An interesting thing of the first phases of the Hundred Years War to take into account is also the difference between the army organisation of France and England; Edward III had almost a standing army composed mainly of veteran footmen/archers and did many short incursions through France with a fast-moving force (1339-1340, 1342, 1345 and -36). On the other side, the French had to assemble the army (l'ost) by calling up the nobles which could take weeks and sometimes could not catch the English and force them to battle - the English had already returned home by the time the ost was ready.

This also led to economic problems which are a bit involved - simply put, every time a special war tax had to be levied, sometimes for months or years after the English had passed and for paying an army that had not been able to defend anything at all.