双语阅读：英法百年战争

百年战争是指从 1337 年开始，断断续续直至 1453 年结束的英法两国之间的战争。战争起因既有领土 之争也有经济利益的冲突。领土起因尤其与英国国王拥有法国很大的阿奎丹公爵领地有密切联系。随着法 20国国王势力日增，他们日益觊觎这片从他们领土内被分割出去的土地。经济原因则与弗兰德斯有关。弗兰德斯地区生产棉布的城镇是英国羊毛的主要进口商，但这些城镇在政治上却效忠法国国王。

 The name is given to the intermittent war between France and England that lasted from 1337 to 1453. The causes were partly territorial and partly economic. The territorial causes were especially bound up with the possession by the English kings of the large duchy of Aquitaine; as the French kings grew stronger, they increasingly coveted this large slice out of their territory. The economic causes were connected with Flanders; the Flemish cloth manufacturing towns were the importers of English wool but they owed political allegiance to the French king. 

其他原因还有英国试图阻止法国帮助苏格兰人，以及不断觉醒的民族意识。爱德华三世(1327-1377 年)通过他母亲伊莎贝 拉--法国菲力甫四世的女儿--的关系宣布要继承法国王位，但法国人拒绝承认。因为萨利克法典规定女子不 得继承法国王位。于是在 1337 年，爱德华对法宣战，战争一打就持续了百年。

To these causes may be added England's desire to stop France from giving aid to the Scots and a growing sense of national consciousness. When Edward III (1327-1377) claimed the French Crown by right of his mother Isabella, daughter of Philip IV, the French refused to recognize the claim because the Salic Law debarred females from the succession. In 1337 Edward declared a war that was to last for a hundred years.

战争分三个主要阶段。There were three outstanding stages of the war.

起初，英国人节节胜利。1340 年英军在斯鲁斯海战中取胜： 1346 年在加来附近的克勒西战役中取得 决定性的胜利，然后英军占领了加来港。1356 年在普瓦提埃战役中英军又获胜，俘虏了法国国玉，并索要 大笔赎金。英国占领了更多的法国领土，但这些土地到 1377 年爱德华去世时又失去了。经过长期的和平 息战之后，亨利五世(1413 -1422 年)在 1415 年重新发动战争。在阿根科特战役中英军大胜，损失不到百人， 而法军阵亡的有七千至一万人。

1420 年亨利五世被承认为法国国王，1422 年去世。此后法国人民在民族 女英雄贞德的鼓舞下，把英军驱逐出法国。到 1543 年只有加来港还被英军占领。把英国人赶出法国对两 个国家都是幸事：若英国人继续留在法国，那么法国人在领土和财富上所占的优势必然会阻碍英国作为一 个独立民族的发展；而法国如被外国势力占领了大量的领土，其民族特性的发展也要长期受阻。

At first the English were brilliantly successful: they won a great naval victory at Sluys in 1340, then an equally decisive land battle near Calais （加莱， 法国北部诺曼底地区一港口城市）at Grecy in 1346. The English went on to take Calais; and in 1356 at Poitiers they won another victory over the French King who was taken prisoner and held to ransom. The English gained more French territory; but they had lost it again by the time Edward died in 1377.

After a long peaceful lull, Henry V (1413-1422) renewed the war in 1415 and won a crushing victory at Argencourt, where the English lost no more than a hundred men to the enemy's seven to ten thousand dead. He was recognized to the French throne in 1420. After his death in 1422, the French, encouraged by Joan of Arc, their national heroine, drove the English out of France.

By 1453 Calais was the only part of France that was still in the hands of the English. The xpulsion of the English from France is regarded as a blessing for both countries; had they remained, the superior size and wealth of France would certainly have hindered the development of a separate English national identity, while French national identity was hindered so long as a foreign power occupied so much French territory.