How Long Does It Take To Win A War?

That would depend on who was fighting, and what they were fighting over. Sometimes the spoils weren't really worth the effort, but some countries just couldn't get along no matter what. One of the longest running feuds in history, in the literal and figurative sense, was the Hundred Years' War between England and France, those perennial enemies.

The Hundred Year's War did not actually last that long. It is the collective name applied to a series of territorial skirmishes that took place from 1337-1453, which technically made it the Hundred and Sixteen Year's War, but who was counting?

What set off the powder keg? First of all, the death of King Charles of France in 1328. Charles died without male issue, and although his wife was pregnant at the time, she would later deliver yet another daughter. Edward III of England, was the son of Charles' sister, and the English held that he was now entitled to be King of France, as the last surviving male member of the senior Capetian line of monarchs.

But France's throne passed through the male line only, not the male offspring of females, a process known as Salic law. The French went back in their history to King Phillip IV, and chose a son of his younger brother to become King Phillip VI.

That rankled the English, but not nearly as much as Phillip seizing the French province of Aquitaine, which was an English possession. And so, the fight was on. Forays were made back and forth for 116 years, almost all of it fought on French soil. In the end, the English would yield everything but Calais, and went home to lick their hundred year old wounds.