When Did the Hundred Years' War Start?
The Hundred Years’ War began on 7 October 1337, when Edward III of England renounced his homage to Philip VI of France at Westminster. The act was the formal opening of a long conflict that would last for 116 years and would end, in its last pitched battle, at Castillon on 17 July 1453 and, in its last territorial surrender, at Bordeaux on 19 October 1453. The renouncement of 7 October 1337 was the consequence of a long accumulation of small disputes through the 1320s and 1330s, sharpened by the succession crisis of 1328 and by the French confiscation of the duchy of Aquitaine in May 1337. It was, however, the discrete political act that began the war.
The start date is conventional but defensible. Edward did not assume the title “King of France” until 26 January 1340, when the Westminster Parliament ordered the title to be used in chancery documents and Edward quartered the French arms with the English. The hostilities of 1337–1339 were largely inconclusive: a series of chevauchées through northern France, a small English victory at the Battle of Sluys on 24 June 1340, and a nine-month truce at the papal mediation of Benedict XII in September 1340. The first great English land victory of the war, the Battle of Crécy on 26 August 1346, was almost a decade away. The start of the war was, in the strict sense, a diplomatic event.
The succession crisis of 1328
The immediate cause of the war was the succession crisis that followed the death of Charles IV of France on 1 February 1328, the last direct male Capetian king. The two leading claimants were Edward III of England (whose mother Isabella was Charles IV’s sister) and Philip, Count of Valois (a cousin of the late king through the male line). The French magnates applied the Salic Law and chose Philip, who was crowned at Reims on 29 May 1328 as Philip VI.
The English position was not hopeless. Edward did homage to Philip for the duchy of Aquitaine at Amiens on 6 June 1329, but the homage was compromised by being made on behalf of a regency (Isabella and Mortimer) that was dependent on French goodwill. When Edward overthrew the regency in October 1330 and assumed personal rule, the constitutional case for reopening the question was intact. The case for the war was not made by a single dramatic act, but by a slow accumulation of small disputes through the 1330s.
The Salic Law, on which the French case rested, was a customary rule of the Frankish succession that excluded females from the inheritance of the crown. The law had never been used to settle a regnal succession in this way, and its application in 1328 was, in effect, an interpretation rather than a settled rule. The English case, that the law did not apply to a claim through the female line if the female’s son was available, was constitutionally defensible. The French case, that the male-line descent of the Valois was preferable, was politically defensible. The dispute was, in the end, settled by the sword.
The drift to war, 1328–1337
The drift to war between 1328 and 1337 ran through a series of discrete disputes. The case of Robert d’Artois, banished from France in 1332 and given refuge by Edward III, brought the question of the English king’s relationship to the French legal system to a head. The succession to the county of Artois, disputed between the d’Artois faction and the Flemish faction, became a French internal dispute that the English were drawn into. The status of English pirates in the Channel, who were preying on French shipping with the tacit support of the English crown, was a running sore. French support for the Scots, in the Auld Alliance of 1295, kept the northern war alive. The question of whether Edward would do homage in person for Aquitaine, and the conditions under which that homage would be done, was a constitutional quibble that both crowns elevated into a principle.
The decisive escalation came in May 1337, when the Parlement of Paris, sitting in Edward’s absence, declared the duchy of Aquitaine forfeit. The confiscation was the consequence of Edward’s refusal to appear in person before the Parlement to answer for the actions of his agents. The confiscation was, in effect, a declaration of war in legal form, and Edward’s response was to renounce his homage on 7 October 1337.
The renouncement of 7 October 1337
The renouncement of 7 October 1337 was performed in public, in Westminster Hall, before a large audience of English magnates and foreign ambassadors. Edward, dressed in black and accompanied by a large retinue, renounced his homage to Philip VI in a solemn ceremony. The act was reported throughout Europe, and it was the formal opening of the war.
The renouncement was a public gesture, but it was the result of months of careful planning. Edward had been working to organise a coalition of European allies, including the Holy Roman Emperor (Louis of Bavaria), the duke of Brabant, the count of Hainaut, and several German princes. The coalition was less effective than Edward had hoped, and the first campaigns of the war were largely inconclusive. The English expedition of 1338, a chevauchée through the Low Countries, ended without a decisive engagement. The expedition of 1339, a chevauchée through northern France, also ended without a decisive engagement. The English fleet, organised for the campaign of 1340, won a decisive victory at the Battle of Sluys on 24 June 1340. The first great English land victory, the Battle of Crécy, was still six years away.
The assumption of the French title, 26 January 1340
The assumption of the title “King of France” was a separate act, performed at the Westminster Parliament of 26 January 1340. The Parliament, summoned in the wake of the English victory at Sluys, ordered the title to be used in chancery documents, and Edward quartered the French arms with the English. The act was, in effect, the formal claim of the English crown to the French throne.
The assumption of the title did not produce immediate military consequences. The English, having won the Channel at Sluys, were in a position to mount further campaigns, but the next six years of the war were inconclusive. The first great English land victory, the Battle of Crécy on 26 August 1346, came after a long period of consolidation. The first great English territorial settlement, the Treaty of Brétigny of 8 May 1360, came after a long period of campaigning.
The long war begins
The renouncement of 7 October 1337 was the start of a war that would last for 116 years. The war would see the great English victories of Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415), and the great French victories of the Loire campaign (1429) and the reconquest of Normandy (1449) and Gascony (1453). The war would end with the French victory at Castillon (17 July 1453) and the surrender of Bordeaux (19 October 1453). The start of the war was the beginning of a new era in European history.
The standard modern treatment is Jonathan Sumption’s first volume, Trial by Battle (1990), which treats the start of the war in detail. Philippe Contamine’s La Guerre de Cent Ans (1968) is the standard French treatment. The site treats the start of the war in the causes pillar and in the succession crisis of 1328 cluster.