Wife Of King Edward II Of England example essay topic

The Hundred Years War was a war between England and France in which France defended its crown against British rule. This war had many effects on the people of each country. The origin of the war goes back to the conquest of William for England. In 1066 William, the Duke of Normandy, led an army into England. He won this battle and became the king of England. This was possible under feudalism.

Feudalism is a form of social classification in which the members of an upper class are granted fifes, or pieces of land, by higher ranking noblemen return for their military service. The vassal, the person receiving the land, had to go through ceremony in which they would say that they would be faithful to their overlord and fight for them if needed. In return the overlord would protect the vassal (Lace 12). Many years later Isabella, the wife of King Edward II of England, plotted to kill Edward II making her son Edward king (Lace 12). Because Edward was very young she would be able to rule the country through him. Edward II sent his son and Isabella to pay homage to Charles IV in 1325 for French land that Edward II owned.

Isabella took her lover, Roger de Mortimer, with them and while there they began to make their plans. After homage is paid to Charles IV the three went to Hainault. While there Isabella and Mortimer convinced the Count of Hainault, William, to help them overthrow the king. In 1327, with the help of Williams troops, Isabella and Mortimer successfully overthrew Edward II and made Edward king. During their overthrow, King Charles IV of France, Isabella brother, died.

When he died he had no children to leave the throne to, but his wife Jeanne was pregnant. When she gave birth though she had a stillborn daughter. This enabled Charles cousin, Philip of Valois, king. Some of the people objected. Some thought that since Isabella was his sister she was closer to the throne than Philip and that she should be queen.

Others thought that since Edward was his nephew he should be king, but the majority of the French were against Edward becoming their king (14). Philip was favored for many reasons: He was older: Philip was 35 and Edward was 15, Edward was under the control of his mother and Mortimer; Edward was a well known warrior, and Edward was considered a foreigner (14). Edward then decided that he was tired of being controlled. On October 19, 1330, Edward gathered a small army together and burst into Isabella and Mortimers bedroom. He seized Mortimer and hung him the next morning. He left Mortimers body hanging for 2 days and nights.

Isabella was treated more carefully. She was imprisoned and confined to several castles for life (16). In 1337 Edward would return to France to claim what he felt what was rightfully his. (Time Life 17).

On October 19, 1337, Edward drafted a document to Philip of Valois that said that Edward was the rightful king of France and that Edward would no longer pay homage to Philip of the French lands that he owned. This letter was given to him by Henry Burghers h, the bishop of England. Philip just sat back and smiled and prepared for war (Time Life 17). Edward drafted this document because he disagreed with the way that Philip was ruling the land that he owned.

There were dukes and lords appointed by Philip to rule over the lands of Edward. Edward wanted to rule them himself. The two tried to work out their differences, but failed. This situation was made more awkward because of other economic problems between the 2 countries.

England and France depended on each other. France was Englands main supplier of salt and France depended on England for wool. English also held the port at Bordeaux in France enabling them to control transportation along the English Channel. Philip of Valois wanted to control the sea traffic so he began to form links with Scotland, Englands hostile neighbor. England and Scotland were not on good terms with one another and had been fighting since the 1290's (19). In 1314 the English, under Edward II lost to the Scottish at Bannockburn.

Edward made a treaty with the Scottish in 1328 but intervened in 1329 when their leader Robert Bruce, died. The English then deposed David II, Bruce's son and the new king. To help form a bond with the Scottish the Philip gave David shelter in France (Lace 18). Edward got his revenge on the Scottish in 1332.

He got a small group of Scottish rebels together and after winning a series of major battles named Edward Baliol their leader. Baliol acknowledged Edward as his overlord. The Scottish chased Baliol over the Scottish border in December. Edward marched north and surrounded them at Berwick. The Scottish sent an army, but Edward defeated them at Halidom Hill in July, 1334 (Lace 18). Philip of Valois then moved some of his ships from Mediterranean ports to a harbor at Normandy.

Edward saw these ships and thought that this was an attempted attack on him. He challenged Philip to a battle in 1337, but Philip declined (Time Life 20). As the war began both sides had distinct advantages and disadvantages. The French were backed by plentiful material resources such as a broad fertile kingdom, 21 million people, and many mountains as well as plains (Lace 21). The English were backed by the loyalty of Edwards nobles and he was also able to get parliament to raise taxes to fund the war.

France was plagued by the lack of political and financial support accompanied by the inability to raise taxes. Philip was afraid that the people of Ypres, Ghent, and Bruges would declare Edward their king because they depended on English wool to keep their economy running. The Englishs problems were that they were much poorer than France and that with a population 1/4 the size of France they would have a much smaller army. Farmland was also a problem because it was only good in the east (Time Life 21). The two social classes of the two countries were very similar with just one distinct difference which Edward opposed. Both had a large rural peasantry with free tenants and serfs.

