Papro's monologue
Editor|Papro's monologue
After the English Alliance, he expressed great dissatisfaction with the French siege in support of Scotland, and the contradictions between England and France were further intensified under Edward III. According to Küllerweiling, it was the alliance established by the Soviet Union and France that turned Edward III's early ambitions for Scotland towards France. Long before the Hundred Years' War, France had realized the importance of an alliance with Scotland, and uniting Scotland against England was the main purpose of France at that time.
King John of Scotland's decision to ally with France was a fundamental guideline for Scottish foreign policy in the late Middle Ages. Scotland's alliance with France was not only a matter of common rebellion against the needs of the English, but also had economic factors. King John of Scotland sent an envoy to France in the hope of preventing the re-imposition of the French commercial embargo tax on the British Isles, which had severely impeded the export of Scottish woolen to Flanders."
In the 11th century, Flanders was one of the richest cities in Europe at that time because of various factors such as abundant raw materials, materials and high quality, the maturity of craftsmen's technology, and the abundance of labor. Because of this, the fight between England and France for Flanders eventually led to the outbreak of war, which lasted for more than a hundred years.
Flemish wealth naturally coveted by Scotlanders, trying to get a piece of this fat meat; Scotland hoped to gain more benefits in Flanders by relying on its alliance with France in the Hundred Years' War.
Problems facing Scotland
Edward I faced a series of problems in Scotland , such as financial difficulties , supply shortages, overextended lines of communication , local hostility , etc. , all of which bequeathed to his successor. England was also criticized for Edward's Scottish policy. After Edward III came to power, in response to the danger brought to England by the alliance between the Soviet Union and France, he once again targeted Scotland.
In 1333, Edward III defeated the Scottish army and regained possession of southern Scotland, including the Bailiwick of Edinburgh, Haddington and Linlithgow, with officials collecting taxes. In 1335-1337 and 1337-1338, taxes in these places exceeded £300 a year.
However, the authority of the English Thousand Chambers in these places did not last long, and much depended on Edward III's own interest in Scottish regions and his relationship with the French Siege. In 1337, King Philip VI of France confiscated the Duchy of Aquitaine, the hereditary domain of the King of England in France, and the Hundred Years' War broke out, and due to the Anglo-French War, England's superiority in Scotland was no longer available.
The trigger for the Hundred Years' War came from the succession to the French throne. In 1328, Charles IV, the last prince of France, died in the direct royal family, and the Cardinal Dynasty could only choose Philip from the side line to inherit the throne, known as Philip VI. This caused strong displeasure from King Edward III of England, who demanded that his mother be the sister of Yules to succeed to the throne of France.
For this reason, the King of France rejected Edward III in accordance with the requirements of the commentary to the Salic Code, that is, "in the interpretation of the clause that free territory can only be passed on to men and not to women, in the words of jurists, the patriarchal principle of succession to the French throne, and does not recognize Edward III as the right to the French throne". This, coupled with the fact that the King of France confiscated all of England's possessions in France, infuriated Edward III completely.
Thus, in 1337, Edward III officially proclaimed himself King of France, which became the trigger for the Hundred Years' War between England and France. After the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War, the military goals of the English were now shifted to France, and Scotland did not seem to be of great importance, becoming the rear of England. King David II of Scotland, who had been exiled to France seven years earlier, also returned to Scotland in 1341 to return to power.
However, this rear of England was not stable, and David II returned to inherit the policy of his predecessor Robert the Bruce against England, and Robert Platz led the Scots to successfully defeat the English army and win the war for independence, which was the pride of the Scots. David was banished by England and criticized by his countrymen.
After returning to Scotland, David kept his agreement with Philip VI of his alliance and led successive armies to attack the north of England, forcing Edward III to divide his forces to the rescue. Although Scotland is located on the British Isles, it played an important role in the Hundred Years' War. King Edward III of England personally led an army to attack France in 1346 and besieged the French garbage.
Philip VI eagerly pleaded with David II to invade England, hoping to force Edward III to relieve his main attack on France in order to resist the English army. In the view of King Philip VI of France, the north of England at that time should be an undefended vacuum, the Scottish army could drive straight in, and David sent troops to attack England according to the "Covenant of Aulde" signed with France. In order to save the British army from the siege of Calais, France, David personally led an expedition of 120,000 men to England.
