Cursed Kings: The Hundred Years War, Volume 4

The Hundred Years War #4

by Jonathan Sumption

Cursed Kings tells the story of the destruction of France by the madness of its king and the greed and violence of his family. In the early fifteenth century, France had gone from being the strongest and most populous nation state of medieval Europe to suffering a complete internal collapse and a partial conquest by a foreign power. It had never happened before in the country's history - and it would not happen again until 1940.

Into the void left by this domestic catastrophe, strode one of the most remarkable rulers of the age, Henry V of England, the victor of Agincourt, who conquered much of northern France before dying at the age of thirty-six, just two months before he would have become King of France.

Following on from Divided Houses (winner of the Wolfson History Prize and shortlisted for the Hessel-Tiltman), Cursed Kings is the magisterial new chapter in 'one of the great historical works of our time' (Allan Massie)

Genres: History, Medieval History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Military History, European History, France

1006 pages, Hardcover

First published August 18, 2015

About the author

The son of a barrister, Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption attended Eton then Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with first-class honours in history in 1970. After being called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1975, he became a Queen's Council in 1986 and a Bencher in 1991. He is joint head of Brick Court Chambers and was appointed to the UK Supreme Court in 2011. He has written numerous books on history and is a governor of the Royal Academy of Music.

Reviews

[Yair Zumaeta Acero · Rating 5 out of 5]

De todos los libros que puedan haberse escrito acerca de ese conflicto sangriento y cuasi eterno entre Francia e Inglaterra a lo largo de los siglos XIV y XV y que se denominó “La Guerra de los Cien Años”; salta a la vista que es la ciclópea obra del historiador y juez de la Suprema Corte del Reino Unido, Jonathan Sumption – Lord Sumption - la que se erige como la publicación definitiva de una de las conflagraciones más emocionantes y que mejor definieron el futuro y la configuración del continente europeo, así como el principio del fin de la Edad Media.

“The Hundred Years War” es una gigantesca obra histórica que está dividida en 4 volúmenes, los cuales han sido publicados entre 1990 y 2015. El estilo narrativo de Lord Sumption es una delicia de la prosa inglesa (según sus propias declaraciones, influenciado por la “pulida e impecable prosa de Edward Gibbon”), con una manera especial de narrar los acontecimientos, la preparación y el desarrollo de las batallas, la actuación de los personajes y las consecuencias de los enfrentamientos bélicos y diplomáticos; algo que se agradece considerando los distintos escenarios en lo que se desarrolló una guerra más que todo estática y llena de escaramuzas y treguas cortas seguidas de largos períodos de inactividad, lo que podría hacer perder y confundir al lector casual. La bibliografía es bastante extensa y las fuentes por lo general, son primarias y soportan un exhaustivo trabajo de investigación que se ve reflejado en una maravillosa y muy objetiva exposición histórica del conflicto que arrasó los campos y pueblos de Francia.

En este cuarto volumen titulado “Cursed Kings” veremos el amanecer del Siglo XV con un rey francés – Carlos VI – cada vez más sumido en la locura y en episodios más largos de enajenación mental que le impendían dirigir los asuntos del reino; mientras que por el lado inglés Enrique IV seguía tratando de legitimar su reinado (luego de la deposición de Ricardo II) mientras combatía una posible lepra. En este contexto el reino de Francia con un rey ausente y demente sería testigo de una sangrienta disputa política por el control de poder entre los tíos del rey y su hermano menor, Luís de Orleáns, lo que desembocaría en una violenta guerra civil en noviembre de 1407 con el asesinato de Luís de Orleáns a manos de asesinos contratados por su primo, Juan Sin Miedo duque de Borgoña, heredero de Felipe “El Atrevido”. Esto generaría un colapso interno dentro del más fuerte y poblado reino de Europa, cuyos despojos de guerra eran perseguidos por “los orleanistas” y los “borgoñones”. Esta vacancia de poder y falta de unidad al interior de Francia dejaría al reino a merced de uno de los más grandes reyes guerreros de la Europa medieval: Enrique V de Inglaterra. Retomando el supuesto derecho al trono franco, Enrique se embarcó en la conquista de Normandía, derrotando en toda ocasión a un ejército francés fragmentado por la guerra civil y cuyo punto más bajo llegaría en la famosa Batalla de Azincourt donde los franceses sufrieron una de las más grandes derrotas de su historia, perdiendo en ella la crema y nata de la élite política y militar del reino y que a la postre permitiría a Inglaterra apoderarse de todo el norte de Francia (incluido París) y a Enrique V convertirse en par del reino y futuro heredero de Carlos VI en el trono de Francia gracias al tratado de Troyes.

