Ruler King Charles VII, born 1403, married Mary of Anjou. Children: Louis aged 37, Catherine (dead), Magdalene 17 and Charles Duke de Berry 14.

In 1328, France faced a succession dispute. Of the two main candidates, Edward III of England's claim came via his mother, Isabella, sister of the previous king; Philip de Valois traced his descent through a more distant but entirely male line. Edward's minority, the scandal of his mother's public affair with a courtier and her recent murder of Edward II, her husband, made Philip VI's accession inevitable.

When Edward came of age, there arose the age-old dispute over Gascony, English since 1154. Tension rose until in 1337 Philip confiscated the Duchy. Exasperated, Edward claimed the French crown by right of his mother and started the Hundred Years War.

Actually, he started it slowly due to lack of money and allies but in 1346 he fought and won his first campaign in France, securing Calais as an English possession to this day.

Edward opted for huge scale destructive raids to reduce France piecemeal. When the French fought the English, they lost. Edward paid-off his troops at the end of each campaign: later, the troops stayed in France and extorted a living from the locals in the off-season, too.

Subject to incessant looting and resentful of an inactive government, the provinces turned away from Royal rule. The capture of King John II in 1356 accelerated the erosion of Royal authority.

By the 1380s, France was exhausted and ruled by a minor. In manhood, Charles VI suffered fits of violent madness. The stress of his insanity created two violently opposed factions led by the dukes of Orleans and Burgundy. Murder led to civil war in 1411. State officials plundered taxes and the richest monarchy in Europe slid into bankruptcy.

England had had some troubles in the intervening years but in 1415, Henry V saw the opportunity to renew his great-grandfather's French claims.

People hailed Henry's victory at Agincourt as God-given but Henry had superb strategic and tactical sense and a lot of luck. The French bickered while he systematically reduced the country. No raids for him, he fought campaigns of strategic conquest.

Burgundy stayed aloof, John the Fearless secretly signing the Pact of Calais in 1417, recognising Henry V as the rightful heir to Charles VI, now permanently mad.

Burgundy still fought the Orleanists, in 1418 taking Paris by subterfuge. The citizens, in vengeance for years of Orleanist misrule, murdered the provost, (by flaying him alive), four bishops, the Abbot of St. Denis and three hundred students, before joyously cheering the Duke on his entry.

The economy collapsed and the English closed on Paris; in 1419, the two French factions were driven to negotiate. At Montereau Bridge, the Duke made it clear that he would agree to nothing. At the Dauphin's orders, Duke John the Fearless was murdered!

The Duke's murder drove Burgundy and many Frenchmen into outright alliance with England. Resistance collapsed, in 1420 Charles VI disinherited the Dauphin, marrying his daughter, Katherine, to Henry V and recognising him as his heir. Everything looked set for the birth of an Anglo-French empire.

The sudden deaths of Charles VI and Henry V in 1422 slowed English expansion but Dauphin Charles remained in the south. He proclaimed himself Charles VII, but attacked Burgundy rather than the English.

Charles' mother, Isabella of Bavaria, liked men. With an insane husband, she had embarked on a series of very public affairs. Inevitably, the paternity of her sons came into doubt. In 1417, rumours spread that the Dauphin Charles was a bastard. Charles believed these rumours and, thinking himself unworthy of the throne, let the English walk all over him.

Despite Burgundy cooling towards England over the years, the French made no headway towards throwing us out. The Duke of Bedford proved a gifted and able regent for the young King Henry VI and in 1427 Verneuil joined Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt in the list of French military disasters.

In 1429, the English besieged Orleans; utterly demoralised, the French looked on the point of complete collapse but that infamous witch, Joan of Arc, saved the city. She used her sorcerous arts to inflame the French knights into relieving Orleans and went on to crown Charles VII in Rheims and inflict defeats by unnatural means for over a year. Finally, she was caught and tried for her crimes, burning at the stake, unrepentant, on the 30^th May 1431.

Her reign of terror was over but the damage had been done. The French slowly pushed us back. 1435 saw Bedford's death and Burgundy signing the Treaty of Arras, becoming French again. Charles VII took Paris in 1436. In 1439, his ordinances invented the concept of the modern army.

Through irresolution and incompetence, England steadily lost ground and eventually sued for peace. Henry VI's marriage in 1444 to Margaret of Anjou, Charles VII's niece, came with a truce; hostilities would cease and England offered Maine and Anjou in return for assurances for Normandy and Gascony.

Things might have gone very differently with a competent English King but Henry dithered over handing back the agreed territories until Charles VII lost patience; in 1448, he took Maine. The Duke of Somerset simultaneously broke the hard won truce and alienated England's last ally, Brittany. In 1450, England renounced all title to other French estates in return for guarantees for Gascony but Charles, realising the lack of opposition, took Bordeaux in June 1451. England intervened but with the death of the Earl of Shrewsbury at Chatillon in 1453, Charles held all France save for Calais.

Charles dreams of ruling all France, but he has some strong opponents. First is his own son, Dauphin Louis: the two both think the other means to kill him. When Charles sent an army against him in the Dauphine, Louis fled to Burgundy. Duke Philip greeted him warmly and granted asylum. Charles seems not too concerned over his son's refugee status but fears Burgundy. Duke Rene of Anjou and Lorraine, father of our Queen also troubles Charles. Useful as an ally against Burgundy, his long outstanding claim to Naples and Sicily aggravates many Italian princes and Aragon, who is another dangerous enemy on France's Pyrenean border.

Charles supports the Duke of Orleans' claim to Milan via the Visconti family, naturally upsetting Duke Francesco Sforza. Charles occupies Genoa on the invitation of a warring noble faction.

The only other major 'player; in the French scene is Brittany, viewed by those in Paris as another back door entry point for the English thanks to Duke Francis II's preference to play both Kingdoms off against each other.

[Thanks to Sir John Hotspur for extra material.]