Hundred Years’ War, (1337–1453)Intermittent armed conflict between England and France

over territorial rights and the issue of succession to the French throne. It began when Edward
III invaded Flanders in 1337 in order to assert his claim to the French crown. Edward won a
major victory at the Battle of Crécy (1346); after his son Edward the Black Prince managed to
capture John II at the Battle of Poitiers (1356), the French were obliged to surrender extensive
lands under the treaties of Brétigny and Calais (1360). When John II died in captivity, his son
Charles V refused to respect the treaties and reopened the conflict, putting the English on the
defensive. After Charles V’s death in 1380 both countries were preoccupied with internal power
struggles, and the war lapsed into uncertain peace. In 1415, however, Henry V decided to take
advantage of civil war in France to press English claims to the French throne (see Battle of
Agincourt). By 1422, the English and their Burgundian allies controlled Aquitaine and all
France north of the Loire, including Paris. A turning point came in 1429, when Joan of Arc
raised the English siege of Orléans. The French king Charles VII conquered Normandy and
then retook Aquitaine in 1453, leaving the English in possession only of Calais. The war laid
waste to much of France and caused enormous suffering; it virtually destroyed the feudal
nobility and thereby brought about a new social order. By ending England’s status as a power
on the continent, it led the English to expand their reach and power at sea.

The Black Death

The Black Death, an outbreak of medieval plague that swept through Europe between A.D.
1347 and 1351, was one of the most devastating epidemics in human history, and it had wide-
ranging and long-lasting demographic, economic, social, and political consequences . The
Black Death is estimated to have killed between 30 and 50 percent of the population of Europe,
and many of the dramatic changes brought about by the epidemic were the direct result of its
exceedingly high mortality . All the conditions were right for an epidemic...

• Doctors were powerless against infectious disease.

• People were weakened by war and harvest failures.

• Germs, the fleas which carried them, and the rats which carried the fleas, flourished in the
dirty towns.

• Busy trade routes carried the plague from one place to another. The plague arrived at
Melcombe Regis in Dorset in June 1348 and it spread throughout the south of England. In 1349
it reached Wales, Ireland and the north of England. By 1350, it had made it to Scotland.
Estimates suggest as much as half the population died.

In this context it is not surprising that the causes listed below emerged. Medieval doctors were
not certain what caused the plague, but believed it could be the result of: • the movements of
the planets • a punishment from God – the ‘wrath of God’ • bad smells and corrupt air - miasmas
• enemies who had poisoned the wells • staring at a victim • wearing pointed shoes • strangers
arriving in villages The spread of the Black Death… The bubonic plague was a painful disease,
with black buboes or swellings, in the groin and armpits, which lasted up to a week. There was
some chance of surviving if the buboes burst. If the buboes burst of their own accord it was a
sign that the victim might recover. An estimated 30% to 60% of the population of Europe died
from the plague.

armies attacking the town of Caffa in the Crimea, catapulted dead bodies into the town. Italian
merchants took the plague with them to Sicily in October 1347. 3. In June 1348 Black Death
arrived at Melcombe Regis (in Dorset). By the end of the year it had spread throughout the
south of England. 4. During 1349, the plague spread into Wales, Ireland and the north of
England. 5. The Scots – thinking that God was punishing the English – invaded the north of
England, where their army caught the plague. In 1350, therefore, the plague spread through
Scotland. 6. The first plague died out in 1350. Contemporary beliefs about cures for the Black
Death… In the 1347 - 1350 outbreak, doctors were completely unable to prevent or cure the
plague.

The eventual weakening of the pandemic was likely due to the practice of quarantining infected
people that originated in Venice in the 15th century and is with us to this day. Improved
sanitation, personal hygiene, and medical practices also played a role in ultimately slowing the
plague’s terror march.

