England on the Continent: How English Kings Won and Lost Half of France (1066–1558)

A Kingdom With One Foot in France

For almost five hundred years after 1066, the kings of England were also great lords in France. A Norman duke conquered England; his great-grandson Henry II ruled from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees; King John lost most of it; and in the Hundred Years' War Edward III and Henry V came close to winning the French crown itself. By 1453 only Calais was left, and in 1558 that fell too.

This map follows that story in 33 keyframes, from the eve of the Norman conquest to the fall of Calais. It shows the land the English crown actually controlled on the Continent, together with the conquest of Wales and the English lordship in Ireland, which followed the same kings.

Normans and Angevins

William of Normandy won England at Hastings on 14 October 1066 and completed the conquest by 1071. When he died at Rouen in 1087 his lands were split: Robert Curthose got Normandy and William Rufus got England. Henry I reunited them by capturing Robert at Tinchebray in 1106. During the civil war known as the Anarchy, Geoffrey of Anjou took Normandy in 1144, and his son Henry inherited both sides.

Henry's marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152 and his accession to the English throne in 1154 created the Angevin empire: England, Normandy, Anjou and Aquitaine under one king. Henry II landed in Ireland in 1171, and by the Treaty of Windsor in 1175 Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair accepted him as overlord. Around this time the Angevin sphere also included overlordship of Brittany and Toulouse.

John's Losses and the Treaty of Paris

Richard the Lionheart died in 1199 and John succeeded him. Philip II of France took Château Gaillard in March 1204, and by 1206 Normandy, Anjou and Maine were lost. John's allies were routed at Bouvines in 1214, Louis VIII took Poitou and La Rochelle in 1224, and Louis IX defeated Henry III at Taillebourg in 1242. In the Treaty of Paris of 1259 Henry III gave up his claims to Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine and Poitou and did homage to Louis IX for Gascony, which he kept as a French fief.

Closer to home, Edward I curbed Wales in 1277 and completed its conquest in 1283 after Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales, was killed in December 1282. In Gascony the French occupied the duchy from 1294 to 1303, and after the War of Saint-Sardos only a coastal strip was left by 1327.

The Hundred Years' War

In 1337 Philip VI confiscated Guyenne and the war began. Edward III won at sea at Sluys in 1340 and on land at Crécy in 1346, then took Calais in 1347 after an eleven-month siege. The Black Prince captured King John II at Poitiers in 1356, and the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360 gave Edward an enlarged Aquitaine, Ponthieu, Calais and Guînes in full sovereignty. Charles V struck back from 1369, and by 1380 England held little more than Calais, Bordeaux, Bayonne and Brest.

Henry V reopened the war with Harfleur and Agincourt in 1415 and took Rouen in 1419. After the Duke of Burgundy was murdered at Montereau in 1419, Burgundy allied with England, and the Treaty of Troyes in 1420 made Henry V regent and heir of France. The high tide came at the siege of Orléans in 1429. Joan of Arc's relief of the city and Charles VII's coronation at Reims turned the war; Burgundy changed sides at Arras in 1435 and Paris was lost in 1436. Maine was handed over in 1448, Normandy fell after Formigny in 1450, and after Talbot was killed at Castillon in July 1453, Bordeaux surrendered for good on 19 October.

Epilogue: Tournai, Boulogne and Calais

Henry VIII briefly held Tournai (1513–1519) and Boulogne (1544–1550), and in 1541 the Irish parliament declared him King of Ireland, ending the medieval Lordship. Calais remained English for 211 years until the Duke of Guise took it after a week's siege in January 1558, ending England's last foothold on the Continent.

How to Read the Map

Dark red is the Kingdom of England with English-held Wales and Ireland; bright red is the continental land of England's kings. Orange marks Normandy or Anjou under a duke who was not England's king (1066, 1087–1106 and 1144–1154). Dark blue is the French royal domain, including the apanages of royal princes; light blue is other fiefs of the French crown. Brittany is teal, Valois Burgundy purple, native Wales gold, Gaelic Ireland green and Scotland grey. Pink marks vassals under Angevin or English overlordship only.

The map shows actual control, not treaty claims. Borders follow modern French départements and British and Irish counties, so they are approximate. Lands outside the French kingdom are left blank except the Burgundian state, single castles and towns holding out inside the other side's territory are not drawn, and the Anglo-Irish earldoms that slipped from crown control are shown as Gaelic Ireland.

How the Map Was Made

The map divides France, Wales and Ireland into small units based on modern départements and counties, and assigns each unit an owner at every keyframe from researched holdings. Sources include English and French Wikipedia (Angevin Empire, Treaty of Paris 1259, Treaty of Brétigny, Hundred Years' War, Treaty of Troyes, Pale of Calais, Lordship of Ireland, Conquest of Wales by Edward I, Burgundian State), the Gascon Rolls Project, the Magna Carta Project and Natural Earth boundaries.

Chronological Timeline

• 1066 — Battle of Hastings: William of Normandy conquers England
• 1087 — William dies; Robert gets Normandy, William Rufus England
• 1106 — Battle of Tinchebray: Henry I reunites both
• 1144 — Geoffrey of Anjou takes Normandy during the Anarchy
• 1152 — Henry of Anjou marries Eleanor of Aquitaine
• 1154 — Henry II rules England, Normandy, Anjou and Aquitaine
• 1171 — Henry II lands in Ireland
• 1175 — Treaty of Windsor; Angevin peak
• 1204 — Fall of Château Gaillard; Normandy lost by 1204–06
• 1214 — Battle of Bouvines
• 1224 — Louis VIII takes Poitou and La Rochelle
• 1259 — Treaty of Paris: Gascony held as a French fief
• 1283 — Edward I completes the conquest of Wales
• 1294–1303 — French occupation of Gascony
• 1337 — Philip VI confiscates Guyenne; the Hundred Years' War begins
• 1346 — Battle of Crécy
• 1347 — Calais taken
• 1356 — Battle of Poitiers
• 1360 — Treaty of Brétigny
• 1369–1380 — Charles V reconquers most English lands
• 1405 — Owain Glyndŵr's Welsh revolt at its height
• 1415 — Harfleur and Agincourt
• 1419 — Rouen falls; Normandy conquered
• 1420 — Treaty of Troyes: Henry V heir to France
• 1429 — Siege of Orléans relieved; Charles VII crowned at Reims
• 1435–1436 — Burgundy changes sides; Paris lost
• 1450 — Normandy lost after Formigny
• 1453 — Battle of Castillon; Bordeaux falls, only Calais remains
• 1541 — Henry VIII declared King of Ireland
• 1558 — Calais falls to France