When the Carolingians died out in 987 AD, the lords of France met to choose a new king. They chose a man named Hugh Capet. Hugh Capet was picked for being weak, so the lords could do whatever they wanted and the king wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The lords governed their own provinces, more or less independently, getting some cash income for themselves through charging tolls on roads and fees. Their independence from the king lasted until the 1100

In the 1100’s AD the Capetians kings began to get more power. L o u i s t h e F a t m a n a g e d t o g e t h i s o w n l a n d a r o u n d P a i r s f i r m l y u n d e r h i s o w n c o n t r o l. H e w a s a g o o d k i n g, l o v e d b y p o o r p e o p l e a n d t h e C h u r c h L o u i s t h e F a t ’ s s o n, L o u i s V I I m a r r i e d E l e a n o r o f A q u i t a i n e. B u t t h e y o u n g s o v e r e i g n s d i v o r c e d i n , b e c a u s e L o u i s s u s p e c t e d E l e a n o r o f f l i r t i n g w i t h H e n r y o f A n j o u. Louis lost the powerful Aquitaine but his power increased anyway.

Louis VII’s son, Philippe Auguste, was much more ambitious and smarter than his father. He came to the throne in 1180 AD, he brought a rich part of France called Artois by marriage and he weakened the kings of England, the brothers Richard I and John Lackland. Philippe died in 1223, at the age of 61 His descendant Louis IX was so religious that he became a saint after he died, St. Louis. He succeeded in getting everyone to love and follow him.

St. Louis’ descendants were not as well loved as he was. They put in more and more taxes, and were not as concerned as he was with justice. But the French people still wanted to follow their kings, Louis’ son Philippe III and his grandson Philippe IV. Philippe III ( ) Philippe IV ( ) Philippe IV had three sons, Louis IX, Philippe V and Charles VI, but they all died young without leaving sons of their own. All three men had daughters, but the French lords refused to accept a woman as their queen, or even the sons of these women as their kings. They chose one of Charles’s cousins, Philippe of Valois

But the king of England, Edward III, was also a grandsons of Philippe IV through his mother and he wanted the throne too. So began a war that started in 1337 and finished in It was the HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR

FIRST PART 1337 Start It began in 1328, when the king of England Edward III, taking advantage of the weak and divided France, already ruling a large part of it, claimed the throne through his French mother, Eleanor, who was the dead French king’s aunt. French nobles faced a choice among who gave them more power and independence in their own lands. They formed two factions, one helped the weak French king, the second one allied with Edward, the the and the Flanders,Brittany Normandy Aquitaine

In 1340, the French king prepared the first blow: He assembled a great fleet to crush England’s allies, but the English attacked and destroyed the French fleet at sea off Sluys fighting something like a land battle across the wooden decks. Edward III now controlled the Channel and was free to invade and wage war over the enemy’s lands FIRST PART 1340 Sea battle

1346 Crecy In 1346, the English invaders were weakened by sickness and retreating, took a stand on a hill at Crecy. As the heavily armoured French knights struggled up the muddy hillside, they were massacred by the English infantry and archers- a lesson the French did not learn In 1347 Edward III besieged Calais. After a year, the inhabitants surrendered. Their homes were given to new English settlers, who made Calais into a fortified English stronghold- a base for military expeditions into France and the near- continent 1347 Calais

FIRST PART 1348 Black death The first half of the hundred years war proved as catastrophic for the north as well as the rest of France.

FIRST PART 1348 Black death Destructive fighting disrupted the economy : there were appalling plagues (as least a third of the population of both England and France died in 1348 in the black death), and violent and bloody revolts in which peasants looted nobles’ houses and castles.

The English won a massive victory at Poitiers (1356), capturing the French king Jean le Bon FIRST PART PAUSE 1356 Poitiers 1360 Peace He was released for a “franc-or” – “free gold”

The French captured and destroyed some English territories, as the Isle of Wight, the south coast of England with Sandwich, Winchelsea and Gravesend PAUSE The English expected invasion, but the death of the son of Charles V, Charles VI, and the consequent division of the French royal family of the 1407 in Armagnac and Burgundian stopped the invasion Division French royal family 1380 French conquests

The war resumed in the 1415 with the battle of Agincourt when the English king Henry V took advantage of the weak France and conquered Normandy and som other lands up to the city of Agincourt PAUSE SECOND PART The Burgundians, allied with England, helped it. In 1420 the French king signed the Treaty of Troyes, agreeing to English rules over France 1420 Treaty of Troyes 1415 Agincourt

In 1429 Joan of Arc, a young French girl, decided to lead her country in a recapture war helped by God. SECOND PART 1431 Joan of Arc’s death 1415 Orleans She relieved the siege of Orleans and led the Dauphin to be crowned at Rheims in Captured by The Burgundians, she was given to the English and burned as a witch.

In the 1435 Charles VII bribed Philippe le Bon, Duke of Burgundy, to break the alliance with the English in exchange of Ponthieu SECOND PART 1453 END of the war 1435 Breaking of alliance Charles VII besieged and captured one by one the remaining English strongholds. With the capture of Bordeaux in 1453 the English had lost all their French lands except Calais. It was really the end of The Hundred Years war.

Consequences Both countries at the same time developed a national conscience and established definitively their national State. The same thing happened in general in Western Europe. The practical consequences of the war in France were severe: The land was devasted by massive killing, destruction of crops and higher mortally due to famine and plagues