Capet–Plantagenet feud

The Capet–Plantagenet feud, also referred to as the "First Hundred Years' War" (Première Guerre de Cent Ans; 1159–1259) by some French historians, was a series of conflicts and disputes during the High Middle Ages during which the House of Capet, rulers of the Kingdom of France, fought the House of Plantagenet (also known as the House of Anjou or the Angevins), rulers of the Kingdom of England. The conflict emerged over the Plantagenet-held Angevin Empire formed by Henry II of England which at its peak covered around half of the territory within France.

During the feud, the continental possessions of the Kings of England were considered to be more important than their insular ones, covering an area significantly greater than the territories controlled by the Kings of France who, however, were the overlords of the former in regards to the continental lands. Indeed, while the Capetian's nominal suzerainty extended far beyond the small domain of Île-de-France, the actual power they held over many of their vassals, including the Plantagenets, was weak. These reasons, in combination with the Plantagenet's hold on the sovereign kingdom of England adding to the strength of the Plantagenets, can be seen the primary reasons for the feud.

The feud between the two dynasties and the many wars that came with it led to the gradual "reconquest" by the Capetians of most of their own kingdom, and later, the Plantagenet's attempts at retaking what they believed to be their rightful claims in western France. After the Plantagenet claims to western France ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1259, the English kings, in regards to their few remaining possessions on the continent, would remain vassals to the French kings and would become more English in nature. The Capetians were also able to consolidate their power, making the kingdom of France the wealthiest and most powerful state in medieval Western Europe. Ironically, the intermarriage between the two dynasties resulting from multiple peace settlements during the conflict directly led to the Plantagenet's dynastic claim over the French throne and the start of the more commonly known Hundred Years' War.

Angevin ascendancy under Henry II: 1154-1189
In 1150, amidst a period of civil war in England over the succession of the crown known as the Anarchy, Henry II Plantagenet, a claimant to the throne by right of his mother Empress Matilda, received the Duchy of Normandy from his father Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou. In response to the looming threat of a united England, Normandy, and Anjou, Louis VII of France put forward King Stephen of England's son, Eustace, as a pretender to the duchy of Normandy and launched a military campaign to remove Henry from the province. Peace was made in 1151 in which Henry accepted Louis as his feudal lord in response for recognition as the duke of Normandy.

When Geoffrey died in September 1151, Henry inherited the County of Anjou and Maine. On 18 May 1152 he became Duke of Aquitaine in right of his wife by marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine in Poitiers after her first marriage with Louis VII of France was annulled at the Council of Beaugency. As a result of this union, Henry had now possessed a larger proportion of France than Louis. Tensions between the two were revived. Louis organized a coalition against Henry including Stephen of England and Henry's younger brother Geoffrey, among a group of other nobles in France. Fighting broke out along the borders of Normandy, and Louis launched a campaign into Aquitaine. In England, Stephen laid siege to Wallingford Castle which was held by Henry's forces at the time. Henry responded by stabilizing the Norman border, pillaging the Vexin and then striking south into Anjou against Geoffrey, capturing the castle of Montsoreau. Louis soon fell ill and withdrew the campaign, and Geoffrey was forced to come to terms with Henry.

On 6 November 1153, by the Treaty of Wallingford (or Treaty of Winchester), he was recognized as the successor of King Stephen of England. When the latter died on 25 October 1154, he ascended the throne of England under the name of Henry II. On Sunday, December 19, he was crowned at Westminster Abbey. This marked the beginning of what is referred to the modern day as the Angevin Empire. The resources at the disposal of Henry now far exceeded those of the king of France. In 1154 and in 1158, the two kings made a series of agreements to quell the tensions, including the concession of some minor territory to Henry, and the betrothing of Henry's son, Young Henry, to Louis' daughter, Margaret.

In 1156, Henry seized the viscounty of Thouars, thereby controlling communications between the northwest and south-west France. In 1158, he annexed annexed Nantes from the semi-independent duchy of Brittany. In 1159, Henry continued to act on his expansionist policy by setting his eyes on the county Toulouse which he claimed on Eleanor's behalf. When Henry and Louis discussed the matter of Toulouse, Henry left believing that he had the French king's support for military intervention. Henry invaded Toulouse and laid siege to the city by the same name, only to find Louis visiting Raymond in the city. Henry was not prepared to directly attack Louis, who was still his feudal lord, and withdrew, contenting himself with ravaging the surrounding county, seizing castles and taking the province of Quercy. The episode proved to be a long-running point of dispute between the two kings and the chronicler William of Newburgh called the ensuing conflict with Toulouse a "forty years' war".

