Effects case study 2 — the Hundred Years' War

The big idea: The Hundred Years' War was not one war but a series of wars stretching over 116 years.

When it finally ended in 1453, England had lost almost everything it once held in France, and both kingdoms had been transformed — France grew stronger and more united, England slid into civil war.

The war began in 1337 when the English king Edward III claimed the French throne. For over a century English armies won famous battles yet never conquered France for good.

By the end, the deeper effects were not about who won a battle — they were about taxes, armies, national feeling and dynasties, and these are what Paper 2 wants you to explain.

A memory hook: T-G-N-D-S-P: Territory · Growth of the state · National identity · Dynastic instability · Social/economic · Peace settlements. Six effects — learn the letters and you have your essay paragraphs ready.

Why the effects framework matters here: In topic 7.3 you learned to sort a war's effects into political, economic, social and territorial boxes.

The Hundred Years' War is the perfect case study because it produced a clear effect in every box — so you can build a balanced, multi-strand essay.

The most visible effect was on the map. In 1453 the French crushed the last English army at the Battle of Castillon, ending the war.

England was expelled from France except for one prize it kept: the Channel port of Calais.

Territorial outcome — England driven out by 1453: For centuries English kings had ruled large parts of France, especially the rich south-western region of Gascony.

By 1453 all of it was gone. Only Calais remained in English hands, and it too would fall a century later, in 1558.

But the deeper political effect was on the French monarchy. To fight such a long war, French kings needed a steady flow of money and reliable soldiers.

This pushed them to build permanent institutions that made the crown far stronger than before — the war effectively built the French state.

Rise of national identity: Fighting a foreign enemy for generations helped ordinary people begin to think of themselves as French or English rather than only as subjects of a local lord.

The French especially came to see the English as invaders to be driven from 'their' soil — an early stirring of national identity.

The symbol of Joan of Arc: In 1429 a teenage peasant girl, Joan of Arc, claimed God had sent her to save France. She helped lift the siege of Orléans and had Charles VII crowned king at Reims.

Captured and burned by the English in 1431, she became a powerful symbol of French resistance and national pride — the human face of the war's effect on identity.

For England the war's effects were almost the opposite of France's. Losing a war that had cost so much money and pride left the country bitter, broke and divided.

This is the dynastic and political effect Paper 2 wants you to explain.

Dynastic effect — the road to the Wars of the Roses: Defeat discredited the weak king Henry VI and the nobles who had led the war. Powerful lords returned from France with private armies and no enemy left to fight.

The blame, debt and rivalry that followed helped tip England into the Wars of the Roses — a series of civil wars over the throne from 1455.

Social and economic impact — the devastated countryside: Because the fighting happened almost entirely on French soil, France bore the human cost. Roaming soldiers and mercenary bands looted, burned and starved whole regions.

Farmland was ruined, villages emptied, and the disruption of trade and heavy taxation deepened the misery — even as the crown grew stronger.

Both sides tried more than once to end the war by treaty. Two peace settlements matter most — and both collapsed, which is exactly the kind of point that lifts an essay.

Study why they were made and why they failed.

Why the treaties failed: Each treaty reflected only a temporary balance of power — one side's high point.

As soon as the military situation shifted, the losing side refused to accept terms it had signed under pressure, and the war restarted. No settlement held because neither side truly accepted defeat.