France’s Wars: Renaissance Italian Wars 1494 - 1559

by Jack Le Moine

Did you ever notice that in almost every great war in history, France has been involved in some way? Here’s an example: the eight wars between France, Italians, the Holy Roman Empire, and Spain for control of Italy.

Summary: It was too easy. When France invaded Italy in 1494, the French found a land filled with culture and riches but unable to defend itself. The temptation lured France into war after war even after the other major powers intervened and even after France was unable to contain the fighting to just Italy. Those other powers were tempted, too. As the decades advanced, France’s objectives changed from dominating to preventing others from dominating the peninsula.

Background: The Renaissance had made the city-states of Italy the wealthiest on the planet. For France, 40 years had passed since the end of the Hundred Years War. The Black Plague was a bad memory. The advancements in military organization and weaponry from that war remained. When the first French army discovered that the walled cities of Italy could not withstand the gunnery of the French artillery, wealth, power, and glory beckoned irresistibly.

France’s Wars: The 100 Years War 1338-1453

by Jack Le Moine

Did you ever notice that in almost every great war in history, France has been involved in some way? Here’s an example: England's 100+ war to conquer France.

Summary:
The Kings of England attempted to unite both England and France under their rule. This led to a series of wars that lasted from 1337 to 1453 that are collectively known as The Hundred Years War. This conflict included some of the iconic battles of Medieval history, including Crecy and Agincourt.

Background:
The Plantagenet kings of England had long resentmented and regreted of the loss of their possessions in France under their King John. Calculations of inheritance as well as of the relative weaknesses of the French kings and kingdom led the Plantagenets to go for it all.

In reading stories of the Hundred Years War, it is important to remember that this was also the period of the Black Death that carried away over a third of the total population of Europe. With companies of mercenaries plundering the people and plague decimating them, the armies operated in a desolated land.

France's Wars: King John’s Angevin War 1202 - 1204

by Jack Le Moine

Did you ever notice that in almost every great war in history, France has been involved in some way? Here’s an example: The wars between Angevin Empire of England between France.

Summary: By 1200 the Kings of England had inherited or conquered over half of France. When Richard the Lionheart died in 1199 and his brother John inherited the throne and his French possessions, King Philip II of France determined to make his sovereignty over those lands real. For two years (1202 – 1204) the two kings fought the climatic war of the Angevin Era.

Background: After William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066, he and his descendants kept their title of Duke of Normandy and control over that land. Hence, they were both independent equals of the Kings of France and their subjects, too. Afterwards, marriages brought the English Kings the additional lands and titles of Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Anjou, and other titles and areas of control. Henry II (reigned 1154 – 1189) expanded and consolidated his holdings in France, Scotland, and Ireland.

Philip II was coronated King of the Franks in 1180 and signaled his policy by designating himself “King of France”. It was like a Declaration of Independence.  All future kings of France used this new title. France was officially born.

A series of wars with the English king commenced, first with Henry and then with Richard. There was an interruption for the Third Crusade (1190 – 1192) but while Richard was still in the Holy Land wresting castles from the Saracens, Philip rushed home to resume operations against English interests in France. On the way home, Richard was arrested and imprisoned in Germany. Philip used the time to reconquer most of Normandy. When Richard got out, he took control of the English army and restored his holdings in France.

Richard began building the ultimate castle of the age on the east bank of the Seine River below Paris in 1196. Construction of just this one castle cost more than twice as much as all castle construction in England combined. Richard supervised the building and shrunk construction time from a decade to just two years. It’s name was “Chateau Gaillard “ and it contained innovations that castles would still be adopting a century later. Richard boasted that he could hold this castle “were the walls made of butter”.

But he died in 1199 and his brother John inherited the throne, the noble fiefdoms, and the King of France’s determination of doom.

France’s Wars: The Crusades 1096-1270

by Jack Le Moine

Did you ever notice that in almost every great war in history, France has been involved in some way? Here’s an example: the wars between Christians in Europe and Muslims in the Middle East for control of Palestine.

Summary: Amid much religious fervor, western Europe’s kingdoms and fiefdoms attack the Middle East in order to keep the Christian holy places accessible. Riches and glory motivate, too. Saracens counter-attack and drive the Christians out.

Background: Like Europe, the Muslim territories fought and competed against one another. In 1070 the Seljuk Turks took Jerusalem from the Saracens who had occupied it before. Where the older Saracens had welcomed Christian pilgrims and their money, the new conquerors discouraged them. This caused a wave of religious victimhood in Christian Europe not seen since the Roman persecutions 700 years before. After a half millennium of enduring invasions, the Christians were now less inclined towards peaceful non-violence.

