How long did the Hundred Years’ War actually last?

Some names are honest. A hot dog stand sells hot dogs. A car park parks cars. So when a war is called the Hundred Years’ War, it seems fair to expect a hundred years of war. The Apple has already locked that in. The Sole, who spent a lot of history lessons under a desk next to a dropped calculator, would like to do some maths.

The short answer

The Hundred Years’ War is conventionally dated from 1337 to 1453, which makes it about 116 years long. And for much of that time, nobody was actually fighting.

The real story

The conflict was a long-running struggle between the kings of England and the kings of France over land in France and, eventually, over the French crown itself. It kicked off in 1337 when the French king Philip VI moved to take back English-held territory in Gascony, and England’s Edward III answered by claiming he was the rightful king of France.

What followed was not one war but a series of campaigns, sieges and famous battles separated by stretches of uneasy peace. After the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, there was peace until 1369. Later, a truce agreed in 1389 was reinforced in 1396 when England’s Richard II married Isabella of France, and the two sides largely stayed out of each other’s way for roughly two decades. Another truce ran from 1444 to 1449.

The final major clash came at the Battle of Castillon in July 1453, after which England had lost almost everything it held in France. Almost, because England clung to the port of Calais until 1558, and English monarchs kept formally styling themselves kings of France until 1801. Old habits, as they say.

Why people get it wrong

The big clue is that the people who lived through it never called it the Hundred Years’ War. That tidy label was invented by historians in the 19th century, long after the last arrow had landed. Round numbers are memorable, and ‘the Hundred-and-Sixteen-Years-Give-or-Take War’ would never fit on a textbook spine.

The name also makes us imagine a century of nonstop marching, which is not how medieval warfare worked. Armies were expensive, and kings regularly ran out of money. Long pauses were the norm, not the exception.

The Wiper has checked the scoreboard and would like to award the war 116 points for duration and zero points for accurate branding. He has then promptly forgotten the dates, which, to be fair, is also what happened to most of the soldiers.

“I sat through three different teachers explaining this war and none of them mentioned it ran sixteen years over time. Mind you, I was mostly listening to a lad eat crisps.”