The Hundred Years War - Desmond Seward [0]
Title Page
Dedication
Copyright Page
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Chapter 1 - Valois or Plantagenet? 1328—1340
Chapter 2 - Crécy 1340-1350
Chapter 3 - Poitiers and the Black Prince 1350—1360
Chapter 4 - Charles the Wise 1360-1380
Chapter 5 - Richard II: A Lost Peace 1380-1399
Chapter 6 - Burgundy and Armagnac: England’s Opportunity 1399-1413
Chapter 7 - Henry V and Agincourt 1413—1422
Chapter 8 - John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France 1422-1429
Chapter 9 - ‘The Witch of Orleans’ 1429-1435
Chapter 10 - ‘Sad Tidings’ 1435-1450
Chapter 11 - The End: ‘A Dismal Fight’ 1450—1453
Chapter 12 - Epilogue
Appendix - A Note on Currency
Chronology
Select Bibliography
Index
PENGUIN BOOKS
THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR
Desmond Seward was born in Paris and educated at Cambridge University. He is the author of Richard III: England’s Black Legend, The Monks of War, and The Wars of the Roses.
For my godsons
Mark Kendall
Tobias Riley-Smith
Paul Seward
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First published in Great Britain by Constable and Company Limited
First published in the United States of America by Atheneum Publishers 1978
Published in Penguin Books 1999
10 9
Copyright © Desmond Seward, 1978
Maps and battle diagrams drawn by Patrick Leeson.
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eISBN : 978-1-101-17377-0
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Acknowledgements
My first debt is to two Benedictine monks, Dom Marcel Pierrot and Dom Jean Bequet of Ligugé, who took me over the battlefield of Poitiers sixteen years ago. I am sincerely grateful to them for starting my interest in the Hundred Years War, and to their monastery for its memorable hospitality.
I am especially indebted to Mr Reresby Sitwell for much encouragement, for many useful ideas, and for reading the typescript and the proofs; to Mrs Prudence Fay for her invaluable editorial criticisms; to Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk for the suggestion that Charles VI’s madness may have been caused by porphyria; and to Commander W. F. Patterson, RN(Retd), Chairman of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries, for the diagrams of the long-bow and crossbow and for advice on the technical points of medieval bowmanship.
Among those who gave me information about the part played by their families in the Hundred Years War were Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton, Lord Dunboyne and the Hon Nicholas Assheton. Lord Mowbray supplied me with material about the life of his ancestor the first Lord Stourton, who had an unusually profitable career during the later stages of the War, Lord Dunboyne provided me with details about the Butlers and other Irishmen in France, while Mr Assheton drew my attention to Sir John Assheton who served with Henry V in Normandy.
I must also thank Mr Michael Thomas,