France's Wars: The Vikings 793 -1066

by Jack Le Moine

Did you ever notice that in almost every great war in history, France has been involved in some way? Here’s an example: the Vikings raids on the coasts of Europe leads to conquest and the establishment of the French duchy of Normandy and from that, the conquest of England.

Summary: The peoples of Scandinavia achieved naval supremacy over the seas around Europe and across the northern Atlantic to America. They raided, conquered and settled the coastal areas of those lands.

Background: The Dark Age was on. Unable to mount a naval effort, Europe and Russia lay vulnerable to attack by sea. The Scandinavian countries developed the ultimate in naval warfare for this age, the longboat. With the means to attack at hand, desire followed. Early raids brought back slaves and wealth. Out of the cold of the remote north, the Vikings emerged.

France's Wars: Charlemagne's 771-814

by Jack Le Moine

Did you ever notice that in almost every great war in history, France has been involved in some way? Here’s an example: the wars which conquered Germany, reversed the trend of barbarian invasion, and launched the Holy Roman Empire.

Summary: Charlemagne’s campaigns united the Frank’s empire and extended it south of the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain, northern Italy, and into Germany. In total, these operations inaugurated a new period in the Dark Ages. Of particular note, the campaigns in Germany brought central Europe from the territory of the barbarians into that of civilization.

Background: After Charles Martel’s time, the Mayors of the Palace went from the status of Prime Ministers to that of kings. His descendent, Charlemagne, inherited the throne (after displacing his brother) and united the empire. Operations on the southern frontiers in Italy and Spain were constantly hampered by the traditional and, in his time, annual invasions from across the Rhine from Germany. After years of wars, Charlemagne decided to end these raids/invasions once and for all.

Major Players:
. 1) France:
United under the Franks but troubled by the autonomous region of Brittany to the northwest, and threatened by raids and invasions from neighbors all around. For example:

. 2) Other Countries:
Spain under the Moslem Saracens, since Tours still a threat,

The Lombards in northern Italy, not a direct threat to France but determined to acquire Rome,

The Bavarians east of the Rhine River, nominally subject to France but troubling the frontier because of pressure from their eastern borders by,

The Avars, occupying Austria and Hungary and troubling not just the Bavarians to their west but the rest of the Slav peoples in Eastern Europe,

The Saxons in northern Germany, who in earlier eras and against less formidable opposition would have began another mass invasion and occupation of France as in the barbarian invasions of yore,

. 3) The Leaders:
Charlemagne, one of the longest reigning monarchs in Europe’s history 768 to 814 and one of the most consequential. Over six feet tall, his commanding presence, his great energy, and his governing skills held his realm to a height of knowledge and commerce that enabled sustained military operations over a wide area that contemporaries could not match,

Widikund, the Saxon leader who’s uprising in 778 convinced Charlemagne that only the most brutal measures would solve the age-old barbarian problem.

Narrative: After a Saxon raid on Hesse, the Franks retaliated in 772. Charlemagne advanced to the Saxons' most sacred shrine, an enormous tree in a grove and burned it down. He established a fort and dispatched Christian missionaries. The Saxons massacred the missionaries and their converts and renewed the war.

This set the pattern for year after year. When he took the army to Italy in 773 and when he took the Lombard crown in 774, the Saxons attacked. Charlemagne built lines of fortifications in order to keep the Saxons out but the Saxons kept attacking and destroying them.

In 778, when Charlemagne and the Franks’ army campaigned in Spain, the Saxons, under Widikund attacked and plundered and burned everything east of the Rhine. Charlemagne had had enough. Year after year his army advanced, devastating the Saxons’ country. Widikund surrendered in 785 but the Saxons rebelled again in 793. Charlemagne adopted the harshest measures to pacify the Saxons.

Aftermath: By the time he was done, he had advanced the Frankish Empire to border of Denmark. While the barbarian threat against Europe continued in the centuries that followed, we can look upon this period as the time when the initiative had passed from the barbarian to the civilized. Over the long term, European civilization would spread east to Russia, north to Scandinavia, and south to the Balkans.


For Further Reading:

Wikipedia

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France's Wars: Rise of the Franks 500-732

by Jack Le Moine

Did you ever notice that in almost every great war in history, France has been involved in some way? Here’s an example: The Franks conquer the other barbarians and launch a new era.

Summary: Under Clovis, they conquered France. Following him, the Franks were divided amid interminable civil wars and the descent into feudalism. They and France were saved by the rise of the Mayors of the Palace who stopped Arab invasion from Spain.

