The Hundred Years War

Philip of Burgundy, the son of the killed Duke John, concluded the Treaty of Troyes with King Henry V of England on May 21, 1420. Henry V was entrusted with the rule of France, married the French king`s daughter Catherine and became heir to the throne at the expense of her brother Charles.

The disadvantaged Dauphin (Charles VII) took up the fight against the English in the south of the Loire again. Thus began the third and final phase of the Hundred Years` War.

About two years later, Henry V and Charles VI died. shortly One after another. While Duke John of Bedford, the regency for his nine-month-old nephew Henry VI. in England and also wanted to rule France because of the Treaty of Troyes, the followers of the House of Valois announced Charles VII.as king of France.

England and Burgundy restricted Charles VII`s dominion to the area south-west of the Loire. In the occupied areas, no more than ten isolated places resisted the enemy. In 1424, after two disastrous Dutch attacks, Charles VII signed a four-year truce with the English. The situation escalated again when the English placed a siege around Orléans in 1428.

The appearance of Joan of Arc quickly changed this situation. The young girl from the Lorraine village of Domrémy succeeded in awakening national feelings and hope in the French people. In their accompaniment, the French army scored numerous victories. As a result, the siege of Orléans was lifted and Charles VII managed to get as far as Reims, where he was solemnly crowned in 1429. In 1436 Paris was conquered and in 1453 the English lost all French territories (except Calais). The Hundred Years` War then officially ended without a formal peace treaty.