1346-1381: How the Black Death, perhaps, caused England to lose the Hundred Years War

The Black Death between the years of 1346-1356 was the most devastating epidemic in world history. Approximately one-third to one-half of the total European population was eradicated in such rapidity that it would take centuries to recover. The Hundred Years War was the paradigm shift which catapulted Europe out of the Middle Ages. New recruitment techniques and armaments gave rise to more tactical military campaigns, diminishing chivalric style warfare. Furthermore nascent sentiments of nationalism first emerged in Europe which would only grow stronger in the coming centuries and have lasting repercussions for future generations. The convergence of these two events would be epic in terms of the cataclysmic loss of life, and the economic toll on England and France. Because English troop levels would be decimated for years to come and ultimately the ground campaign would be protracted, it could be said that England lost the Hundred Years War with the arrival of the Black Death. This thesis offers a detailed examination of the effects of the Black Death on England during the Hundred Years War and how it contributed to England's loss of the war. This paper asks questions, provides substantive evidence and offers concrete analysis for further research into the subject with the outcome being certain, that if it had not been for the Black Death England would have won the Hundred Years War.;The initial phase of the Hundred Years War, often called the Edwardian phase from 1337-1360, had been going favorably for England. England had secured victories at Crecy in 1346, broken the siege of Calais in 1347 and managed to overcome the French at Poitiers in 1357, even after the onset of the Black Death. However, the tide would turn in France's favor. England had recurring waves of plague for the next three hundred years. In fact England had at least six documented outbreaks between 1346 and 1381. Neither English forces nor the English economy would have an opportunity to recover from such calamity within the duration of the Hundred Years War. By the time of the Treaty of Bretigny in 1361, the aims and the objectives of the English had fundamentally transformed from universal conquest of France to regional control of strategic ports.;Between intermittent warfare and intermittent plague, there was not any time for an economic recovery or any spiritual catharsis in England, which could have turned the tide of the Hundred Years War in England's favor. In fact, economically the situation deteriorated rapidly. Compounded by food shortages and hyperinflation, men and women took to open revolt and peasant uprisings throughout the country by 1381. The state, personified in Richard II, was losing its hold on power, the support of the people and the backing of the nobles. Furthermore, the "end times" mentality was pervasive in the culture. There was Black Death imagery everywhere in art and verse and universally people felt abandoned by God and religion. No one could trust institutions or their own bodies anymore. It was an emotionally unsettling time for the English and their effort in the Hundred Years War suffered for it.;The Black Death put a negative sequence of events in motion for England: population decline, ineffectual military action, longer war, malaise and economic backlash. The Black Death costs England the decisive victory in the Hundred Years War and the total conquest of France. This paper will explain how that happened.