Beginning with the funeral of Charles IV of France in 1328, this text details the long and violent endeavour of the English to dismember Europe's strongest state. This succession of wars is one of the seminal chapters in European history and is closely examined and reconstructed by the author.[...]

"Divided Houses" is a tale of contrasting fortunes. In the last decade of his reign Edward III, a senile, pathetic symbol of England's past conquests, was condemned to see them overrun by the armies of his enemies. When he died, in 1377, he was succeeded by a vulnerable child, who was destined to gr[...]