Aspects of War in the Late Middle Ages by Christopher Allmand;

Author:Christopher Allmand; [Allmand;, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367330675
Publisher: TaylorFrancis
Published: 2022-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

10

DIPLOMACY

The Anglo-French negotiations, 1439

DOI: 10.4324/9780429317859-14

The Anglo-French peace convention of 1439 is not as well-known as it deserves to be. It is recognised as a failure, and is all too easily overshadowed by the famous congress of Arras of 1435 and the negotiations of 1444 which led to a truce and the marriage of Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou. Few events of outstanding importance are associated with the late 1430s and early 1440s; they form an almost anonymous period. Yet they were fateful years for the English occupation of France, since they witnessed a general swing in favour of French arms as well as several attempts to bring the war to an end by means of negotiation. War and diplomacy, it may be said, form the basis of any study of Anglo-French relations at this period.

It was the duchy of Burgundy which, both as participant and mediator, stepped in to help heal the age-old breach between England and France. The treaty of Arras, however, had turned the English against the Burgundians, who were seen as traitors for having abandoned the English alliance for the friendship of France. The siege of Calais of 1436 had given Humphrey of Gloucester the opportunity to avenge himself on those who had humiliated him years previously. His expedition to relieve Calais was successful, and his army did much material harm in Flanders. On 8 September 1436 trade between England and the Flemish towns had been officially halted.1

1 T. Rymer, Foedera (The Hague, 1740), x, pp. 654–655. Gloucester’s raid and the cutting of economic ties between the two countries soon had an effect, Flemish public opinion demanding the re-establishment of commercial relations with England.2 Parallel with this demand came the renewal of diplomatic activity between England and France, activity which had never really been brought to a halt but which, from 1437 onwards received a new lease of life. To the Burgundians it seemed that, given an opportunity to bring the three parties England, France and Burgundy together, a peace treaty between England and France might be negotiated with Burgundian mediation, and the desired mercantile treaty involving England and Flanders might be agreed upon. It was towards these two desirable ends that the negotiators of all three sides worked in 1437 and 1438.3

2 E. Varenbergh, Histoire des relations diplomatiques entre le Comté de Flanndre et Angleterre au moyen age (Brussels, 1874), pp. 515–517; E. Scott and L. Gilliodts-Van Severen, Le Cotton Manuscrit Galba B I (Brussels, 1896), p. 440, n. 1; See also J. G. Dickinson, The Congress of Arras 1435 (Oxford, 1955), p. 55: ‘One has the impression that the duke never for long neglected popular feelings in his foreign policy’. 3 At Rouen, on 27 April 1438, ‘fust faicte procession generale pour la paix’ (Rouen, Archives départementales de la Seine-Maritime, G.39). The diplomatic activity of the period is treated in G. du Fresne de Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII (6 vols, Paris, 1881–90), iii, pp. 101–104; G. A. Knowlson, Jean V, duc de Bretagne, et l’Angleterre (Cambridge and Rennes, 1964), pp.

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