Hundred Years' War Literature

Abstract

This article explores the concept of “Hundred Years' War literature” in medieval Britain: the writing produced during and about arguably the longest and most fundamental conflict in later medieval history. It introduces chronicle writing, chivalric biography, political poetry, flyting and prophecy, carols and ballads, eyewitness testimony, and commissioned propaganda.

3 Prophecies of alliance and enmity

“…For instance, throughout the Hundred Years War English sources repeatedly worked to represent the French as duplicitous and 'fals', suggesting a specific discourse of anti-French animus. 14 But the same claims are levelled in Latin against the English by Walter Bower in the Scotichronicon. 15 Adopting a triangulated view of Anglo-Scottish-French relations reveals the intersections of insular and continental conflict as they are represented across linguistic and national borders.…”