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Edward III's Breton campaign, 1342–1343
Part of the Breton Civil War and the Hundred Years' War
Edward III outside a walled town
Date 6 October 1342 – 1 March 1343 Location Brittany Result Inconclusive (Truce of Malestroit)
Belligerents
France House of Blois	England House of Montfort
Commanders and leaders
Charles of Blois John, Duke of Normandy	Edward III
Strength
Unknown but large	English: fewer than 5,000 Bretons: unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

King Edward III of England led a campaign in Brittany in 1342 and 1343. England, at war with France since 1337 in the Hundred Years' War, had sided with John of Montfort's faction in the Breton Civil War soon after it broke out in 1341. The French supported Charles of Blois, a nephew of the French king. By August 1342 Charles had captured John and reduced his partisans back to just one fortification, Brest in western Brittainy. An English fleet broke the blockade of Brest on 18 August. On 30 September a numerically much inferior English army inflicted a heavy defeat on the French at the battle of Morlaix.

Edward was supposed to arrive with the next contingent of his army shortly after the first, but had severe difficulties gathering sufficient shipping. On 6 October he abandoned his siege train and set sail with those troops he was able to embark onto the available ships. They reached Brittany after a storm-wracked three-week passage and Edward advanced on the major Breton town of Vannes. The naval component went ahead, was mauled by a force of mercenary galleys and then failed in an attempt to take Vannes by a coup de main. The land component was delayed building siege engines before attempting to storm the town on 29 November. The newly reinforced French garrison repelled this assault and a regular siege began.

English raiding parties devastated large parts of eastern Brittany, but attempts to reinforce or supply Edward from England failed. A large French army was raised with difficulty and advanced to Malestroit, 18 miles (29 km) from the English camp. The French king, Philip VI, moved his court to Brittany and entered into negotiations with Edward. The Truce of Malestroit, which was supposed to pause hostilities for three-and-a-half years, was agreed on 19 January 1343. It is widely seen as favouring the English. Edward arrived back in England on 1 March.

Background

During the early 14th century Brittany was a province of France, but while the dukes of Brittany were vassals of the French kings they governed the duchy as independent rulers. Nevertheless, when the Hundred Years' War broke out in 1337 between France and England the Duke of Brittany, John III (r. 1312–1341), fought alongside his feudal lord the King of France, Philip VI (r. 1328–1350). John died on 30 April 1341, leaving a disputed succession, with both his niece, Joan of Penthièvre, and his younger half-brother, John of Montfort, claiming the dukedom; Joan was married to Charles of Blois, a nephew of the King of France. John had the stronger legal claim but the aristocracy and clergy knew little about him and mostly preferred Charles'. What support John had came largely from the lower levels of society, especially in the towns.

Correctly suspecting that John was negotiating with the English, the French declared Charles the rightful heir on 7 September. Philip found the idea of having a relative as the duke attractive as it would bring the traditionally semi-autonomous province more firmly under royal control; he therefore despatched an army to support Charles. This army overran all of eastern Brittany apart from Rennes and captured John. John's wife, Joanna of Flanders, was in Rennes with her two-year-old son, also named John and the ducal treasury when news of John's capture arrived. She recalled the Montfortist field army, took command and moved to Hennebont. From there Joanna retained control of most of western Brittany, setting up her son as the faction's figurehead and heir to his father's claim to the duchy. She despatched her senior counsellor, Amaury of Clisson, to Edward III of England (r. 1327–1377), with a large sum in cash, to encourage rapid English military intervention.

English intervention

By the end of 1341 the Montfortist cause was being supported by Edward III as an extension of the war with France. However, English reinforcements took a long time to arrive. A small force, 234 men, arrived under Sir Walter Mauny in May 1342 and relieved the siege of Hennebont. Edward planned to land in Brittany himself in June with a substantial force, but had extreme difficulty in assembling ships, despite draconian measures taken by Admiral Robert Morley. Once sufficient had been impressed, contrary winds caused caused the English departure to be repeatedly put back. Meanwhile the flow of events went against the Montfortists in the face of the huge military superiority of the French. By July Joanna had been forced back to the far west of Brittany and was besieged in the port of Brest, the only remaining fortified place still held by her faction. Charles of Blois and a large army had invested the town and mercenary galleys, hired from Genoa, blockaded it from the sea.

