England and France, medieval

The conquest of England in 1066 by William of Normandy involved England in the affairs of France, and there were few times in the Middle Ages when England and France were at peace. Under the feudal system the English crown owed feudal allegiance to the king of France for its lands in France - an irksome duty as, for most of the Middle Ages, the English monarchy was far more powerful than the French. Equally, the rulers of France wanted to unite France under their control. As the Middle Ages progressed, medieval trade and dynastic quarrels became enmeshed with growing nationalism in both countries, which intensified the conflict.

Even during William (I) the Conqueror's reign, Philip I of France (reigned 1060-1108) had attacked Normandy, and William died in 1087 as a result of an accident while taking Mantes (now Mantes-la-Jolie), only 48 km/30 mi from Paris.

Henry II's marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152 gave him a large portion of France; he became count of Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Gascony, Aquitaine, and Poitou. The French king Philip II (reigned 1180-1223) set about destroying English power. During the reign of John (I) Lackland, Philip drove the English out of Normandy, consolidating his power at the Battle of Bouvines (1214). Trouble, however, festered throughout the 13th century. Philip IV the Fair (reigned 1285-1314), taking quarrels between English and Norman sailors as an excuse, declared Gascony and Aquitaine forfeit at the beginning of 1294. Edward I of England built up a European alliance against Philip, while Philip allied himself with Scotland, beginning the traditional Franco-Scottish alliance (the Auld Alliance), which lasted until 1560. Edward's attempts to regain his French territory in the 1290s, ending with his unsuccessful invasion of 1297-98, were hampered by risings in Wales and Scotland, as well as opposition in England. Relations with France were temporarily smoothed after 1299 by the marriage of the widowed Edward I to Philip IV's sister, Margaret.

Edward's son and successor, Edward II, married a daughter of Philip IV, Isabella, in 1308. She separated from him and returned to France when her brother Charles IV the Fair seized Edward's lands in France in 1325. However, she returned to England with an invasion force in 1326 and forced Edward to abdicate in favour of their son, Edward III.

In 1337 Edward III of England claimed the throne of France through his mother Isabella, starting the Hundred Years' War. Despite famous victories such as the Battle of Agincourt (1415) - celebrated in Shakespeare's play Henry V - the English were slowly driven out of France. By 1453, when the war ended, Calais alone remained in English hands.

For further details see France: history to 1515 and England: history to 1485.