When Charles IV dies, for the first time in more than 400 years of the Capetian dynasty there is no son or brother to inherit the French crown

A French cousin, Philip of Valois, is selected to succeed Charles IV - in preference to an English cousin, Edward III

Philip VI of France confiscates Guienne, a fief belonging to Edward III of England - whose response begins the Hundred Years' War

Edward III, in Ghent, publicly assumes the title and the arms of the king of France

The English siege of Calais ends when six burghers of the town, with ropes around their necks, offer their lives to save their fellow citizens

Charles VI, king of France, suffers the first of many violent fits of madness

Rivalry between factions of the French royal family results in the murder in Paris of the king's brother, Louis duke of Orléans, and the onset of civil war

Henry V succeeds his father, Henry IV, as king of England

Henry V captures the French stronghold of Harfleur - where, in Shakespeare, he urges his dear friends 'once more unto the breach'

Henry V wins a victory on St Crispin's day at Agincourt, against a much larger and more heavily armed French force

After a six-month siege Henry V makes a triumphal entry into Rouen, the city of his Norman ancestors

John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, is murdered by the Armagnac faction in the presence of the dauphin - escalating France's civil war

The treaty of Troyes, between the English and the Burgundian faction, grants Henry V the status of heir to the French throne

Henry V marries Catherine, daughter of the French king and sister of the rightful heir to the kingdom, the dauphin, who is on the opposing side

The dauphin proclaims himself Charles VII of France, but with Paris in the hands of his enemies he is known as the king of Bourges

Henry VI, son of Henry V and Catherine of France, is king of England and theoretically king of France before his first birthday

Charles VII enters Paris, marking conclusively the end of the French civil war

The French bring two small cannon on to the battlefield at Formigny, where they have a significant effect in achieving the French victory

Charles VII's full recovery of Aquitaine and Normandy effectively brings to an end the Hundred Years' War

Edward IV, landing at Calais with a large army, is bought off at Picquigny with a bribe - ending his attempt to revive the Hundred Years' War