Well, Chaucer was born about 1343 on the north bank of the Thames in modern Thames Street, to a

family of wine dealers and his family were ambitious, so instead of investing him in the wine business,
they sent him off to an aristocratic court and so he's a crossover character. Begins in the merchant class,
crosses Crossover Character into royalty and enters royal service. Because of this, he's got an
unprecedented range, I think, of social experience and his life is very well documented - over 500 life
records, much better documented than Shakespeare's and there's a funny poem by Terry Eagleton called
The Ballad of English Literature Social Experience which begins 'Chaucer was a class traitor' because he
crossed from the merchant class to royalty, but we can say that also enriched his experience because he
had such an amazingly wide range of knowledge and acquaintance. And he Class traitor returned to the
city to be in charge of the import/export of wool. He had other jobs for the crown and he carried on this
project of writing, not with royal approval or support, but because he wanted to be an English poet,
which is a paradoxical idea because poetry was in Latin, what if we try and do it in English and what if
we have a really broad frame of reference including pilgrims from every walk of life?
The age of Chaucer- his works and events in 14th century
13:37 a net with the third has just had his French lands confiscated normally such a
conflict would be resolved by an English king acknowledging that they held these lands
as a subject of the French King well not this time Edward the third would try the different
tactic of declaring himself to be the rightful king of France instead his claim came
via his mother Isabella which the French dismissed because inheritance wasn't
matrilineal naturally Edwards claim at the beginning of a war the Hundred Years War
couple of quick facts first the war actually lasted for 116 years and second the war
wasn't continuous and there were many years of peace between the three main
phases of the war so at first The War Edwards struggled to raise the money for an
invasion so had to delay any military action until 1340 the year he formally declared
himself the King of France this year saw the first major battle of the Hundred Years War
the Battle of sloughs this battle involved the English requisitioning merchant ships an
outfitting them for war these ships then sailed for the French Navy stationed its Loy's the
result was the destruction of the French fleet in England securing the channel after they
said word landed in France but nothing much really happened on either side because
war is expensive and no one could afford it the truce was declared but it didn't last you
to the death of the Duke of Brittany in 1341 Brittany was semi-independent to France
and both sides back rival claimants to the Duchy Edward landed there in 1342 and took
this land before another truce was signed the next year negotiations towards a
permanent peace between England and France broke down mostly because Edward
didn't want peace in 1345 the war resumed but the English weren't very successful
barring some victories in Gascony the next year so the main english thrust when
Edward took a large army and landed here in Normandy Edwards advance was not
meant to capture and hold land but was instead what is called a chef or chez which is
when an invading army essentially set everything on fire Edward moved north before
King Philippe's much larger army caught up to him and the two sides clashed at the
Battle of Crecy cress he was not only a surprising English victory but it was a decisive
one seeing many French Nobles in the king of bohemia killed inhaler ferrous from
english and welsh longbowmen after this victory Edward marched north and laid siege
to Calais capturing it the next year Calais was an extremely important gain for Edward
because it provided a gateway into France at the shortest crossing point from England
making future campaigns cheaper English good fortune wasn't limited to France as the
king of Scotland who had been at war with England since 1332 was captured by the
Archbishop of York at the Battle of Neville's crossed just outside of Durham
the feeling of celebration would be cut short by the introduction of the Black
Death and 1348 which was kind of terrible the destruction wrought by the plague meant
Edward the Black Prince that no major military campaigns could be undertaken by either
side for many years in 1350 King Philippe died and was succeeded by his son King
John the second there was some skirmishing and piracy over the coming years and
both sides tried to sue for peace but neither could agree on Edward owing homage in
1355 Edward the Prince of Wales better known as the Black Prince due to the armor he
wore launched a devastating Chevrolet and decimated French lands he was confronted
by King John who had a much larger army of poitiers in 1356 the battle here is one of
the most famous English victories in history mostly because the French King was
captured thus continuing the long streak of Kings who were caught John being terrible
capturing King John was a huge bonus for the English and the ransom demanded was
huge French luck worsened when the country descended into civil war and rioting
meant the King John's ransom couldn't be paid thus invasion in the end the French
agreed to the Treaty of Bretton in 1360 which ended the first phase of the war could the
Edwardian phase this treaty gave Edward all of this land in return for Edward dropping
his claim to the throne and lowering John's ransom King John would never be released
since in 1364 he died in London and was succeeded by his son Charles v peace
between England and France would be broken in 1369 when King Charles called the
Black Prince now the Prince of Aquitaine to Paris the prince refused and so war under
Charles the French did much better with an early victory in 1370 at Pantheon shortly
after this the Black Prince became unwell and returned to England in 1372 this second
phase of the war called the Caroline face or the English territories reduced from this to
this by 1376 this year also saw the Black Prince die in the next one Edward the third
died as well the throne passed to Wed Woods
John of Gaunt grandson who was crowned Richard the second at the age of 10 3 is after
this Charles to fit the France died and was succeeded by Charles the sixth who was
only 11 so having two children ruling two kingdoms at war was not a recipe for stability
many know who's vied for dominance over the new monarchs but in England Richard
Uncle John of Gaunt acted as a stabilizing force gaunt was an accomplished general
and was also married to the daughter of the king of Castile through whom he claimed
its throne he attempted to take up his claim in 1381 with the help of the Portuguese
whom England had made an alliance with in 1373 which was confirmed by the Treaty of
