Definition of Hundred Years War

The Hundred Years War is one of the most remembered historical war conflicts due to the long time it lasted and it took to be solved. Although the name tells us of a hundred years, the reality is that this conflict, which faced the ruling houses of England and France, lasted about 116 years, more specifically from 1337 to 1453. The war took place in different locations in Europe but due to the fact that the conflict arose around the seizure of political power in France, most of the warlike confrontations took place in territory French.

The Hundred Years War is considered to be one of the last major events of the Middle Ages, being that many historians understand it as the final confrontation between the different gentlemen feudal that reigned at that time in Europe and that, after this conflict, would enter into frank decline in front of establishment of absolute monarchies. The war took place between two ruling houses at the time in France: the house of Valois and that of Plantagenet, representing England in some French territories. At the end of the dynasty of the Capetian kings in France, these two houses went to war to decide which of the two would be the triumphant and owner of power in one of the most important and richest territories of all Europe. While the kings of the House of Valois claimed the throne of France, those of Plantagenet sought to unify under their power the kingdom of England and that of France at the same time.

The house of Valois had the support of numerous French regions and regions of other countries such as Castile, Aragon, Scotland, Genoa and Bohemia. For its part, the House of Plantagenet added to its ranks the independent kingdoms of Burgundy, Aquitaine, Flandres, Navarra, Portugal, Luxembourg and the Sacro. Roman empire. It goes without saying that each of these territories sought in this way to defend their own interests and eventually obtain benefits from the possible victory of the faction to which they belonged.

This war is considered to be one of the first conflicts in which the idea of nationalism began to emerge and this has to do with the confrontation traditional that would later remain until the present day between the idea of nation French and English nation. Furthermore, this conflict, which ended with the French victory (or of the House of Valois) and the expulsion of the English from the territories they occupied, also meant the end point to the clashes between different feudal lords and with this the beginning of a new stage at the political level in which the great nation states would replace the atomized power characteristic of the Middle Ages.