The Hundred Years' War (French: Guerre de Cent Ans) was a prolonged conflict between two royal houses for the French throne, vacant with the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings.
The two primary contenders were the House of Valois, and the House of Plantagenet. The House of Valois claimed the title of King of France, while the Plantagenets from England claimed to be Kings of France and England.
The conflict lasted 116 years from 1337 to 1453. The war was punctuated by several brief periods of peace, and two lengthy periods of peace, before it finally ended in the expulsion of the Plantagenets from France (except the Calais Pale). Subtracting the two long periods of peace from 1360–69 and 1389–1415, the war was fought for about 81 years.
