A Brief History of the Hundred Years War

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Now thats history - Rated
An excellent book that teaches history as if it were an adventure. Yes its a brief view but packs so much punch. Edward 3rd, Henry V, the Black Prince, Crecy, Agincourt, Poitiers and so much more. Speaks many volumes as to the growth of the two main protagonists interwoven with peoples whose identity has long been engulfed by modern geography.
An excellent read and a good book.

entertaining read - Rated
Don't read this if you want a more detailed analysis of the Hundred Years war, but for the interested layman I found this a very enjoyable read. One caveat. As one of the previous reviewers comments , the author does not shy from detailing the atrocities dealt to the French by the English. However...... doesn't culpability lie to some extent with the invasion by William the Conqueror. The king of England and the ruling class were still culturally quite French and had reasonably legitimate claims to French territory. And lets not forget the destruction of the Anglo scandanavian kingdom of England by William and his French Normans, and in particular, the "harrying of the north" that they inflicted on the northern English. A cruel and barbaric event as bad as anything the English dealt the French later.

A tabloid view of the Hundred Years War - Rated
Desmond Seward is a commercial historical writer and this book looks at the events and battles of Hundred Years War purely through English eyes. The book covers the great English victories over the French at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt together with rise of the Longbow as the supreme battlefield weapon.

My first concern with this book is that Seward doesn't publish any of his sources, so for a novice on the subject one is unable to check for further reading if interested in a certain incident he covers. His descriptions of the battles and other incidents are always totally biased towards the English and he does tend to give us a rather tabloid style of reporting when relating the events and characters involved. Saying that, the book does suck you in and is written in an entertaining style, with the hardback version being very well illustrated.

For those who know little about the HYW this is a reasonable account, but it does have severe limitations due to the complexity and time scale of the subject it attempts to cover. The book will leave you hungry for more information, and although Seward doesn't supply you with any pointers, you will find a wealth of superb books out there which are also far more accurate and detailed than this. Anything by Dr Anne Curry for example.

Superb intoduction to a fascinating period... - Rated
The book does exactly what it says on the cover... it's a brief (but suprisingly detailed) look at a very long, very bloody conflict between two great nations in a period of many changes. He handles the political events of the period with care, never overpowering the reader with to much data.

The battle descriptions are fantastic, some of the best I've read outside of historical fiction. The Hundred Years War is in my opinion one of the most interesting periods of history and Seward does it justice, describing in detail the colourful characters of the period including Edward the Black Prince, Henry V and the mad Charles VI of France (he thought he was made of glass... not to good a conviction when in battle)...

This book will leaving you desperate for more information on the period, I would recommend any of the Osprey books to do with the period (in particular that on Crecy), The Bowmen of England by Featherstone is also a good light read... and of course the Jonathon Sumption epic histories...

A hundred years never seemed so short a time! - Rated
As the typical student of history at school, I found the subject tedious and irrelevant. Not so with this book. The years flew past as the author gave us enough information to identify with the main characters, enough details of the main events without becoming overwhelming and enough of the gory details to keep us interested! Holidays to South western France will never be the same again. This is history without the corderouy jackets, without the essays, warts and all. Fascinating.
PS It is no wonder the French still do not trust us as a nation.