BBC - History British History in depth: The Hundred Years War

Roots of warHistorical tradition dates the Hundred Years War between England and France as running from 1337 to 1453.In 1337, Edward III had responded to the confiscation of his duchy of Aquitaine by King Philip VI of France by challenging Philip’s right to the French throne, while in 1453 the English had lost the last of their once wide territories in France, after the defeat of John Talbot’s Anglo-Gascon army at Castillon, near Bordeaux. Edward III formally assumed the title 'King of France and the French Royal Arms'.The overseas possessions of the English kings were the root cause of the tensions with the kings of France, and the tensions reached right back to 1066. William the Conqueror was already duke of Normandy when he became king of England. His great-grandson Henry II, at his accession in 1154, was already count of Anjou by inheritance from his father and duke of Aquitaine (Gascony and Poitou) in right of his wife Eleanor. These trans-Channel possessions made the kings of Eng...