Hundred Years' War and the Making of Late Medieval Europe: Kingship, Chivalry, and State Formation,

The Hundred Years' War offers a clear and structured account of the long conflict between England and France that reshaped medieval Europe. Beginning with dynastic claims, feudal obligations, and rival visions of kingship, the book explains how a dispute over succession developed into a prolonged struggle involving armies, taxation, diplomacy, propaganda, and national identity. The volume follows the major phases of the war, from Edward III's campaigns and the battles of Crécy and Poitiers to the Treaty of Brétigny, renewed French recovery, civil conflict, Henry V's victory at Agincourt, the Treaty of Troyes, Joan of Arc's intervention, and the eventual French reconquest. It examines not only battles and rulers, but also the wider social and political consequences of war: military innovation, the rise of professional forces, changes in siege warfare, the burden of taxation, peasant suffering, noble ambition, and the growing authority of the French crown. Rather than treating the Hundred Years' War as a single continuous war, this book presents it as a series of connected crises shaped by monarchy, territory, legitimacy, finance, and military adaptation. It shows how the conflict weakened feudal structures, strengthened state institutions, and contributed to new political identities in both France and England.