigny (1360) ; defeat of English at Pontvallain (1370); defeat of English at Chize (1373); truce of Bruges (1375); defeat of French at Agincourt (1415); Treaty of Troyes (1415); defeat of French at Verneuil (1424) ; siege of Orleans (1428) ; capture of Meaux and Paris (1429); defeat of English at Patay (1429); capture of Joan of Arc at Compiegne (1430); Joan of Arc burned at Rouen (1430) ; loss by English of Paris (1436), Nemours (1437), Meaux (1439), Mons (1448), Rouen (1449), Cherbourg (1450), Bordeaux (1453) ; defeat of English at Formigny (1450) and Castillon (1453) • truce of Tours (1444). Besides the
English and French kings mentioned, many of the most famous Frenchmen and Englishmen of the 14th and 15th centuries were active participants in these struggles: Edward, the Black Prince; Bertrand du Guesclin; Joan of Arc; John, Duke of Bedford; Arthur, Earl of Richmond; Dunois, Talbot, etc. Some of these events form the historical background for Shakespeare's V,' and (Heriry_VI.L.
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