Despite initial attempts to repair relations, diplomacy broke down. Henry seized the Vexin and forced a marriage between Young Henry and Margaret. Theobald V, Count of Blois, mobilized his forces on behalf of Louis, however Henry responded by attacking Chaumont in a surprise attack and took Theobald's castle in a siege. Another peace was negotiated in the autumn of 1161, followed by a second peace treaty in 1162 overseen by Pope Alexander III.

Despite this, Louis consolidated his position by strengthening his alliances and became more vigorous in opposing Henry's increasing power in Europe. Meanwhile, Henry strengthened his grip on the Duchy of Brittany and secured it for his son Geoffrey. Elsewhere, Henry attempted to seize the Auvergne, and continued to apply pressure on Toulouse in a military campaign.

In 1167, the two kings were at war once again. Louis allied himself with the Welsh, Scots, and Bretons, and attacked Normandy. Henry responded by attacking Chaumont-sur-Epte, where Louis kept his main military arsenal, burning the town to the ground and forcing Louis to abandon his allies and make a private truce. After the short war, Henry continued his campaign against the Bretons, and would later see the capitulation of Toulouse.

Although Henry II wielded much stronger authority within his lands and commanded far greater resources than his Capetian rivals, there was a considerable division in his territories between his sons. Eager to inherit, his three eldest sons rebelled against him in 1173 with the help of king Louis VII of France. Young Henry and Louis invaded the Vexin intending to reach the Norman capital, Rouen. Henry, who had been in France in order to receive absolution for the Becket affair, secretly travelled back to England to order an offensive on the rebels, and on his return counter-attacked Louis's army, massacring many of them and pushing the survivors back across the Norman border. In January 1174 the forces of Young Henry and Louis attacked again, threatening to push through into central Normandy. The attack failed and the fighting paused while the winter weather set in. Henry returned to England to face a potential invasion by the Flemish. This ruse allowed Philip, Count of Flanders, and Louis to invade Normandy and reach Rouen, laying siege to the city. However, the defeat and capture of William of Scotland who led another invasion of England in the north allowed Henry to return to Normandy in August. Henry's forces fell upon the French army just before the final French assault on the city began; pushed back into France, Louis requested peace talks, bringing an end to the conflict.

Tension resurfaced between the two kings in the late 1170s over the control of Berry. To put additional pressure on Louis, Henry mobilised his armies for war. The papacy intervened and, probably as Henry had planned, the two kings were encouraged to sign a non-aggression treaty in September 1177, under which they promised to undertake a joint crusade. The ownership of the Auvergne and parts of Berry were put to an arbitration panel, which reported in favour of Henry; Henry followed up this success by purchasing La Marche from the local count. This expansion of Henry's empire once again threatened French security, and promptly put the new peace at risk.

In 1180, Louis was succeeded by his son, Philip II. In 1186, Philip demanded that he be given the Duchy of Brittany and insisted that Henry order his son Richard the Lionheart to withdraw from Toulouse, where he had been sent with an army to apply new pressure on Count Raymond, Philip Augustus's uncle. Philip Augustus threatened to invade Normandy if this did not happen and reopened the question of the Vexin. Philip Augustus invaded Berry and Henry mobilised a large army which confronted the French at Châteauroux, before papal intervention brought a truce. During the negotiations, Philip Augustus suggested to Richard that they should ally against Henry, marking the start of a new strategy to divide the father and son.

In 1187, Richard's campaign into Toulouse undermined the truce between Henry and Philip. Both kings mobilized large forces in anticipation of war. In a peace conference held in November 1188, Richard publicly changed sides, and by 1189, the conference broke up with war as Philip and Richard launched a surprise attack on Henry. Henry was caught by surprise at Le Mans but made a forced march north to Alençon, from where he could escape into the safety of Normandy. Suddenly, Henry turned back south towards Anjou, against the advice of his officials. At Ballan, the two sides negotiated once again, resulting in the Treaty of Azay-le-Rideau on 4 July 1189, and the ill-stricken Henry had to recognize his son Richard as his sole heir. Two days later, Henry succumbed to his illness, possibily exacerbated by the betrayal of his son John.

