Welsh Journals

WELSHMEN AND THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR' THE Hundred Years' War was something more than a feudal struggle between the kings of England and France. At some time or another between 1337 and 1453 most of the kingdoms of western Europe were directly or indirectly involved through their relations with the two main protagonists, and if Scotland, Aragon and Castile could be drawn in, Wales could hardly escape. The Welsh involvement was both military and political and the object of this article is to deal, in very general terms, with both these aspects, neither of which is widely appreciated outside Wales. The Hundred Years' War is generally assumed to have begun with Edward Ill's formal defiance of Philip VI in 1337 and to have ended with Talbot's defeat and death at Castillon in 1453, but the intervening period was certainly not one of continuous hostilities; the war may be divided into various campaigns, interspersed with long periods of uneasy truce. Edward III began campaigning in France in 1339, and in 1346-47 came the campaign which led to his victory at Crecy and the capture of Calais. Then came the Black Prince's expedition to Gascony in 1355-56 which culminated in his defeat and capture of the French king at Poitiers. The first phase of the war ended with the treaty of Bretigny in 1360. There followed the intervention of the Black Prince in the Castilian civil war of 1366-67, further sporadic fighting in Gascony until Richard 11's attempt to normalize Anglo-French relations, and then there was peace until the accession of Henry V and the Agincourt campaign of 1415. The remainder of the war can be divided into two parts: first, the period of almost unbroken English success up to 1429, and then the French recovery, starting with the relief of Orleans in 1429 and ending with the victories of Formigny in 1450 and Castillon in 1453, which ended English rule in Normandy and Gascony respectively.2 1 The following is an extended and much revised version of a paper delivered at Gregynog in February 1965. I should like to take this opportunity of thanking Professor Glanmor Williams. Dr. R. A. Griffiths, and my colleagues. Dr. C. T. Allmand, Mr. G. A. Usher and Mr. K. Williams-Jones for their advice and criticism. The responsibility. for the views expressed and for any errors of fact or interpretation is entirely mine. The main general accounts of the Hundred Years' War are to be found in E. Perroy. The Hundred Years' War (1945, trans. W. B. Wells, 1951); M. McKisack, The Fourteenth Century (1959). chapter VI, and E. F. Jacob, The Fifteenth Century (1961), chapters IV-VI, X. For Wales and Welshmen in particular, see D. L. Evans, 'Some notes on the Principality in the time of the Black Prince'. Trans. Cymm. Soc., 1925-26; T. M. Chotzen. Recherches sur la Poisie de Dafydd ap Gwilym (Amsterdam. 1927); Edward Owen, 'Owen Lawgoch'. Trans. Cymm., 1899-1900. and H. T. Evans. Wales and the Wars of the Roses (1915).