England and France in the Sixteenth Century

This article summarises the main developments in Anglo-French relations in the context of Tudor foreign policy. It reviews the historiography of the subject, highlighting the main developments in twentieth century research. It argues that this research demonstrates that it was in the sixteenth century, under the later Valois monarchs and the first Bourbon king of France that Franco-English relations changed significantly. From being openly hostile they became more ambivalent in the true meaning of the word. Under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I the two nations began to create a still-difficult but sometimes more productive relationship with each other. This set the broad pattern for relations up to and beyond the Entente-Cordiale of 1904.