Louis XI and Edward IV meet on the bridge at Picquigny, talking through a wooden grille, in an illustration by Job from an early 20th-century French history bookImage: Jacques Marie Gaston Onfroy de Bréville · Public domainTwo kings meet on a bridge at Picquigny
In the summer of 1475 Edward IV of England landed at Calais with one of the largest English armies ever sent to France, planning to renew the Hundred Years’ War with his ally the Duke of Burgundy. But the Burgundian help never arrived in strength, and King Louis XI of France, who preferred buying peace to fighting for it, offered terms. The two armies faced each other across the Somme. On 29 August 1475 the two kings met at Picquigny, near Amiens, on a bridge built over the river for the occasion, with a wooden grille between them in case of treachery. They agreed a seven-year truce. Edward went home with 75,000 crowns and the promise of a pension of 50,000 a year, and his daughter was promised to the French heir. No final peace was ever signed, but the meeting at Picquigny is often taken as the real end of the Hundred Years’ War.
Source: Britannica: How did the Hundred Years’ War end? ↗
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