Fire!
(gun firing)
(swords clinking)
The world we live in was shaped by war.
For hundreds of years power hungry families
fought for the right to rule, and Europe transformed.
For the glory of England!
(chanting)
I, Philip de Valois, am the only King of France.
These rivalries shifted borders.
Curse be the French king.
Destroyed cities
and brought populations to their knees.
A war of thrones.
Don't touch me!
A tale of murder, sex, and betrayal.
Greatness, madam, that is what France needs.
Those not crowned in glory
were brutally slaughtered or condemned
to rot in the shadows.
This woman is a heretic that must perish in the flames.
(screaming)
Guards, guards!
In the merciless game of war and ambition
anything goes.
In the 14th Century Philip VI, King of France,
saw a great new rival emerge.
The Plantagenet King of England, Edward III.
He intended to seize the crown from his Valois cousin.
Forward!
Charge!
The rivalry between the two monarchs
and their lust for power was to break
the bond between France and England for generations.
It started the longest
and bloodiest war in European history.
This became known as the Hundred Years' War.
On February the 1st, 1328, the 34-year-old
Capetian King of France, Charles IV lay dying.
Charles had failed to produce a son and heir
so on his death the throne of France would be up for grabs.
Power hungry rivals started to circle.
My king.
The Capetian Dynasty's only hope
lay in the belly of the French king's
third wife, Jeanne d'Evreux.
She was seven months pregnant.
(sobbing)
Charles prayed that Jeanne would give him a son
but until then he entrusted his first cousin,
Philip de Valois, as Regent.
Philip was 35 years old, a tall and handsome knight,
with a reputation for courage both
in tournament and on the battlefield.
If the queen gave birth to a son
that child would become king,
but if it was a girl then Philip would become
the first Valois king of France.
(Jeanne gasping)
(screaming)
Breathe, breathe.
In the Spring of 1328 -: You'll be fine.
The queen went into labor.
Breathe, breathe, breathe.
The whole court held their breath.
Breathe.
(baby crying)
At 10 am on April 1st
the much awaited baby was born.
It was a girl.
They christened her Blanche.
Philip de Valois was immediately summoned to Paris
and officially proclaimed Philip VI, King of France.
Stand up my lords.
Philip now reigned over 16 million subjects
and the largest kingdom in Europe.
It was the end of the Capetian dynasty,
and the start of the Valois.
To you, my people, I promise three things:
to keep the peace, to stop all pillaging,
and to judge fairly.
While Philip VI was enjoying
his moment of glory, in England, events were unfolding
that would have a dramatic effect on the new King of France.
For three years, Isabella, the Queen of England and her
lover Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, had ruled England.
Isabella had overthrown her husband Edward II and crowned
her son Edward III King, but Mortimer was really in charge.
(groaning)
That changed one dark night in October, 1330.
Who are you?
What do you want?
Edward.
Edward hated his mother's lover.
He was a cruel and vengeful usurper.
He had ordered the murder of Edward's father
and was also responsible for the death of his brother.
Edward wanted revenge.
Take him.
No, no.
Isabella was an accomplice
to all her lover's crimes,
but Edward showed her mercy and let her live.
(crying)
Mortimer wasn't so fortunate.
On November 30th, 1330,
he was executed in the most humiliating way.
Not beheaded, as was usual for a nobility,
but hanged like a commoner.
Edward III was now the undisputed sovereign of England,
but he wanted more.
The 18 year old King had his sights set
on the crown of France, as well.
Edward's ambition was founded on the fact that his mother
Isabella was a member of the French royal family.
She was the sister of the late Capetian King Charles IV.
Like him, she was a descendant of
the illustrious King Saint Louis IX.
So, Philip VI, the Valois King of France,
was her first cousin.
But Philip was a member of a younger branch
of the Capetian Dynasty, Isabella was a direct descendant.
When Isabella's brother died in 1328,
she sent two English diplomats to Paris to demand
that the French crown be handed over to her,
but the assembly refused.
It had long been believed that Isabella wasn't allowed
to inherit the French crown because of the Salic law.
This law barred inheritance by women
in favor of a first born male.
But no one knew of the laws existence at the time,
and it wasn't invoked until much later.
The decision to proclaim Philip de Valois King
was probably based on politics.
Philip was a member of the royal court
and everyone knew him.
Isabella was a foreigner and she was hated in court.
Edward thought this was an injustice,
and he was determined to put it right
especially as the many territories
he already held in France were no longer sufficient.
Since the 12th Century, English Kings had held many valuable
territories in the very heart of France,
the county of Ponthieu in the north
and the Duchy of Aquitaine in the southwest.
But the Kings of England governed these territories
merely as Dukes, and not as Monarchs.
