ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses some of the latest research on the relationship between England and France in the century after the end of the Hundred Years War. They fall into three main categories: the administration and importance of the English possessions in France; the practice of war and diplomacy; the personal experiences of Englishmen in France and the friendships they developed there. All explore one or more of the three themes - war, diplomacy and cultural exchange. The book outlines the main events and historiographical trends in these three areas. The English were engaged in open war with the French for less than fifteen years between 1450 and 1558. The end of the Hundred Years War marked a period of extended truces and, after the treaty of Etaples in 1492, an age of more formal peace treaties delineating intermittent periods of war.
