Besides the increased interest in myths about the past, it is important to note the mythologization of the present or the recent past so typical of military history. Mythologization of the leader or the hero plays a major role in a life of any community, especially during periods of crisis, promoting its rallying and mobilisation. Thus, a mythologized image of a hero becomes not only the object of veneration, obtaining certain sacral functions, but also an example for imitation, displaying concentrated positive characteristics. Similar processes can be observed not only in heroes of the past (e.g. King Arthur), but also in contemporaries (Robert Knollys, Bertrand du Guesclin, Henry V, Joan of Arc), who gradually lost the features of real persons in common perception and grew to become symbols with specific qualities.

Finally I would like to emphasize that in English historiography of the Central and Late Middle Ages, a canon was forming for narration of the past, constantly repeated and transmitted from generation to generation. English chroniclers "appropriated" the past of both conquered peoples (the Britons), and conquerors (the Romans, the Danes, the Normans), including it in the history of their own people and building a unified narrative within which the main focus was not on the history of the people, but on the history of the land; this narrative nevertheless plays major part in national consciousness. The mutation of the stories about relations with France during the reign of Richard II is significant in the light of the formation of this continuous history. The original resolute condemnation of Richard's foreign policy by contemporaries, in particular by Lancastrian authors, disappeared by the second half of the 15th century. The historical works of this period describe the end of the 14th century as just another victorious stage of the war, characterised by large-scale campaigns organized by the king in directions wholly traditional for English foreign policy (in France, Scotland, the Pyrenees and Flanders). This testifies to a certain unification of ideas of the English sovereign and of idealised images of victorious patriots.

Among the international conflicts scrutinized in this book, only wars for sovereignty over Scotland in the Early Modem period were directly connected to medieval campaigns. The English kings' rights for the French crown (declared until 1801) were already being perceived as no more than empty rhetoric during the reign of Henry VII. After 1453, English kings repeatedly began, and more often only threatened to begin, campaigns whose official purpose was to re-conquer the continental possessions of their ancestors. But in reality this was the least of the motives behind the wars waged by the Tudors and the Stuarts under the pretext of obtaining the French crown. That said, it is indicative that not only authorities but also common Englishmen constantly appealed to the renewal of the old war. In this case it is possible to see a traditional quest for justus casus belli alongside calls to repeat the achievements of one's ancestors and justify their sacrifices.