So when it came to swearing loyalty to Philip,
the new king of France, Edward refused.
He would recognize him as a Lord, but not as his sovereign.
Philip was incensed by Edward's disrespect.
As payback, in 1337 he decided to seize Aquitaine.
Philip VI was a great military leader.
Enter.
He led one of the strongest
and most aggressive armies on the continent.
We have enough men to surround them.
I want them posted here, and here.
On the other side, England was a depopulated
island with a disastrous military reputation.
The english are weak, victory is ours.
Give the order.
Yes, sire.
For years the English had been fighting
a furious border war with the Scots.
Welcome, my son.
Philip VI chose to support Scotland
and it's 14 year old King David II.
Let's talk about the future.
When Edward III heard that Philip VI
had offered protection to the King of Scotland
and planned to take Aquitaine, he was furious.
Traitor!
This was treachery.
Edward sent a letter to the King of France.
It was delivered by the Bishop of Lincoln,
wearing full canonical dress.
(laughing)
Faced with such a ceremony, the King of France,
who didn't lack a sense of humor, laughed out loud.
But when Philip read the letter, the laugher soon stopped.
Edward had the audacity to write,
"Lord Philip de Valois who claims to be King of France."
(grunts)
Edward was challenging Philip's right to rule.
Tell that to your King from me, I,
Philip de Valois am the only King of France.
Edward declared himself
the legitimate heir to the French throne.
This was nothing short of a declaration of war.
(soldiers yelling)
In April, 1339, the King of France sent an army
to attack the English stronghold of Aquitaine.
They seized several towns, such as Saint Macaire and Blois,
but Bordeaux stood firm.
Edward III was at war with the Scots when
he found out Philip's offensive in Aquitaine.
He swore to retaliate, but the English treasury were empty,
he searched for an ally to finance the war.
Cities in Flanders answered his call.
In January, 1341 in Gaume, Belgium,
Edward unfurled his new coat of arms to his Baron.
The traditional English lions were now quartered
with gold fleur-de-lis on a blue background,
the symbol of the French Royal Family.
With this act, Edward was proclaiming himself
both King of England and France.
Edward's actions were met with an immediate
and ferocious response from King Philip.
In the former royal abbey of Saint Denis,
Philip summoned his knights together
and raised the sacred Oriflamme,
the standard of the King of France.
The message was clear.
It was a symbol of French military power and pride,
and made it clear that the fight for France
would be a fight to the death.
War was now on, but it would take five years to prepare.
July 12, 1346, 750 English ships made landfall
at Saint Vaast la Hogue in Normandy.
The ships transported 15,000 men ready for battle.
But before attacking,
Edward knighted his 16 year old son Prince of Wales.
He would later become known as The Black Prince,
because of the color of his armor.
Edward's army then plundered their way
through Normandy in an orgy of violence.
They left a trail of devastation in their wake.
Edward's intention was to show that Philip VI
was not capable of protecting his own kingdom.
(groaning)
On July 26th, 1346, Edward and his men
attacked the city of Caen.
Over three days, 5,000 men,
women and children were massacred.
The English stole jewels, clothes,
vessels of gold and silver.
(man screaming)
The English pursued their lust
for blood towards the capital, Paris.
Two weeks after the English invasion,
Philip gathered a vast army at Saint Denis.
Faced with this threat, Edward turned and ran.
He headed north to the coastal city of Calais.
Despite having the French army at his heels,
on August 26th the weary English stopped here near to
the village of Crecy-en-Ponthieu in the North of France.
(dramatic music)
Philip and some of his army arrived
at Crecy during the night.
He immediately sent scouts to judge
the strength of the English Army.
The next morning they reported that the English appeared
to have no more than 11,000 men in total.
11,000, thank you my Lords.
Victory is certain.
They are 11,000, we are three times as many.
Careful, Sire, the English are very well organized.
One of Philip's counselors,
Henri le Morne de Bal,
was less confident than his sovereign.
He believed that the English had the better position.
He advised Philip to wait until morning when
the rest of his army had arrived in camp.
You are right.
But in the Middle Ages,
controlling an army was a real challenge.
Halt, reform the lines!
The men in the front received
the King's order to stop.
Halt!
But the men at the back
who couldn't hear the order continued to march,
forcing the front forward until
inevitably the front line came within range of the English.
(angrily screaming)
Philip had lost all hope of holding back his men.
He ordered the attack.
Forward, launch the assault.
(cheering)
The first battle of
the Hundred Years' War began.
6,000 Genoese crossbowmen, hired by Philip, led the attack.
But their bolts fell short of the English line.
The English archers advanced and fired.
A good archer could shoot 20 arrows a minute
with a range of at least 180 meters.