Wars between Richard the Lionheart and Philip Augustus: 1191-1199
In 3 September 1189, Richard the Lionheart was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey inheriting his father's vast territories and still commanding much more power than the Capetian monarchy, remaining no less a threat to the Capetians. After the coronation, Richard immediately left for the crusade alongside King Philip.

Returning early from the crusade in December 1191, Philip Augustus encouraged the rebellion of John Lackland against his brother Richard and profited from the absence of the latter to negotiate a very advantageous treaty for France. Hoping to acquire the English crown with the support of the King of France, John paid homage in 1193. The Château de Gisors fell to the French in the same year. Then, as Philip Augustus attacked the possessions of the Plantagenets, John gave to the French king eastern Normandy (except Rouen), Le Vaudreuil, Verneuil and Évreux, by written agreement, in January 1194. By his military and diplomatic finesse, Philip kept his rival at bay.

Richard continued the crusade after the departure and seeming betrayal of Philip: he retook the main Palestinian ports up to Jaffa, and restored the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem although the city itself eluded him. He eventually negotiated a five-year truce with Saladin and sailed back in October 1192. Winter storms overtook him. Forced to stay at Corfu, he was captured by Duke Leopold V of Austria, who put him in the hands of the German Emperor Henry VI, his enemy. For the release of Richard, the emperor asked for a ransom of 100,000 marks, plus 50,000 marks to help him conquer Sicily.

Richard was finally released on 2 February 1194. His mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, paid two-thirds of the ransom, one hundred thousand marks, the balance to be paid later. Upon his return to England, John was forgiven by his brother and pardoned. Richard's reaction to the Capetian invasion was immediate. In the Battle of Fréteval, Richard was able to push back Philip, who barely survived, almost drowning in a river.

Determined to resist Philip's schemes on contested Angevin lands such as the Vexin and Berry, Richard poured all his military expertise and vast resources into the war on the French King. He organised an alliance against Philip, including Baldwin IX of Flanders, Renaud, Count of Boulogne, and his father-in-law, King Sancho VI of Navarre, who raided Philip's lands from the south. In November 1195, Richard's and Philip's forces met in Berry near Issodun and prepared for battle. However against expectation, Richard laid down his arms and negotiated with Philip, paying homage to him in the process. As a result, Philip gave up most of his recent conquests in the first treaty in January 1196. During this short period of peace, Richard began construction on the Château de Gaillard to fortify Normandy from further invasions which was mostly complete by 1198. The castle was ahead of its time, featuring innovations that would be adopted in castle architecture nearly a century later.The fighting resumed in 1197, again to the advantage of Richard who invaded the Vexin, resulting in an English victory at the Battle of Gisors (sometimes called Courcelles). In this battle, Richard reportedly yelled "Dieu et mon droit" in battle, meaning "God and my right" signifying that Richard was no longer willing to pay homage to Philip for his domain in France. After the battle, the two kings looked for support, while the new Pope Innocent III, who wanted to set up a new crusade, pushed them to negotiate. The situation ended abruptly. During the siege of the castle of Châlus (Limousin) held by a rebel garrison in 1199, Richard was hit by a crossbow bolt. He succumbed to his injuries a few days later, on April 6, forty-one years old and at the height of his glory.

War over the Angevin succession and the fall of the Angevin Empire: 1199-1205
John Lackland succeeded his brother Richard. The succession was not unopposed: facing John was his nephew, the young Arthur of Brittany (12 years old), son of his elder brother Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany who died in 1186. Philip Augustus supported this rivalry, and while he had taken the position of John against Richard, this time he took the position of Arthur against John. Philip received the homage of Arthur, as Duke of Brittany, in spring 1199 for the counties of Anjou, Maine and Touraine. This allowed him to negotiate from a position of strength with John Lackland; thus the Treaty of Le Goulet was created in 1200 which aimed to settle the claims the Angevin kings of England had on French lands, with the exception of Aquitaine, in order to end the constant dispute over Normandy. The treaty was sealed by the marriage of Louis of France and Blanche of Castile, John's niece.

