Got a Real-World Weapon, Armor or Tactics Question? Mk. XXIV

[rs2excelsior]

There's something I find interesting. With many of the battles won by the English during the 1H Years' War, there is widespread knowledge of how and why the English won, be it tactics, mistakes on the other side, equipment, and so on.
On the other hand, the English lost the war, but all I know about this sums up to "And the Joan D'Arc appears (and La Hire too!)". Is there a more practically minded explanation of why the French won and the English lost?

All of the following is with the caveat that Medieval history isn't as much my thing as later periods. As far as I understand it this is correct, but someone with more knowledge may be able to elaborate/correct what I say here.

It had a lot to do with the fact that the English were trying to project power onto the French home turf. At its core, the HYW was an attempt by the English kings to press their claims on the French throne. Which meant getting to Paris, knocking down the door, seating yourself on the throne, and declaring yourself King of France. And getting the old French king to stop calling himself that. And getting all the French dukes to recognize you and stop rebelling. The English had to win, it was enough for the French to not lose.

Through most of the Hundred Years' War, the French had the advantage in manpower (as far as I can tell at least). So many of the English victories were in battles where they were badly outnumbered by the French, which is part of the reason they're considered great victories. The English had the advantage at sea, which made it difficult for the French to make a landing in England and force peace that way (as far as I know, the French never landed in England during the HYW), but the English had to get an army onto the continent and maintain it. Their armies were usually smaller and their supply lines much longer. Even though they could beat French armies, the French could come back from those losses more easily than the English.

Also, Medieval warfare was not really about battles, it was about sieges. No matter how well you beat an army in the field, it made no difference if their castles were still intact and resisting (of course, not having a hostile army breathing down your neck made sieges easier). The English might have won some field victories, but they still had to take French castles, where the problems of supply and reinforcement in hostile territory become even more pronounced.

Despite all of this, the English did manage to take a significant portion of French land, and were not driven totally out of France until the mid-late 1400s (I don't know the exact date). Also keep in mind that the HYW was not a single unbroken conflict, it was a series of smaller wars (some won by the English, some won by the French, none really fully deciding the issue of succession to the throne) broken by periods of truce.