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The 'Caroline War' was the second phase of the Hundred Years' War between France and England, following the Edwardian War. It was so-named after Charles V of France, who resumed the war after the Treaty of Brétigny (signed 1360). In May 1369, the Black Prince, son of Edward III of England, refused an illegal summons from the French king demanding he come to Paris and Charles responded by declaring war. He immediately set out to reverse the territorial losses imposed at Brétigny and he was largely successful in his lifetime. His less capable successor, Charles VI, made peace with the less capable son of the Black Prince, Richard II, in 1389. This truce was extended many times until the war was resumed in 1415.
The reign of Charles V saw the English steadily pushed back. Although the English-backed claimant to the Duchy of Brittany, John of Montfort, defeated and killed the French claimant, Charles of Blois, at the Battle of Auray in 1364, John and his heirs eventually reconciled with the French kings. The War of the Breton Succession ended in favour of the English, but gave them no great advantage. In fact, the French received the benefit of improved generalship in the person of the Breton commander Bertrand du Guesclin, who, leaving Brittany, entered the service of Charles and became one of his most successful generals.
At about the same time, a war in Spain occupied the Black Prince's efforts from 1366. The Castilian Civil War pitted Pedro the Cruel, whose daughters Constance and Isabella were married to the Black Prince's brothers John of Gaunt and Edmund of Langley, against Henry of Trastámara. In 1369, with the support of Du Guesclin, Henry deposed Pedro to become Henry II of Castile. He then went to war with England and allied Portugal.
Just before New Year's Day 1370, the English seneschal of Poitou, John Chandos, was killed at the bridge at Château Lussac. The loss of this commander was a significant blow to the English. Jean III de Grailly, the captal de Buch, was also captured and locked up by Charles, who did not feel bound by "outdated" chivalry. Du Guesclin continued a series of careful campaigns, avoiding major English field forces, but capturing town after town, including Poitiers in 1372 and Bergerac in 1377. Du Guesclin, who according to chronicler Jean Froissart, had advised the French king not to engage the English in the field, was successful in these Fabian tactics, though in the only two major battles in which he fought, Auray and Battle of Nájera (Navarette) (1367), he was on the losing side and was captured. The English response to Du Guesclin was to launch a series of destructive military expeditions, called chevauchées, in an effort at total war to destroy the countryside and the productivity of the land. But Du Guesclin refused to be drawn into open battle. He continued his successful command of the French armies until his death in 1380.
In 1372, English dominance at sea, which had been upheld since the Battle of Sluys, was reversed, at least in the Bay of Biscay, by the disastrous defeat by a joint Franco-Castilian fleet at the Battle of La Rochelle. This defeat undermined English seaborne trade and supplies and threatened their Gascon possessions.
In 1376, the Black Prince died, and in 1377, Edward III. The underaged Richard of Bordeaux succeeded to the throne of England. It was not until Richard had been deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke that the English, under the House of Lancaster, could forcefully revive their claim to the French throne. The war nonetheless continued until the first of a series of truces was signed in 1389.
Despite the tactical reforms of Bertrand Du Guesclin and the victory of La Rochelle, the French success during this phase of the war is easily explained by internal English actions. The Black Prince was probably superior to Bertrand du Guesclin in most aspects, possessed of a revolutionary mind in warfare (by medieval standards). He was the original commander charged with the defence of Aquitaine, but was dismissed after only two years of conflict with Charles in France. Partly this was due his illness, but partly his brutality (particularly at the Siege of Limoges in 1370), and partly his financial problems which had brought England into major debt. The Black Prince's early absence left Du Guesclin with little significant competition in his sustained attack on Aquitaine, Edward III being too old to personally lead troops against Bertrand. The replacement commanders for the Black Prince were easily distracted from the war in France: John of Gaunt was more interested in making himself king of Castile and Richard II was not interested in war, which leading to a lack of will among his generals.
'Significance'
The Caroline War is generally overlooked as an important phase of the Hundred Years War, yet it was a major turning point in the war in terms of French morale. Before Charles V successes in recovering lost lands in Aquitaine, the French had had very little go right for them in the war. The French had been beaten back by the English in nearly every battle starting with the battles of Cadsand(1337) and Sluys(1340). Although the Caroline War, initiated by Charles V, was not successful in completely driving out the English, the recovery of most of Aquitaine and the first naval victory for the French at the battle of La Rochelle boosted French morale, and more importantly, showed the French that the English could be beaten. If it were not for this period of success, the French people may have been broken in the 1420’s when the English once again invaded France under Henry V and controlled a majority of France. It is questionable whether the French would have been able to rally around a figure such as Joan of Arc without any previous success against the English.

The French successes during this period also would lead to their future success against the English by their change in military tactics. In open warfare the English longbow had wreaked havoc upon the French cavalry and it was Bertrand du Guesclin’s Fabian tactics of ambushes and raids that gave the French success. If it were not for Du Guesclin’s change in tactics, the French may have been beaten back further during this period and never been able to rid the English of their lands.

It is also during this period that the French saw their first rise in nationalistic pride during the Hundred Years War. This can mainly be attributed to Charles V for rallying the French to rid the English from their lands. Before Charles did this, the Treaty of Bretigny had allowed English nobility to keep their lands in Gascony and Aquitaine, lands that had been traditionally under the possession of the French Crown. When Charles sought to and successfully reclaimed most of this land, it re-ignited French nationalism and pride for defending their land. Conversely, this period saw the opposite for the English as the deaths of their two best military commanders, Edward III (1377) and The Black Prince (1376), left their army without a competent leader. This was a result of Richard II succeeding Edward at the age of only eleven. It would not be until Henry V that the English would have a competent leader who wished to invade France once again.

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Bibliography

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