La Bataille de Castillon

Castillon-la-Bataille.

The Hundred Years' War was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France in the Middle Ages, originating in a disputed conflict over the rights to the French throne between the English royal House of Plantagenet and the French royal House of Valois. For 116 years five generations of kings fought for the right to rule the largest kingdom in Western Europe. Going back to William the Conqueror, English monarchs held title rights in and across French territory which was a constant source of conflict between the monarchies throughout this time.

Although the Battle of Castillon is considered the 'end' of the war, the loss of Bordeaux in the October of the same year was the last of any actual hostilities. With unrest at home the English were in no position to keep fighting. The two sides in fact remained officially at war for a further twenty years, and it wasn't until 1475 that the English King Edward IV renounced his right to the French throne. It is believed the English landowners grievances over their lost lands in France is what paved the way for the War of the Roses that started in 1455.

English Kings continued to contest their right to the French throne right up until the French Revolution when the exiled King Louis XVIII was living in England.