What claim did England have to French land when they started the 100 years war?
The background to the Hundred Years War, and English Kings having claim to French-speaking territories can be found in 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy, a vassal of the French king, led an invasion of England. He defeated the Anglo-Saxon King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, and had himself crowned King of England. As Duke of Normandy, he remained a vassal of the French King, and was required to swear fealty to the latter for his lands in France; for a King to swear fealty to another King was considered humiliating, and the Norman Kings of England, descendents of William the Conqueror, generally attempted to avoid the service. On the French side, the Capetian Kings of France resented a neighbouring king holding lands within their own realm, and sought to neutralise the threat England now posed to France. With the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, the Kings of England came to control even more French territories: Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Poitou, Gascony, Saint