A pesar de ser testigos de las horas más oscuras del reino francés a lo largo de la Guerra de los Cien Años, todavía existía una luz de esperanza y resistencia en cabeza del Delfín Carlos (quinto hijo de Carlos VI y único heredero varón sobreviviente), quien se declaró regente legítimo del trono francés. Junto con un par de muertes repentinas, la victoria inglesa no estaba asegurada y aún quedaba por levantarse el telón de un heroico epílogo en una larga guerra.

Además de las batallas y hechos geopolíticos que enmarcaron las dos décadas y media contenidas en este volumen, resulta igualmente importante la aparición de nuevos conceptos que darían forma a la historia de una Europa que salía de la Edad Media y que son magistralmente hilados por el autor: El surgimiento de la democracia en las calles; las sublevaciones populares en contra de la burguesía citadina ( Revuelta de los “cabochianos”); las fuerzas nacientes del nacionalismo y en especial, del sentido patriótico francés; la desintegración de las formas tradicionales de autoridad y la crisis de las monarquías y del feudalismo como forma de organización política y económica.

Por la apasionante narración histórica aquí contenida; por la impresionante atención que presta el autor a los pequeños detalles y hechos que fueron configurando poco a poco la enmarañada red de acciones y protagonistas de una conflagración ya consolidada; y por la manera amena y a la vez erudita de presentar este tomo, no me resta más que recomendar la obra a todo aquel apasionado por la historia de la Edad Media, de Francia y de Inglaterra o por quien desee conocer el desarrollo de los momentos más oscuros para Francia (o más gloriosos para Inglaterra) dentro de la Guerra de los Cien Años. A la fecha Lord Sumption no ha escrito el quinto tomo de esta colección donde seguramente hará aparición cierta Doncella muy famosa de Orleans…

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This looks like the absolute high point of this long war for the English. The French are suffering from a destructive bout of civil war and the King (Charles VI) has had extended bouts of mental illness. The English, by the end of the volume, exert control over large parts of northern France and have won the battle of Agincourt. Henry V is the English king. What could go wrong?

… and yet, I don’t want to give away spoilers, but I don’t think the English won. Hence, the recently published Volume V.

This is a huge book, filled with incredible detail and well written. The book traces the time between 1399 and 1422, and thus concludes with the deaths of both Charles VI and Henry V. It is the best of the first four volumes of Lord Sumption’s series. It is well worth reading but will take some time to work through.

A more detailed review will be forthcoming.

…

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obra maestra.
Lord Sumption se ha puesto ya al nivel de Gibbon, Mommsen y sir Steven Runciman.
Combina a la perfección una erudición vastísima, un análisis certero y un estilo digno de los mejores clásicos de la historiografía.

[Bettie]

Course: Agincourt in context: the Hundred Years' War

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was first published on my blog here.

The fourth volume of Sumption's brilliant history of the Hundred Years' War is up to the standard he set in the earlier books, and very similar in many ways to them. Cursed Kings covers the early years of the fifteenth century (up to 1422). Until 1413, both countries were ruled by kings whose rule was compromised: Henry IV of England, who faced difficulties establishing the legitimacy of his rule after deposing Richard II; and Charles VI of France, who spent long periods mentally incapable of governing while the many other royal princes squabbled and diverted national resources to their personal gain. Neither reign was a period for a country to take pride in, and it often seems as though the governments of the two countries seem to be competing to make the poorest showing. Both crowns suffered from a chronic lack of financial resources, along with political disruption which was at times close to civil war. This means that the period was mostly one where the war was characterised by uneasy truces rather than open combat, at least until the accession of Henry V in 1413. The most interesting question about the early years of the fifteenth century covered is what happened to make the immediate recovery of England so fast and so successful.

