Hundred Years' War: Second Peace

The war becomes increasingly unpopular with the English public largely due to the high taxes needed to sustain it.

These taxes are seen as one of the reasons for the Peasants revolt.

Richard's increasing disinterest in the war together with his preferential treatment of a select few close friends and advisors angers an alliance of lords that includes one of his uncles.

This group, known as Lords Appellant, manages to successfully press charges of treason against five of Richard's advisors and friends in the Merciless Parliament.

The Lords Appellant are able to gain control of the council in 1388 and try, unsuccessfully, to reignite the war in France.

Although the will is there, the funds to pay the troops is lacking, so in the autumn of 1388 the Council agrees to resume negotiations with the French crown, beginning on June 18, 1389 with the signing of a three-year truce at Leulinghen.In 1389, Richard's uncle and supporter, John of Gaunt, returns from Spain and Richard is able to rebuild his power gradually until 1397, when he reasserts his authority and destroys the principal three among the Lords Appellant.

In 1399, after John of Gaunt dies, Richard II disinherites Gaunt's son, the exiled Henry of Bolingbroke.

Bolingbroke returns to England with his supporters and deposes Richard and has himself crowned Henry IV.

In Scotland, the English regime change prompts border raids that are countered by an invasion in 1402 and the defeat of a Scottish army at the Battle of Homildon Hill.

A dispute over the spoils between Henry and Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland results in a long and bloody struggle between the two for control of northern England, resolved only with the almost complete destruction of the Percy family by 1408.

In Wales, Owain Glyndŵr is declared Prince of Wales on September 16, 1400.

He is the leader of the most serious and widespread rebellion against English authority in Wales since the conquest of 1282–3.

The rebellion is finally put down only in 1415 and results in Welsh semi-independence for a number of years.

In the meantime Charles VI of France is descending into madness and an open conflict for power begins between his cousin John the Fearless and his brother, Louis of Orléans.

After Louis's assassination, the Armagnac family takes political power in opposition to John.

By 1410, both sides are bidding for the help of English forces in a civil war.

In 1418 Paris is taken by the Burgundians, who massacre the Count of Armagnac and about twenty-five hundred of his followers.Throughout this period, England confronts repeated raids by pirates that heavily damage trade and the navy.

There is some evidence that Henry IV used state-legalized piracy as a form of warfare in the English Channel.

He uses such privateering campaigns to pressure enemies without risking open war.

[ The French respond in kind and French pirates, under Scottish protection, raid many English coastal towns.

The domestic and dynastic difficulties faced by England and France in this period quiet the war for a decade.

Henry IV of England dies in 1413 and is replaced by his eldest son Henry V. Charles VI of France's mental illness allows his power to be exercised by royal princes whose rivalries cause deep divisions in France.

Henry V is well aware of these divisions and hopes to exploit them.

In 1414 while he holds court at Leicester, he receives ambassadors from Burgundy.

Henry accredits envoys to the French king to make clear his territorial claims in France; he also demands the hand of Charles VI's youngest daughter Catherine of Valois.

The French reject his demands, leading Henry to prepare for war.

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