However, the hostilities did not cease. Philip again took the cause of Arthur, and summoned John his vassal under the Treaty of Le Goulet for his actions in Aquitaine and Tours. John, naturally, did not present himself, and the court of France pronounced the confiscation of his fiefs.

In the spring of 1202 Philip attacked Normandy while Arthur attacked Poitou, but the young duke was surprised by King John in the Battle of Mirebeau, and taken prisoner with his troops as well as his sister Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany. Arthur of Brittany disappeared in the following months, probably murdered in early 1203. Philip then provided support to vassals of Arthur and resumed his actions in Normandy in spring 1203. Philip ordered Eleanor be released, which John eventually refused. Philip dismantled the system of Norman castles, took Le Vaudreuil, and began the Siege of Chateau Gaillard in September 1203. Meanwhile, John made the mistake of leaving Normandy to go to England in December 1203. Chateau Gaillard fell 6 March 1204.

Normandy was now open for the taking. Philip pressed his advantage; Falaise, Caen, Bayeux, and Rouen surrendered 24 June 1204, despairing the aid of John Lackland, who did not come. Arques and Verneuil fell immediately after, completing the success of Philip, who had conquered Normandy in two years of campaign. To consolidate his new conquest, Philip Augustus built the castle of Rouen, an imposing fortress of Philippian style and the locus of Capetian power in Normandy.

Philip then turned to the Loire Valley, where he took Poitiers in August 1204, and Loches and Chinon in 1205. John and Philip finally agreed to a truce in Thouars, on 13 October 1206. For Philip Augustus, it was then necessary to stabilize these rapid conquests. Since 1204, Philip published an order imposing the use of Norman, instead of Angevin, currency.

From 1206 to 1212, Philip Augustus strove to strengthen his territorial conquests. Capetian domination was accepted in Champagne, Brittany, and Auvergne, but the counties of Boulogne and Flanders remain reluctant.

Renaud de Dammartin, Count of Boulogne, became a primary concern. Despite the favors of Philip Augustus, who married in 1210 his son Philip Hurepel to Matilda, daughter of Renaud, he continued to negotiate with the enemy camp. The suspicions of Philip took shape when the count began to fortify Mortain, in western Normandy. In 1211, Philip went on the offensive, taking Mortain, Aumale and Dammartin. Renaud de Dammartin fled to the county of Bar, and was no longer an immediate threat.

John Lackland's two-pronged invasion of France: 1213-1214
The incredible success of Philip Augustus soon brought all of his rivals to unite against him. The opposition formed in 1212. John allied with his nephew, Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor, who was currently facing an internal crisis within the Empire in which the French supported Otto's opposition, Philip of Swabia. Renaud de Dammartin was the real architect of the coalition. He had nothing to lose when he went to Frankfurt to seek the support of Otto and England, where he paid homage to John. Hostilities between Philip and John resumed immediately.

At the same time, the first operations of the Albigensian Crusade, led by French barons, saw the quarrel between the Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse and the Crusaders. Philip Augustus refused to intervene and focused on the English danger. He gathered his barons in Soissons on 8 April 1213, ordering his son Louis to lead the expedition against England and won the support of all his vassals, except one, Ferdinand, Count of Flanders, whom he himself had installed two years earlier. Philip then sought further support, particularly with Henry I, Duke of Brabant. After some hesitation, Pope Innocent III on the other hand chose to support John, which provided moral support, but no direct military advantage. The preparations of the conflict persisted: the initial project of Philip, who wanted to invade England, was thwarted when his fleet was attacked by the enemy coalition at the battle of Damme in May 1213. The following month saw Philip and Louis strive against the counties of Boulogne and Flanders. The northern cities were almost all devastated.

