The conflict known as the Hundred Years War began in May 1337 and lasted until October 1453 and was interrupted for 6 years in the middle because of the plague. This war helped shape France and England for the decades and centuries to come. Before the war, neither country, especially France, really had much of a national identity. Both would come out of the war with a much stronger one.
The Hundred Years War was started when the English King Edward III asserted a claim on the French throne after Charles IV had died with the idea of having England and France united under one king. …