Windsor incidentally this treaty is still in effect today making it the oldest active Alliance
in the world ultimately John of Gaunt was unsuccessful in taking the still Ian's thrown
him by 1389 he was back in England political divisions along with the financial
pressures of Worman the richard ii made peace with the french which would last for the
rest of his reign richest reign was consistently played with issues surrounding his
nobility who had stripped him of significant power france also had issues with king
charles the sixth who was prone to bouts of madness because of Charles's condition a
Regency was established which led to a power struggle between the duke of burgundy
who controlled these lands and the duke of all yan who controlled these back in
England it was regaining some of his
lost powers and ended up exiling John of
Gaunt son Henry Bolingbroke in 1398 the
next year gaunt died and Richard
disinherited Henry which was a bad idea
Henry returned to England to reclaim his
seized lands most of the English
nobility sided with him and Richard was
overthrown there was some debate over
who would succeed Richard but ultimately
Henry succeeded him as Henry the fourth
the first monarch of the House of
Lancaster but as far as the Hundred
Years War was concerned Henry wasn't
very important suffice to say that there
was some fighting but it was sparse and
also the English kept losing despite the
civil war in France Henry the fourth
Henry the Fifth
died in 1413 and was succeeded by his
son Henry the fifth who is one of
England's most famous kings
Henry was willing to make peace with the
French providing they gave him this land
shockingly they said no and so war it
was in 1415 Henry landed in Normandy and
seized Harfleur before moving north to
Calais before he got there Henry was cut
off by the French army and they clashed
this battle the Battle of Agincourt is
known for being one of England's
greatest military victories the English
were heavily outnumbered but Henry's
army was 80% longbowman the French
casualties were massive in the French
nobility was devastated by the deaths
and imprisonment of many of France
leading officers Henry ding continued
his campaign afterwards and sail back to
England with his hostages Henry returned
to France in 1417 this time setting out
to conquer France entirely and have
himself crowned king because France was
still undergoing civil strife the
English were able to capture most of
Normandy except for rwan which fell in
1419 1419 was an important year in the
war because it's what the Duke of
Burgundy assassinated on the orders of
the French aired the dolphine of France
the Duke successor Philippe sided with
the English in declared his support for
Henry as the King of France along with
many other French Nobles this was the
final nail in the coffin for the French
and resulted in the 1420 Treaty of tois
this stated that Henry was to be the
region and heir to the French throne
that Charles's children were to be
disinherited and that Henry would marry
Charles's daughter whom he had one son
with in 1421 also called Henry not all
of the French accepted Henry is
resistance to him continued with both
the English and French winning victories
Henry was not just a conqueror managed
to overcome many challenges at home once
that challenge was the Southampton plot
this saw several nobles attempt to
overthrow Henry and replace him with
Edmund Mortimer a cousin of Richard the
second this plot was forward before it
could begin in earnest although they
would have had trouble anyway since
Mortimer didn't want to be king Henry
also made great efforts to increase the
use of the English language in
government another issue which any the
fits had to deal with was the continuing
rise of lollardy a religious movement
which just like the church is an
institution Henry saw holidays a threat
to stability and so found a clever way
of stopping Lala's from continuing their
protests burning them alive
John Oldcastle is the most notable of
those burns since he was an old friend
of Henry's Henry returned to France to
strengthen his position in 1421 and it
was there that he suddenly died of
disease the following year two months
later Charles the sick died and so the
infant Henry the sick was supposed to be
crowned the King of France as well in
1428 in an attempt to crush dissenters
the english laid siege to ollie on but
the defenders were relieved the next
year by an army which was special for
one simple reason it was partially led
by a woman this woman was Joan of Arc
commonly known as the maid the English
was soon after crushed at the Battle of
patay many French Nobles switched
allegiance to the Dauphin who was soon
after crowned King Charles the seventh
in 1430 Joan of Arc was captured by the
burgundians and handed over to the
English since she'd claimed to receive
visions from God she was tried as a
heretic and in 1431 she was burned at
the stake in 1435 the Pope attempted to
The End
bring the war to an end but both sides
refused what did happen during the
negotiations was that the Duke of
Burgundy made amends with Charles the
seventh thus England's most important
ally had deserted making the French
significantly more powerful after this
the French recovered the initiative and
recaptured large waves of land in 1444
truce was signed which was supposed to
last until 1450 however the English
broke the truce in 1449 by launching a
military action in Brittany this gave
the French the excuse they needed in the
next year they retook Normandy and
shortly afterwards crushed the last
English army at the Battle of forming Yi
or the remain now was Gascony in Calais
in the former would not last much longer
the killing blow came in 1453 when an
English army was destroyed at the Battle
of Casti on this was mostly due to the
advancements in the use of gunpowder
weapons and superior French tactics for
many historians Castillo marks the end
of the Hundred Years
but be aware no treaty was signed in its
immediate aftermath England's
territories had gone from this to this
and back to this in 116 years or the
remain was Calais in the Channel Islands
the reason why this is often considered
the end of the war was that there was no
longer any realistic chance of England
retaking France the ambition to do so
would however remain until the 19th
century the Hundred Years War has many
important legacies it fostered a sense
of English identity one centred on the
English language which began to replace
French is the language of the ruling
class whilst the French victory did not
kill off any English ambitions to the
lands in France it does mark the point
in which England starts to be viewed as
an island nation the Hundred Years War
also marks a period of immense restraint
by the French he managed to go this
entire period without naming a single
King Louis but much like the piece this
wouldn't last I hope you enjoyed this
episode and thank you for watching there
are some books in the description below
if you'd like to learn more
you