A crossbowman could only fire five bolts a minute,
and their average range was less than 150 meters.
In the second line, the King had
the creme of French society, eager to fight.
Calvary, charge.
For the king!
(screaming)
In the third line, the French foot soldiers
who managed to survive the English arrows,
threw themselves into the fray
desperate to spill enemy blood.
(swords clanking)
The battle continued until nightfall.
The French Army began to fall apart.
Aim, fire!
Under a rain of arrows,
the French soldiers dropped like flies.
One of the few to break through
the English lines was the blind King of Bohemia.
He was so determined to fight,
he tied himself to one of his men.
Courageous, or mad,
John of Bohemia died on the field of Crecy.
After 16 furious calvary charges, the French retreated.
They had been totally routed.
King Philip, who was wounded in the throat
by an English arrow, watched his troops run.
Sire, for God's sake flee, all is lost.
(groaning)
Today it's difficult to imagine the scale
of the disaster that took place at Crecy in August, 1346.
1,542 French Lords and Knights were killed and more than
10,000 soldiers were massacred by English arrows.
The English only lost two Knights, and 80 men.
Edwards victory was total.
After Crecy, calvary would never dominate the field of
battle as they once had, the era of the archer had arrived.
Against all odds, Edward had destroyed Philip's army.
But the 100 year war was far from over,
and Edward was still a long way
from snatching the crown of France.
In 1347, Pope Clement VI condemned
Edward for his barbarity in battle.
A good Christian, the English King listened,
and in September he agreed to a truce.
The people of France would no longer live
in fear of the marauding English.
But, little did they know
a far greater killer was on the horizon.
In 1348, a plague known as the Black Death
swept across France,
and a third of the population died.
In August, it jumped across the channel
and ravaged Dorset for the next 16 months.
When the disease reached London it killed 40,000 people.
Overall, the plague killed around 25 million people across
the whole in Europe, nearly half the population.
As the plague tightened it's grip across Europe
whole villages were abandoned,
farmland deserted, and taxes were unpaid.
The sudden shortage of money, men,
and food made further war impossible.
(heavy breathing)
Then, suddenly on August 22nd, 1350,
Philip VI, the first Valois King of France, died.
He was 57 years old.
The following Thursday, Philip's body was brought here
to the Basilica of Saint Denis,
the necropolis of the Kings of France.
Today, he lies next to his son, King John II.
Philip VI died leaving France devastated by war and plague.
Historians blame him for having weakened
the French monarchy by granting too many
privileges in order to finance the war.
It's true that Philip made a strategic error at Crecy,
but he was a conqueror King who left France
far larger than it had ever been.
The frontiers of the country now stretched from
the foot of the Alps to the powerful city
of Montpellier on the Mediterranean.
In Paris, Philip also left behind
the impressive keep of Vincennes.
It was finally completed by his grandson, Charles V.
Philip also provided France with a much needed son and heir,
stability in uncertain times.
In 1350, Philip's son was crowned King John II.
He was 31 years old when he inherited the thrown.
He was a stubborn, but courageous warrior
and was nicknamed John the Good.
In 1351, he created an order of chivalry
called The Order of the Star.
By Saint Dennis and Saint Michael,
I do thee knight.
John was convinced that chivalry was the only
way to beat the English and seek revenge
for his father's failure at Crecy.
Show yourself.
On the other side of the channel
the Plantagenet Edward III was growing weary and ill,
but he still hoped to wear the crown of France one day.
He refused to give up, even if at the moment
he did not have the strength to lead his own army.
He entrusted all military operations
to is son, Edward, The Black Prince.
The Black Prince was cruel and ambitious.
He also shared is father's appetite for the French crown.
In October, 1355, the Black Prince who landed
at Bordeaux left his Aquitaine fiefdom.
The the next two months he swept
through Languedoc, killing and burning.
The Black Prince's tactics were exactly
the same as his father.
He wanted to terrorize the population
and destabilize the new King.
It was a strategy that worked brilliantly.
(screaming)
Regions of France, pillaged and devastated by the English,
took decades to recover from the brutal attacks.
In the summer of 1356, The Black Prince and a small band
of knights launched a raid towards the center of France.
King John quickly secured the bridges over
the Loire to stop the English.
The Black Prince turned back, with King John in hot pursuit.
On September, 17th, he caught up with
the English army at the gates of Poitiers.
10 years after, Crecy the second great battle
of the 100 Years' War was about to begin.
The Black Prince was cornered and outnumbered.
Desperate to avoid a fight,
he promised not to raise an army against the French
for seven years in exchange for a total pardon,
but John refused.
He wanted to make an example of his English enemy
and finished what his father had failed to do.
At dawn on September 18th,
Fight.
