Royal Palaces of the Hundred Years War

History Extra has an illustrated article on Royal palaces of the Hundred Years’ War which is of interest and links in with other posts I have written, such as those on the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry and castles such as Vincennes.


The article is introduced as follows: Made famous in popular history by the battle of Agincourt, Joan of Arc and Edward the Black Prince, the Hundred Years' War was an epic conflict between two nations, England and France. As Anthony Emery explains, over the course of the war the balance of architectural power moved from religious to secular domination; the Gothic style of architecture continued to develop and the palace-fortress became the pre-eminent form of a residence. Read the full story here.

I think it does bring out the point that these really were palace-fortresses, and not just stark military establishments, in what was an age of royal and aristocratic luxurious living.

Duke Louis of Orleans - recovering a portrait

My attention has been drawn by a post on the Medieval Religion discussion group site to the latest edition of the online journal Pereginations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture. Vol. IV/No. 1 is now accessible at http://peregrinations.kenyon.edu

If you click and enter, and then scroll down the contents page you can find a lot of good things. The main features are on medieval cartography, both practical and symbolic.

Amongst recent discoveries reported upon are the remains of a model for the dome of Florence cathedral which had been found near the Duomo in Discovered: Scale Model of Florence Cathedral Dome, a report on a find of a piece of personal devotional jewellery from Essex in 16th-century Locket found by 3-year old on Display at the British Museum and coverage of a survey of Curses, Musical Scores, and Jonah: Archaeologists' Quest to Decipher Medieval Graffiti Scrawled of Norwich Cathedral

My eye was particularly taken by the discovery, under overpainting, by restorers at the Prado of a portrait of Duke Louis I of Orleans on a devotional painting. The Duke was the brother of King Charles VI, and his assassination in 1407 fuelled the downward spiral in internal French politics at the beginning of the fifteenth century. It can be read at Portrait of Louis I of Orléans Found in The Agony in the Garden.

As someone particularly interested in the period I have copied a picture of the recovered and restored figure of the Duke from the History Blog website to which the article is linked. It is reminder of what can be recovered by proper care and conservation.

St Agnes and Duke Louis I of Orleans

Image: Pereginations/The History Blog/Prado

At sea in the Hundred Years War

Last night was the first meeting this term of the Stubbs Society, the oldest History society within Oxford University, and one which has had a genuine renaissance in recent years. The speaker was Jonathan Sumption QC, the author of several books, including a standar one on Pilgrimage and three magesterial volumes on the Hundred Year War. It was an aspect of that about which he spoke, giving an impressive and fascinating paper on "Problems of English naval strategy in thr Hundred Years War."

He began by making the point that although there are a considerable number of records of the navy at the time they have not received the attention given to the land armies of the war.

Amongst the many points he illuminated were the problems caused by frequent impressment of vessels, which with consequent losses of ships and to trade meant a gradual decline in the number of ships available. The consequential decline of Great Yarmouth as a port was highlighted. There was the necessity of not disrupting the late summer wine fleet from Bordeaux, vital to Gascon trade and taxes and to English palates. There was the sheer difficulty of knowing where the enemy was so as to fight them - the two fleets, in effect, made an appointment so to do near a harbour - or indeed for the government to know where its own fleet was once it had put to sea.

He dealt with the logistics of transporting men and horses, with provisions, the distances involved, and the contrasting utility of the deep sea English vessels and the more manoeuverable but vulnerable oared galleys of the French and Castillians, or hired in from the Italian maritime republics of Genoa, Venice and, later, Florence.

He also pointed out that Calais, prized possession that it was, and landbridge to the enemy was not necessarily in the best strategic position for land campaigns, or where an invading army might wish to commence activities. For that the Breton ports might be more useful, and hence the English interest there in the fourteenth century civil wars over succession to the Duchy.

The lecture addressed the fourteenth century rather more than the fifteenth, but there was a reference to King Henry V's ship building programme, including the Grace Dieu.

A reconstruction of King Henry V's ship Grace Dieu

Photo: Southampton University

I have included reference to the ship, about which you can read more here and here, which was the largest ship to be built for the next two centuries, and three times the size of the more famous Mary Rose, because its remains still survive in the Hamble, and it is a reminder of what English naval power could amount to under a ruler like King Henry V.

A most enjoyable and elegant lecture was followed by a convivial drinks party in the room of the Society's President - a good way to spend Friday evening stimulating the historical and vineous tastebuds.