num_pages: 672
description: A succession of catastrophes in the middle years of the fourteenth century brought France to the brink of destruction. The bankruptcy of the French state and a bitter civil war within the royal family were followed by the defeat and capture of the King of France by the Black Prince at Poitiers. A peasant revolt and a violent revolution in Paris completed the tragedy. In a humiliating treaty of partition France ceded more than a third of its territory to Edward III of England. Not for sixty years would the English again come so close to total victory. France's great cities, provincial towns and rural communities resisted where its leaders failed. They withstood the sustained savagery of the soldiers and the free companies of brigands to undo most of Edward III's work in the following generation. England's triumphs proved to be brittle and short-lived.
language: English
title: Trial by Battle: The Hundred Years War, Volume 1
titlecomplete: Trial by Battle: The Hundred Years War, Volume 1
characters: Charles II, Count of Alençon, Edward III of England, Jacob van Artevelde, Edward I of England, John III, Duke of Brabant, David II, King of Scots, Pope Benedict XII, Pope Clement VI, Edward Balliol, Philip VI of France, Henry Burghersh, John I, Count of Armagnac
genres: British Literature, European History, History, Military History, Medieval History, Nonfiction, War, Historical, France, Medieval
ratings_count: 499
series: The Hundred Years War
publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press