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| Jehan de Beaumanoir |
Further Adventures in Brittany
When a
larger English expedition, commanded by the Earl of Salisbury, landed at Saint-Malo at the end of March 1373 a delegation of Breton nobles
petitioned Charles V, asking him to send them;By this time Poitou and Saintonge were almost completely under French control after Bertrand’s victories at Chizé and Niort.
By the end
of April Bertrand and the Duc de Bourbon had rallied an army that included many
of the most prominent Breton nobles; the Viscount of Rohan, Jehan de Beaumanoir[ii], the Viscount of Rochefort and de
Clisson. Finding that his vassals were antipathetic to his hopes Jean V fled to
England on 28th April.
‘When the duke of Brittany
embarked for England, he nominated sir Robert Knolles governor of the duchy,
but very few lords obeyed him. He, however, sufficiently reinforced his castle
of Derval with men, and, having provided it with every necessary, gave the
command of it to his cousin Hugh Brock. Sir Robert shut himself up in Brest.’[iii]
Resistance
was brief; Bertrand entered Rennes on 20th May and then moved on to
Montmuran[iv]. |
| Chateau de Brest |
There was
little resistance until Bertrand arrived at Brest[v], now commanded by Knolles. According
to protocol it was agreed that the garrison would surrender if not relieved by
6th August. Bertrand left a small force to besiege the town and then
marched towards Saint-Malo. As he neared the town the English convoy put out to
sea, sailing to the relief of Brest[vi], arriving fortuitously on
4th August.
In mid-July
Bertrand mounted an invasion of the Channel Islands; probably as much to stop
the English using the islands for refitting and provisioning, as for profit.
Bertrand then toured the various sieges underway in the area and was present
for the negotiated submission of Nantes. At the end of August Bertrand was en
route for Paris, where his royal master required his advice.
Grande Chevauchées
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| John of Gaunt |
The
fabulously rich[vii]
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and third son of Edward III, had always been
in the shadow of his magnificent brother. Now in 1373 Gaunt[viii], Jean V, a host of
English notables and an army of 15,000 men had the chance to outshine the Black
Prince’s successes as they sailed to the relief of Gascony. Arriving at Calais
the army travelled through France; Peronne, Soissons,
‘It
happened that one morning a party of English, to the number of six score
lances, who were over-running the country beyond Soissons, fell into an
ambuscade of Burgundians and French. When they had passed the ambush, the
French sallied forth with banners and pennons displayed…………The English fought
very valiantly, but at last were almost all taken or slain.’[ix]
The
chevauchée then bypassed Troyes
and Rheims and in the autumn down
to Marcigny in the upper Loire valley and cutting across to Bordeaux by the end
of the year. Philip of Burgundy shadowed the English right flank, while
Bertrand and de Clisson shadowed the left. En route most of the horses and the
supply train were lost. In the final weeks both Jean V and Gaunt had run out of
money; they then quarrelled and went their separate ways.
This
chevauchée did not bring Gaunt the glory he so desperately desired; the English
chroniclers were not particularly impressed. But in retrospect it did relieve
the English presence in Brittany; as Bertrand was recalled to fight this new
threat. Aquitaine’s security was reinforced and the French advance into the
county halted.
The nobility
disapproved of Charles V’s policy of passive defence and refusal to face the
enemy in battle; in their view this was cowardly. At a conference in September
1373, asked to give advice to the king, Bertrand said that it would be wrong
not to offer battle to the invaders, as long as the French had a clear
advantage; halfway between the two opposing positions.
In Languedoc
It is
unclear when Tiphaine died, but on 21st January 1374 Bertrand
married Jeanne de Laval[x] in the chapel at
Montmuran; she was 24 and Bertrand was 53. This second marriage again produced
no children, possibly, in part, because Bertrand was rarely home.
 |
| Carcassonne |
In the
spring of 1374 Bertrand was on the road to join Louis d’Anjou’s latest campaign
against Gascony. He arrived in Toulouse in late April and spent May purging the
lands around Carcassonne[xi] and Beaucaire of marauding routiers[xii]. Bertrand mustered 600 men-at-arms
and was accompanied by many old Breton friends and relatives.
