What we label the Hundred Years War is an example of modern periodisation, clouding the forces at play in the Anglo-French conflicts of the Medieval period. Reframing the conflict over two centuries uncovers how such European rivalries prompted the era of global exploration that followed.
The Hundred Years War is a label coined in 1823 as a chapter heading for a French textbook. It was both a matter of convenience and a way of furthering our understanding of the past: we name things to talk about them, so creating a label for this turbulent period of...