Hundred Years' War

American  

noun

1. the series of wars between England and France, 1337–1453, in which England lost all its possessions in France except Calais.

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Hundred Years' War British  

noun

1. the series of wars fought intermittently between England and France from 1337–1453: after early victories the English were expelled from all of France except Calais

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Hundred Years' War Cultural  

1. A war between France and England that lasted from the middle of the fourteenth century to the middle of the fifteenth. The kings of England invaded France, trying to claim the throne. Toward the end of the war, Joan of Arc helped rally the French, who finally drove out the English.

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Example Sentences

These themes, of statecraft and firepower, are explored in “Triumph and Illusion,” the fifth and final volume of Jonathan Sumption’s impressive narrative of the Hundred Years’ War.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026

Agincourt refers to a battle England won against France in 1415, as part of the Hundred Years' War.

From BBC • Jan. 27, 2025

She read the founding documents of Zionism and devoured books like Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine.

From Slate • Oct. 21, 2024

The chronicler Froissart records that both sides saw clearly the Bohemian was at fault, but the French, not desiring to provoke the English during a lull in the Hundred Years’ War, grudgingly excused his behavior.

From Salon • Aug. 10, 2024

The Hundred Years’ War had progressed to approximately its twenty-sixth year with no indications of anything more than periods of uneasy truce.

From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee