The Hundred Years' War: Part 2 - Caroline War

I remembered thinking "you know, I've got a lot of time at home this month, being between school and my summer job - I best write a lot, as I'll have more time now than ever." This was before I realized the World Cup was starting, and if I wasn't there to watch Spain fail, who would? Well... pretty close to half the world would... but I wanted to be a part of that half.

Numerous technological and military strategy advances
since the time of the Edwardian War led them to figure out
they could shoot their bows not just one foot away from
their enemy, but two.

Anyways, we left off with the end of the first third of the Hundred Years' War. In case you didn't read it, I'll sum it up; both the English and the French are fighting, sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, and they'll eventually call a truce. They'll cancel it shortly after, fight a little more, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, until they're out of resources and call a truce. Repeat these steps for a few years, and that's the Edwardian War. The second, named the Caroline War, is so named after Charles V of France who started the war back up again after the treaty no longer seemed appealing, which seems like all the rage back then. If you're wondering how the name 'Charles' converts to 'Caroline', well, you're not the only one.

Anyways, do you remember the War of Breton Succession? It occurred during the first section of the war, and the result was an English victory (or at least in the sense that the victorious claimant to the throne was the one England was backing). However, during the Caroline war, the French king reconciled with the new leader of Brittany, effectively giving the English no advantage. In fact, if anything it worked against them - Bertrand du Guesclin, who backed the French interests in Brittany, became an important commander for the French after the British pretty well swept in and took things over in there.

A statue of Bertrand du Guesclin,
apparently riding an eyeless, soulless
horse into battle.

Upon the restarting of the war (an English commander was killed, reigniting it) du Guesclin ran a series of carefully planned hit and runs, Fabian strategy style. He avoided major English armies, but took a number of towns along the way. When he did engage them, he was successful as well - he actually forced the Black Prince to leave France after defeating him soundly. To draw him into more open battle, bringing him out of his Fabian hidings, the English began to launch a number of Chevauchees. Chevauchees were attacks to basically break the world - crush the whole countryside to the point that they would have to face you, lest your country be pretty well annihilated. Even then, he was reluctant to attack, picking away at the forces and ultimately being quite successful.

Continuing the streak of French dominance in this section of the war, the English also began to lose their dominance at sea - kind of a low point for them considering their whole freaking country is pretty darn close to a coastline. The Battle of La Rochelle proved disastrous for the English, preventing them from properly supplying any expeditions into France and stifling their trade. The reaction was presumedly a great number of Brits saying "blimey...". England has had a rough go lately - first, the great sea battle of La Rochelle, and today they've lost 2-1 to Uruguay in the World Cup... if you see a British person, give them a pat on the back and some Earl Grey.

In the wake of getting their butts most thoroughly kicked, a one year truce was called and stretched out for several more years, ending the Caroline War with a number of French victories. Between this third and the next, Edward III and Charles V both died, being replaced by their much too young sons. That's surely to bring some controversy up.