In May 1342 Clement VI became pope. He was strongly pre-French and had previously been one of Philip's senior advisor's. He despatched two cardinals to attempt a permanent settlement of the Anglo-French war; they were well received by Philip in June, but Edward would not even allow them to cross the Channel. Instead he continued to gather ships and troops. William of Northampton was supposed to sail from Portsmouth on 8 July 1342 in command of the first contingent of the English army, 1,350 men. But on that date not a single requisitioned ship was present. Morley applied a heavy-handed policy of threats and confiscations which bore fruit, and 440 ships were requisitioned. Even this flotilla would have to make several trips if it were to carry the total of 6,000 men Edward wished to deploy to Brittany.

By mid-August 140 transports were assembled at Portsmouth, with 120 warships to escort them. Charles was aware that part of the English fleet was on the verge of sailing and sent twenty-one French vessels – galleys and other oared vessels – to trap them in Portsmouth. The English fleet sailed for Brest on 14 and 15 August and the French squadron despatched by Charles arrived off the Solent a little later, losing their chance of trapping the English fleet. Instead they razed Portsmouth and devastated the area around Southampton.

Brest was on the brink of surrender when the English arrived on 18 August. Their fleet of 260 ships took the Genoese by surprise, defeated them and burnt most of their ships. The English ships carried 1,350 men, a force far smaller than that of the French besieging Brest. But, seeing so many English ships crowded into the Brest Roads and the English vanguard disembarking onto the beach, they anticipated an attack by a vast host. Charles promptly broke off the siege, abandoned western Brittany and withdrew 110 kilometres (70 mi) to Guingamp. Here he concentrated his forces and called up local levies.

The English were reinforced by 800 men under Robert of Artois a few days after landing, and absorbed several small English forces and an unknown number of John of Montfort's Breton partisans. This force marched 50 kilometres (30 mi) from Brest to Morlaix, a port on the north coast of Brittany with strong fortifications and a secure harbour. and laid siege to it. It would make a good disembarkation point for the next echelon of English troops under Edward III, and Northampton laid siege to it. Edward's contingent was still in England waiting for shipping to be assembled; the French mistakenly believed it would be used in northern France, probably disembarking in Picardy. A French army was gathered to confront this imagined threat, including many men transferred from Brittany, where Charles became aware his force greatly outnumbered the English, despite the detachments to Picardy. He took his army west in an attempt to relieve Morlaix and was defeated on 30 September at the battle of Morlaix, suffering heavy losses.

Edward's Campaign

The 260 English ships which had disembarked Northampton's expedition at Brest on 18 August, together with those which had landed Robert of Artoix's reinforcements were supposed to sail back to England, pick up the 3,000 men who Edward had gathered, and return to Brittany by early September. The ships' captains were frustrated at having been requisitioned for up to three months and aware there was little left of the sailing season they deserted en route. When the rest arrived at the English ports there was not enough transport capacity for even half of Edward's force. On 6 October Edward abandoned his siege train on the beach and set sail with those troops he was able to embark onto the available shipping. They reached Brittany after a storm-wracked three-week passage.

Move to Vannes

Edward concentrated the English and Montfortist forces at Brest and called a conference of war. It was agreed to move on the major city of Vannes and attempt to capture it. Vannes was the second most populous settlement in Brittany with a good harbour and strong walls. From Vannes a strong detachment could control much of southern Brittany. On 7 November both the navy and the army set off. The fleet was depleted even further from the one which had arrived two weeks earlier; in the interim another 186 ships had deserted. Their masters and crews were unhappy at not being paid and at being forced out to sea in dangerous winter weather. Those left sailed along the south coast of Brittany under the command of Robert of Artois, probably carrying the 800 men who had sailed with him from England.

Robert was a reckless commander and he sailed past Vannes into the Bay of Bourgneuf, south west of Nantes. There he attacked a galley squadron overwintering at Beauvoir-sur-Mer. The galley crews were ready and were able to man their vessels before the English reached them. In the ensuing fighting the English came off much the worse, suffering many casualties and losing several ships. The surviving ships sailed back to Vannes, enduring another winter storm en route. Robert attempted to take the town with a surprise attack which came close to success but was defeated, with Robert being fatally wounded. The attack's main effect was to alert the French, who reinforced the garrison to 300 men and assigned an experienced commander.

In England the King's Council attempted to organise a further fleet to carry supplies and reinforcements. Approximately 1,400 men were assembled, but only 56 vessels were mustered. These sailed on or after 3 November carrying 600 men, but were driven ashore in the Isles of Scilly by further storms. They and the 800 men who had not sailed waited for a break in the weather, fruitlessly: they were finally stood down in February 1343. Only the Earls of Pembroke and Gloucester, with their immediate entourages, are recorded as having reached Brittany. The rest of the council abandoned attempts to cross the Channel in winter and agreed to reassemble with an army of 6,000 – the large majority much needed infantry – on the unrealistically early date of 1 March.

