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Gascon War
The English Angevin Empire and France after the 1259 Treaty of Paris and the 1271 deaths of the Count and Countess of Poitou.
Date 1294–1303 Location Flanders & Aquitaine (Guyenne & Gascony) Result Treaty of Paris: French occupation of Aquitaine ended with royal marriages. Aquitaine becomes a fief of France.
Belligerents
Kingdom of France	Kingdom of England
Commanders and leaders
Philip IV of France Robert II, Count of Artois Charles, Count of Valois Guy, Marshall of France Raoul, Constable of France Roger-Bernard, Count of Foix	Edward I of England John St John John of Brittany Edmund of Lancaster Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln

The Gascon War, also known as the 1294–1303 Anglo-French War or the Guyenne War (Template:Lang-fr), was a conflict between the kingdoms of France and England, which held many of its territories in nominal homage to France. It began with personal clashes between sailors in the English Channel in the early 1290s but became a widespread conflict over control of Edward I's Continental holdings after he refused a summons from Philip IV and renounced his state of vassalage. Most of the fighting occurred in the Duchy of Aquitaine, made up of the areas of Guyenne and Gascony. The first phase of the war lasted from 1294 to 1298, by which time Flanders had risen in revolt against France and Scotland against England. Hostilities concluded for a time under papal mediation, with the terms of the 1299 Treaty of Montreuil providing for the betrothal of Edward's son Prince Edward and Philip's daughter Isabella. The same year, Edward I also married Philip IV's sister Margaret. The second phase ran from 1300–03, until it was concluded by the 20 May 1303 Treaty of Paris, which reaffirmed the prince and princess's engagement. They were married in 1308.

Background

At some point during Lent (20 February –3 April) in 1292, Norman and Bayonnais sailors quarreled over who would first draw water from a cistern on the Breton island of Quémènès. The dispute ended in murder, the Bayonnais in later Anglo-Gascon complaints but more likely the Norman. Other Norman and French sailors then began to massacre and sink Aquitainian & English vessels, including pilgrim passangers, while both Edward and Philip and their officials gave numerous unheeded commands to keep the peace. Ships began to sail with only half their usual cargo to keep them more manoeuvrable in combat. Early the next year, an English convoy was ambushed off Brittany returning from Bordeaux and 70 ships were massacred and plundered at once; 2 other ships captured at St Malo and their crew flayed, some hanged in their skins alongside dogs. A still larger convoy left Portsmouth for Gascony on 24 April 1293 and—either due to contrary winds in their own account or prepared ambush in Heebøll-Holm's estimation—intercepted a Norman fleet in the 15 May 1293 Battle of Point St Mathieu, supposedly destroying 200 Norman ships. A force from Bayonne then raided La Rochelle. On 29 May 1293, Edward I wrote to his chief ports, again prohibiting attacks on the French and banning men of the Cinque Ports from even engaging in peaceful trade for their failure to obey his previous commands; this embargo was to continue until a settlement could be reached with Philip.

Aquitaine & Gascony

These clashes caused Philip IV of France to summon his vassal to Parlement. When Gascon castles occupied by the French as part of the settlement were not returned to the English on schedule, Edward I of England renounced his homage and prepared to fight for Aquitaine. The war that ensued went in favour of Philip the Fair, whose armies thrust deep into Gascony.

Flanders

Edward retaliated by allying with Guy, count of Flanders; Henry III, count of Bar; John I, count of Holland; and Adolf, king of the Germans. He launched a campaign in concert with the Count of Flanders in August 1297, but met defeat from a French force led by Robert II, Count of Artois. Papal mediation led to a truce in October 1297, which upheld the status quo ante in the area until the end of the armistice in January 1300. After Count Guy's surrender and imprisonment, Edward did not join the revolt of the Flemish burghers against their towns' French garrisons. French knights suffered a terrible defeat at Courtrai in July 1302, but thereafter the tide turned in France's favour. A settlement satisfactory to Philip was reached in 1305.

Aftermath

At a time when warfare was placing an unprecedented strain on royal resources, Gascony also supplied manpower. No English king, therefore, could afford to risk a French conquest of Gascony, for too much was at stake. The peace of 1303 continued the potential for conflict by returning the duchy to Edward in exchange for homage. The English Kings as Dukes of Aquitaine owed feudal allegiance to the French King and the conflicting claims of suzerainty and justice were a frequent source of disputes. Given the inconveniences of the feudal relationship it may seem surprising that no wider conflict grew out of the Gascon situation before the 1330s. Yet until that decade the tensions arising from the English position in Gascony were contained and controlled. The war marked a watershed in relations between the two powers.

Similarly, the war occasioned the beginning of chronic insubordination against France on the part of Flanders.

References

Citations

1. Parcours en Anglais dans les Collections Permanentes du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux (PDF) (in French & English), Bordeaux: Museum of Fine Art, 2024, p. 2{{citation}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link).
2. ^ Heebøll-Holm (2013), p. 86.
3. Heebøll-Holm (2013), p. 83.
4. ^ Heebøll-Holm (2013), pp. 86–87.
5. ^ Heebøll-Holm (2013), p. 87.
6. Heebøll-Holm (2013), p. 88.
7. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, France – Foreign relations
8. ^ The Origins of the Hundred Years War, History Today, John Maddicott, Published in Volume: 36 Issue: 5, 1986
9. Ginger M. Lee, "French War of 1294–1303", in Ronald H. Fritze and William Baxter Robison (eds.), Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272–1485 (Greenwood, 2002), pp. 215–16 ISBN 9780313291241.

Bibliography

• Heebøll-Holm, Thomas Kristian (2013), "Guerra Maritima", Ports, Piracy, and Maritime War: Piracy in the English Channel and the Atlantic, c. 1280–c. 1330, Medieval Law and Its Practice, Vol. 15, Leiden: Brill, pp. 83–126, JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctv4cbhhw.9.
• Oman, Charles William Chadwick (1911), "English History", Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. IX (11th ed.), New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

• Anglo-French wars
• Wars involving England
• Wars involving France
• 1290s in England
• 1300s in England
• 1290s in France
• 1300s in France
• England–France relations
• Conflicts in 1294
• Conflicts in 1295
• Conflicts in 1296
• Conflicts in 1297
• Conflicts in 1298
• Conflicts in 1300
• Conflicts in 1301
• Conflicts in 1302
• Conflicts in 1303
• 13th-century military history of the Kingdom of England
• 14th-century military history of the Kingdom of England