Association de Sauvegarde du

CHATEAU DE GAVRAY

The English Conquest 1380 - 1428

From 1380 to 1412, there was a succession of truces with England. On the other hand, periodically anti-tax riots break out in some cities, whose inhabitants, who suffer from the war, do not bear the additional taxes.
1382 – On February 24, Normandy launches the signal for rebellion against the re-establishment of indirect taxes, known as "aids", on salt, wine and textiles. To cries of  "Haro, Haro, Haro", the Rouen rioters shouted to draw attention to themselves and to what would become the revolt of "Harelle" which lasted three days. Having become "a hunt for the rich" and for the privileges of all  feudal titles, it ended with the decapitation of the ringleaders, the suppression of the commune of Rouen and its replacement by a bailiff with all powers, increased taxes, the payment of a heavy fine and the suppression of the privileges of the Rouennais on the Lower Seine.
1392 – On August 5, Charles VI is seized with a fit of madness in the forest of Le Mans. He attacks his own troop and kills four people before being subdued.  These fits of madness obscure his reign.
1393 – On January 28, he reoffends at the Ball of the Ardents where four of his companions are burned alive. Faced with his inability to govern, his uncles, the Duke of Anjou, the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, the Duke of Berry and the Duke of Bourbon, resumed their regency and their quarrels.
1407 – In November, John the Fearless, son and heir of Philip the Bold, has the Duke of Orléans assassinated and the kingdom descends into civil war.
1415 – The Hundred Years' War resumes. Taking advantage of the disorder reigning in the kingdom of France, the King of England, Henry V, landed at Chef de Caux with  13,000 men to seize the Normandie.Il began by taking Harfleur (Seine maritime), expelling the inhabitants and replacing them with English colonists. But dysentery, which struck his army, forced him to postpone his dreams of conquest, and he returned to England via Calais,  which had become English.
On 25 October, at Agincourt (Picardy) his army, 6,000 strong, was intercepted by a French army three times larger, commanded by Charles d'Albret, Constable of France. French chivalry was routed, paying for its tactical inadequacies and the weakness of its command. The flower of the nobility of France cut to pieces, the English return home with their booty. This battle is considered the end of the era of chivalry and the beginning of the supremacy of ranged weapons, a supremacy that would later be reinforced by the invention of firearms.

 

 
Engraving of the Battle of Agincourt
 

 

1417 – Henry V returns to conquer Normandy. He landed at Touques (between Deauville and Trouville), at the head of a powerful army of 10,000 to 12,000 men and considerable artillery. In less than two years, all fortresses, towns and castles fell.
1419 – On January 19, Rouen besieged and reduced to starvation, opens its gates to the King of England. Only Mont Saint Michel resisted.
In August, Henry V was at the gates of Paris.
1420 – The Treaty of Troyes (Aube) consecrates England's victory. The King of France, Charles VI recognized Henry V as regent and heir to the kingdom. The Dauphin Charles, disinherited, took refuge with his followers south of the Loire.
1422 – On August 31, Henry V dies at  the Château de Vincennes, his one-year-old son Henry VI succeeds him and the regency is entrusted to the Duke of Bedford, brother of the late king.
On 21 October, Charles VI died in Paris, and was succeeded by his 19-year-old son Charles VII, son of Isabeau of Bavaria.
1424 – Charles VII launches the great offensive to drive out the English. The French army was again defeated near Verneuil (Eure).

Engraving of Mont Saint Michel  

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