Hundred Years' War (1415–53)
By 1449, the French had retaken Rouen. In 1450 the Count of Clermont and Arthur de Richemont, Earl of Richmond, of the Montfort family (the future Arthur III, Duke of Brittany) caught an English army attempting to relieve Caen at the Battle of Formigny and defeated it. The English army was attacked from the flank and rear by Richemont's force just as they were on the verge of beating Clermont's army. The French proceeded to capture Caen on July 6 and Bordeaux and Bayonne in 1451. The attempt by Talbot to retake Guyenne, though initially welcomed by the locals, was crushed by Jean Bureau and his cannons at the Battle of Castillon in 1453 where Talbot had led a small Anglo-Gascon force in a frontal attack on an entrenched camp. This is considered the last battle of the Hundred Years' War.
Robert de Crull
The years of Crull's service as administrator of the navy (1359–78) were difficult ones for England. Edward III had achieved a succession of victories in France enabling him to secure great possessions. This had been another chapter in the ongoing Hundred Years War. His claim to the French throne seemed to be about to be realised. In 1359, he began a campaign to complete that undertaking. However, after a number of battles well into 1360 the outcome was still in doubt, and Edward was forced to accept the Treaty of Bretigny wherein he renounced his claim to the French throne so that he could secure full sovereignty of the possessions he had in France.