Because that’s the rub: for all his threats and ultimatums, his strategically placed fleet, the King of France does not actually go to war. He doesn’t even invade Gascony, the main holding of the Duchy of Aquitaine in the southwest. He just waits and watches as King Edward and twelve hundred of his best men spend England’s gold sitting in Flanders through September, arguing with potential allies. It’s an amazing non-tactic. Philip of Valois is either a dithering fool or the greatest military strategist of his age, and nobody in the English camp is quite sure which.
