Can the Plantagenets completely subdue the French?

Lately I've been contemplating the idea of France defeated completely in the Hundred Years' war, and England ruling most of France while the Burgundians rule the Eastern third of France + the Netherlands.
So, my question is - is that plausible? Can the English in the Hundred Years' war completely destroy the French and conquer (aided by allies such as Burgundy, of course) all of France, creating an Anglo-French empire centred in London?
 
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Can the English in the Hundred Years' war completely destroy the French and conquer (aided by allies such as Burgundy, of course) all of France, creating an Anglo-French empire centred in London?

Eventually, such an Empire would have to shift towards France, or lose it. France was the more powerful and wealthy of the two, not to mention more populous. If they refused to eventually become more French centered, they would lose France, which was of more value at the time, then Britain.
 
Eventually, such an Empire would have to shift towards France, or lose it. France was the more powerful and wealthy of the two, not to mention more populous. If they refused to eventually become more French centered, they would lose France, which was of more value at the time, then Britain.

Which was exactly why Henry V wanted to claim the French throne in the first place. The first round of the HYW centered on Edward III asserting his feudal hold on Aquitaine, and hoping that the new Valois dynasty would accept it. The fact that he was the grandson of Philippe le Bel helped, too.
 

HeWhoIsMe

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Eventually, such an Empire would have to shift towards France, or lose it. France was the more powerful and wealthy of the two, not to mention more populous. If they refused to eventually become more French centered, they would lose France, which was of more value at the time, then Britain.

I'm guessing that wouldn't be too hard. Some Plantagenet Kings of England were used to spending 2 thirds of their regnum touring through the French duchies anyway. Either to ensure loyalty, suppress rebellion or fight off invasion.
A dual-capital system with the King holding court at both London and Paris could work,too. Even more flexibly the King's court could be held anywhere the King was at the time, though a city or large town obviously served better than a faraway village.
The first couple of generations of their rule, the politically savvy Plantagenets probably wouldn't even bother going through the maelstrom of uniting the kingdoms, I think. Why rush into things when you can take it slooooow...

As to the possibility of any of that happening, I have to admit, that reading through the history of the period, I always wonder why the Plantagenets didn't manage to capture the French throne!
Their power base wasn't essentially that much smaller than that of a French king. Additionally it wasn't as fragmented.
Even by that time when French royal demesne had expanded considerably, it was a small part of overall France and it was surrounded by a multitude of powerful duchies that had been known to be less than loyal, on occassion. The Plantagenets seem to have been experts at playing the ambitious dukes against their King, too.
So, it really is beyond me why they didn't manage to capitalise on their advantage over the French King during a centrury of fighting and plotting...
 
My understanding is that the fortunes of the Plantagenets in the Hundred Years War depended largely on politicking among the French nobility. True, England was much more centralized under the crown than France was, but the Plantagenets could only capitalize on that advantage if the French King's major vassals (especially Burgundy) sat the war out or actively took the Plantagenet side. For much of the war, the Plantagenets came close enough to this to make major headway, but their alliance system fell apart under Henry VI.
 
Well, Plantagenets bit off more than they could chew with this one. They could claim France de iure, with other french nobles just becoming vassals, but sooner or later, their hold will fracture.

And I am betting more on sooner than later.
 
Could the Plantagenets subdue France? Yes, at certain points they had more Frenchmen fighting for them than for the Valois and while the support of the English Parliament and nobility was rarely more than half hearted it did act as a reserve that the Valois lacked. However as other's have pointed out while the capital was where ever the king was and the idea of a formal capital is some time away (English parliaments were mostly held in London but frequently elsewhere including Calais and Berwick.) such a Kingdom would inevitably be French focused and they would spend more time touring France than England, which would inevitably lead to them being regarded as French Kings ruling over England the resentment about that building up. I personally doubt that England and France could ever be sustainably united under one Crown after the arrival of the Franks in Gaul and the Anglo-Saxons in Britain.
 
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