Hundred Years’ War

This article is devoted to the study of the political crisis in France at the beginning of 1413. In the course of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that the illness of King Charles VI required government reform. Two trends emerged – aristocratic (preservation of power within the Valois family, but with its transfer into the hands of the Dauphin Louis) and democratic (limitation of royal power through the admission of people of humble origin to government).

The article examines the relations between London and the cities of Continental Europe in the first period of the Hundred Years’ War. It is shown that the beginning of the conflict for the citizens of London was associated with the need to strengthen the security of the city, supply armed detachments, subsidize the crown. London maintained contacts with the cities of Continental Europe, primarily Flanders, “English Gascony” and Normandy.

Geoffrey Chaucer is a representative of an early English humanistic literature, who in his «The Canterbury tales» managed to show the whole panorama of social life in England of the XIV century. His short stories reflect the epochal change, the formation of new values and a new elite. Chaucer notes the degradation of the secular and spiritual aristocracy, welcomes the enrichment and strengthening of the third estate, connects it with the future of their country, admires workers-peasants that preserved the moral purity of the «corrupt age» of the poet.