The Two Hundred Years War

Michael Livingston argues that the English lens through which the war has been viewed has led historians to define it in terms of English interests, and that the events collectively labelled the 'Hundred Years War' are best seen as a sequence of steps in France's struggle to define itself as a nation. For much of the period, France's primary rival was indeed England. But it was by no means the only combatant. Burgundy stood in its way, too, as did Brittany, Flanders, Navarre and other rival powers.

Viewing France as the primary engine driving the war leads Livingston to consider a much longer timespan, starting with the Anglo-French 'Pirate War' of 1292 and ending with the marriage of Charles VIII of France to Anne of Brittany by which Brittany was subsumed into the French realm.