Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- List of illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Introduction: England and France in the mid fourteenth century
- 1 The siege and capture of the town: Edward III and the burghers of Calais
- 2 A new ruler and a new regime: the town and the garrison in the early years of English rule
- 3 Setting up the Staple: a new role for Calais
- 4 Triumph and disaster: Henry V, the collapse of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance and the resurgence of France
- 5 Calais as a base for political intrigue: Yorkists, Lancastrians and the earl of Warwick
- 6 The heyday of the Company of the Staple: merchants and their lives
- 7 Religious and political change: Henry VII, Henry VIII and the Reformation
- 8 The town and trade: the later fortunes of the Company of the Staple and of the Johnson partnership
- 9 The end of the story: the loss of Calais to the French
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction: England and France in the mid fourteenth century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- List of illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Introduction: England and France in the mid fourteenth century
- 1 The siege and capture of the town: Edward III and the burghers of Calais
- 2 A new ruler and a new regime: the town and the garrison in the early years of English rule
- 3 Setting up the Staple: a new role for Calais
- 4 Triumph and disaster: Henry V, the collapse of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance and the resurgence of France
- 5 Calais as a base for political intrigue: Yorkists, Lancastrians and the earl of Warwick
- 6 The heyday of the Company of the Staple: merchants and their lives
- 7 Religious and political change: Henry VII, Henry VIII and the Reformation
- 8 The town and trade: the later fortunes of the Company of the Staple and of the Johnson partnership
- 9 The end of the story: the loss of Calais to the French
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
After Edward iii of England had taken the town of Calais, following a siege lasting just under a year, Froissart describes how the king called his marshals to him and puts these words into his mouth:
Sirs, take these keys of the town and castle of Calais and go and assume possession of them. Take the knights who are there and make them prisoners or else put them on parole: they are gentlemen and I will trust them on their word. All other soldiers, who have been serving there for pay, are to leave the place just as they are and so is everyone else in the town, men, women and children, for I wish to repopulate Calais with pure-blooded English.
Why did a state of war exist between England and France at this time, and why was so much time and effort expended on the siege of this town? Why did Edward intend to hold it as an English possession, the clear motive behind the banishment of all its original inhabitants? The first of these questions can be answered fairly easily. This was the final important episode in the 1346 campaign of the Hundred Years' War, the campaign that included the crushing French defeat at Crécy and also English successes in Brittany and Gascony. Hostility between these two kingdoms in north-west Europe was no new thing. Some historians have been inclined to see it as a consequence of the Norman Conquest of England.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- CalaisAn English Town in France, 1347–1558, pp. 1 - 6Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008