Louis
d’Anjou’s march down the Garonne
did not start until August; the town of La Réole surrendered on 28th by the garrison was not taken until 8th
September. By October the Duc d’Anjou was back in Toulouse and Bertrand en
route to Paris. On 1st November Bertrand and de Clisson received the
surrender of Becherel.
‘You have before heard how
the garrison of Becherel had held out for upwards of a year, and had entered
into a capitulation to surrender, if they were not relieved before
All-Saints-day………but as none appeared to relieve the castle, it was
surrendered, and those who were so inclined left it.’[xiii]
 |
| Saint-Sauveur le Vicomte |
The garrison
was allowed to reinforce the fortress of Saint-Sauveur le Vicomte in Normandy, Froissart informs us
that Bertrand then laid siege to the fortress.
‘By orders from the king of
France, these men at arms shortly after laid siege to St. Sauveur le Vicomte in
Coutantin…………St. Sauveur was first besieged on the side next the sea by sir John de Vienne
admiral of France……..there was also a large army before it, with plenty of
everything. These lords of France had pointed large engines against it, which
much harassed the garrison.’[xiv]
Turmoil in Brittany
In April 1375
another chevauchée was launched by Edmund, Earl of Cambridge[xv]. Edmund landed in western Brittany
and marched eastward. The French defence was mainly undertaken by de Clisson.
On 27th
June a truce was signed in Bruges between the French, the English and Jean V,
who was allowed to stay in Brittany. He was required to confine himself to the
three towns still under his control; Brest, Auray and Derval. The surrender of
Saint-Sauveur le Vicomte was also agreed.
‘They brought with them
deeds engrossed and sealed of the truces entered into between the kings of
France and England. The duke of Lancaster sent orders, that in consequence of
the treaty of Bruges, the army should be disbanded without delay.’[xvi]
Change
 |
| Bertrand du Guesclin |
In March
1376 Charles V made Bertrand Viscount of Pontorson; he also gave his Constable
several manors and forests in Normandy, deeming him
‘Very worthy of great
remuneration.’[xvii]
Three months
later the Black Prince died on 8th June[xviii]; his father followed
barely a year after on 21st June 1377. Edward III left his 10 year
old grandson Richard to inherit his throne.
‘In the month of July, the
young king Richard, who was in his eleventh year, was crowned with great
solemnity at the palace of Westminster: he was supported by the dukes of
Lancaster and Brittany.’[xix]
Around this
time the failure to renew the treaty with France meant that the fighting broke
out again. |
| Bergerac |
In the
summer of 1377 Bertrand, the Duc d’Anjou[xx], Marshal de Sancerre, Enguerrand de Coucy, the Bègue de Villains[xxi] and other captains of
renown fought a successful campaign in the Périgord and Gascony. The French
besieged Bergerac for two weeks; an ambuscade by the
English resulted in the capture of one of their captains; Thomas Felton[xxii]. Bergerac surrendered
on 2nd September. By the middle of the month Saint-Foy-la-Grande and Castillon had fallen too.
The army
moved south westwards and took a number of towns on the left bank of the
Garonne including Sauveterre de Guyenne and Saint-Macaire. The campaign was brought to an end in October by bad
weather; but not before having reclaimed 134 castles and towns for the French
crown.
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
[i]
The Flower of Chivalry - Vernier
[ii]
Marshall of Brittany
[v]
Surrendered by Jean IV to the English in 1342
[vi]
Which did not capitulate until 1379
[vii]
Courtesy of his first wife Blanche, daughter and heiress of the first Duke
of Lancaster Henry Grosmont
[viii]
Styling himself Monsieur d’Espagne
[x]
A relative of the Duke of Brittany
[xii]
Mercenaries, often banded into Free Companies
[xiv]
Ibid
[xv]
Fourth of Edward’s surviving sons and later Duke of York
[xvii]
The Flower of Chivalry - Vernier
[xviii]
Just before his 46th birthday
[xx]
His father had given him the Duchy of Touraine in 1370 in addition to Anjou
[xxii]
Seneschal of Guyenne
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