The Hundred Years War brought us together as a people.  Saxon and Norman.  My family as well, both those that came to England and who stayed in Normandy.  It forged us all into a single people.  The English.  We even stopped speaking French in the end.  And though we lost Normandy, we became stronger.  We became England, and forged ourselves an identity that few Continental peoples could ever understand.  And that made all the difference in the world.