John crossed to Aquitaine with his force at a very unusual season. Sailing from Portsmouth, they landed at La Rochelle on 15 February 1214. He called the feudal levies of Guyenne to reinforce him and marched into Poitou, where he was joined by Hugh IX of Lusignan and by Hervé, Count of Nevers. Making a great display of his troops, John overran Poitou in March, then crossed the Loire and invaded Anjou, the ancient patrimony of his house. As he expected, the King of France marched to check the invasion, taking with him his son, Louis, and the pick of the feudal levies of his realm. Moving by Saumur and Chinon, he endeavoured to cut off John's line of retreat towards Aquitaine. However, abandoning Anjou, the English king hastened rapidly southward, and, evading the enemy, reached Limoges on 3 April. By those operations, John had drawn Philip far to the south. Philip, however, refused to pursue John any farther and, after ravaging the revolted districts of Poitou, marched homewards. At Châteauroux, he handed over a few thousand troops to his son and returned with the rest to the north.

John was still determined to tie down as large a force as possible. When he heard Philip had departed, he at once faced about and re-entered Poitou in May. Rapidly passing the Loire, he again invaded Anjou and, after subduing many towns, laid siege to the strong castle of Roche-au-Moines on 19 June. He had lain in front of it for fifteen days when Prince Louis marched to it with his relief army, reinforced by Angevin levies under William des Roches and Amaury I de Craon. However, despite his significantly larger army, the English king was not prepared to fight, as he deemed his Poitevin allies to be untrustworthy. He recrossed the Loire on July 3 and retreated to La Rochelle, with his rearguard suffering immensely at the hands of the French forces in the process. These actions constitued what is referred to as the battle of Roche-au-Moines. But the coalition was not yet lost: everything depended on the eastern theatre of the war. The final confrontation between the armies of Philip and the coalition led by Otto, was now inevitable, after several weeks of approach and avoidance. Otto's army had a sizeable English contigent on the right-wing led by William Longespée. On Sunday 27 July 1214 the army of Philip, pursued by the coalition, arrived at Bouvines to cross the bridge over the Marque. At that Sunday, the prohibition to fight is absolute for Christians, but Otto decides to go on with the offensive, hoping to surprise the enemy while crossing the bridge. Philip's army was greatly surprised from the rear, but he quickly reorganized his troops before they could be engaged on the bridge. They quickly turned against the coalition. The French right wing fought against the Flemish knights, led by Ferdinand. At the center where fiercest of the fighting occurred, Philip and Otto fought in person. In the cavalry melee, Philip was unseated, and he fell, but his knights protected him, offered him a fresh horse, and the king resumed the assault until Otto ordered a retreat. Finally, on the left, the supporters of Philip ended the career of Renaud de Dammartin who was leading the knights from Brabant, as well as Longespée, both of whom were captured by the French after a long resistance. Fate had turned in favor of Philip, despite the numerical inferiority of his troops. The victory was decisive: the Emperor fled, Philip's men captured 130 prisoners, including five counts, including the reviled traitor, Renaud of Dammartin, and the Count of Flanders, Ferdinand.

The coalition was dissolved after its defeat. On 18 September 1214, in Chinon, Philip signed a truce for five years. John returned to England in 1214. By the Treaty of Chinon, John Lackland abandoned all his possessions to the north of the Loire: Berry, Touraine, Maine and Anjou returned to the royal domain, which then covered a third of France, greatly enlarged and free from external threat. John acknowledged Alix as duchess of Brittany and gave up the claim of Eleanor, who would end up in prison in 1241.The Capetian royal domain and the vast area north of the Loire enjoyed repose under the terms of the truce concluded in Chinon in 1215; originally for five years and then extended in 1220 with the guarantee of Louis, an association which marked the beginning of Philip's transition to his son and heir.

Louis the Lion's invasion of England: 1215-1217
The victory was complete on the continent, but Philip's ambitions did not stop there. Indeed, Philip Augustus wanted to go further against John of England. He thus argued that John should be deprived of the throne, recalling his betrayal of Richard in 1194, and the murder of his nephew Arthur. Arguing a questionable interpretation also of the genealogy of his wife Blanche of Castile, Prince Louis of France, at the request of the English barons in rebellion during the First Baron's War, led an expedition to attempt the conquest of England. The landing took place in May 1216 and Louis, at the head of numerous troops (1,200 knights, plus many anglais rebels), conquered much of the English kingdom, including London, where he settled and proclaimed himself as King of England. Only Windsor, Lincoln and Dover resisted. But despite the warm welcome to Louis by a majority of English bishops, the support of the pope to John remained firm, and Louis was excommunicated. The attitude of Philip Augustus towards this expedition was ambiguous; he did not officially support it and even criticized his son's strategy for the conquest of England, but it is unlikely that he had not given his consent to it, at least privately.

