ABSTRACT
In May 1294 Philip IV king of France dramatically entered the chamber of his parlement in Paris and caused his vassal, Edward I, to be summoned to appear. Philip made clear his intention to deprive Edward of his ancestral duchy of Aquitaine, in effect declaring war against the English king. Some forty-six years later in January 1340, Edward III, the grandson of both Philip of France and Edward I, assumed the title of ‘king of France’, escalating an existing conflict into a much wider struggle. These events, which occurred in Paris and Ghent respectively, may have dealt with claims and rivalries in the French realm but they were seminal in terms of the politics of the British Isles in the later Middle Ages. The outbreak of warfare between the English and French kings in 1294 ended a half century of peace and ushered in an era of growing tensions and rivalry which centred on Aquitaine. Edward III’s assumption of the French royal title in 1340 turned these tensions into a much deeper conflict whose settlement on terms satisfactory to both parties would prove extremely difficult. The result was conflicts between the Plantagenets and their French cousins between 1294 and 1303 and in 1324–5, turning into two much longer periods of war from the late 1330s to 1360 and from 1369 to 1389. These did more than provide a new character for the continental activities of the kings of England. While they lasted the French wars provided the principal focus for the activities and ambitions of the English kings’ government and deeply influenced the way they exercised royal authority in their insular dominions. The engagement of the most powerful rulers in the isles in continental war and politics for long periods provides the most important example of the interconnections between events and relationships within the British Isles and on the European mainland. An understanding of these connections is vital to our perception of the archipelago and the changes which occurred there between the 1280s and 1380s. Consideration of the wider perspective provided not just by the French kingdom but by a range of other realms and lands helps to develop a sense of parallel developments across Europe and of the validity of examining the different lands and peoples of Britain and Ireland as a European region.
