About the book: 2002 / Two kingdoms, two nations met with arms in their hands on the battlefield, under the leadership of their kings - French from the dynasty Valois and English from the Plantagenet dynasty. The Hundred Years' War marked the decline of medieval chivalry and the breakdown of its ideals, a change in military tactics and strategy. The king who fights with arms in the front ranks of his troops is defeated, and the king who directs the war from his office becomes the winner. Step by step, the English historian Kenneth Fowler unravels the tangle of events, touching on the most complex and fascinating problems. How did it happen that French chivalry, the pride and support of the throne, tempered in the crusades, which had not known defeat for almost two hundred years, could not cope with a handful of English archers? Why did the Valois dynasty, which seemed threatened with inevitable fall, manage to prevail in a long and painful struggle? K. Fowler answers these and other questions on the pages of his book, intended for both specialists and a wide audience.