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The Norman Conquest in the eleventh century is one of the best-known events in English history, but the French attempts to invade England three hundred years later are largely ignored and misunderstood. In fact, French invaders landed on English soil more than fifty times during the fourteenth century, sometimes accompanied by allies from Castile, Monaco, Genoa and Scotland. Each incursion was part of an overall strategy led by the French monarch of the time, and those participating were well-trained fighters and shipmen. They were certainly not pirates, which is how they have often been described. The incursions were brutal, involving murder of civilians and rapine. Those along the invasion front responded and fought back, often surprisingly effectively. Determined English locals, organised into well-trained posses, sometimes bested the Continental professional fighters; although the economic damage caused by the raids was long-term. In the later years of the century Charles the Wise and his great admiral Jean de Vienne made ambitious plans for full-scale conquest. The initial plans for the invasion were made at a time when France was engulfed by multiple crises, of which England was a prime cause. Whole forests of ancient trees were felled in the Seine Valley to build the fleet. Edward III and his son Richard II never were dislodged from the throne of England by the Valois – but the threat was real. The fourteenth-century French invasion of England was not a single overwhelming event – such as Napoleon’s invasion of Russia – but a long-lasting process, sometimes intensely violent, which led to important changes to English society and had a profound and lasting impact upon the areas along the invasion front. This is the Anglo-French conflict that time forgot. The Norman Conquest in the 11th century is one of the best known events in English history, yet the French attempts to invade England three hundred years later are largely ignored and misunderstood. In fact, French invaders landed on English soil more than 20 times in the second half of the 14th century, sometimes accompanied by allies from Castile, Monaco, Genoa, and Denmark. They were part of a carefully thought-out strategy led by the French King Charles V. The forces that landed were well trained soldiers and marine fighters answering to the French monarch. It had taken Charles V and his great admiral Jean de Vienne years to put together the ships, materiel, and skilled mariners that a successful landing required. Whole forests of ancient trees had been felled in the Seine Valley to build the fleet. The invasion was planned after the Battle of Poitiers in 1357, when France was engulfed by multiple crises, of which England was a prime cause: King Jean II was a prisoner in England alongside many of his supporters; there was popular rebellion in Paris; the Regent--future Charles V--was only a teenager; the aftermath of the Black Death had cost France perhaps half its population; the English were demanding huge ransoms and territories from the French; and warrior bandits--routiers--roamed France, supported by the English. In response, the Second French Invasion of England was not a single overwhelming event--like Napoleon's invasion of Russia--but it resulted in civilian deaths, rape, looting and burning, military casualties, and economic disruption--which caused long-term consequences. This is the Anglo-French conflict that time forgot