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67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From a different perspective, February 1, 2000
This review is from: The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453 (Mass Market Paperback)
Desmond Seward has written a great, short (270-text pages) book about a conflict that, incredibly, has shaped the relations between France and England ever since, and has influenced the course of history. The English claim to the throne of France started with the Norman Invasion and the crowning of Duke William as King of England in 1066. Ethnically, the Normans were Vikings, but they had become French in a cultural way. William was followed by his descendants, and they formed the Plantagenet Line, to which some of the most famous and illustrious of English kings belong. Seward sees the conflict as what it was: the invasion of France by English troops in a time where loyalties were given to the feudal lord (duke, prince, king) more than to the country. By the time the war finally ended in 1453, the concept of "nationalism" was firmly entrenched in both England and France. Between the years 1337 and 1453, England had won an amazing string of victories against a bigger, richer enemy, but one that had been wretchedly led, only to be driven away from France towards the end of the war. The English despoiled the rich French countryside; they burned fields; destroyed towns; and, finally, were hated even by those who, a few decades earlier, had been loyal subjects of their English lords. Seward focuses this narrative from a perspective to which we are not used: the French perspective that, honestly, has never received a fair hearing in the English-speaking world. Of particular interest to me was Seward's description of King Henry V, the hero of Shakespeare, the hero of Agincourt, the symbol of nobility..., and a murderer who burned prisoners alive, who destroyed towns for no reason, who applied a religious fanaticism to his campaigns and who, instead of being the ideal of a Prince, was a paranoid, greedy psychopath. Is this an accurate portrayal of Henry? I don't know. But Seward does provide us with a different look at a much written-about hero of the English. Perhaps he is biased, but the glamorized biographies I have read through the years do tend to pale next to this work. Still, as with many historical figures, Henry will keep on being controversial. (And authors do not have to please us every time: I really did not agree with Seward's biography of Richard III.) So, as for the Hundred Years War, the author puts us right there at Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt (all extraordinary English victories), and at the counterattack with Joan of Arc, the betrayal of the French (maybe they did deserve the English after all), the final push, and the English being sent back to England, while the French retained France. The French went on to lick their wounds after 116 years of rape, pillage, and destruction. The English went on to fight their own conflict, later known as The Wars of the Roses (but not during the Wars between Lancaster and York), and managed to escape major retaliation from the wounded French. This conflict, immense in expanse, extremely important for the future of the world, given the dominant position of both France and England in a resurgent, imperialistic, planetary Europe, is seen with French eyes by a man who seems to stand, sometimes uneasily, on both lands. Excellent book. I hope you enjoy it, too.
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47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent reading--but difficult, December 24, 2002
This review is from: The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453 (Mass Market Paperback)
This is an excellent, if rapid, retelling of the hundred years war, which was not one war, but a series of bloody conflicts, started by the English refusal to recognize the French salic law which denied inheritance through the female line. Edward III' s mother Queen Isabella was the daughter of king Phillip the Fair, and as such many, including Edward, felt that he,NOT King Phillip's nephew ought to inherit the throne.Meanwhile in France, dependence of salic law had only recently been revived and was, of course being used for political reasons, including specifically that of keeping an Englishman off the throne. Alas, nothing is even so simple and there were many pretenders and schisms, including the Great schism between the Popes of Avignon and Rome as well as between French factions during this period. Seward covers the motivations for conflict, on different class levels, as well as the effects of various conflicts and gives us some great characters. There are several genealogical charts which explain the dynastic imperatives, as well as a real attention to military detail, the descriptions of different kinds of weaponry, particularly English bow and arrow versus French crossbow are impressive. And several battles are accompanied by military diagrams, so that those who are military minded can have a real grasp of the actions at Crecy and Agincourt, for example, as well as of the military intelligence of Edward III, John of Gaunt, Henry V and Joan of Arc. Seward relies on many primary sources, but in particular on Froissart and the Bourgeois of Paris (whom I had not heard of.) He quotes Shakespeare and ancient songs appropriately at the beginning of each chapter, and provides an excellent appendix of maps showing the vicissitudes of French territories and English occupations, as well as an appendix explaining the meaning of the currencies in the economics of the time. This is a straightforward, exceedingly comprehensive, delineation of one of the most confusing occasions in Western European history. One is still left confused at the end about how and why the dynastic, commercial, political and military factors interacted as they did however. And it becomes very difficult to sort one French King and political pretender from another. I never did quite figure out what Phillip of Burgundy was up to. One has the sense that Seward might have better served his purpose by writing a book a hundred pages longer with attentions to the less heady but equally important details of character, personality and relationship. Maurice Druon's fictional series "The Cursed Kings" (1-6) makes a good introduction to the Political events that led up to the start of the Hundred Years war.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exciting and easy to read style., June 12, 2001
This review is from: The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453 (Mass Market Paperback)
This was the first work I read on the history of the Hundred Years War independent from general British history accounts and it served as an excellent introduction to the subject. I was especially impressed with evolution weaponry and its effects on the tide of various battles and eventually the war. The dominace of the French heavily armored knight in battlefield being replaced by the English long-bow archer during the opening period of the war. The latter was dominated by emergence of French canon in concluding battles of the war. In addition to tactical analysis, the English employment of the tatics of Total War against the French population and economy with its effects on both side was quite fasinating. Lastly, it provides an interesting sequel of events which lead to the War of the Roses in England years later, which was one of the bloodiest episodes of civil war in Biritsh history.
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