Military History Club Podcast · Saul David

Jonathan Sumption on 'Triumph and Illusion'

·42 min·2 clips

Joan of Arc’s march to Reims let Charles VII be crowned after 200 miles through enemy country.

1. Military History Club Podcast talks with Jonathan Sumption about Triumph and Illusion, the fifth and final volume of his Hundred Years’ War history. 2. Saul David hosts Jonathan Sumption, a barrister, former Supreme Court justice, and historian whose project took 43 years. 3. The episode asks why England’s apparent triumph after 1422 rested on unstable foundations. 4. Sumption says England was a middling power facing a much larger France in wealth, population, and territory. 5. He argues that long wars become wars of attrition decided by resource mobilization and government skill. 6. He points to the Dauphin’s government south of the Loire, based in Bourges and Poitiers, as a rival state. 7. That rival government made the conquest of all France unrealistic even after Henry V’s victories in Normandy. 8. Sumption says many northern French supporters of an English dynasty wanted peace after 15 years of civil war. 9. Once that peace failed to appear, support for English rule in France weakened. 10. John, Duke of Bedford, is described as a capable regent of France from 1422 to 1435. 11. Bedford spoke good French and married two French princesses, which helped his rule in Paris. 12. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, nearly damaged the English alliance with Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. 13. Charles VII begins as a young ruler overshadowed by ministers and marked by weakness in judgment. 14. Sumption links Charles VII’s recovery to better subordinates and to the removal of earlier, compromised ministers. 15. He says Joan of Arc changed the morale of French forces and made small French armies believe they could beat the English. 16. He emphasizes that her march to Reims in 1429 involved 200 miles through enemy country without a siege train. 17. The tactical stories include the capture of Troyes, Châlons, and Reims through bluff and the prestige of Joan’s reputation. 18. Sumption also discusses the English army’s discipline, longbow fire, artillery, and the gradual French military reforms of the 1440s. 19. Listeners interested in the Hundred Years’ War, Joan of Arc, and constitutional history will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a brief modern politics chat instead of medieval strategy may skip it.

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