The birth of English identity

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A is the Battle of Poitiers (1356), where Edward the Black Prince defeated and captured King John II of France. B is the Treaty of Troyes (1420), which made Henry V heir to the French throne.

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Source A is useful to an historian studying the impact of the Hundred Years' War on England because it shows two effects of the war. First, it shows the fear of French attack on the south coast. The licence allows Dalyngrigge to fortify his house 'near the sea' for the defence of the surrounding country against the king's enemies. This fits what I know: French and Castilian raiders burned Southampton and Portsmouth in 1338, Rye in 1377 and Winchelsea in 1380, and in 1385-1386 the French gathered a large fleet to invade England. In the 1370s and 1380s the war was going badly, so the threat was real. Second, it shows that some Englishmen grew rich from the war, as Dalyngrigge had made his money fighting in France, through pay, plunder and ransoms.

The provenance gives the source value. It is an official licence granted by Richard II, so it is reliable evidence of what the king allowed and of the reason officially given. However, historians debate whether Bodiam was really built for defence. It has a wide moat and an impressive appearance, but some historians argue it was mainly a status symbol for a newly rich knight, and a licence to crenellate was itself a sign of royal favour. So the stated purpose may not tell the whole story.

The source is also limited because it shows only one building and one man in one part of England. It does not show the wider impact of the war, such as the heavy taxes that led to the poll taxes and the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the growing power of Parliament, which had to agree to taxes for the war, or the growth of national pride and the use of English.

Overall, Source A is useful for showing the fear of French raids on the south coast and the profits some soldiers made, but an historian would need much more evidence to understand the full impact of the war on England.

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The capture of Calais in 1347 was significant first because it gave England a secure military base in France. After his victory at Crecy, Edward III besieged Calais from September 1346 until it surrendered in August 1347. According to Froissart, six leading citizens offered their lives to save the town and were spared only after Queen Philippa pleaded for them. Edward expelled many of the French inhabitants and brought in English settlers. Calais was a fortified port only about 30 kilometres from Dover, so English armies could cross the Channel easily and land safely in France. In 1415 Henry V was marching to Calais when he fought the Battle of Agincourt.

A second aspect is its economic importance. From 1363 Calais was made the Staple, the town through which English wool exports had to pass. Wool was England's most valuable export, and taxing it at Calais gave the crown a large and regular income to pay for the war, while the merchants of the Staple became wealthy and influential. Calais therefore linked England's economy closely to the war and to trade with the Low Countries.

In the long term, Calais was significant because it lasted. It remained English for more than two hundred years, long after the rest of England's French lands were lost in 1453, as a reminder of England's claims in France. Its loss to France in January 1558, under Mary I, was seen as a national humiliation, and Mary is said to have declared that after her death 'Calais' would be found lying in her heart. After 1558 England held no land on the Continent and became truly an island kingdom, turning its attention to the sea and the wider world. The story of the burghers of Calais has been remembered since, most famously in Rodin's sculpture, a cast of which stands near Parliament in London.

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Economic resources have been a cause of many of England and Britain's wars, from Viking raids for treasure to the Boer War over gold. However, some of the most important wars were caused mainly by dynastic claims, power and security. I will argue that economic resources were the most common cause, but not the main cause of the biggest wars.

Economic resources clearly mattered in many conflicts. The Viking raids that began with Lindisfarne in 793 were for treasure and slaves, and later invasions were for land to settle. Economic interests were one cause of the Hundred Years' War: England's wine trade with Gascony and its wool trade with Flanders were valuable, and Edward III needed to protect them. In the sixteenth century Elizabethan privateers attacked Spain for its silver. In Virginia the colonists' demand for land to grow tobacco led to war with the Powhatan people, including the attack of 1622. The Seven Years' War of 1756-1763 was fought largely over colonial trade and territory, and Robert Clive's victory at Plassey in 1757 grew out of the East India Company's trade in Bengal. In the age of empire, Britain occupied Egypt in 1882 to protect the Suez Canal and British investments, and the Boer War of 1899-1902 was fought largely over control of the gold of the Transvaal.

However, dynastic claims and the ambitions of rulers caused many medieval wars. William of Normandy invaded in 1066 to win the crown he claimed. The wars of the Angevins with the French kings were about their lands and their status as vassals, ending in the loss of Normandy in 1204. The Hundred Years' War began in 1337 mainly because Edward III claimed the French throne and Philip VI confiscated Gascony, and Henry V renewed the war in 1415 to win his inheritance.

Religion was a cause in some conflicts. Rivalry between Protestant England and Catholic Spain added to the conflict at sea, and the Indian Rebellion of 1857 was sparked by fears that cartridges greased with cow and pig fat, and the work of missionaries, threatened Hindu and Muslim beliefs. In Sudan the Mahdi's religious movement led to the death of General Gordon in 1885.

Power and security caused the greatest wars of all. Britain entered the First World War in 1914 because of the threat of German power and the invasion of Belgium, and the Second World War in 1939 to resist Hitler's aggression; neither was mainly about economic resources. In 1982 Britain fought the Falklands War to defend British sovereignty over the islands. Ideas such as imperialism and national prestige also drove rivalry with France and Germany in the Scramble for Africa.

In conclusion, economic resources were the most common cause of England and Britain's wars, especially in the age of expansion and empire, when trade, land and gold were at stake. But the biggest and most important wars, such as the Hundred Years' War and the two World Wars, were caused mainly by claims to power and by threats to Britain's security. Economic motives were usually one cause among several rather than the main factor.