On Easter Monday 1360, the French were a broken, bloodied people. Edward III, King of England, had his boot firmly pressed to their throats. For two decades, Edward’s army had laid waste to huge swathes of northern France, crushing successive French kings’ forces seemingly whenever it encountered them.
Now, following the holiest weekend of the Christian calendar, Edward’s all-conquering army prepared to storm the cathedral city of Chartres and, in doing so, propel their king to within touching distance of his ultimate goal: the crown of France.
FIGHT YOU FOR IT Culture, language and national identity were all challenged and changed by a war that spanned the generations
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