Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War

Historian Janina Ramirez explores the fallout of the longest and bloodiest divorce in history, when little England dared to take on the superpower France. Edward III rips up the medieval rule book and crushes the flower of French knighthood at the Battle of Crecy with his low-born archers. His son, the Black Prince, conducts a campaign of terror, helping to bring France to her knees.

England, wracked by plague and revolt, started to lose the upper hand in the war against France. As the French attacked English towns, the nation’s aging monarch died, replaced by his ten-year old grandson, Richard II. And, as historian Janina Ramirez reveals, the Peasant’s Revolt changed English history forever. It wasn’t until the battle of Agincourt that the tide began to turn.

Henry V claimed the French crown for his heirs, but to secure it, his English troops had to conquer all of France. Potent French resistance came in the most unlikely form. An illiterate young peasant girl, Joan of Arc, led the fight. But she was soon betrayed and executed. And as historian Janina Ramirez reveals, it would take one final, bloody battle to end the Hundred Years' War.