Finally, John died suddenly of illness on 19 October 1216. The former allies of John then hastily crowned his son Henry III, aged nine. Pope Innocent III also just died, but his successor Pope Honorius III continued to defend the loyalists. The bishops soon withdrew their support from Louis and the rebels. The prince returned to seek support in France beginning in 1217 and soon afterwards returned to England the same year. This time, his forces were routed by the English who were led by William Marshal in the decisive Battle of Lincoln. The French attempted to send reinforcements and supplies across the English Channel, but were obliterated in another decisive battle in the Battle of Sandwich. Louis agreed to negotiate peace in June and renounced his claims to the throne of England by the Treaty of Lambeth on 11 September 1217, while getting in return a large sum of money and reconciliation with the Church.

If the conquests by arms ceased, Philip nevertheless extended his influence by taking advantage of problematic cases of inheritance. This was the case in Champagne on the accession of Theobald IV, which allowed him to reestablish his suzerainty. This was the case especially when the king recovered certain lands such as Issoudun, Bully, Alençon, Clermont-en-Beauvaisis and Ponthieu.

The prosperity of the kingdom at the end of the reign of Philip Augustus is an established fact. It is estimated the annual surplus of the treasury was 25,210 livres in November 1221. On that date, the Treasury had in its coffers 157,036 livres, more than 80% of the total ordinary annual income of the monarchy. The testament of Philip Augustus, written in September 1222, confirms these figures, since the sum of its legacy amounted to 790,000 livres of Paris, nearly four years of revenue. This will was written while Philip was in a poor state of health and feared death. It will eventually occur ten months later.

While he was in Pacy, Philip decided to attend an ecclesiastical assembly in Paris to prepare for a new crusade against the advice of his doctors. He did not survive the fatigue of travel and died on 14 July 1223 at Mantes. His body was brought to Paris, and his funeral was quickly organized, in Saint-Denis, in the presence of the great men of the kingdom. For the first time, the body of the King of France dressed in all the regalia is exposed for the veneration of the people before his burial in a solemn rite based on that of the kings of England.

Further conquests of Louis VIII in France: 1224


Now crowned king of France, Louis VIII "the Lion" claimed that the English court had not fulfilled all the conditions of the treaty of 1217. Taking advantage of the minority of Henry III, he decided to seize the last English possessions in France.

In 1224, Louis took took the cities of Poitou, Saintonge, Périgord, Angoumois, and part of Bordeaux. Louis seized all territory as far as the Garonne, in a quick campaign. To control the trade of the region, the French laid siege to the strategic port city of La Rochelle, and after a few military confrontations between the English garrison and Louis' forces, the city surrendered within a month. After the campaign, Louis focused his attention on capturing numerous cities in Languedoc as part of a separate conflict. While returning from the campaign, Louis became ill with dysentery, and died on 8 November 1226, thus ending his short reign.

Efforts to Restore the Angevin Empire under Henry III: 1225-1259
By the end of the minority of Henry III in 1226 in addition to the settlement of the aftershocks from the First Barons' War, the king would prioritize the reconquest of what he saw as his "inheritance" and "legal claims" over the former Angevin territories now occupied by the Capetians. In 1225 Richard of Cornwall, Henry's brother and recently styled Count of Poitou, was commissioned by the English parliament to lead a campaign to recapture Gascony. By 1227, the campaigns were successful and Gascony would remain in Plantagenet hands for over another 200 years.

After the untimely death of Louis VIII of France, much of the French nobility within former Angevin lands who still held strong ties with the Plantagenets rebelled against the new king Louis IX. It is within this context that in 1228, a group of the rebels called upon Henry to reclaim his sought-after territories. By 1230, after a long period of preparation for the invasion, Henry embarked with an army from Portsmouth and eventually landed in Brittany. The French army mirrored much of the English army's movements in an attempt to repel them, however the English were able to campaign as far south as Bordeaux, capturing a few castles and receiving homage from many lords on the way. However, the campaign was mostly ineffectual and Henry was forced to re-embark for his kingdom by the end of the campaign season and would be forced to deal with a series of minor revolts in England over the following years. The territory gained by Henry in the war was swiftly recaptured by the Capetians and a truce was signed afterward.

