For French folks: how is the Hundred Years War taught and remembered in France?

by Wind123

I'm a Brit. Understandably Agincourt is spoken of in legendary, almost mystical terms in the UK (on the same level as the Battle of Britain). But I wonder how it is for Frenchmen? Is the focus mostly on Joan of Arc and the final years of the war (a typical English education never really mentions what happened at the war's end--which I suppose is because "we" lost)? How do the French feel about Agincourt or Crécy?

IdontSparkle

There's not enough time in our middle school students' schedule to teach these wars in detail as they are not very relevant politically speaking nowadays compared to the wars of the 20th century.

What I remember is that it was well taught that it wasn't just a war between France & England but also against England's allies on the continent like the powerfu Duchy of Burgundy , and that the lands of the french king were very small compared to the duchies(?). It's only after the war that the king of France was really empowered and slowly gained territory and power over all of France.

Also we were taught that England's king was then a vassal of the king of France and the british aristocracy at that time were (at the beginning of the war) french speaking children or grand-children of french aristocrats (coming from Normandy for instance). They still saw France as the "motherland" they needed to take back, and England was just a colony. It's only after the hundred years war that the british indentity was created and that the British Elite started building a powerful country of its own on the Island.

In both countries this war was decisive in culturally and politically "divorcing" England & France.

So i'm not surprised the Brits still speak about Agincourt. It's one of those many instances where the Brits like to define their indentity in an opposition to France. However in France, we speak less about England and even the final french victories of the Hundred Years War are not mainstream knowledge, let alone the defeats of Agincourt. Only Joan of Arc is well known but few people can really say what her role was.