Siege of Vannes

The main English army marched unopposed some 120 miles (190 km) through southern Brittany without opposition. It halted 12 miles (19 km) from Vannes for a week to make new siege engines, to replace those which the English fleet had been unable to transport. It was 29 November before the Anglo-Breton army reached Vannes and attempted to take it by storm. The newly reinforced French garrison repelled this assault and a regular siege began. Vannes suffered from a severe and deadly outbreak of illness in 1342, which may have raised hopes that it would fall rapidly. The siege did not require the entire army and large detachments were sent on chevauchees across eastern Brittany to devastate the region and capture the fortified places. One expedition, commanded by the Earl of Salisbury, razed the outskirts of Dinan and devastated the area around Dol, 100 miles (160 km) north of Vannes. Ploërmel, Malestroit and Redon were captured and Nantes, the ducal capital, was besieged.

Increasing numbers of Breton knights and lords switched their alliegence to the Montfort cause. However, there were fewer than 5,000 English troops in Brittany, and the term of service of many was running out; it is known that 400 Welsh archers left the army on 17 December for this reason. The English were supplemented by an unknown number of Montfortist partisans; the French believed there were many such, but their reliability and enthusiasm was uncertain. In particular the Anglo-Breton force was short of infantry. No food supplies were arriving for Edward by sea, and although he sent out columns over a broad area, foraging in winter yielded thin returns. Edward's army was in difficulty.

Truce

The French were perturbed by Edward landing in Brittany, when he was expected to invade further east, and by his taking the field so late in the season, when their armies had been disbanded. During November they struggled to put together an army and to accumulate sufficient supplies to feed and equip it. The army was based at the main French supply centre with King Philip's oldest son, the Dauphin John, Duke of Normandy, in command. There are no contemporary figures on the size of the French army, but it was considerably larger than the Anglo-Breton force. It was 14 December before it commenced the 50 miles (80 km) journey west to the Breton border. Edward was sufficiently alarmed to invite the two cardinals he had brushed off in the summer to present their credentials. They had been observing events from Avranches, just over the Breton border, and were allowed as close as Malestroit 18 miles (29 km) from the main English camp; Edward suspected that everything they saw would be passed on to the French, and took great care not to betray the small size and poor state of his army. The two cardinals were probably in Malestroit when it fell to the French, on or shortly after 10 January.

Once started, the French advance was rapid; it was Christmas Day when the French relieved Nantes, just in time to foil a plot to open the gates to the English. Redon, Ploërmel and Malestroit were recaptured during early January and the French encamped around the latter. Philip VI set up his court at Redon and also sent emissaries to the cardinals at Malestroit. By 19 January the terms of a truce had been agreed and it was sealed. The break in hostilities was to last until 29 September 1346 and the historian Jonathan Sumption describes the terms as "astonishingly favourable" to the English. Both France and England were to retain the territory they held when the truce came into effect: this applied to Brittany, Gascony, Flanders and Scotland. Vannes was to be held by the Pope for the duration of the truce, Philip was to free John of Montfort and there was a general exchange of prisoners. Both monarchs pledged to negotiate in Avignon, mediated by the Pope, a treaty to permanently end the war. In reality each saw the truce as a mere pause and neither intended to negotiate in good faith; the truce had only been agreed because each had felt it was beneficial to them.

Aftermath

Philip believed that with the fighting ended, all of the English would leave for home. He was mistaken, and the Breton Civil War ground on as a disjointed and inconclusive series of petty sieges, skirmishes and truces, with the English and their Montfortist allies holding almost the whole of Brittany by 1345. Late in 1343 Vannes rose against the Pope's authority, expelled his garrison and delivered the town to the English, who held it until the end of the Breton Civil War in 1364. John of Montfort was not released until September, despite the stipulation of the treaty. Brest remained in English hands for 30 years; as the Hundred Years' War continued it was used to support forces guarding the passage of English ships to and from Gascony and to facilitate descents on the French-held parts of Brittany. The fighting continued much as before in Gascony; by 1345 the region had reverted to full-scale war.

