Hundred Years' War

The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of... Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany. The term is more appropriate to the era of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe when strong centrally governed nations were slowly forming and territorial governance was in the hands of a noble or of a noble house. Historically, after the Roman denomination of it as Gallia Belgica, the region politically had its origins in Middle Francia, more precisely its northern part which became the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia. After the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia, the Low Countries were brought under the rule of various stronger neighbors. Their possessions can be renamed into the Burgundian Netherlands and the succeeding Habsburg Netherlands, also called the United Seventeen Provinces , and later for the Southern parts as the Spanish Netherlands and Austrian Netherlands, whereas the northern parts formed the autonomous Dutch Republic.
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The decisive naval Battle of Sluys , also called Battle of l'Ecluse was fought on 24 June 1340 as one of the opening conflicts of the Hundred Years'... War. It is historically important in that it resulted in the destruction of most of France's fleet, making a French invasion of England impossible, and ensuring that the remainder of the war would be fought mostly in France. The encounter took place in front of the town of Newmarket or Sluis, , on the inlet between West Flanders and Zeeland. In the middle of the 14th century this was an open roadstead capable of holding large fleets; it later was silted up by the river Eede. A French fleet, which the English king Edward III, in a letter to his son Edward, the Black Prince, put at 190 sail , had been collected in preparation for an invasion of England. It was under the command of the Breton knight Hugues Quiéret, admiral for the king of France. Part of the fleet consisted of Genoese galleys serving as mercenaries under the command of Egidio Bocanegra .
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The Battle of Auberoche was a significant action between English and French forces during the early stages of the Hundred Years War. It was fought at... the village of Auberoche near Périgueux in northern Aquitaine. At the time, Gascony was territory of the English crown and the English army was largely made up of native Gascons. The battle occurred on the Auvezere River which formed part of the unofficial and heavily disputed boundary between the English and French territories. The village and castle at Auberoche had been seized from the French occupants by a raiding force under the Earl of Derby, who had landed in June with a small army from England and augmented it with Gascon troops and conducted a large scale raid across the frontier, aiming at and capturing the important town of Bergerac during August. Amongst the other places he took before retreating back to Bordeaux for fresh troops and supplies was Auberoche, and in mid-October it became the first position counterattacked by a 7,000 strong French army under Louis of Poitiers.
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The Siege of Calais began in 1346, towards the beginning of what would later be called the Hundred Years' War. Edward III of England, who was at the... time claiming dominion over France as well, defeated the French navy at Sluys in 1340, then went on to make raids throughout Normandy, culminating at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. By this point, the English army could no longer continue without new supplies, reinforcements, and aid from Flanders, so they withdrew north. The English ships had already left the shores of Normandy for England, and so Edward needed to seize a defensible outpost where his army could regroup, and be resupplied. Calais suited his purposes perfectly. It was highly defensible, with a double moat and city walls built a hundred years earlier. The citadel in the northwest corner of the city had its own moat, and further fortifications. In addition, the city lay on the English Channel, meaning that once it was taken, it could be resupplied and defended easily by sea. Of course, as attractive as it was for Edward III, as a highly defensible position, this also made it quite difficult to seize.
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The naval Battle of Les Espagnols sur Mer , or the Battle of Winchelsea, took place on 29 August 1350 and was a victory for an English fleet of 50... ships commanded by Edward III, with the Black Prince, over a Castilian fleet of 40 ships commanded by Don Carlos de la Cerda. Between 14 and 26 Castilian ships were captured, and some were sunk, while 2 English vessels were sunk and many suffered heavy losses. Castilian ships had fought against England as the allies or mercenaries of France, and there had been instances of piratical violence between the trading ships of both nations. A Castilian merchant fleet was loading cargoes in the Flemish ports to be carried to the Basque coast. The ships were armed and had warships with them. They were all under the command of Don Carlos de la Cerda, a soldier of fortune who belonged to a branch of the Castilian royal family. On its way to Flanders the Castilian fleet had captured a number of English trading ships, and had thrown the crews overboard. Piratical violence and massacre of this kind was then common on the sea.
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