When Edward III, the young king of England, challenged his cousin Phillipe de Valois, king of France, and claimed for himself the throne of France*, Valois laughed.
After all, France was 5 times more populous then England, and was the most powerful and respected Christian kingdom.
However, the English were decided to fight for their king, and the result was the longest war ever fought between those two nations.
While France still depended on it's barons as an army and had almost no infantry, Edward III had created a professional and permanent Army, that composed an efficient infantry force.
The result became obvious in the famous battle of Crécy, where the french army, much larger then the english one, was defeated.
The french however did not learn the lesson in Crécy, and repeated the same mistake in Poitiers - and again, with a much larger army, were defeated by the english forces.
Under the rule of Jean II, son of Phillipe, the order in France had collapsed, and the coutry was defenseless and humiliated. Many french cities were surrendering without fight, because beign under english occupation was oftenly better then beign under the rule of Jean II.
It would take severall decades untill the french learned from their mistakes, organized a decent infantry and finally expelled the english out of their nation.
*Edward III was in fact the legitmate king of France, since he was the son of Isabelle de France, daughter of Phillipe IV the Fair. Phillipe de Valois was only a nephew of Phillipe the Fair. However he managed to become king due to a complicated successory crisis, that included the Salic Law, an old and forgotten frankish law that forbbided women of becaming rulers. The Salic Law was brought up to avoid that the daughter of Louis X, who was son of Phillipe the Fair and king of France, became queen, because it was suspected that she was a bastard daughter of Phillipe d'Aunay, who was executed for having an affair with the wife of Louis X.
In this scenario the human players are England and France.
There is a locked alliance between England and Flanders and between France and Scotland(and between the Kingdom of Granada and the Sultanate of Morocco, that are at war with Castille & Aragon).
The longbowman is only avaiable to the English, and is slightly cheaper then the normal one. I did this becasue the english were the only ones able to successfuly use the longbowman, and they brought terror to France, where they were known as Hellequin(In archaic french it means "soldier of the devil")
Europe is divided among the following civs:
England
France
Kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Hungary
Holy Roman Empire
Norway
Ilkhan Empire
Kipchak Horde
Castille & Aragon
Denmark
Sultanate of Morocco
Scotland
Kingdom of Granada
Flanders
Portugal
Byzantine Empire
Have fun!
After all, France was 5 times more populous then England, and was the most powerful and respected Christian kingdom.
However, the English were decided to fight for their king, and the result was the longest war ever fought between those two nations.
While France still depended on it's barons as an army and had almost no infantry, Edward III had created a professional and permanent Army, that composed an efficient infantry force.
The result became obvious in the famous battle of Crécy, where the french army, much larger then the english one, was defeated.
The french however did not learn the lesson in Crécy, and repeated the same mistake in Poitiers - and again, with a much larger army, were defeated by the english forces.
Under the rule of Jean II, son of Phillipe, the order in France had collapsed, and the coutry was defenseless and humiliated. Many french cities were surrendering without fight, because beign under english occupation was oftenly better then beign under the rule of Jean II.
It would take severall decades untill the french learned from their mistakes, organized a decent infantry and finally expelled the english out of their nation.
*Edward III was in fact the legitmate king of France, since he was the son of Isabelle de France, daughter of Phillipe IV the Fair. Phillipe de Valois was only a nephew of Phillipe the Fair. However he managed to become king due to a complicated successory crisis, that included the Salic Law, an old and forgotten frankish law that forbbided women of becaming rulers. The Salic Law was brought up to avoid that the daughter of Louis X, who was son of Phillipe the Fair and king of France, became queen, because it was suspected that she was a bastard daughter of Phillipe d'Aunay, who was executed for having an affair with the wife of Louis X.
In this scenario the human players are England and France.
There is a locked alliance between England and Flanders and between France and Scotland(and between the Kingdom of Granada and the Sultanate of Morocco, that are at war with Castille & Aragon).
The longbowman is only avaiable to the English, and is slightly cheaper then the normal one. I did this becasue the english were the only ones able to successfuly use the longbowman, and they brought terror to France, where they were known as Hellequin(In archaic french it means "soldier of the devil")
Europe is divided among the following civs:
England
France
Kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Hungary
Holy Roman Empire
Norway
Ilkhan Empire
Kipchak Horde
Castille & Aragon
Denmark
Sultanate of Morocco
Scotland
Kingdom of Granada
Flanders
Portugal
Byzantine Empire
Have fun!
