Edward III of England: Encyclopedia II - Edward III of England - The Hundred Years' War

Edward III of England - The Hundred Years' War

Edward's claim to join the English and French thrones was contested by French nobles who invoked Salic law, which held that the royal succession could not pass through a female line (such as Edward's mother Isabella, or Queen Joan II of Navarre), and who therefore asserted that the legitimate King of France was Philip VI, Edward's cousin and heir to Charles of Valois, a younger son of Philip III.

Edward concluded an alliance with Emperor Louis IV in July 1337, declared war on Philip VI and finally declared himself king of France on January 26, 1340. The conflict thus commenced eventually became known as the Hundred Years' War, continuing sporadically to the 1450s. In 1346, Edward defeated the French at the Battle of Crecy, accompanied in this campaign by his sixteen year old son the Black Prince.

The Black Prince commanded England's victorious army at the Battle of Poitiers, in 1356. The first phase of the Hundred Years' War was concluded in 1360 with the Treaty of Brétigny, marking the height of English influence in France and providing three million crowns' ransom for the capture of the French King John II.

While these victories were eventually reversed, and then won and lost again in the resulting generations of war, English and, later, British monarchs would continue to claim the title "King of France" until the Act of Union which led to the creation of the United Kingdom in 1707. Edward III quartered his coat of arms with "France Ancient", the Azure semé-de-lis (a blue shield with a tight pattern of small golden fleur de lis of the French royal house), and it remained a part of the English Coat of Arms until removed by George III. For more information see English Kings of France.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Hundred Years' War", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki