National Identity and the Hundred Years' War

The Hundred Years’ War was one of the formative events in the history of European national identity. The long struggle between the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of England, fought out over more than a century on French soil, gave both nations a new sense of collective selfhood that transcended the older feudal ties of allegiance to a particular lord or king. The war also produced, or reinforced, two of the most important national traditions in European history: the French tradition, associated with the figure of Joan of Arc and the Valois monarchy, and the English tradition, associated with Edward III and the longbow. The standard French treatment is the relevant sections of Colette Beaune’s La Naissance de la nation France (1985) and the work of the contributors to the Histoire de la France series; the standard English treatment is the relevant sections of the Oxford History of England and the work of M. T. Clanchy, England and Its Rulers 1066–1272 (1983).

The French national identity

The French experience of the war is, in some ways, the more striking. The France that Philip VI ruled in 1328 was a loose collection of feudal territories, held together by the personal authority of the king and the institutions of the Crown of France. The disasters of the 1340s and 1350s — the Battle of Crécy (1346), the sack of Caen, the long English occupation of Calais, the Battle of Poitiers (1356) and the capture of King John, the Treaty of Brétigny (1360), the Black Death (1347–1351), the Jacquerie (1358) — exposed the weakness of these institutions and the deep unpopularity of the Valois monarchy.

The recovery of the late 14th century, under Charles V and du Guesclin, gave the French a new sense of their own identity. The strategy of avoidance, the use of the scorched-earth tactics, and the patient reconquest of Aquitaine were not only military successes: they were also the foundation for a new sense of French national identity that transcended the older feudal ties. The development of a centralised royal administration, the establishment of a permanent royal tax (the taille), and the gradual reduction of the great noble families to a subordinate role in the French state were all part of this process.

The intervention of Joan of Arc in 1429, and her appeal to a France that was more than a feudal aggregation, marked the final consolidation of a French national identity. The French, who had long regarded themselves as subjects of a particular lord or territory, began to see themselves as members of a single nation with a common culture, language, and history. The figure of Joan, the peasant girl from Domrémy who claimed to be saving France, became the symbol of this new national identity. The coronation of Charles VII at Reims on 17 July 1429 was the central symbolic event; the rehabilitation of Joan in 1456 was the second.

The triumph of the French national identity was, however, complicated by the long-term legacy of the war. The centralisation of the French monarchy, the suppression of regional identities, and the gradual reduction of the great noble families to a subordinate role in the French state were all part of this process. The cost of the new national identity was the destruction of the older feudal France.

The English national identity

The English experience of the war was different but equally important. The English had long regarded themselves as separate from the continental French, and the long struggle with France gave this sense of separateness a new political content. The English language, already in use in the courts of Edward III, was increasingly used in government and law, while the use of French was gradually abandoned.

The Pleading in English statute of 1362, which required legal pleadings to be conducted in English rather than French, was one of the markers of the shift; the use of English in the chancery, established in the late 15th century, was the other. The English language, which had been a court language alongside French and Latin since the Norman Conquest, became the principal language of English governance and law in the same period.

The war also contributed to the development of English parliamentary institutions. The English kings were forced to seek parliamentary consent for new taxes to pay for the war, and the practice of parliamentary taxation, established during the Edwardian phase, would have important constitutional consequences in the following century. The English parliament, which had been a relatively minor institution in the early 14th century, was transformed by the war into a much more important body. The Good Parliament of 1376, the first English parliament to impeach ministers of the crown, was the first major product of the new parliamentary culture.

The cultural impact

The Hundred Years’ War had a profound cultural impact on both nations. The war produced a new literature, in both English and French, that celebrated the military achievements of the past and the heroism of the present. The most important English work is, of course, Shakespeare’s Henry V and Henry VI, but the war also produced a substantial body of chronicles, poems, and songs in both languages. The French tradition is represented by the Chronique du Religieux de Saint-Denis, by Froissart’s Chroniques, and by Cuvelier’s verse biography of du Guesclin.

The war also produced a new art, particularly in the form of illuminated manuscripts and tapestries. The most famous surviving example is the Apocalypse Tapestry at Angers, commissioned by Louis I, Duke of Anjou, in the 1370s, but there are many others. The war also produced a new architecture, including the great castles of the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

The religious impact

The war also had a profound religious impact on both nations. The war was, in part, a religious conflict: the French kings claimed to be defending the Catholic faith against the English, who were regarded as barbarians and heretics. The intervention of Joan of Arc, who claimed to be sent by God, gave the war a strongly religious character, and the figure of Joan, the saint who saved France, became a powerful symbol of French Catholicism.

The English, for their part, also claimed to be defending the Catholic faith, and the figure of Henry V, the pious warrior-king, was celebrated as a defender of the faith. The war also produced a number of religious orders, including the Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III in 1348, which became the model for English chivalry.

The economic impact

The war had a profound economic impact on both nations. The English kings were forced to seek new sources of revenue to pay for the war, and the practice of parliamentary taxation, established during the Edwardian phase, would have important economic consequences. The French kings, for their part, were forced to develop a more centralised system of royal taxation, including the taille, a direct tax on the peasantry that would become a permanent feature of the French state. The fiscal consequences of the war are treated in the economic causes and decline of feudalism articles.

The long view

The national identities that emerged from the Hundred Years’ War have proved remarkably durable. The French national identity, in particular, has been a powerful force in European history, and the figure of Joan of Arc has been a touchstone of French national consciousness for centuries. The English national identity, while less marked by a single heroic figure, has also proved remarkably durable, and the long rivalry between the two nations has been a central feature of European history ever since.

The war, however, did not produce the national identities of the modern sense. The English identity of the 15th century was an identity of the English crown and the English parliament, not of an English people in the modern sense. The French identity of the 15th century was an identity of the Valois monarchy and the centralised French state, not of a French nation in the modern sense. The transition to the modern national identity was a process of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, and the Hundred Years’ War was one of its preconditions rather than its cause.