At Poitiers -: For the King!
the battle lines were drawn.
(soldiers screaming)
The French outnumbered the English by nearly two to one,
and for once even the formidable archers
could do nothing to help.
(swords clanking)
All seemed lost, when suddenly, behind the French lines,
an English banner appeared.
The Black Prince had ordered a few soldiers
to skirt around the French troops and surprise the enemy.
The French panicked and The Black Prince
breached the enemy lines.
(groaning) (swords clanking)
On September, 19th, against all odds, King John
and his son Philip were surrounded by enemy soldiers.
Look out on your right!
The English were eager to capture
the King of France, better alive but dead if necessary.
Surrender!
In the end, King John
had no choice but to surrender.
After his victory, The Black Prince
went to see his prisoners.
John the Good and his son were on their guard,
but according to the rules of chivalry,
The Black Prince, Edward,
showed generosity towards his conquered cousins.
After fine wine he served them a meal himself,
kneeling as a sign of respect.
The will of God is neither evil nor a cause for remorse.
You'll be treated with the greatest regard.
He congratulated John on his bravery.
He told him he had fought better
than any man on the battlefield.
And even in defeat you have honored
your reputation and the house of France.
But the Prince's fine words
were of little consolation to the French King.
Losing what should have been an easy
victory must've been utterly humiliating.
The next morning John and his son were
taken to Bordeaux as prisoners.
They were surrounded by the booties
stolen from the French towns and villages.
A few days later they were put
aboard a ship bound for England.
May the 24th, 1357,
John the Good made his entry into London.
He was imprisoned in the Savoy Palace.
In France, Charles, the 18 year old son of John the Good,
was quickly named Regent, but the inexperienced boy
was completely overwhelmed by the pressure of leadership.
(man grunting)
Not only was his father in an English prison,
but France was in the hands of mercenaries
terrorizing and pillaging villages
and towns across the kingdom.
You bloody froggy.
You must do something Charles!
I know!
I need to think.
The responsibility was all
too much for the dauphin, Charles.
He desperately wanted to bring his father home
and restore stability no matter the cost,
but to do that he would have
to negotiate with King Edward of England.
The English King demanded a ransom
of four million gold ecus and territories in France.
He already held Pontieu and Calais in the north.
He now demanded Saintonge, Limousin,
Poiton, Rouergue, and Bearn,
the equivalent of a third of the Kingdom of France.
Charles agreed to pay the ransom,
but refused to concede the territory.
It would have terrifying consequences.
In October 1359, the Black Prince once
again set foot on French soil.
And with him, 30,000 troops.
The Prince's objective was to show his strength
and prove how weak the French monarchy was.
The ferocious attack would culminate
in his coronation as King of France at Reims Cathedral,
the traditional place of consecration.
But Edward would never enter the cathedral,
because the citizens of Reims refused to open the gates of
the city, so he changed course and set off for the capital.
Forward!
But Edward's army was too weak
to take Paris by force,
so he laid siege in the hope of forcing
the dauphin to surrender, but Charles held firm,
and Edward was forced to negotiate a peace agreement.
On May 1st, 1359, negotiations began
in the little hamlet of Bretigny, near Chartres.
Listen, you've got to understand
this is a very important cause.
After eight days of discussion
the King of England was handed the territories he wanted
and agreed to reduce the ransom
for King John to three million gold ecus.
In return, Edward renounced his claim to the French throne.
The treaty came into force in the Fall of 1361.
After a first installment of 400,000 gold ecus was paid,
Edward III finally released King John II.
But that was no the end of the story.
King John had to leave three of his sons in England
until the final installment of the ransom was paid.
God bless you, my sons.
One of his sons, the 24 year old Louis,
the Duke of Anjou, escaped and ran back
to France and the woman he loved.
So King John was forced to return
to his imprisonment in London,
three years after being set free.
In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
Three months later on April 8th, 1364,
King John died in the Savoy Palace, he was 45 years old.
After his ancestor the sainted King Louis,
John the Good was the second monarch in the history
of France to have been made prisoner.
King John's remains were taken back to Paris
and interred in the Abbey of Saint Denis,
the necropolis of the Kings of France.
John the Good never gave up the crown of France.
His eldest son, the dauphin Charles,
succeeded him as Charles V.
Despite a difficult regency, he was to become a great King.
Edward had failed to snatch the French crown,
but he was proud to have weakened a kingdom
as rich and powerful as France.
The Treaty of Bretigny deprived the kingdom
of a quarter of it's territory.
Population was decimated.
Whole villages were abandoned.
France was in ruins, it's people starved and bled dry.
(bells ringing)
With the death of King John II, the first phase of
the 100 Years' War was nearing its end,
but France was preparing for her revenge.