FactSentinel

The Hundred Years' War was a prolonged conflict between the kingdoms of England and France, lasting from 1337 to 1453, and its central causes were indeed disputes over territory and the French crown. The English kings held lands in France, most notably Gascony and Aquitaine, as vassals of the French monarch, a feudal arrangement that created constant friction over sovereignty and obligation. The dynastic question sharpened this tension. When the French king Charles IV died in 1328 without a male heir, the throne passed to Philip VI of the House of Valois. Edward III of England, whose mother Isabella was Charles's sister, asserted a competing claim and formally declared himself king of France in 1340.

Historians generally agree that these two issues, English holdings in France and the contested succession, drove the war. Other factors added to the conflict, including French support for Scotland, disputes over the wool trade and control of Flanders, and the broader rivalry between the two monarchies. Major episodes such as the battles of Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, the Treaty of Troyes in 1420 that named Henry V heir to the French throne, and the later campaigns of Joan of Arc all reflected these underlying claims.

One common misconception is that the war was a single continuous conflict. It was actually a series of campaigns separated by truces and periods of peace. Its length also exceeds 100 years, since it spanned 116 years. The name was applied by later historians rather than by people at the time.