English and supported the French, at least in lukewarm fashion.
The Hundred Years’ War devastated France in the short run. During battles,
armies destroyed cities and harried the countryside, breaking the morale of the
population. Even when not officially “at war,” bands of soldiers—“Free Companies”
of mercenaries that hired themselves out to the highest bidder, whether in France,
Spain, or Italy—roved the countryside, living off the gains of pillage. Nevertheless,
soon after 1453, France began a long and steady recovery. Merchants invested in
commerce, peasants tilled the soil, and the king exercised more power than ever
before. A standing army was created, trained, billeted, and supplied with weapons,
including the new “fiery” artillery, all under royal command.
Burgundy, so brilliantly created a century earlier, fell apart even more quickly:
Charles the Bold’s expansionist policies led to the formation of a coalition against
him, and he died in battle in 1477. His daughter Mary, his only heir, tried to stave off
French control by quickly marrying Maximilian of Habsburg. This was only partly
successful: while she brought the County of Burgundy and most of the Low
Countries to the Holy Roman Empire, the French kings were able to absorb the
southern portions of the duchy of Burgundy as well as the Somme Towns in the
north. Soon (in 1494) France was leading an expedition into Italy, claiming the crown
of Naples.
In England, the Hundred Years’ War brought about a similar political
transformation. Initially France’s victory affected mainly the topmost rank of the
royal house itself. The progeny of Edward III formed two rival camps, York and
Lancaster (named after some of their lands in northern England). (See Genealogy
8.2: York and Lancastrian [Tudor] Kings.) Already in 1399, unhappy with Richard II,
who had dared to disinherit him, the Lancastrian Henry had engineered the king’s
deposition and taken the royal scepter himself as Henry IV. But when his grandson
Henry VI lost the war to France, the Yorkists quickly took advantage of the fact. A
series of dynastic wars—later dubbed the “Wars of the Roses” after the white rose
badge of the Yorkists and the red of the Lancastrians—was fought from 1455 to
1487. In 1461, Edward of York deposed Henry, becoming Edward IV. Upon his
death in 1483 there was further intrigue as his brother, Richard III, seized the eleven-
year-old Edward V and his brother, packing them off to the Tower of London, where
they were soon murdered. Two years later, Richard himself was dead on the fields of
Bosworth, and Henry VII, the first Tudor king, was on the throne.
