Europe in 1300

British Isles

England was a kingdom that by 1300 also included Wales, just recently added. The crown also had some holdings in Ireland, but that island also had a number of small kingdoms independent of English rule. Scotland, too, was its own kingdom.

Among these kingdoms there was not only no unity, there was fierce rivalry and enmity. Scots and English invaded one another repeatedly. Wales rebelled at every opportunity. And over in Ireland, either the English were invading and expanding their conquests, or the Irish were taking advantage of English weakness and driving them back again. England's hundred year war with France only exacerbated this pattern.