Background: Learning and civilization declined in this first of the Dark Ages. Clovis’ descendents were unable to maintain their power. The Mayors of the Palace acquired duties equivalent from starting as the king’s butlers, to being, to chief of staff, to prime minister.

When the latest Mayor of the Palace died in 714, his son, Charles Martel took over. He reunited the kingdom with some notable exceptions like Aquitaine in the southwest. He fought off constant raids from the Germanic tribes to the east. But his most consequential war was against France’s and Christian Europe’s greatest enemy: the Muslims from Africa.

In the 600’s the Arabs with their new Muslim religion erupted on the world. They destroyed the empire in Persia. They defeated the Byzantines in Palestine, Syria, and the Asia Minor, being stopped only by the fortifications of Constantinople itself. Conquerors headed west, across Egypt and North Africa. In 711 they entered Europe by the back door and conquered Spain. Next up was France.

Major Players:
1) France:
in a Dark Age, its government was regaining control under a strong ruler.

2) Other Countries:
Aquitaine: having successfully fought off the Franks, it maintained a rocky independence.

Muslims: chiefly Berbers from North Africa, in control of Spain but divided into two parties the Ma’ddites and the Yemenites. For purposes of the conquest, they were united under


3) The Leaders:
Abd ar-Rahman: the governor of the Yemenite party.

Charles Martel: of France, whose office “Mayor of the Palace” made him the modern equivalent of Prime Minister.

Charles Martel at
the Battle of Poitiers in October, 732.
Public domain image from Wikipedia.

Narrative: The Muslims took Narbonne. They turned this into their base of operations for their campaigns against France. Further attacks were stopped by the Aquitaines. They relieved the siege of Toulouse in 721.

In 725 the Muslims returned, capturing Carcassonne and Nimes. They occupied most of Septimania. They continued into Burgundy, destroying Autun.

Meanwhile, back in Spain, rivalries between the Ma’ddites and the Yemenites kept their armies at home. During the years of respite, Charles Martel worked on giving his army a cavalry arm to neutralize the Muslim advantage in that.

The time of respite ended in 732. Abd ar-Rahman invaded Aquitaine and destroyed their army and burned Bordeaux. They invaded the lands of the Franks, taking Poitiers. They now moved on Tours.

On a small hill they spied the Franks’ army under Charles Martel. Its location is unknown but is believed to be between Poitiers and Tours. For 7 days the armies the armies faced one another. I find it difficult to believe that the cavalry of both armies were inactive. Surely, there was much maneuvering for advantage.

Finally, the Muslims attacked. Their army consisted primarily of cavalry; the Franks infantry. The Franks’ lines held. The Muslim cavalry suffered heavy loss.

We know that Martel’s counter-attacks must have been limited at most because the next morning, they found the Arab tents deserted. Had the battle been joined on the Arab side of the field, their withdrawal during the night would not have come as a surprise.

Aftermath: The Muslims never came back. During this time, amphibious invasions had occupied Provence in the south. In the follow-up, Martel liberated this province. Revolts in North Africa sapped the Muslim armies’ strength, but even during times of power, the recovering strength of the Franks discouraged further attempts at invasion. Until the capture of Constantinople 700 years later (!), further Muslim expansion into Europe would henceforth have to come by sea. In France itself, a sense of shared purpose grew and countered the spreading feudalism of the age.

For Further Reading:

Wikipedia

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France's Wars: Barbarian Invasions 376-500

by Jack Le Moine

Did you ever notice that in almost every great war in history, France has been involved in some way? Here’s an example: the barbarian invasions of Gaul and the end of the Roman Empire.

Summary: The mass movement of peoples across the Eurasian continent landmass brought wave after wave of barbarian invasions across the Rhine and into the area of ancient Gaul, present day France. Against this pounding of peoples across the centuries, Rome fell, Gaul descended into the Dark Ages, and France was born.

Background: Gaul had become thoroughly Romanized by the 4th. century A.D. Meanwhile, climate change and population increase had caused the nomadic peoples across the northern Eurasian landmass to migrate. In the east, China stood fast; in the south, the Parthian and the Byzantine Empires held their own; in the west, a decayed Roman Empire proved to be the weakest barrier.

Major Players:
1) France: in this era, Gaul was just a province of the Roman Empire. Its destiny was controlled by Rome’s.

2) Other Countries: Rome: centuries before, with control of just a portion of Italy, it was able to generate legion after legion to meet emergencies. But that was then; now it could not recruit and its people would not serve. In this era, a depleted army defended a fearful but unwilling populace.

