The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 6, Issue 1, Winter 2017 | Page 8

Westphalia Europe began to take shape, almost like the movement of tectonic
plates reshaping the landmass and political structure of Europe. The aftermath of
the Hundred Years’ War served to consolidate the power of the French monarchy,
which heretofore the claim of the English Crown had usurped from the Crown of
France. This consolidation had second and third order effects that are easy to
overlook. For France, it meant that it became a dominant continental land power.
Moreover, the French began to establish an actual navy. For the English, with the
loss of France, their eyes turned elsewhere. Without the loss of France, and the
French consolidation, would the Age of Exploration have happened the way that it
did? For with the loss of France, the English Crown needed to replace the loss of
its French holdings and the associated revenue stream. Hence, by the late sixteenth
century following the defeat of the Spanish Armada, both England and France
began eyeing the New World discovered by Spain to stake a claim. Perhaps this is
the greatest impact of the Hundred Years’ War, that with the establishment of
France, the preconditions for the Age of Exploration were set.
The Battlefield of the Hundred Years’ War
“Pride goeth before the fall” could easily be the epithet for French tactical
thinking at Agincourt. But the same epithet fits for Poitiers and Crecy, though by
Agincourt the French should have learned from their previous defeats. As an aside,
none of the Union Army officers from West Point that fought at the Battle of
Fredericksburg in December 1862 must have studied Poitiers. Had they done so,
they would have blanched at assaulting such a steep hill against far greater lethality
than that projected by the English longbow archers. Most battles were sieges,
fought by certain and set rules of war. Raids were utilized to extract political
concessions when the English would pillage the countryside, demonstrating to the
population that the King of France was powerless to protect them from the
depredations of the English.
Artillery was first and foremost the biggest technological advancement of
the period. Town walls could no longer withstand the new power of artillery. In
turn, this meant one could no longer defend passively and hope the enemy’s siege
would fail or sickness would ruin their army. By the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, the
advent of plated armor lessened the power of the longbow. However, it made
walking difficult and running impossible. When dismounted, a French heavy
cavalry soldier would soon be exhausted. For when a heavy French cavalryman
fell at Poitiers or Agincourt, he could not rise again without assistance. By
contrast, the English light infantryman had a steel cap and a breastplate that
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