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The Hundred Years War was a conflict between England and France. Its basic cause was a dynastic quarrel between the kings of England, who held the duchy of Guienne, in France, and resented paying homage to the kings of France. There were several immediate causes: a quarrel between Edward III of England and Philip IV of France over a part of Guienne held by France; English attempts to control the commercially important Flanders, a French …

…red Years War inflicted untold misery on the French people. Famine, the Black Death, and roving bands of marauders decimated the population. An entirely new France emerged. The virtual destruction of the feudal nobility allowed the monarchs to unite the country more solidly under the royal authority and to ally themselves with the newly rising middle class. England ceased thinking of itself as a continental power and began to develop as a sea power.