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Plantagenet era


England in the Late Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the late medieval period, from the thirteenth century, and the end of the Angevins, and the accession of Henry III, considered by many to mark the start of the Plantagenet dynasty, until the accession to the throne of the Tudor dynasty in 1485, which is often taken as the most convenient marker for the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the English Renaissance and early modern Britain.

At the accession of Henry III only a remnant of English holdings remained in Gascony, for which English kings had to pay homage to the French, and the barons were in revolt. Royal authority was restored by his son who inherited the throne in 1272 as Edward I. He reorganized his possessions, and gained control of Wales and most of Scotland. His son Edward II was defeated at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and lost control of Scotland. He was eventually deposed in a coup and from 1330 his son Edward III took control of the kingdom. Disputes over the status of Gascony led Edward III to lay claim to the French throne, resulting in the Hundred Years' War, in which the English enjoyed success, before a French resurgence during the reign of Edward III's grandson Richard II.

The fourteenth century saw the Great Famine and the Black Death, catastrophic events that killed around half of England's population, throwing the economy into chaos and undermining the old political order. With a shortage of farm labour, much of England's arable land was converted to pasture, mainly for sheep. Social unrest followed in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.


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