W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2000 Bacchus and Bellum: The Anglo-Gascon Wine Trade and the Hundred Years War (987 to 1453 A.D) Christopher D. Turgeon College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Economic History Commons, European History Commons, and the Medieval History Commons Recommended Citation Turgeon, Christopher D., "Bacchus and Bellum: The Anglo-Gascon Wine Trade and the Hundred Years War (987 to 1453 A.D)" (2000). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539626260. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-7c4a-rj42 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BACCHUS AND BELLUM: THE ANGLO-GASCON WINE TRADE AND THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR (987 TO 1453 A.D.) A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William & Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Christopher D. Turgeon 2000 BACCHUS AND BELLUM: THE ANGLO-GASCON WINE TRADE AND THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR (987 TO 1453 A.D.) A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History from the College of William & Mary in Virginia, by Christopher D. Turgeon Accepted for^ ^ L^,W>u> Direc^r <* //* £ Williamsburg, Virginia A.D. March 31, 2000 11 To my parents have given me an appreciation for history and for that has inspired my life and this work TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v LIST OF TABLES & MAPS vi ABSTRACT vii INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER ONE 10 The French Monarchy: From the Capetian Accession to the Eve of the Hundred Years War (987-1328 A.D.) CHAPTER TWO 28 The English Monarchy: From the Norman Conquest to the Eve of the Hundred Years War (1066-1327 A.D.) CHAPTER THREE 47 Gascony: The Maverick Duchy (From Antiquity to 1327 A.D.) CHAPTER FOUR 67 The Wine Trade: The Vital Economic Link Between Gascony and England CHAPTER FIVE 93 The War: The Roles Played By -- and the Effects Upon — Gascony and the Wine Trade (1327-1453 A.D.) C O N C LU SIO N 161 END NOTES 166 BIBLIOGRAPHY 185 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express his heartfelt appreciation to Dr. Maryann E. Brink for her guidance, wisdom, understanding, and motivation in the production of this work. Despite the politics and subsequent distance, her support and analysis inspired me to continue with this project The author is also quite indebted to Drs. Dale Hoak and Phyllis Hall for their patience, careful reading, and criticism of the manuscript. The writer would also like an opportunity to thank the many people who took the time to read and critique the manuscript and who helped me conduct the research. These people, like my wife, my father, Dr. Tony Abbott, Dr. David Spear, Dr. Dennis Haney, and the staffs of the libraries at the College of William & Mary, Wake Forest University, and Furman University, who all helped me to find or accomplish the many little things that kept the project moving forward. The author is perpetually grateful and knows that the work could not have been completed without them. v LIST OF TABLES & MAPS Maps Page 1. France in the Latter Middle Ages 18 2. England in the Latter Middle Ages 33 3. French Provinces 49 4. Southwestern France 66 5. South-west France 72 6. North-west Europe 75 7. The Principle Campaigns of the Hundred Years War 140 Tables 1. Wine exports from Gascon ports during the Fourteenth Century 106 2. Prices at which the King's Wines were purchased in the Fourteenth Century 122 3. Wine exports from Bordeaux during the Fifteenth Century 133 v i ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to argue, among the myriad of other reasons for the cause and continuation of the Hundred Years War, that the wine trade between England and Gascony was significant enough to incite an armed conflict. This is not to say that the author intends to imply that the wine trade was the exclusive instigator of the war but that the commodity exchange between England and southwestern France was organized developed, and profitable enough to motivate the English monarchy to protect its investment. Before any intelligent discussion of the factors that led to the Hundred Years War, it is imperative to understand the background of both the English and French monarchies, to comprehend their mutual and divisive history that led to this prolonged conflict. In addition, it is equally important to grasp the impact wine had on both cultures. Therefore, the first part of this work is directed toward fusing together English and French medieval history and society with the wine culture of the period. Another portion of this manuscript is dedicated to the region that England and France fought over throughout the war. This area, called many things, but predominantly Gascony, and its capital, Bordeaux, were a centerpiece of wine production due to its awesome and unique location. One cannot understand the Hundred Years War without being a student of Gascony. One must be able to appreciate Gascony's Anglo-French history and the economic significance the Gascon wine trade acquired in the medieval period. Finally, all these elements will be brought together to see how they were effected and changed by the Hundred Years War. It is clear that despite the devastating impact the conflict had on England and France, the Anglo-Gascon wine trade continued. Moreover, the available evidence shows that the wine trade between England and southwestern France was economically and culturally important enough to warrant regal protection and support. The results of the research do not try to prove that the Anglo-Gascon wine trade was the sole instigator of the war, but rather that it was significant enough to incite and perpetuate the violence. This work seemed necessary because where the current primary and secondary evidence provide a virtually infinite list of causes of the war, including the Anglo-Gascon wine trade, the subject had been heretofore hardly considered and under examined. BACCHUS AND BELLUM: THE ANGLO-GASCON WINE TRADE AND THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR (987-1453 A.D.) INTRODUCTION Most people, if they think of it at all, tend to underestimate the impact of wine on the course of history. As historian and vintner, P.T.H. Unwin has noted, however: "Viticulture and wine have played fundamental economic, social, political, and ideological roles in different parts of the world throughout history."1 Hugh Johnson, perhaps today's foremost wine writer, makes the same point, asserting that wine, "weaves in with human history from the beginning as few, if any, other products do. Textiles, pottery, bread . are other objects of daily use that we can also trace back to the Stone Age. Yet wine alone is charged with sacramental meaning, with healing, indeed with a life of its own."2 According to recent chemical analysis of the contents of a ceramic jar excavated by Dr. Mary M. Voight, an anthropologist at the College of William and Mary, Neolithic farmers in what is now Iran were fermenting wine from grapes as long ago as the period 5,400 to 5,000 B.C.3 Furthermore, this same analysis showed that these ancient vintners used evergreen resin as a preservative, suggesting that they had already developed considerable experience with wine production and marketing. Why has wine been so important to mankind for so long? Again, Hugh Johnson provides an answer: "Because for most of its history, and mankind's, it has been his . source of comfort and courage, his only medicine and antiseptic, his one recourse to renew his tired spirits and lift him above his weary, saddened self. Wine was the foremost of luxuries to millennia of mankind."4 And, while successful cultivation of wine grapes is limited to certain favored geographic areas, the determination of peoples living outside 2 3 these regions to enjoy this luxury laid the foundation for one of the oldest and most important elements of world commerce: the wine trade. These fundamentals of human consumption and economic activity were fully established in the eras when Greece and Rome dominated the Mediterranean World; and they were just as vigorously at work in the period and region with which this paper is concerned: Europe's One Hundred Years War (1337-1453 A.D.) between France and England. Indeed, it is the purpose of this thesis to demonstrate that England's demand for wine from a territory we now recognize as French, was among the key factors which precipitated and perpetuated that disastrous conflict. To understand why wine has exerted such a powerful influence in human affairs, one must first come to grips with the most basic reason for its appeal to the peoples of earlier times in many parts of the globe. Johnson responds that it is wine's "power to banish care" that was so compelling to ancient societies and explains this power in the following terms: It was not the subtle bouquet of wine, or a lingering aftertaste of violets and raspberries, that first caught the attention of our ancestors. It was, I am afraid, its effect. In a life that was nasty, brutish and short, those who first felt the effects of alcohol believed they were being given a preview of paradise.