The Hundred Years War Vol 5: Triumph and Illusion (Hundred Years War, 5)

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Surprisingly, Sumption claims that the idea of an English “continental wall” to protect against invasion “made little sense” in the late Middle Ages. My children's and my grandchildren's life is worth much more than mine because they've got a lot more of it ahead". Sumption's decision to tell the tale as it has been traditionally told, therefore, is far from unexpected. He was later accused of cowardice, and although he was cleared by an inquiry, his reputation never recovered.

This chronological account thus investigates what was, even by the tumultuous standards of the Middle Ages, a profoundly chaotic time. Sumption and Joseph co-wrote a 1979 book, Equality, seeking to show that "no convincing arguments for an equal society have ever been advanced" and that "no such society has ever been successfully created". It is generational in terms of the effort behind it, for Sumption has been toiling at this project for nearly forty years now. Now Britain is separating from Ireland, significant only to history, not to the present, could become its reputation for horrendous violence and governmental stupidity, alongside technological ingenuity, such as the longbow.Even some of the walk-on parts are startling, such as the south-western magnate John V of Armagnac, who married his own sister and had three children by her. As somebody who prefers my history to be a chronological story, this book is absolutely the best history I have read. Britain’s institutional development is visible, though not explicitly addressed, in this volume at least. The death of Charles IV led to a crisis of succession that for the next four generations would embroil France and England in a war of unimaginable savagery. In Britain, history is generally regarded as an art, as opposed to America where it is a social science.

This is relentless, narrative-driven history, written with clarity, passion and, above all, self-confidence.On 17 January 2021, Sumption appeared on The Big Questions to discuss the question of whether the lockdown was "punishing too many for the greater good", and said (with reference to the medical concept of quality-adjusted life years) that "I don't accept that all lives are of equal value. In 1426 members of an English parliament were reminded they were not allowed to carry swords or weapons; they therefore hid clubs and rocks in their long hoods and sleeves instead. Those who are familiar with the previous volumes in this series will know what to expect from this one, which deals with the final stages of the war. During the last ten years or so of the war, the English were worn down, first gradually, then suddenly. He argues that since the 1960s, but particularly in recent years, the courts have undermined the political processes and institutions of parliament by judging issues that should be decided by elected politicians and ministers.

Sumption’s monumental history will gain well-deserved praise not just as a gripping and eminently readable account of innumerable crimes, follies and misfortunes but as a compelling justification for the enduring value of historical narrative. He was appointed Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1986 at the relatively young age of 38, and elected a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1991. At the same time, if there is any complaint to be made about Sumption's undertaking, it is in observing how closely it hews to this standard approach. From Nobel Laureates Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter to theatre greats Tom Stoppard and Alan Bennett to rising stars Polly Stenham and Florian Zeller, Faber Drama presents the very best theatre has to offer.Accepting it for what it is--an Anglo-centric examination of the Anglo-centric view that the Hundred Years War was an Anglo-centric conflict, it is, in all truth, a work of staggering importance. He was elected a fellow of Magdalen College, teaching and writing books on medieval history from 1971 to 1975 before leaving to pursue a career in law. There were many English settlers, principally in Normandy, but also in Gascony, Maine and other parts of France. Over the next 30 years, the prosperity of England, founded in that era on the wool trade and with substantial markets in Flanders and the Low Countries, went into serious decline.

As Sumption indicates, it was set on a road to autocratic dynasticism that would lead to the reckoning of 1789. This volume definitely fits the artistic rendition of a chronology, rather than seeking to analyse the observed phenomena. The snag was that the “Henry” in question was not the vigorous Henry V, who had died unexpectedly only weeks beforehand, but his 11-month old son by Charles VI’s youngest daughter Catherine.There are suggestions of religious and popular movements acting through a focus on Joan, though understandably documentary evidence of this is unlikely to enable this to be addressed as a factor in conventional history such as this.