Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

France. There are several key campaigns. In 1346 Edward III invades Normandy, besieging
and sacking the town of Caen before defeating the French army at Crecy (although the English
forces were in theory under the command of his 14-year-old son Edward of Woodstock, better
known as 'the Black Prince ). He goes on to besiege the port of Calais for almost ayear before
it finally falls. In 1356 the Black Prince invades Gascony in south-west France, conducting a
raid, or chevauchee, into French territory to relieve English garrisons trapped there. Caught by
an army led by Jean II of France, Edward is able to win a decisive victory that sees Jean
captured. The terms of his ransom cause substantial political unrest both amongst the nobility
and in the form of a bloody peasants' revolt, known as the Jacquerie.
In 1360 the Treaty of Bretigny is concluded, which defines the borders of the continental
holdings of the English crown in a swathe of territory along the western side of France. During
this period of peace, the now unemployed garrison soldiers, known as routierj, ravage French
lands as they seek to keep themselves in food and money. A civil war between rival claimants
to the Spanish kingdom of Castile sees opposing claimants being supported by English and
French forces respectively. At the battle of Najera in 1366, Anglo-Gascon troops under the
Black Prince, supporting Peter 'the Cruel' of Castile, defeat a Franco-Castilian army under
the French captain Bertrand du Guesclin, supporting Henry of Trastamara.
War between England and France resumes in 1370, in campaigns which see the loss of
many of England's finest commanders including Sir John Chandos, the Captal de Buch and,
in 1376, the Black Prince himself. In 1377 Edward III dies, and the English throne goes to his
grandson, the four-year-old Richard II. Not the warrior his father or grandfather had been,
and troubled by rebellions in Scotland and Wales, Richard later attempts to negotiate a
settlement to the conflict.
War with France resumes in earnest with Henry V's campaign of 1415. After besieging the
Norman port of Harfleur, Henry and his army cross Normandy, aiming for English-held Calais.
Outmanoeuvred and outnumbered, the king nonetheless wins a dramatic victory over the
French at Agincourt, killing or capturing a large portion of the French nobility. In spite of his
successes (which see the signature of the Treaty of Troyes in 1419, recognizing Hemy's children
as heirs to the French throne), the French are resurgent between 1429 and 1453, and the
English lose almost all of their continental holdings with the exception of Calais.
1396
The battle of Nicopolis. A crusading force, comprising Hungarians, French, Venetians and the
Order of the Hospitallers, is defeated by a Turkish army on the banks of the Danube in
modern-day Bulgaria. It is seen as the last major crusading effort to be launched.
1455-85
The Wars of the Roses. A series of dynastic disputes for the control of the English throne
between the noble Houses of York and Lancaster. Marked by long-running feuds between
various noble families, often brought about by tit-for-tat executions, a number of battles are
fought including the Yorkist victories at Mortimer's Cross and Towton (the largest battle on
English soil of the middle ages, with some 50,000 combatants) in 1461 and at Barnet in 1471.
The conflict effectively ends with the victory of the Lancastrian Henry Tudor over Richard III
at Bosworth in 1485, and the former's accession to the throne as Henry VII.