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| Wheel of Fortune |
John of
Lancaster, ruling Aquitaine in his brother’s absence, married Constance of Castile[i] on 21st September 1371; he
then claimed the kingdom of Castile based on this marriage. This ultimately
unsuccessful claim merely incentivised Henry II to stay true to his alliance
with France.
Charles of
Navarre, a cunning political operator, saw that the wheel of fortune[ii] had reversed direction and that it
would be advantageous to come to terms with his brother-in-law. On 25th
March Bertrand escorted the hostages to Evreux and then escorted Charles on the
return journey to Vernon, as Charles paid homage for his estates in Normandy
and signed a treaty.
‘The king of Navarre put his
territories in Normandy under the government of his brother-in-law the king of
France, and left his two sons, Charles and Peter, with the king
their uncle. He then affectionately took his leave, and returned to Navarre.’[iii]
Bertrand was
involved in enforcing the treaty and removing the captains of Navarrese
strongholds such as Conches and Breteuil. He and de Clisson commenced the lengthy siege of Bécherel[iv].
Throughout
1372 the region between the Loire and the Garonne was almost completely
returned to the control of the French crown due to the efforts of the Constable
along with the royal dukes and de Clisson. The gates of Poitiers were unexpectedly opened to Bertrand and the Duc de Berry on 7th
August; possibly prompted by the fall of Sainte-Sévère[v] after a violent assault on
the 29th July when the garrison were spared.
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| Donjon at Moncontour |
Bertrand was
not always so lenient. At Moncontour the
garrison displayed the du Guesclin arms upside down on the walls of the
battlements[vi]. When the castle was
stormed the offending shield was removed and the commander of the garrison took
its place.
English Reverses
On 23rd
June 1372 the Castilian navy, commanded by Admiral Boccanegra, defeated an English convoy off la Rochelle; the convoy was bringing men and
horses to supplement the English military in Aquitaine and £20,000[vii] in pay for the army. The
Castilian control of the sea endangered the English lines of communication and
supply. And worse was to come as Charles was developing a naval base and
shipbuilding yards at Rouen.
At the end
of August Edward III, the sick Black Prince and John of Gaunt set sail with a
fleet of commandeered merchant ships to rout out the Castilian navy. This
mission of revenge was foiled by the weather; winds in the wrong direction held
the fleet in port for nine weeks. This fiasco cost Edward enormous sums and
helped foster discontent in England at the seemingly never ending war.
 |
| Battle of La Rochelle |
The Captal
de Buch and Thomas Percy[viii] were taken by a Franco-Castilian
landing party commanded by Owen of Wales[ix].
‘Evan of Wales, Sir James de
Montmoy, and their men, returned to their boats, carrying with them the Captal
de Buch, and their other prisoners, to the huge fleet, which was lying before
La Rochelle.’[x]
Bertrand
swapped some of his far flung Spanish fiefs in exchange for the Earl of Pembroke[xi], former commander of the convoy. The
ransom, set at 130,000 gold doubles[xii], was paid into escrow
with the burghers of Bruges.
‘The earl journeyed, under
the passport of the constable, through the kingdom of France: but a fever, or
some other sickness, overtook him on the road, so that he was obliged to travel
in a litter unto the city of Arras,
where his disorder increased so much as to occasion his death. The constable,
by this event, lost his ransom.’[xiii]
Pembroke died
before the ransom could be paid and the money was returned to Edward III.
Bertrand unsuccessfully sued the burghers for his lost ransom[xiv].
Charles V
refused to ransom the Captal de Buch despite Edward III offering to exchange
him for French prisoners with ransoms worth 100,000 francs[xv]. Charles agreed to
release the Captal if he became French; he refused to do so. Approached by his
nobles Charles then agreed to release the Captal if he abjured further
fighting; again this offer was refused.
‘The Captal replied, that he
would never make this oath, though he were to die in prison. He remained
therefore strictly guarded for five years in confinement, to his great
discomfort; for he bore it so impatiently that at last he died.’[xvi]
Imprisoned
in the Temple in Paris the Captal became depressed, refusing food and drink. He
drifted into a coma, finally dying on 7th September 1376.
Further French Success
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| Tour de Prince de Galles, Thouars |
Meanwhile
the town of Saint-Maixent surrendered on 1st
September and a week later la Rochelle came to terms with Charles V, giving him
control of the best port on the French Atlantic seaboard.
The French
now besieged Thouars; a company of knights loyal to
Edward III had barricaded themselves in the town. Sir Thomas Felton, the
Seneschal of Aquitaine. failed to relieve the town. On 18th
September the Viscountess de Thouars met with French envoys and agreed that the
garrison would surrender if not relieved by 30th November. The
garrison duly surrendered on 1st December[xvii]. Mid December saw
Bertrand and the royal dukes entered Paris with their prisoners.