In 1241, another dispute arose out of France as a result of the appointment of king Louis' cousin, Alphonse, as the Count of Poitiers, a title still nominally held in contention by Richard of Cornwall. Hugh X Lusignan "le Brun", Seigneur de Luisignan and Count of La Manche, fearing further encroachment of the Capetians within the heart of France formed a coalition of nobles to resist the appointment of the king's cousin. By the early months of 1242, Capetian forces had forcibly taken many castles held by the rebellious coalition. Henry III took advantage of the situation and set out from England with his brother Richard to intervene in the conflict and support Hugh who, at this time, was his step-father by virtue of his marriage to Henry's mother Isabella of Angoulême. Henry, having then conquered much of southern Poitou, then moved south to meet up with Hugh's forces and do battle with the French army stationed in the region headed by Louis of France. The two forces set up camp on opposing sides of the Charente river near Taillebourg. On July 21 a wing of the English army advanced over the bridge leading to the Battle of Taillebourg. In response, the French successfully countered the maneuver with a charge of knights, thus exposing the flank of the rest of the English army. The English fought a successful rearguard action lead by Simon De Montfort allowing the army to withdraw south to the nearby city of Saintes where on July 22, a more decisive pitched battle was fought. Louis pressed his advantage and laid siege Saintes. Though it is unclear that any armed conflict happened in the siege, it brought an end to the English intervention in the Saintonge war. After the English defeat, the war continued into 1243 between Louis and count Raymond VII of Toulouse who sided with the rebel coalition.

By this point, France's economic and military superiority was clear. Henry was increasingly limited in his ability to reassert his claims in France. As a result, Henry adopted what historian Michael Clanchy has described as a "European strategy" by venturing to regain his lands in France through diplomacy rather than force. Henry wrote frequently to Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire plotting to attain an alliance with him and potentially renew a joint expedition into France. After Frederick's death in 1250, Henry attempted to influence the election for the appointment for a new King of the Romans by donating to the German electors. In 1256, Henry successfully managed to get his brother Richard the title, and many German nobles were in favor of a war.

The stage was set for a two-pronged invasion of France, however by this point, tensions within the English realm were escalating and the prospect of a Second Barons War seemed a very real possibility as the barons of England sought to reassert the authority of Magna Carta which the king had been overstepping for decades. Seeking to restore his position in a seemingly desperate situation, in 1259 Henry purchased the support of Louis of France by the Treaty of Paris, agreeing to accept the loss of the lands in France that had been seized from him and from his father King John by Louis and his predecessors since 1202, and to do homage for those that remained in his hands. The treaty put an end to Henry's and any future king of England's ambitions to reestablish the former Angevin Empire; however, an underlying rivalry would remain. Following the treaty, the two kingdoms generally enjoyed a period of peace and stable relations; the English kings would regularly pay homage to the King of France. Each kingdom used the time to invade its smaller neighbors in the First War of Scottish Independence in the case of England and the Franco-Flemish war in the case of France.

Final settlement under Philip the Fair


Following the decimation of a generation of French nobility at Courtrai during the Franco-Flemish War, the first Hundred Years' War was ended with the 20 May 1303 Treaty of Paris concluding the 1294–1303 Gascon War by restoring the status quo, English control of the Duchy of Aquitaine held as a fief held in personal homage to the French king. By that time, King EdwardI of England had already married Margaret, the sister of King PhilipIV of France, during a prolonged armistice. Under the terms of the earlier 19 June 1299 Treaty of Montreuil, his son—the future EdwardII—was also married to Philip's daughter Isabella on 25 January 1308.

Ironically, EdwardIII, the son of Isabella and Edward II of England, would later use his position as grandson of Philip the Fair to claim the Kingdom of France. Therefore, the marriage settlement that sealed the end of the "first" Hundred Years' War would lead to the casus belli that was employed to declare the "Second" Hundred Years' War. The War of Saint-Sardos, the first major conflict between the two major kingdoms in half a century, would act as foreshadowing for the bigger war to come.