The disasters of the Hundred Years' War
From 1410 to 1436, the town suffered successive attacks by the Burgundians, the Armagnacs and the English. In wartime, Saint-Denis was a strategic site. Its control of the roads north of Paris meant that its occupants could deprive the capital of supplies by cutting off its access to the fertile fields of the Pays de France. The abbey itself was a site worth occupying, as it held the relics of the country's patron saint, the guarantor of the kingdom, and maintained an ancient and privileged connection with France's royalty. In addition, the abbey's treasury-one of the richest in the medieval West-was an object of envy, as it could be used to finance wars. Progressively, the various invading armies transformed the abbey complex into a citadel. In 1435, the town was recaptured from the English by Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans. The wall was partially dismantled and the town's inhabitants fled, seeking refuge in Paris