The former of these struggles was the great war between England and France, called by French writers the _Hundred Years’ War_. This war might be called either a war for the annexation of France to England or a war for the annexation of Aquitaine to France. ♦Designs of the French kings on Aquitaine.♦ By the peace between Henry the Third and Saint Lewis, Aquitaine became a land held by the king of England as a vassal of the French crown. From that time it was one main object of the French kings to change their feudal superiority over this great duchy into an actual possession. This object had been once obtained for a moment by the marriage of Eleanor and Lewis the Seventh. ♦Momentary occupation by Philip the Fair. 1294.♦ It was again obtained for a moment by the negotiations between Edward the First and Philip the Fair. The Hundred Years’ war began through the attempts of Philip of Valois on the Aquitanian dominions of Edward the Third. ♦1337.♦ Then the King of England found it politic to assume the title of King of France. ♦1339.♦ But the real nature of the controversy was shown by the first great settlement. ♦Peace of Bretigny. 1360.♦ At the Peace of _Bretigny_ Edward gave up all claim to the crown of France, in exchange for the independent sovereignty of his old fiefs and of some of his recent conquests. _Aquitaine_ and _Gascony_, including _Poitou_ but not including _Auvergne_, together with the districts on the Channel, _Calais_ with _Guines_ and the county of _Ponthieu_, were made over to the King of England without the reservation of any homage or superiority of any kind. These lands became a territory as foreign to the French kingdom as the territory of her German and Spanish neighbours. ♦Renewal of the war. 1370-1374. | Losses of the English.♦ But in a few years the treaty was broken on the French side, and the actual possessions of England beyond the sea were cut down to Calais and Guines, with some small parts of Aquitaine adjoining the cities of Bourdeaux and Bayonne. ♦Conquests of Henry the Fifth.♦ Then the tide turned at the invasion of Henry the Fifth. ♦Treaty of Troyes. 1420.♦ The Treaty of Troyes united the crowns of England and France. ♦1431.♦ Aquitaine and Normandy were won back; Paris saw the crowning of an English king, and only the central part of the country obeyed the heir of the Parisian kingdom, no longer king of Paris but only of Bourges. ♦Conquest of Aquitaine. 1451-1453.♦ But the final result of the war was the driving out of the English from all Aquitaine and France, except the single district of Calais. The geographical aspect of the change is that Aquitaine, which had been wholly cut off from the kingdom by the Peace of Bretigny, was finally incorporated with the kingdom. ♦Final union of Aquitaine with France.♦ The French conquest of Aquitaine, the result of the Hundred Years’ War, was in form the conquest of a land which had ceased to stand in any relation to the French crown.