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Guest: "Annibale"

Recorded: April 5, 2019

We continue the story of the Hundred Years War. In Part I, we brought the war up to the 1340s after England's crushing defeat of the French navy at Sluys, followed up by the English army's devastating invasion of the French interior — Edward III's chevauchée, or plunder & mass murder raids — culminating at the battle of Crécy. This episode, Annibale takes us from the devastating Black Plague, which hit France hardest, wiping out roughly half of the population in a matter of a few years, and its effects on the Hundred Years War. After the Plague settles down, England gets its war on France again, unleashing an even more devastating chevauchée on the French countryside in the 1350s & capture French King John II . . . Annibale takes us through the rise of Charles V, the 28-year truce, & the resumption of the war with Henry IV's invasion of France. We end Part II with Henry V's  victory at Agincourt . . . 

At 2:16:00 War Nerd & Ames discuss Max Blumenthal's new book controversy - Max will be our guest in the next episode . . . post-Russiagate lunacy . . . 

Maps

*Black Plague map

*Battle of Poitiers + Capture of King John II. September 1356.

*Franco-Castillian naval raids on England in 1370s

* England's remaining French possessions in 1388, at start of truce

*Battle of Agincourt

Total time: 2:42:55

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

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Comments

T

“It is 12 february 1429, the bastard of Orleans Jean Dunois attempts a sortie trying to destroy a convoy of food that is destined to the besiegers, and he fails. And this is bad news. So bad that Jean Dunois starts thinking that he should surrender to the Burgundians side - it would be better than losing to the English. The same day, February 12 1429, 300 kilometers to the east in a fortress called Vaucouleurs, the fort commander is notified that someone wants to talk with him. She is an 18 year old girl, who says she is sent by God to free Orleans….”

MoldyTolge

Gotta love the Black Death, Y. pestis one of the all time greatest pathogens, and everybody loves wearing an outfit with a curved beak filled with rose petals and anti-miasma perfumed spices.

Kevin Walsh

Great episode, although I'm slightly disappointed you couldn't spend some time on Owain Glyndwr's rebellion.

Annibale

I'm thinking about an episode on the Wars of the Roses and its origins, so the rebellions around the Richard II era would be included. Owain Glyndwr is a great topic indeed

Kevin Walsh

Or the Papal schism, which I somehow completely forgot about.

Kevin Walsh

I'd definitely be very interested in a Wars of the Roses episode.

eh

I don't really think you can reduce the question of size of the army or leadership to one or the other. To use some outdated jargon there's a unity of opposites here - without the superior population and territory France or China couldn't have eventually produced the leaders that let them turn the tables on England and Japan in the long run. Tolstoy might have been a little glib about it but I think he was more right than not, a good leader means nothing without those vast impersonal forces being available to mobilize.

THEKILLERWHALE

This Bertrand du Guesclin guy sounds like a hell of a character. Can anyone recommend a good English language biography?

Annibale

The only decent english book on the same subject is this one. Only decent - it's a bit dry considering the character, and it tries a bit too hard to debunk the legend using equally dubious sources (IMHO) <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flower-Chivalry-Bertrand-Guesclin-Hundred/dp/184383006X/ref=la_B001K1QZA2_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1555356973&sr=1-2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flower-Chivalry-Bertrand-Guesclin-Hundred/dp/184383006X/ref=la_B001K1QZA2_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1555356973&sr=1-2</a>

xnfec

A science fiction connection here is a book by Kim Stanley Robinson which suggests an alternative history that might have happened had the Mongols tactic been totally successfull and Europe had had been totally wiped out: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Years-Rice-Salt-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0006511481/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2W65GL37KDESC&keywords=years+of+rice+and+salt&qid=1555416514&s=gateway&sprefix=years+of+rice%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Years-Rice-Salt-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0006511481/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2W65GL37KDESC&keywords=years+of+rice+and+salt&qid=1555416514&s=gateway&sprefix=years+of+rice%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-1</a>

Annibale

Actually the point of divergence in Years of Rice and Salt is not much Mongol tactics, but Black Death being much more deadly and killing everyone in Europe. Best KSR book

xnfec

As far as the Welsh archers being despised, I remember reading about them at Agincourt, descending on the French soldiery who were stuck in the mud and despatching them by a knife through the visor and then robbing them. I can't remember where I read it but if you cared about chivalry you might have looked a bit askance at them. That said, how chivalric could you be if you could contemplate a chevauchée. You couldn't really look down on anyone except as a snob. Arthur Conan Doyles books Sir Nigel and The White Company are set in this period. I can't recommend them as I have not read them. They are the kind of book my father would buy as a boy growing up in the 30's. The Wiki pages are interesting though and you can find excerpts online. I might read them as they are still in my late, fathers collection of books. Conan-Doyle is acknowledged to have done a lot or research though, from what I can see from reading excerpts online they appear to be romantic yarns. I know two people who were named after charcters in these books.

Annibale

They weren't just despised by the French, but by their side too. Also, despite the name, chevauchées were mostly done by footsoldiers (it's difficult to pillage while on horse!) and also because of class - noblemen considered that dirty work fit only for the "rabble". "White Company" is absolutely not bad, as far as a novel set in the midldle ages it's way better than anything Walter Scott did.

Joseph Yachimec

Annibale, thanks for the Accursed Kings recommendation! I’m on book five already, and must say: why read the fake version with dragons when you can have the real thing? Deeply impressed with the quality of the writing, and I love the dry, sardonic tone. On that topic, have you ever read Frans G. Bengtsson’s viking novel The Long Ships? It has the same style of slightly cruel, frank, very funny writing, and it’s a hell of a yarn. As far as I know, it was written around the same time that Druon started his series—there must have been something in the water...

Annibale

Oh yeah! "Orm Il Rosso"! I was a big fan of tue film as a kid and I have been delighted to see the books published here few years ago. You're absolutely right about the similarities. Great books

eh

For any Swedish speakers this is Frans G Bengtssons Röde Orm, "The Long Ships" in English I think. Great historical adventure novels about a young man who is captured in a cattle raid and winds up as a soldier in Al-Andalus before returning home and going east. Coming from Skåne seeing that some of the regionalist tendencies actually used to be somewhat serious is interesting.

David Brown

is there an english translation? I'd love to take a look but unfortunately my Swedish is nonexistant.

Mr Aerospace

I've been to the Broceliande, (well at least what is claimed to be), now called the Paimpont Forest. If it is the same location. It is indeed a really weird place, both in terms of the forest itself, and for the odd terrain, it fits perfectly for both legendary tales, and bandit hideouts.

James Whale

I'm on my third time listening to this series. Catch more each time so dense and good!