Major Barbarian Tribes: Visigoths, the first to invade and stay, Ostrogoths (took Italy), Vandals (north Africa), Huns (defeated) , Burgundians (defeated by the Franks), and Franks (who ended up with France).

3) The Leaders:Many over the centuries, but the most memorable was Attila the Hun, Aleric of the Visigoths, Stilicho, the last great Roman general, and Clovis, the Frank who ended up with Gaul.

CC BY-SA 2.5 image by MapMaster from Wikipedia.

Narrative: The Visigoths broke the Roman army in the east in 378 but were stopped in their southern and eastern thrust by the fortifications of Constantinople. The path of least resistance was west, through Greece, around the Adriatic Sea, into Italy (sacking Rome in 410) and eventually into Gaul and Spain

The Huns invaded Gaul from the Rhine but were stopped by a combined army of Romans and barbarians at Chalons. They later failed in an invasion of Italy, retreated and eventually dismembered in the constant barbarian turmoil in the depths of the continent.

The Vandals crossed Gaul starting in 406, sacking Reims, Amiens, Arras, Tournai and other lesser known towns in their journey to Spain and later Africa.

The Burgundians invaded in 411 and settled in the eastern part of Gaul. The Franks invaded the north eastern part of Gaul in 486 under Clovis. Burgundy was conquered after 500 and the Visigoths after the Battle of Vouille in 507. Henceforth, Gaul was the land of the Franks – France.

Aftermath: These invasions inaugurated the Dark Ages where learning and commerce declined. Government devolved to the local level known as Feudalism. Civilization held on but by the skin of its teeth.

For Further Reading:
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Wikipedia

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France's Wars: Gaul 58-51 BC

by Jack Le Moine

Did you ever notice that in almost every great war in history, France has been involved in some way? Here’s an example: Julius Caesar's Conquest of Gaul.

Summary: Julius Caesar conquered Gaul (the Roman’s term for the lands now France). His legions also raided into Brittania (England) and crossed the Rhine River (into Germany.

Background: Barbarians from north of the Alps had raided the Italian peninsula for centuries. By the middle of the 1st. century bc, Rome had expanded it’s holdings up to the mountain range. The area east of the range was falling under Roman control. In Rome, Julius Caesar had formed an alliance with Pompey and Crassus. Caesar’s part of the empire was north Italy (Cisalpine Gaul) and that part beyond the mountains that Rome controlled (Transalpine Gaul).

Meanwhile, barbarians in the German area were invading Gaul. A tribe allies with Rome asked Caesar for help.

Major Players:
1) France:Tribes of Gaul, facing invasions from other barbarian tribes from Germany and from the Romans

2) Other Countries:Rome, which by this time had become the major power in the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Germanic and Swiss tribes from the German area, and the Celtic tribes in Britannia.

3) The Leaders:Julius Caesar, heavily in debt and needing conquests for money and glory to further his political position in Rome. Vercingtorix, who lead all the Gallic tribes in a rebellion against the Roman conquerors and gave Caesar his most desperate fight at Alesia.

Vercingetorix's surrender to Caesar after the

Siege of Alesia in 52 BC.

Public Domain from Wikipedia.

Narrative: Caesar crossed the Alps and defeated the Germanic barbarian invasion of Gaul or 58 bc. In 57 bc, he defeated the most important of the Gallic tribes in the Belgium area. The other important tribes submitted to Rome and Caesar announced that Gaul was conquered. An unprecedented 15 day celebration was voted in Rome.

Revolts of various tribes and actions against the Germanic tribes occupied the middle period of the war. He conquered southwestern Gaul in 56 bc. In 55 bc, he answered raids from Germany by building a bridge across the Rhine in a matter of days, marching his army across it and devastating the area beyond. In 54 bc he crossed the Channel and raided Britannia. The following year, he crossed the Rhine again. With both the Britains and the Germans cowed, he and Rome both felt that Gaul was good and conquered and free from external troublemaking.

Vercingtorix struck in 53 bc, bring the war to its final and its most desperate phase. All Gaul rebelled against Rome. Caesar was defeated at the town that is the modern Clermont, besieged Vercingtorix in Alesia but was surrounded himself. Only the superior engineering skills and superior discipline saved the Roman army. When Vercingtorix’s forces inside Caesar’s lines were starved out, the Gallic War was at last over but for the mopping up.

Aftermath: Caesar wrote memoirs of the wars. These books ranks among the best military literature of history. Afterwards, he led portions of his army back into Italy where he crossed the Rubicon River in 49 and began the Roman Civil War. Gaul remained a Roman Province until the fall of the empire.

For Further Reading:

Caesar's Commentaries
Wikipedia

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