ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND AQUITAINE:

When Henry II of England married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, the region of Aquitaine, also known as Guyenne and Gascony, together with its principal town of Bordeaux, came into English rule, where it remained until the end of the Hundred Years' War in 1453. This lively narrative history tells the story of the region during the War, as the competing claims of England and France revised the borders numerous times through battles and political machinations. In the 1340s the French King Philip VI renewed his claim on the area and was rebuffed by Edward III, then by Edward's son the Black Prince and later by Edward's brother John of Gaunt. At the end of the 14th century the English throne experienced the convulsion familiar to us from Shakespeare's Richard II, with Richard deposed by Gaunt's son Henry IV. The penitent Henry founded two religious houses, the Carthusian monastery at Sheen and the Bridgettine convent at Syon, as an expiation and mitigation for regicide. The years of the ascendancy of Henry V brought England its era-defining win at Agincourt, but on the death of Henry his baby son succeeded, with his uncles as regents. When Joan of Arc led Charles VII to his coronation as king of the whole of France, it was hastily followed by the eight year old Henry VI's coronation as king of the contested territory, but when Henry left Rouen he would never set foot in France again. In the mid-century, the town of Bordeaux was still loyal to the English crown but capitulated to France in return for generous concessions. The death of the leading commander John Talbot at Castillon caused a loss of English morale that signalled the beginning of the end of the conflict, with Charles using allies in Scotland to reinforce his military capability. 273pp, photos.