Divided Houses The Hundred Years War Volume The Hundred Years War was a vicious costly and most dramatically drawn out struggle that laid the framework for the national identities of both England and France into the modern era The first twe
The Hundred Years War was a vicious, costly, and, most dramatically, drawn out struggle that laid the framework for the national identities of both England and France into the modern era The first twenty years of the war were positive for the English, by any account They already held the South of France, through Eleanor of Aquitaine s dowry, and were allied with the FlemThe Hundred Years War was a vicious, costly, and, most dramatically, drawn out struggle that laid the framework for the national identities of both England and France into the modern era The first twenty years of the war were positive for the English, by any account They already held the South of France, through Eleanor of Aquitaine s dowry, and were allied with the Flemish in the north After the brilliant naval battle of Sluys, the English had control of both the English Channel and the North Sea The battles of Cr cy and Poitiers gave the English a powerful toehold on the continent they even captured the French king, Philip, occasioning a peace treaty in 1360.This long awaited third volume of Jonathan Sumption s monumental history of the war narrates the period from 1369 to 1393, a span marked by the slow decline of English fortunes and the subsequent rise of the French The English were condemned to see the conquests of the previous thirty years overrun by the armies of the king of France in less than ten Edward III was succeeded by a vulnerable child, destined to grow into a neurotic and unstable adult presiding over a divided nation England s citizenry was being asked to pay for a long and expensive war, soldiers were becoming disenchanted, and the Peasants Revolt of 1381 evidenced the social unrest in the land However, France too paid a heavy price for her success Beneath the surface splendor the French government sat poised at the edge of bankruptcy and the population subsisted in fear and insecurity The inexperience of Charles VI and his gradual relapse into insanity divided the French political world, as the king s relatives competed for the plunder of the state, sowing the seeds of disintegration and civil war in the following century.Marshaling a wide range of contemporary sources, both printed and manuscript, French and English, Sumption recounts the events of this critical period of the Hundred Years War in unprecedented detail.
This is an absolutely astonishing book. The vast depth and scope of the narrative (the book weighs in at a hefty 1006 pages), the sheer number of primary sources consulted in several languages, the clarity of the writing, with an extremely complex story spanning half a continent told with the verve and excitement of a novel, a book of the greatest imaginable scholarship which wears that scholarship lightly and is highly accessible, all of this and much more makes this book history-telling at its [...]
Originally published on my blog here in January 2012.The third volume of Sumption's brilliant history of the Hundred Years War has finally appeared, almost twenty years after the first. It covers thirty years, 1369-1399, a period which saw a weariness from the war arising in both France and England, and neither side being wholly successful in their endeavours (France doing rather better in this respect, undoing many of the concessions which were made to Edward III following victories in the earl [...]
I wish they honestly gave a 6 star option. That way, I would feel more comfortable not giving this book 5 stars, which it truly deserves. The only problem with the book (which isn't really a problem, but just a reason I couldn't give the book 5 stars) is the topic. The first 400 pages of this book are incredibly boring, but if it was written by any other author, I would have thrown it against the wall. The only reason I kept reading was the author did such an amazing job on Vol 1 and 2 that I co [...]
Two themes define the third volume of Jonathan Sumption's history of the Hundred Years' War. The first is the shift in fortunes from the English to the French. After the successes enjoyed by English arms in the 1350s that culminated in the capture of the French king John II, the tide began to turn against them as a result of a number of factors. Paramount among them was the leadership of John's son Charles V, who after taking the throne in the aftermath of his father's death began repairing Fren [...]
As far as I know (and my doctorate is in English medieval history specializing in the reign of Richard II) this is the only really thorough military history in English of the era in the Hundred Years War from Edward III's dotage to the deposition of Richard II. There is a fairly obvious reason that English-speaking scholars have neglected this period --it was a very low point in the war for the English, with the French under King Charles V and Bertrand du Gueclin regaining virtually everything t [...]
beyond epic. sumption deserves laurels and prizes
Intricately detailed narrative history of the Hundred Years War, phase 3 1369-1396, in which the French come back strong against an England riven by internal difficulties, other international distractions in Iberia and a chronic lack of money.Exhaustive work by Sumption, who spits these out every decade of so. While he does seem to focus perhaps a little too much on the English side of the fence, the is presumably due to the more complete records available for the doings of Parliament and Court [...]
Volume 3 of Sumption's massive history of the Hundred Years War between England and France. This volume covers the years 1369-99, when a resurgent France gradually whittled away most of the gains made in the war by England. Although these books sometimes seem as long as the actual war, they are well written and fascinating to read. Highly recommended for any student of English, French, Spanish or the later middle ages.
Very good. Found following the fortunes of the freebooters was an effort of concentration. The print on the maps is smaller and harder to read than earlier volumes.
A fantastic account of a very forgotten period of The Hundred Years War