The Importance of River Valleys in the Overall Strategy of the Mercenary Companies 1357-1366

Abstract

In the middle of the fourteenth century the Great Companies of the Hundred Years' War achieved their goals by occupying bridge-towns and strategically important castles in the river valleys. In this paper, the importance of river valleys will be shown from the point of view of the mercenary companies in the border regions of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire, based on examples gathered in archives from Lyon to Lille. The cases presented show this process from the first appearance of the mercenaries until they reached the total domination of their targeted region.