On 15th
March 1372 Bertrand stood as godfather for Charles V’s second son, Louis de Touraine[xviii] with the Count d’Étampes. Bertrand added a new rite to the
ceremony; he placed the child’s hand on his sword and said;
‘”My lord I give you this
sword and put it in your hand, and pray God that he grant you valour such that
you be as good and worthy knight as any King of France ever was who carried
sword”.’[xix]
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| Donjon de Niort |
On 21st
March 1373 Bertrand took the castle at Chizé defeating the English in battle. John Devereux, a close companion of the Black
Prince and former Seneschal of la Rochelle, was taken prisoner during the
fighting. The donjon[xx] at Niort was captured on 27th
March.
Unrest in Brittany
The English
were entrenched in several strategic castles in Brittany; including Derval and
Bécherel. To pay for the upkeep of the castles the English demanded ‘ransom’[xxi] from the local areas.
The ducal treasury was in debt to the English crown and the heir to the dukedom[xxii] was Jean de Bretagne, the
son of Charles of Blois; a prisoner in England, hostage for his father’s unpaid
ransom.
French
support for the canonisation of Charles of Blois[xxiii] was guaranteed to
irritate Jean V[xxiv],
while the refuge given to Robert Knolles and the remnants of his army cannot
have calmed French fears. A secret treaty between Jean V and Edward III was
signed in July 1372; the English offering Jean castles that he would have to
wrest from French control, while agreeing that he would not owe the English
homage for his dukedom once it belonged to the English crown.
A force of
four hundred men-at-arms and four hundred archers, under the command of Sir
William Neville, landed in early October near Brest
‘The duke had placed his
confidence in some of the knights of Brittany, who had betrayed his secret, so
that the king of France ordered his constable to invade Brittany.’[xxv]
Bertrand was
accompanied by the Dukes of Bourbon and
Burgundy. Charles ordered Jean V to send the English packing and when nothing
was done Charles informed Jean’s vassals of his correspondence with Jean V;
thus undermining their support for their liege lord.
Fighting in the Cotentin
Knolles and
his army were cutting a savage swathe through northern France in an attempt to damage
the French war effort. English companies were rampaging through the Cotentin peninsula. The King of Navarre was currently in talks with both
Edward III and Charles V and possibly intriguing with the Duke of Brittany;
both men in a pivotal position to enable Edward to mount another invasion.
The English
were finally defeated in a battle on the lower Loire; the commoner Knolles
quarrelled with the nobility in his army over precedence and booty and the
final destination of the expedition. The four co-captains decided to go their
own way and du Guesclin’s men fell on and destroyed isolated columns of
soldiers.
 |
| Battle of Pontvallain |
Du Guesclin
caught up with the company led by Sir Thomas Grandison on 4th December and
defeated him at the Battle of Pontvallain.
‘Directly at a place called
Pont-valin, they were met by the French, who immediately charged them, and
surrounded them, as they were full four hundred lances and the English about
two hundred. The battle was sharp and long, and well fought on both sides………the
French gained the victory over the English, who were all slain or made
prisoners; for not an Englishman fled.’[xxvi]
Du Guesclin
presented Grandison and eighty other valuable prisoners to Charles V on 1st
January 1371.
Bibliography
Edward III –
Bryan Bevan, The Rubicon Press 1992
The Hundred
Years War – Alfred Burne, Folio Society 2005
Chronicles –
Froissart, Penguin Books Ltd 1968
Edward III –
WM Ormrod, Tempus Publishing Ltd 2005
The Monks of
War – Desmond Seward, Folio Society 2000
A Distant
Mirror – Barbara Tuchman, Pan MacMillan Publishers Ltd 1989
The Flower
of Chivalry – Richard Vernier, The Boydell Press 2003
www.wikipedia.en
[ii]
Or Rota fortunae, a motif much used in medieval times
[iv]
Not concluded until 1374
[v]
In the Charente department and within the apanage of the Duc de Berry
[vi]
A deadly chivalric insult
[vii] Sufficient to keep 3,000
men under arms for one year and in 2011 worth £11,400,000.00
using the retail price index or £128,000,000.00
using average earnings www.measuringworth.com
[ix]
Leader of a Free Company fighting for the French
[xi]
A son-in-law of Edward III
[xii]
In 2011 worth £73,900,000.00
using the retail price index or £831,000,000.00
using average earnings www.measuringworth.com
[xiv]
Giving up the suit to Charles V for 50,000 francs, in 2011 worth £28,400,000.00 using the retail price index or £319,000,000.00 using average earnings
www.measuringworth.com
[xv]
In 2011 worth £56,900,000.00
using the retail price index or £639,000,000.00
using average earnings www.measuringworth.com
[xvii]
The defenders of Thouars acknowledged the sovereign rights of the King of
France leading to the restoration to France of the Duchy of Guyenne
[xix]
The Flower of Chivalry - Vernier
[xx]
A castle keep
[xxi]
A cross between taxation and protection racket; Bécherel alone required
payments from 160 parishes in north east Brittany for its upkeep
[xxii]
In default of an heir of the blood for Jean V, as agreed in the Treaty of
Guérande 1365. Jean’s son and heir was not born until 1389
[xxiv]
If Charles of Blois was canonised that would by implication make Jean V the
killer of a saint
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