Prior to the Norman Conquest of 1066, there were no armed conflicts
between the Kingdom of England (established 829) and the Kingdom of France
(established 840). The kings of France were weak, and barely able to project
power beyond their own royal demesne; England was subject to repeated Viking
invasions, and its foreign preoccupations were primarily directed toward
Scandinavia. - A Stan Klos Website
Anglo-French
Wars
Wars between England and France
Prior to the Norman
Conquest of 1066, there were no armed conflicts between the Kingdom of
England (established 829) and the Kingdom of France (established 840). The kings
of France were weak, and barely able to project power beyond their own royal
demesne; England was subject to repeated Viking invasions, and its foreign
preoccupations were primarily directed toward Scandinavia.
Such cross-Channel relations as England had were directed toward Normandy, a
quasi-independent fief owing homage to the French king; Emma, daughter of
Normandy's Duke Richard, became queen to two English kings in succession; two of
her sons, Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor later became kings of England.
Edward spent much of his early life (1013–1041) in Normandy and, as king,
favored certain Normans with high office, such as Robert of Jumièges, who
became Archbishop of Canterbury.
This gradual Normannization of the realm set the stage for the Norman Conquest,
in which Emma's brother's grandson, William, Duke of Normandy, gained the
kingdom in the first successful cross-Channel invasion since Roman times.
Together with its new ruler, England acquired the foreign policy of the Norman
dukes, which was based on protecting and expanding Norman interests at the
expense of the French Kings. Although William's rule over Normandy had initially
had the backing of King Henry I of France, William's success had soon created
hostility, and in 1054 and 1057 King Henry had twice attacked Normandy.
Breton
War, 1076-1077
Henry I's son,Philip
I of France, who was king at the time of the Conquest, was no more friendly
to the Conqueror, but lacked the power to do more than check his moves.
William's attempted seizure of territory of Brittany in 1076 was halted by
Philip, bringing the first period of Norman expansion to an end; peace was
reestablished in 1077. This was strictly a Norman-French feudal war, not an
Anglo-French national one (England remained peripheral to Norman concerns for
some decades after the Conquest) but it was the first armed conflict between an
English and a French monarch.
Vexin
War 1087
In 1077, following the monastic retirement of its last count, William and Philip
partitioned between themselves the Vexin, a small but strategically important
county on the middle Seinethat controlled the traffic between Paris and Rouen,
the French and Norman capitals. With this buffer state eliminated, Normandy and
the king's royal demesne (the Île-de-France) now directly bordered on each
other, and the region would be the flashpoint for several future wars. In 1087,
William responded to border raids conducted by Philip's soldiers by attacking
the town of Mantes, during the sack of which he received an accidental injury
that turned fatal.
Rebellion
of 1088
With William's death, his realms were parted between his two sons (England
to William Rufus, Normandy to Robert Curthose) and the Norman-French border war
concluded. Factional strains between the Norman barons, faced with a double
loyalty to William's two sons, created a brief civil war in which an attempt was
made to force Rufus off the English throne. With the failure of the rebellion,
England and Normandy were clearly divided for the first time since 1066.
Wars
in the Vexin and Maine 1097-1098
Robert Curthose left on crusade in 1096, and for the duration of his absence
Rufus took over the administration of Normandy. Soon afterwards (1097) he
attacked the Vexin and the next year the County of Maine. Rufus succeeded in
defeating Maine, but the war in the Vexin ended inconclusively with a truce in
1098.
Anglo-Norman
War 1101
In August 1100, William Rufus was killed by an arrow-shot while hunting. His
younger brother, Henry Beauclerc immediately usurped the throne. It had been
expected to go to Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, but Curthose was away on
crusade and did not return until a month after Rufus' death, by which time Henry
was firmly in control of England, and his usurpation had been recognized by
France's King Philip. Curthose was, however, able to reassert his control over
Normandy, though only after giving up the County of Maine.
England and Normandy were now in the hands of the two brothers, Henry and
Robert. In July 1101, Robert launched an attack on England from Normandy, and
achieving a successful landing at Portsmouth, advanced inland to Alton in
Hampshire. There he and Henry came to an agreement by which they accepted
the status quo of the territorial division, Henry was freed from his homage to
Robert, and agreed to pay the Duke an annual sum (which, however, he only did
until 1103).
Anglo-Norman
War 1105-1106
Following increasing tensions between the brothers, and evidence of the weakness
of Curthose' rule, Henry I invaded Normandy in the spring of 1105, landing at
Barfleur. The following Anglo-Norman war was longer and more destructive,
involving sieges of Bayeux and Caen; but Henry had to return to England in the
late summer, and it was not untili the following summer that he was able to
resume the conquest of Normandy. Curthose took the opportunity of the interim to
appeal to his liege lord, King Philip, but could obtain no aid from him. The
fate of Curthose and the duchy was sealed at the Battle of Tinchebray on 28 or
29 September 1106; Curthose was captured and imprisoned for the rest of his
life. Henry was now, like his father, both King of England and Duke of Normandy,
and the stage was set for a new round of conflict between England and France.
Anglo-French
War 1117-1120
In 1108, Philip I, who
had been king since before the Norman Conquest, died and was succeeded by his
son Louis VI, who had already been conducting the administration of the realm in
his father's name for several years. Louis had initially been hostile to
Robert Curthose, and friendly to Henry I; but with Henry's acquisition of
Normandy, the old Norman-French rivalries reëmerged. From 1109 to 1113, clashes
erupted in the Vexin; and in 1117 Louis made a pact with Baldwin VII of
Flanders, Fulk V of Anjou, and various rebellious Norman barons to overthrow
Henry's rule in Normandy and replace him with William Clito, Curthose's son. By
luck and diplomacy, however, Henry eliminated the Flemings and Angevins from the
war, and on 20 August 1119 at the Battle of Bremule he defeated the French.
Louis was obliged to accept Henry's rule in Normandy, and accepted his
son, William Adelin's homage for the fief in 1120.
As belligerents
·Wars of Henry
II of England and Philip II of France
·
Stephen and Matilda conflict
·Saintonge
War (1242)
·War of Saint-Sardos (1324)
·Hundred Years'
War (1337–1453)
·Parts of
the Italian Wars (1511–1559)
·
War of the League of Cambra
· Anglo-French
War (1627–1629)
·
War of the Grand Alliance (Nine years war) (1688–1697) (formerly the League of
Augsburg
· Williamite War
in Ireland (1689–1691)
·King William's
War (1689–1697)
·War of the
Spanish Succession (1702–1713)
·War of the
Austrian Succession (1740–1748)
·Seven Years'
War (1756–1763)
·
American Revolutionary War (1775–1783
· French
Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815)
·The term
"Second Hundred Years' War" has been proposed for the series of conflicts
between 1688 and 1815.
The term "Second
Hundred Years' War" has been proposed for the series of conflicts between
1688 and 1815.
As
allies
The Crusades
Parts of the Italian Wars (1511–1559).
The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648)
The Fronde (1648–1653)
The Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1659)
The War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–1720)
The Crimean War (1854–1856)
The Boxer Rebellion (1900–1901)
World War I (1914–1918)
World War II (1939–1945)
The Korean War (1950–1953)
The Suez Crisis (1956)
The First Gulf War (1991)
The War in Afghanistan (2001–present)