How successful can a naval france be?

[Rîtaere]

Hello.

I'm trying to write a history about a Plantagenet France. Where the Hundred Years' War was successful, but Plantagenet could not hold the vast empire together and England split off quickly. Now I had the idea that this France was concentrating much more on Naval. Building fleets, building colonies in the New World and stuff like that. And spends less energy in attempts to conquer territory in Europe. How successful could such a naval France be? I don't want to accidentally write a wank.

 

[funnyhat]

I don't see why it couldn't be a naval power, if it made that a priority. France was the demographic heavyweight of Europe for a long time. Alone it had about 20 % of the population of Europe in the early modern period. Actually it could have been both a land and naval power if it had reformed its financial institutions. The British and Dutch were much more efficient at raising money and that was the big equalizer OTL.