The second half of Cursed Kings is dominated by the effect of Henry V on the war. As Sumption says, "as with other successful warriors, his personality has been almost entirely masked by the uncritical adulation of contemporaries and the nostalgia of a later generation which lived to see his achievements undone". Being the subject of one of Shakespeare's best known and least ambiguous plays does not help, of course. I did occasionally feel that Sumption fell into the same trap that he warned about. Whatever he was like as a person, Henry's effect on the war was dramatic, and at one point, it looked as though France was about to be entirely extinguished as a nation. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that his personality, drive and ambition were the main reasons why the position changed so dramatically.

The book ends with the deaths of Henry V and Charles VI, paving the way for the final act of the long drawn out conflict to be covered in the final volume.

The book does include a fairly obvious copy editing error, not something I've seen in the earlier volumes. It is fairly minor (the town of Ham is described as "unwalled" on page 285, and then on page 286, its inhabitants "shout defiance" from these non-existent walls).

[Rob Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

The four volumes together are the best history of the Hundred Years War that I have come across. Fully recommended.

[Keith Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb account of how Henry V took advantage of murderous chaos in France to carve out a new empire - particularly strong on the ebbs and flows of French power at the time.

[Rindis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth book of the excellent Hundred Years War series by Jonathan Sumption picks up in 1400, with a visit by Byzantine Emperor Manuel II to Paris. This echoes the start of the first book with the funeral procession of Charles IV; both are used to set the scene and show the current physical state of Paris.

Past that, the start of the book feels much like the third one. There is a slow grind of positional warfare as peace talks and truces continue. Extra tension has been caused by the accession of Henry IV, who the French refuse to see as the rightful king of England. In fact, the cash-strapped nature of the war gets much more acute in England as rebellion flares up in Wales, troubles on the Scottish border rise, there is internal trouble, and Henry IV needs to make grants to various nobles to shore up his own support. This leaves England nearly completely unable to prosecute the war, and barely able to defend important enclaves such as the Pale of Calais. About the only thing to go right is naval raiding in the Channel, which is stepped up by the French, but ends up with the English doing far more damage.

But all of this is increasingly sidelined by troubles in the French Court. Charles VI suffers continued "absences" where psychotic episodes leave him unable to govern, and governance devolves to his uncles, with the balance of power tilting towards his brother, Duke Louis of Orleans after the death of the first Duke of Burgundy. The fight over royal power and the money to be skimmed off of the French treasury turns more personal, with the assassination of the Duke of Orleans by the second Duke of Burgundy.

From this point, France is effectively in a state of civil war. However, it is easy for us to think of such things as clean political breaks, with declarations and articles making the political case for one side. And... that latter is generally true here with John of Burgundy issuing letters denouncing the extreme wastage of money, and using a broad platform tax reform for popular support. At the upper levels, it's a lot murkier, as there's no clean break in the political community, with elements of both sides looking for a moderate solution to how to distribute power.

And then the English are back. Henry V's finances are much better than his father's, and he is very much a 'warrior king', eagerly going on campaign in France in an attempt to enforce the terms of the Treaty of Bretigny, or something much like them. It is at first a failure, with the siege of one port wasting much of the large English army, and despite some hard marching, the English are outmaneuvered and forced into the most famous battle of the war: Agincourt.

Such a stunning against-the-odds victory pays dividends for Henry V, who manages to take most of Normandy, even as the French are still fighting themselves, and trying to figure out how to all fight the English instead. All hopes of this are destroyed with the assassination of John of Burgundy by the most hard-line elements of the opposing faction. The leadership of that faction has already changed some from time and attrition. French troubles in this period are made greater by going through a couple crown princes (Dauphins) in a couple of years.

