Association de Sauvegarde du

CHATEAU DE GAVRAY

The origins of the conflict

Normandy was not at the origin of the conflict, but it played an important role because of its geographical location, the nationality of the belligerents, French and English kings, two centuries of common past, and finally its wealth. The Hundred Years' War was part of a period of significant change. The feudal order responded less and less to the evolution of society, powerful and modern states competed with each other and freed themselves more and more from the Papacy. The development of trade on the Atlantic and the English Channel led England to try to build around the English Channel, France, for its part, did so around its large river basins including the Seine. As Normandy became a wealthy region, it became a major issue between the two powers.

This war has different origins: political, demographic, economic, cultural and social. Family inheritance disputes are multiplying. From 1204 to 1453, seven of the nine English kings married French princesses, none of the fourteen French kings married an English princess. A succession of kings of France, without much relief, concluded by Philip VI, crowned by default, facing Edward III of England, grandson of Philip IV the Fair, true soldier, war leader, afraid of nothing, ousted from the succession of Charles IV under a fallacious pretext. At the age of seventeen, he succeeded in a coup d'état against his mother, Isabella of France, whom he had locked up in Rising Castle in Norfolk. and her lover Roger Mortimer, who is executed on her orders. The intrigues of each other to bring Normandy, Guyenne, Brittany and Flanders under their influence.

The population increased from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries without the agricultural production capacity permitting it in some regions of Europe. The division of the estates reduced the plots, their average surface area in 1310 being a third of that of 1240. The rural population became impoverished, the tax revenues of the nobility decreased, the tax pressure increased, causing great tension with this population, a tension combined with that of the cities where many peasants became seasonal workers for poverty wages. The cooling of the climate, which succeeded the medieval optimum, affected Europe from the thirteenth century onwards. It caused poor harvests which, linked to population pressure, led to famines in northern Europe.

England opted for an economy based on trade and certain specialisations, renounced certain agricultural resources such as wine and favoured the development of livestock farming, mainly sheep, allowing a large production of wool used by weavers and drapers. It was vital for it to extend its influence over agricultural regions such as Normandy.The financing of the war against Philip Augustus increased the tax burden, which was unanimously opposed by the townspeople and landowners, especially as they saw Jean Sans Terre accumulate defeats and territorial losses. In 1215, he even had to grant freedom to the cities and the English Parliament the power to control taxation. To compensate for the decrease in their revenues, the nobility, especially the English nobility, wanted a war that would allow them to ransom, pillage and the increase in taxes justified by the war. Freight transport, linked to the development of trade, is mainly carried out by sea or inland waterway. Normandy is the point of union between France, which feeds Paris by the Seine and its tributaries, and the English Channel, a fast-growing trade zone. She quickly became rich and became a main source of income for the King of France. Aquitaine, which exports its wine to England, Brittany its salt, and Flanders, which imports British wool, have every interest in being within England's sphere of influence. In France, Philip VI the Fair needed to replenish the coffers of the state and a war would allow him to raise exceptional taxes. The aggregation of these factors led to the war, which lasted 116 years.