Invasion: The Forgotten French Bid to Conquer England

The French made more than fifty incursions into England in the fourteenth century as part of an overall strategy led by the French monarch. These incursions were brutal and involved the murder of civilians and rapine, and the English responded and fought back effectively. Charles the Wise and Jean de Vienne made ambitious plans for full-scale conquest, but France was engulfed by multiple crises, and the threat was real. The invasion had a profound and lasting impact on English society and the areas along the invasion front.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2022
Publisher: Amberley Publishing

The Norman Conquest in the eleventh century is one of the most well-known events in English history, but the French attempts to invade England three hundred years later are often overlooked and misunderstood. In fact, French invaders landed on English soil more than fifty times during the fourteenth century, sometimes accompanied by allies from Castile, Monaco, Genoa, and Scotland. Each incursion was part of an overall strategy led by the French monarch of the time, and those participating were well-trained fighters and shipmen. They were certainly not pirates, as they have often been described. The incursions were brutal, involving the murder of civilians and rapine. Those along the invasion front responded and fought back, often surprisingly effectively. Determined English locals, organized into well-trained posses, sometimes bested the Continental professional fighters; although the economic damage caused by the raids was long-term.

In the later years of the century, Charles the Wise and his great admiral Jean de Vienne made ambitious plans for a full-scale conquest. The initial plans for the invasion were made at a time when France was engulfed by multiple crises, of which England was a prime cause. Whole forests of ancient trees were felled in the Seine Valley to build the fleet. Edward III and his son Richard II never were dislodged from the throne of England by the Valois – but the threat was real.

The fourteenth-century French invasion of England was not a single overwhelming event, such as Napoleon's invasion of Russia, but a long-lasting process, sometimes intensely violent, which led to important changes to English society and had a profound and lasting impact upon the areas along the invasion front. This is the Anglo-French conflict that time forgot.

Weight: 236g
Dimension: 198 x 130 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781398112445