And as things get worse, Henry V decides to go for it all, declaring himself the true King of France, and later marrying a daughter of Charles VI with a treaty that he'd inherit when Charles VI finally dies. Sumption spends a little time trying to unpack this. It is generally seen in a very nationalistic French light, but much of that rhetoric comes later. It's much harder to tell what general opinion was at the time. Certainly, it did not break up the Armagnac/Orleanist faction, and doubtless made them dig in their heels in further determination to prosecute their side of the civil war.

The book ends in 1422, with deaths of Charles VI and Henry V. As ever in a conflict largely conceived of in feudal terms, deaths of prominent people mark a major change in the fortunes of war, and pretty much the entire rest of the cast has already changed out before we get here. The fifth and final volume of this series is due out soon, and it's going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting to finish off the story. It will also just be heavy lifting. These books have grown from around 700 pages just about 1000, and I don't think the last one will be any shorter.

[Stephen Morrissey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cursed KIngs indeed! Jonathan Sumption's fourth volume in his history of the Hundred Years War is perhaps the most action-packed and, at least for English readers, glorious in its end result: an England that rules over much of Northern France, shattering its cross-Channel enemy and achieving the goal of a dual monarchy sought for, but never attained, by Edward III and his predecessors. In these pages, we come across many a cursed king: Henry V, a master at the art of war and keen strategist in devising how to break up the French state; Charles VI, the king gone mad and tragically bandied about as a symbol of power until he eventually withers away in the passive captivity of the English and Burgundians; John the Fearless, the Duke of Burgundy and avenger of his father's assassination at the hands of the Dauphin; and the Dauphin, Charles VII, a man on the ropes who somehow presides over the early sowing of French nationalism that will eventually drive the English from almost all of French lands.

Henry V needs no additional adulation, given his glowing role in Shakespeare's play, but Sumption does much to bring his keen mind and strategic sense to life. More than other English Kings, Henry realized that rapid conquests would not achieve any lasting impact. Instead, he forges ahead with an invasion of Normandy, capturing Harfleur and gradually conquering the lands around the Seine estuary, all the while playing the French off against one another as Burgundians fight against Armagnacs in the raging civil war played out before the fading wits of Charles VI. The English did not need another outpost: they needed a conquered land that could support itself, generate revenues, and raise its own troops.

And therein lies the rub! Despite conquering Normandy, taking Paris, and allying with the vast Burgundian proto-state, the English still could not snuff out the French. While crowning himself the Dual Monarch of both France and England, Henry V never truly achieved regal status in France, and funds and patriotism flowed towards the Dauphin and his rival kingdom in Bourges. Many "what-if's" can be conjured if Henry V had lived longer, with Sumption pointing out that Henry, despite his military prowess, may have had in mind a negotiated settlement whereby the English kept Normandy, the Dauphin kept central and southern France, and Burgundy aligned more with the English. Would such a state have survived, perhaps giving the English more of a chance to cement their hold on France and develop a moral bastion against French nationalism? WE will never know.

Wars, particularly long wars, come down to supply and morale: which side has more stuff, can move that stuff to the appropriate places, and put it in the hands of motivated people? Warring parties like the English can win battles and sustain long wars, but they can rarely achieve victory in the face of losing odds on men, matériel, and morale. For all the lands lost and factions angered, the France of the Dauphin still had more men, more money, and, eventually, just as much, if not more, motivation than their knighted enemy, and no number of Agincourts could replace that.