On October 17, a fierce battle broke out between the two armies at Nevilles Cross near Durham in England, resulting in the almost total destruction of the Scottish army, David himself was captured by the English army with two arrows in the face, and in order to show the authority of England, David was sent to the canna to be interrogated by King Edward III of England, after which he was imprisoned in England for 11 years.
It was not until the Anglo-Soviet peace talks in 1357 that Scotland promised to pay a huge ransom that David was redeemed, and although David II lost Scotland in the Neville Cross War, he, as an ally of France, still faithfully abided by the Covenant of Auld at a critical moment, sent troops to England, and gave France great military assistance. In the early days of the Hundred Years' War, France was basically in a passive situation, but Scotland did not forget its former covenant.
Alberney, who grew up in France, had a deep French feeling, and during his tenure as regent of Scotland, he once again signed the Treaty of Luren with France, reaffirming the alliance between Scotland and France. Alberney also ordered his son to lead a Scottish army to France in 1418 to fight with the French. ~Alberney established a military fortress in Dunbar, east of Scotland, to defend against the English army, after which the King of France sent 9,000 soldiers to Scotland.
In the Hundred Years' War, Scotland and France supported each other as allies and effectively contained England, and both sides profited from it. For France, although it was at a disadvantage at the beginning of the war, it did not - defeated; For its part, Scotland maintained its independence as a country and developed an independent personality in the course of its struggle. Or it can be said that the course of the Hundred Years' War between England and France was also the process of Scotland's struggle for independence.
The transformation of the situation of the Hundred Years' War
In this long conflict between England and France, the image of the invaders was always added by historians to King Edward III of England, and in fact Philip VI of France was not inferior to Edward III in his enthusiasm for war and aggression. Philip VI's weakness was that he always underestimated the strength of his opponents, blindly believing that France was stronger than England, so that in the early stages of the war, pride and conceit, coupled with the lack of equipment of the French army, eventually led to defeat, loss of many areas, and caused huge losses.
Since the beginning of the war in 1337, England's army has won many victories, and in 1346 King Edward III of England marched from Portsmouth Hills with a small but well-equipped and according to contract army of salaried retainers, and an army of trained free peasants who also received wagons, and "crossed the Channel into Noyd, France, and captured Calais in 1347."
In addition to the poor organization of the army and the lack of infantry in the early days of the war, France's defeat also involved a series of treasonous incidents at home. At that time, Flanders needed England's help to escape French control, so two countries with common interests came together, which also provided a pretext for England to invade the French siege.
Second, in order to gain the support of more allies, Edward III mainly used monetary bribes to win over other countries, and by the end of 1340, Edward had spent nearly 400,000 pounds on this cause, and this money came from loans, most of which were used to buy allies on the mainland. Both the Battle of Crécy and the War of Poitiers were fought on French soil, causing great damage to many French cities.
The war especially brought heavy disasters to the people, and the ransoms of the nobles and kings, huge reparations for defeat, and inactive governments plundered almost all the people's savings. Not only that, but the people also had to face the plunder of their own knights and mercenaries, and a French nobleman named Griffitt led his chariot to plunder, resulting in a destitute, and the area between the Seine and Loire valleys became barren because they could not carry out normal labor.
French cities were also greatly damaged by the war, and the plundering of bandits on the trade routes led to a significant reduction in the city's trade. Heavy taxes imposed on military spending overwhelmed the city's artisans and went bankrupt. In the countryside, due to the barren land and the large reduction of crop yields, some historians recorded in their chronicles: "In the French countryside, the land is barren, grain is not born, there are no cattle and sheep on the pastures, and the church village community has become a desolate and still smoking ruin."
Moreover, because monetary land rent has been implemented in rural areas, the burden on peasants has increased day by day, many families are on the verge of bankruptcy, and the rural economy has shown great decline. In 1415, war resumed again. The English army invaded France again, defeating the French army at Argencourt, near Crécy. The war seemed to have many similarities to the Crécy and Poitiers wars, with the British again winning more with less, while the French did not seem to have found real lessons from the previous two defeats.
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