Both the French and the English sent delegations to a peace conference at Avignon sponsored by Clement. Procedural disagreements delayed its start until October 1344. The proposals made by each side were unacceptable to the other, and the English ended the discussion in November. Edward was planning another major invasion of France long before the truce was due to expire, he renounced it in 1345, and personally led another expedition to France in 1346, this time landing in Normandy.

Notes, citations and sources

Notes

1. John surrendered on the granting of a safe conduct to Paris and back by John, Duke of Normandy, the oldest son of the French king, who escorted him. It was proposed to John that he repudiate all claim to Brittany and his possessions there in favour of Charles of Blois, receiving an annuity and land in France in exchange. John declined, at which Philip withdrew his son's promised safe conduct and had him imprisoned.
2. By English common law, the crown was required to compensate the owners of ships impressed into service, but in practice the king paid little and late, which caused shipowners to be reluctant to answer summonses to arms.
3. For the second time in five years.
4. Morlaix was the first major land battle of both the Breton Civil War and the Hundred Years War
5. Too little detail is known to be able to identify it.
6. He was released on condition he gave up the struggle. He stayed away from Brittany until his death in 1345.

Citations

1. Sumption 1990, pp. 17, 34–35.
2. Wagner 2006, p. 62.
3. Jones 1988, pp. 8–11.
4. Sumption 1990, pp. 370–371.
5. Burne 1999, pp. 66–67.
6. Graham-Goering 2020, pp. 47–49.
7. Sumption 1990, pp. 371, 374.
8. Mortimer 2007, p. 202.
9. Wagner 2006, p. 60.
10. Allmand 2001, p. 14.
11. Sumption 1990, pp. 377–378.
12. Mortimer 2007, p. 203.
13. Sumption 1990, p. 389.
14. Sumption 1990, pp. 388–391.
15. ^ Mortimer 2007, pp. 204, 219.
16. Sumption 1990, pp. 389–390, 409.
17. ^ Mortimer 2007, p. 204.
18. Burne 1999, p. 67.
19. Visser & Snijder 2014, pp. 33–34.
20. Rodger 2004, p. 120.
21. Rose 2007, p. 16.
22. Ormrod 1990, p. 17.
23. Sumption 1990, p. 393.
24. Neillands 2001, pp. 82–83.
25. Williamson 1944, p. 115.
26. Sumption 1990, pp. 391, 393.
27. Cushway 2011, pp. 109–111.
28. Rodger 2004, p. 101.
29. ^ Burne 1999, p. 70.
30. ^ Cushway 2011, p. 112.
31. Sumption 1990, pp. 395–396.
32. Friel 2003, p. 75.
33. ^ Sumption 1990, p. 399.
34. ^ Rodger 2004, p. 100.
35. DeVries 1998, p. 139.
36. ^ Sumption 1990, pp. 399–401.
37. Sumption 1990, pp. 401–402.
38. Curry 2002, p. 37.
39. Wagner 2006, p. 222.
40. Cushway 2011, pp. 112–113.
41. Sumption 1990, pp. 401, 403.
42. ^ Cushway 2011, p. 113.
43. Sumption 1990, pp. 403–404.
44. ^ Frélaut 2005, p. 35.
45. Sumption 1990, pp. 404–405.
46. ^ Rodger 2004, p. 102.
47. ^ Sumption 1990, p. 406.
48. ^ Sumption 1990, pp. 405–406.
49. ^ Frélaut 2005, p. 36.
50. Wagner 2006, pp. 60, 207.
51. Mortimer 2007, p. 206.
52. ^ Sumption 1990, pp. 386, 406–407.
53. Burne 1999, p. 84.
54. Sumption 1990, pp. 407–408.
55. Wagner 2006, p. 207.
56. Mortimer 2007, p. 207.
57. Jones 1988, p. 208, n. 30.
58. ^ Bárány 1997, p. 225.
59. Sumption 1990, p. 408.
60. Wagner 2006, p. 110.
61. Ormrod 1980, p. 174.
62. Curry 2002, p. 45.
63. Sadler 2013, p. 211.
64. Sumption 1990, p. 432.
65. Sumption 1990, pp. 388–391, 432.
66. Sumption 1990, pp. 409, 432.
67. Wagner 2006, p. 39.
68. Wagner 2006, pp. xxxvi, xxxvii.

Sources

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• Burne, Alfred (1999) . The Crécy War. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 978-1-84022-210-4.

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• Battles involving France
• Battles of the Hundred Years' War
• Conflicts in 1342
• 1342 in England
• 1343 in England
• 1340s in France
• Military history of Brittany
• War of the Breton Succession