This is the story of a war ... the Hundred Years War was the longest war in European history, a quarrel between cousins, Plantagenet and Valois, that embroiled two great nations in decades of blood and violence in the struggle for the French throne and the battle for control of French territory. It was a war which wrought great change in two medieval societies, ushering in the Renaissance and having repurcussions to the present day. Robin Neillands has written the first full-length general study of this period for over a decade. He takes an even-handed view of the struggle, featuring French victories as well as English triumphs. He goes behind the misconceptions of history to explain the causes of the conflict from the early campaigns to the final French Victory at Castillion.