[Mercedes Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems that every era in the middle ages has its historian whose exhaustive study puts it in the first rank. We had Edward A. Freeman with the Norman Conquest and James Hamilton Wylie with Henry IV and V. And now we have Jonathan Sumption covering the Hundred Years War in five volumes. I can’t believe I didn’t stumble across him until now! His scholarship is absolutely mind-boggling. He has covered events in such detail that much of the guesswork has been removed. This volume starts at the beginning of Henry IV’s reign and ends at Henry V’s death. We get a substantial look at what was going on in France, which had a huge impact on why and how the English were so successful in France. For instance, when describing the Dauphin Charles (in 1418):

Charles was earnest, intelligent and shrewd and would eventually become an astute judge of men. But he lacked self-confidence even as an adult. He was moody, changeable, and occasionally depressive, naturally risk-averse, withdrawn and taciturn in company, uncomfortable in the presence of strangers. Some of these qualities…made him temperamentally averse to war and uninterested in the chivalric values to which his father had been devoted in his brief prime. They also meant that he was easily led by intimates with stronger personalities than his own, a weakness which provoked persistent faction fighting among the men around him.

In my research, this book has absolutely taken first place. The author has filled in a lot of blanks glossed over in other history books, though in a few places I still need to go back to the older historians. I’d say that’s the nature of the beast in historical studies. You only have to look at the sixty-pages of notes and the forty-page bibliography to see how extensively researched this book is. And, I’m happy to say, I found it very readable—the most important part of all.

[Tony Styles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unsurpassable for it’s detail…

This is a magisterial narration of a fascinating period of European history. I mainly read this for its descriptions of Agincourt and Henry V’s masterful warrior rule and I was not disappointed. France was too large a country to conquer at the time despite it being ravaged by civil war. This gave Henry V a distinct advantage at the outset but it soon became clear that Henry V did not have enough soldiers to occupy a country whose citizens were fickle and changed their allegiances with the changing of the weather. Regardless of the outcome Henry V remains my favourite monarch of the medieval era. There is a flow to this series of Sumption’s books on the Hundred Years War, where his outstanding writing style magnificently allows one to visualise the harshness of the times. Nevertheless, I would have liked to have seen a plates section; because of its absence I have deducted a star. This is, I would say, essential reading for any medieval history student and an essential requirement for any university library. Excellent 4 stars…

[Oli Turner]

A fascinating account of the Hundred Years’ War 1400-1422. Extremely well researched. Covering the broad aspects of: the economic realities, medieval warfare, technological developments, political machinations, ego, culture, logistics etc. particular highlights for me were: Early 1400s piracy and English privateers with letters of marque attacking French ships. The Siege of bourges 1412. I also enjoyed the balance between French and English perspectives. Many of the books I have read recently about the period tend to focus on the English perspective. Obviously the chapter about harfleur (once more unto the breach) and agincourt (between two woods). It was so good I read some parts of it twice! There was also An excellent chapter about the conquest of Normandy 1417-1418. Looking forward to the final volume 5.

[E Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fourth book in Lord Sumption's very detailed history of the 100 Years War. These are really in-depth look at a struggle that begins to open the modern age. These works are so well researched, and then so well written, some of the better history works I've read. Highly recommend to any History Nerds interested in the late middle ages

[Laurent Carbonneau · Rating 5 out of 5]

He did it again! This series continues to enormously impress. Sumption illustrates the dynamics - supply, personal, political, economic and financial - that shaped the war in a vivid way that brings it to life.

[Mervyn Whyte · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the Times said, beyond magisterial. Without doubt the best of the four so far. If the fifth and final volume is even better it will take narrative history to the peak of perfection.

[Seth Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best volume of the 4. Hopefully the author doesnt GRRM us and actually manages to finish the 5th and final part

[Peter Håkansson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant, looking forward to the final book!

[Richard Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

So absorbing. How long do we have to wait for the conclusion?

[Raymond Landes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Masterpiece for now and the future.

[Ravi Regulagedda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes into a little too much detail

[Jaclyn Mulé · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is my favorite one of them. View of Richard III is diff from Christopher fletchers which is interesting

[Matthew Carney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The volume in which the French state and royal house collapses in upon itself, and Henry V takes advantage of the chaos before dying at the height of his power. Very dramatic history

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

epic.