The Wars of the Roses

The Plantaganet King Henry VI was a weak king, married to an ambitious French princess,
Margaret of Anjou. At this time, there was a complex series of rivalries and jealousies at court
between powerful noble families. The Queen and her circle of nobles were known as
Lancastrians after Henry’s surname of Lancaster. The party of nobles who opposed the Queen
and the Lancastrians was led by Richard, Duke of York, Henry’s cousin, who was also
descended from King Edward III and therefore also had a claim to the throne of England.
They were known as Yorkists.

Henry VI suffered from periods of insanity. During one of these periods in 1454, Richard of
York was appointed ‘Protector of the Realm’. His first act was to dismiss some of the Queen’s
Lancastrian advisors which caused great bad feeling. The King recovered some months later
and York was summarily dismissed.

Plucking of the Roses CCThe weak, sick king was unable to control his ambitious queen on
one side, and the Yorkist Earl of Warwick, the ‘kingmaker’, on the other side.

A Chronology of the Wars of the Roses

22 May 1455: First Battle of St Albans. A Yorkist victory during which the Duke of Somerset
(one of the Lancastrian leaders) was killed. The Duke of York was re-appointed Protector,
then dismissed again in 1456. Queen Margaret fuelled anti-Yorkist sentiment at court.
Richard, Duke of York’s influence was undermined and he was excluded from the royal
council.

23 September 1459: Battle of Blore Heath. A Yorkist victory.

12 October 1459: Battle of Ludford Bridge. This time, a Lancastrian victory. The Queen
declared Yorkist property and lives forfeit. Richard of York fled to Ireland.

10 July 1460: Battle of Northampton. A Yorkist victory; King Henry VI captured. Massacre
of prisoners ordered by the Earl of Warwick. The Queen fled to Wales.

10 October 1460. The return of Richard of York who was declared heir to the throne. In
response, the Queen raised a new army.

30 December 1460. Battle of Wakefield. The Yorkists were defeated and Richard, Duke of
York, was killed. He was succeeded by his son Edward.
2 February 1461: Battle of Mortimer Cross. Richard of York’s son Edward, Earl of March
was victorious.

17 February 1461: Second Battle of St Albans. A victory for the House of Lancaster. Henry
VI rescued.

from left to right:

4 March 1461. Edward of York, Edward IV, proclaimed king in London.

9 March 1461. Battle of Towton. Another Yorkist victory for The Earl of Warwick. Flight of
King Henry, Queen Margaret and the Prince of Wales to Scotland.

24 June 1465: Henry VI captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

1 May 1470. After quarrelling with Edward IV, Warwick the Kingmaker fled to France There
he joined forces with Queen Margaret before returning to England and restoring the
Lancastrian Henry VI to the throne on 13th October.

14 March 1471. The Yorkist King Edward fled to France, returning with a small army.

14 April 1471. Battle of Barnet. A victory for Edward’s Yorkist army. Warwick the
Kingmaker killed.

4 May 1471. Battle of Tewkesbury. A defeat for the Lancastrian army, led by Queen Margaret
and the Prince of Wales. The Prince of Wales was killed and the queen was captured.

21- 22 May 1471. Henry VI was killed in the Tower of London. Henry Tudor, the Earl of
Richmond and Lancastrian claimant to the throne, fled to France.
The Yorkist Edward IV was now the undisputed king.

9 April 1483. Death of Edward IV, succeeded by his young son Edward V.

June 1483. Edward V and his brother declared illegitimate by Parliament. Richard Duke of
Gloucester, brother of Edward IV, asked to take the throne as Richard III

Murder of the Princes in the Tower CC

Probably summer of 1483. Murder of Edward V and his brother in the Tower of London.
7 August 1485. Henry Tudor, last of the Lancastrians, landed at Milford Haven in Wales.
22 August 1485. Battle of Bosworth. King Richard III killed and the Lancastrian Henry Tudor
became King Henry VII.
Henry married Elizabeth of York thus uniting the two houses, and founded the Tudor dynasty.
The Tudor Rose includes both red and white roses to symbolise the uniting of the Houses of
York and Lancaster.