Customer Reviews

The Origins of the Hundred Years War: The Angevin Legacy 1250-1340

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This is the history of the duchy of Aquitaine(/Guienne/Gascony) under the Plantagenet king-dukes, and deteriorating relations between the kings of France and England over the same. Vale brings up some new and interesting facets, like how the local Gascon nobles actively (though not necessarily deliberately) made those relations worse, by appealing to the French crown whenever they didn't like a decision of the English king-duke, but rallying to the Plantagenet defense whenever the Capetians tried to enforce royal authority. The title is slightly ironic, in that it describes the book in terms of the historical periods BEFORE (Angevin kings of England) and AFTER (Hundred Years War) the period the book actually covers.

Not for beginners. Vale assumes a reader who already knows the overall shape of the forest, and is now looking for lots of individual trees. I think a better writer could have (i.e., I would have liked it better if Vale had) put in a little more narrative as connective tissue, but it's good if you like trees. Be advised: strong anti-Valois bias.