The History of the World Podcast, written and presented by Chris Hasler

Volume 4 The Medieval World

Episode 49, the Battle of Adjincourt. And the We are now almost 70 years after the Battle of Kresi where the English

defeated the French against the odds. The site of this week's battle is around 30 minutes drive northeast from Cressi, just over the border from the Somme Department to the Par de Calade Department, all of which is in the Ode-France region in the north of France.

As we discovered in the episode about the Battle of Cressi, this area of Europe was occupied by a peoples called the Belge,

and the first historical reference to these people was from the pen of the Roman military statesman Julius Caesar.

Caesar had invaded Gaul during the first century B.C.

and the Belge were on the northern fringes of the lands of the Gauls.

Caesar recognized the cultural and linguistic uniqueness of the Belge,

and he also noticed that they were very brave

and by comparison to the Gauls rather archaic.

Despite the bravery of the Belge, the power of the Romans was too much for them to prevent domination. The Belge were quite remote

from the centre of Roman power much further south, but the Belge would obtain support

from the Romans in defending their territory from the aggressions of the Germanic tribes to their east.

Roman influence would start to change the Belge culture into a hybrid culture.

The province would be called Galia Belchica, and it would exist right up until the 5th century

when the Roman Empire would start to collapse and many of the

Gallic lands were overrun by Germanic invaders from the east.

The Germanic tribes who entered the coastal lands of Galia Beljica were the Franks, and at the close of the fifth century, a great

Frankish king called Clovis would bring the Frankish tribes under one rule and start to establish a new

kingdom of the Franks with imperial expansionist ambitions.

The Kingdom of France can find its roots in the Kingdom of the Franks

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