The Hundred Years’ War sounds like a tidy round number, but it actually went on for 116 years - from 1337 to 1453. Five generations of English kings fought five generations of French kings over who should rule France. It wasn’t constant fighting; the war paused for years at a time before flaring up again.
England had some shocking early wins. At battles like Crécy in 1346 and Agincourt in 1415, English archers using longbows defeated much larger French armies. A skilled longbowman could fire 10 to 12 arrows a minute, and clouds of arrows tore through expensive French knights and their horses.
In the end, France slowly turned things around - partly thanks to a teenage soldier-saint named Joan of Arc - and pushed the English back across the sea. By 1453 the war was over, and France was France again. The English crown went home with just the port of Calais to show for over a century of fighting.
