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Philip VI arrested all English merchants in Flanders and took away the privileges of the Flemish towns and the craft guilds.
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Edward III landed in Normandy with an army of about 10,000 men.
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The English won the first great land battle of the long war. Before this battle they had already won command of the English Channel by a spectacular naval victory at Sluys, and after Crécy, the town of Calais, the door into France, surrendered to them
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Not until 1355 was the struggle between the two countries renewed. The English now carried the conflict into southern France instead of confining it to the northern section as before.
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At Poitiers (1356) the Black Prince with a small army of Englishmen was confronted by an overwhelming French force
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The horrors of a peasants’ revolt and civil strife were now added to the miseries of France. A treaty with England was finally concluded at Bretigny, by which King John was to pay a large money ransom and Edward III was to have Guienne, Crécy, and Calais in full sovereignty. In return Edward renounced all claim to the French crown.
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The new king of France, Charles V, physically weak but intellectually strong, found an excuse for breaking the treaty and renewing the war.
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Only Calais in the north and Bordeaux in the south remained to the English at the time of Charles’s death.
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The next engagement took place at Agincourt near Crécy, where a small English force was once more confronted by a large French army.
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The Treaty of Troyes the defeated and disunited French agreed that Henry V should marry Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI of France
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Henry did not live to wear the French crown, for he died. Seven weeks later Charles also died, and the death of these two monarchs left the claim to both thrones to Henry VI, the 9-month-old son of Henry V and Queen Catherine.
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Finally the war ended. With only Calais remaining in English hands.
