War, economy, and society: The impact of the One Hundred Years War in late medieval England

A longstanding debate in the history of the Hundred Years War has been whether the war had a negative or positive impact on the English economy during the fourteenth and fifteenth century. For a number of years many historians of late medieval England have leaned towards a negative view of the impact of the war, particularly because of the growing burden of taxation and purveyance throughout the war. Few scholars have examined the impact of the Hundred Years War from a more holistic perspective encompassing issues such as taxation and purveyance, along with wages, ransoms, spoils of war, and the investment in industry as a result of increased English wealth. This thesis attempts to demonstrate that the impact of the Hundred Years War is more positive on the English economy than previously held, or at least is far more complex than the current scholarship indicates.