Hi my name's Kevin Hicks and welcome to my history channel. Now what we're going
to be discussing on this next series of of uh films is the Hundred Years War. Uh
it's such a massive subject so we're gonna start at the very beginning yeah, episode number one.
How did it all spark? How did a war that lasted 116 years actually begin. Well before you go to
the beginning of the Hundred Years War as we know it, you have to go back a little bit in history
and as an Englishman I've often wondered. What if William the Conqueror had lost the battle of
Hastings? England would have remained Saxon, peace maybe with Scotland, Ireland and Wales? But no,
William the Conqueror he wins the battle, subdues England, goes into Wales, Ireland, Scotland,
the rest is history. But how does that affect
history so much that it ignites the fuse that leads to the Hundred Years War? So let's have
a look. Now to do this I'm going to have a bit of fun with this bit of history which can be
boring sometimes, so let's start William Duke of Normandy. He wins the battle of Hastings
1066. William the Conqueror becomes William King of England, so he has one foot in England,
one foot in Normandy in France. This means that he has got to pay homage to the
French King because he holds land in France. Now this is not a real problem because this guy was
more French than he was anything to do with England really.
His son’s, yeah, history unfolds, and it's not a real problem until you get to this pair.
Henry the second and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Now Eleanor, wow what a subject. This lady in her
own right was just wow. She had already been the Queen of France under Louis VII she was
wow. She is, has her marriage, or the King had it annulled because they were closely related. She is
escaping and other men try to capture her because she is Eleanor of Aquitaine Aquitaine, a massive
chunk of France. But she knows exactly where she's going, she's going to her new love Henry II of
England and she makes it. And they marry and they have, if I remember correct, I think it was eight
children. Two of them are really important because one was called Richard. Richard the Lionheart
and the other King John. She actually ruled as regent when um Richard the Lionheart was
on crusade. What a woman. In fact she'd already been on crusade herself with her previous husband,
she was quite special, but it's what happens just a little bit further down the line. You
see providing France continued to have male heirs there wasn't really going to be a problem. 1328
Charles IV of France he has got to produce an heir, a male heir. He is married to Jean,
Jean Devereaux. She was married at 14, has already had two children and now she's on her third.
The sad thing for her is her husband Charles has died. She's on her own.
She is actually under the control of Philip Of Valois. He is the regent of France in the
absence of the king. They now wait, baited breath for this 18 year old girl to produce a male heir,
but she doesn’t. It's a girl. Poor Jean, now Philip Of Valois, he will become Philip VI
of France he was the cousin to the King. Now this should all be straightforward except for the fact
there had been a battle, Sardos and Edward II of England had been defeated. So as a kind of a peace
thing, Charles IV had given his sister as a peace token in marriage. Their child was Edward III,
King of England. He owned a massive piece of France, Gascony. Edward III had a better claim to
the French throne, being the nephew to the King of France, whereas Philip of Valois, he was just the
cousin to the King. But there was no way the French court were going to let an English
king sit on the throne of France and this King did not like paying homage to the French King.
And this is where it leads directly to the Hundred Years War. So the feud really begins, 1329
when this guy, Edward III, King of England, young, brave, tough has to pay homage to the King yeah,
Philip VI of France. He believes that he has a better claim on the throne but
he pays homage. But he doesn't do it as he should. You see when you pay homage, strip down,
shirt, hose, kneel in front of the King and place your hands in between his and you
pledge allegiance. No. Not Edward III of England. He strides in, wearing his crown, good clothes,
jewels, his broadsword by his side and he strides up to the French king everybody's
whoa. He then kneels and this is what he said. I've got it written down here.
“I become your man from this day forward and unto you shall be true and faithful and bear to you
faith for the tenements that I claim to hold for you, saving the faith that I owe to our sovereign
lord” And in real defiance, finishes. He looks the King right in the eye and he goes “the king”.
Everybody holds their breath the King's hands press around our King and then he gives him
a kiss. He accepts. Edward simply stands up turns his back on the French King and
strides out. The war doesn't start straight away, 1337 is the official start date.
There's a build up. First of all England's main trade with Europe through Flanders was wool.
Philip VI, he's causing problems there, we cannot export our wool. Big problems.
Also he's formed an alliance with King David of Scotland this is a threat, a direct threat,
a military threat to England. And then there was a family falling out in uh Philip VI’s family with
Robert of Artois. Robert apparently forged a will so that he could gain access to some extra land,
when Philip found out he had him exiled kicked out and eventually he ends up in
the court of Edward the third, the court of England and becomes one of his advisors.
This is brewing up but then what happens next it, in my opinion, it's an act of war. The French
fleet, which was massive and consisted of a lot of Italian ships too, amassed on the Norman coast.
They eventually sail across, up the Solent river, they burn Portsmouth to the ground, later on
Southampton burned to the ground. Those they didn't kill or could escape were enslaved the Isle
of Wight, the channel islands and also the sink ports were attacked but they failed there because
the militia, the English militia was gaining ground now. Now the war will begin for sure.
I hope you've enjoyed this episode one of our series. Episode two will be about the
battle of Sluys, the most bloodiest battle of the Hundred Years War and I don't even know
if I'm pronouncing it right, so if any of you know how to pronounce it simply write it down
and send it in. Now if you are a subscriber thanks very much, if you're not, subscribe,
give us a thumbs up and do me a favour ding that bell. Thank you very much for your time. Bye-bye.