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This long war between mediaeval England and France (1337–1453) is relevant to Britain’s fluctuating relationship with continental Europe and touches on sensitive issues, such as shifting national identities and migration in an age of Brexit and the growing influence of the far right. Its continued significance is made clear by looking at how later generations of nationalist writers in England and France have shaped the identities of both countries with references to victories over their ancient enemy – ‘the other’. For example, when a theatre or film audience in Britain views Shakespeare’s Henry V, they see the Hundred Years’ war replayed through the prism of his victory at Agincourt, while the French still commemorate their soldier-saint Joan of Arc as a liberator. Yet neither side chooses to remember much about their own defeats.