The tenants and serfs lived on the farmland that they farmed which was owned by no bels. In the towns there were many artisans merchants and clerks on the streets. These were considered the middle class people. The nobles were separated into two classes.

The first class was made up of lesser lords who owned small estates and had local powers. The higher aristocracy was made up of the small elite. These were dukes, earls, counts, and princes of lands. The difference began here. In England there was a single government that was involved in governing the whole land.

In France the government was divided and counts or dukes were assigned to rule over certain areas of the land (Lace 24). In 1339 Edward began battle. He sent a small army to Flanders to try to provoke Philips troops. He then went south and began a siege slaughtering livestock, burning crops and villages, and killing people. He also began the use of a chevauchee which literally means, run through on horesback. These were intended to make people sick of war and weaken the local government.

The French marched north and met the English near St. Quentin. Edward challenged Philip there and Philip agreed, but only if Edward could find a battleground without trees in the way. Philip later changed his mind though and backed down. This made Edward mad because it was a waste of time and money (Lace 30).

On June 24, 1340, the English sailed toward France. They turned around, but the French chased them. Because the harbor was so narrow the two fleets ran into each other. The English strategy was to crash into the French boats and attach themselves using grappling hooks and then swarm aboard. The English used arrows against the French and were the first to kill off a large number of people. This battle, at Sluts, was the Englishs first major victory.

After this the English were out of money and signed a truce (Lace 33). During this truce civil war was taking place in Brittany over its countship. King Philips niece Jeanne of Blois, and John of Montfort both claimed the countship. John fled to England and acknowledged Edward as the king of France in exchange for his support. In 1342 Edward began a chevauchee with 12,000 men, but Pope Benedict intervened in 1343 and persuaded Philip and Edward to sign a truce. The countship still stood unresolved though and in 1345 Edward resumed the war catching the French by surprise.

Edward had Philips son, John, lead an army against Jeanne and won (Lace 34). The next major battle was fought at Crecy on August 26, 1346. The French outnumbered the English and fought on horseback. They also wore armor and used lances and hired Genoese crossbowmen to fight for them. The English army was made up mostly of Yeomen on foot that fought with longbows.

Crecy also became the first battle to use gunpowder (Miller 305). Edward strategically placed his army on a hill between a forrest and a river forcing Philip to approach him from only one direction. Philip chased after him but was tired and decided to rest. Late in the afternoon Philip realized this was his chance and ordered an attack.

He ordered the hired Genoese crossbowmen to proceed in front of the army. They did, but the English began to fire back. The crossbowman attempted to retreat and ran back toward the Frenchmen. Philip ordered his army to shoot them and the French then charged the English army.

Many were killed by the English men at arms who were on foot and armed with axes and swords. The French ended up charging the English 16 times before Philip realized that only 60 of his troops remained. He then retreated to his castle (Lace 37). The English did not realize the extent of their victory until the next morning.

When the count was taken the English had lost fewer than 100 men, but the French had lost more than 10,000 common soldiers and more than 1,500 knights and nobles including King John of Bohemia, the Duke of Lorraine, the Duke of Alen con, and the Count of Flanders (38). The next major battle was at Calais on August 3, 1347 (Miller 1). Edward tried to siege calais, but Jeanne de Vienne, the citys commander, held out in hopes that Edward would retreat to England in the winter. Edward did not. Instead Edward built log huts to live in outside the city walls.

To support his troops financially he set up a market and sold supplies to local farmers. While in France Edward heard about an attempted invasion by King David of Scotland. It was unsuccessful and David was captured at Neville's Cross. Calais was begining to run out of food because the city was surrounded (Lace 39). In early 1347 Vienne sent out 500 people because he was no longer able to feed them. The English would not let them through though.

Philip eventually showed up to defend Calais in July. Philip sent Edward a challenge, but edward refused because he felt he had the city secured. Philip then left the town to its own fate. The next day Jeanne de Vienne rode out of town giving up his sword and the keys to the city (Lace 40). Between the years of 1348 and 1350 the Balck death invaded Europe. This horrible disease was spread by infected rats and fleas and killed 1/4 to 1/3 of the population of Europe.

Although the disease was most commonly found among the poor in over populated cities Edward daughter Joan died from it in Bordeaux. This caused a huge deficit in soldiers and caused the war to come to a stand still for five years (Lace 41). In 1349 a plot to retake Calais was discovered. The force was quickly put down by a small English army. In 1350 Edward led an English fleet against the spanish from Castille and won. This would be edwards last victory and major battle.

He turned over his powers to his son Edward the Black Prince just two weeks before Philip of Valois died (Lace 42).