Battle of La Rochelle

Last updated

Battle of La Rochelle
Part of the Caroline phase of the Hundred Years' War
Bataille de la Rochelle.jpg
The naval battle of La Rochelle, chronicle of Jean Froissart, 15th century.
Date22–23 June 1372
Location
off La Rochelle
46°09′30″N01°13′40″W / 46.15833°N 1.22778°W / 46.15833; -1.22778
Result Castilian victory [1]
Belligerents
Royal Arms of England (1340-1367).svg England Royal Coat of Arms of the Crown of Castile (1284-1390).svg Castile
Commanders and leaders
Earl of Pembroke  (POW) Ambrosio Boccanegra
Strength
14–57 ships and barges [1] [2] [3] 22 ships [1] [4]
Casualties and losses
48 ships sunk or captured [1]
400 knights and 8,000 soldiers captured [1]
Whole fleet sunk or captured [1] [5]
800 men killed
Between 160 and 400 knights prisoners [5] 		minor

The Battle of La Rochelle was a naval battle fought on 22 and 23 June 1372 [6] between a Castilian fleet commanded by the Castilian Almirant Ambrosio Boccanegra and an English fleet commanded by John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. The Castilian fleet had been sent to attack the English at La Rochelle, which was being besieged by the French. Besides Boccanegra, other Castilian commanders were Cabeza de Vaca, [7] Fernando de Peón [8] and Ruy Díaz de Rojas. [9]

Contents

Pembroke had been dispatched to the town with a small retinue of 160 soldiers, £12,000 and instructions to use the money to recruit an army of 3,000 soldiers around Aquitaine for at least four months. [10] The strength of the fleet is estimated as between the 12 galleys given by the Castilian chronicler and naval captain López de Ayala and the 40 sailing ships, of which three ships were warships and 13 barges mentioned by the French chronicler Jean Froissart. Probably it consisted of 22 ships, mainly galleys and some naos (carracks) three- or four-masted ocean sailing ships. The English fleet probably consisted of 32 ships and 17 small barges of about 50 tons. [11]

The Castilian victory was complete and the entire English fleet was captured or destroyed. On his return to the Iberian Peninsula, Boccanegra seized another four English ships off Bordeaux. [12] This defeat undermined English seaborne trade and supplies through the English Channel and threatened their Gascon possessions. [13]

Background

Edward III of England. Probably a 16th-century interpretation. King Edward III from NPG.jpg
Edward III of England. Probably a 16th-century interpretation.

In 1372 the English monarch Edward III planned an important campaign in Aquitaine under the new lieutenant of the Duchy, the Earl of Pembroke. He contracted to serve a year in the duchy with a retinue of 24 knights, 55 squires and 80 archers besides other companies led by Sir Hugh Calveley and Sir John Devereux, who finally did not serve or did not appear. Pembroke was given £12,000 with instructions to use the money to recruit a host of 500 knights, 1,500 esquires and 1,500 archers in France for at least four months. One of Edward's clerks, John Wilton, was appointed to accompany the Earl and administer the funds. [14]

The Earl of Pembroke, his retinue and Wilton embarked at Plymouth aboard a transport fleet which was unprepared for serious engagement. [15] The Castilian chronicler Pero López de Ayala estimated that this fleet had 36 ships, whereas the chronicler of the French court estimated it to be 35. Jean Froissart, in one of his two descriptions of the battle, put the English force on 'perhaps' 14 ships. A fleet of 20 vessels is considered a creditable force. Sir Philip Courtenay, Admiral of the West, provided escort with 3 larger fighting ships (large tonnage and archer towers). [2]

The English rule in Aquitaine was by then under threat. [16] Since 1370 large parts of the region had fallen under French rule. In 1372, Bertrand du Guesclin lay siege at La Rochelle. To respond to the demands of the Franco-Castilian alliance of 1368, the king of Castile, Henry II of Trastámara, dispatched a fleet to Aquitaine under Ambrosio Boccanegra, assisted by Cabeza de Vaca, Fernando de Peón and Rui Díaz de Rojas. The size of this fleet is also uncertain. [17] According to López de Ayala, it was composed of 12 galleys. Froissart, in his first account, mentioned 40 sailing ships and 13 barges, but later reduced this number to 13 galleys. Quatre Premiers Valois and Chronique des Pays-Bas mention respectively 20 and 22 galleys. [4]

Battle

The Battle of La Rochelle as depicted in a miniature sometime after 1380. The English ships are lower than the Castilian; this advantage allowed the latter to throw arrows and bolts on their enemy with impunity. Bataille navale devant La Rochelle XIVeme siecle.jpg
The Battle of La Rochelle as depicted in a miniature sometime after 1380. The English ships are lower than the Castilian; this advantage allowed the latter to throw arrows and bolts on their enemy with impunity.

On 21 June the English fleet arrived at La Rochelle and the battle began as Pembroke's ships approached the harbour. This lay at the head of an inlet which was partially unnavigable at low water. The first Castilian attacks met strong resistance. The English, despite the inferiority of their numbers, defended themselves vigorously. At dusk, when the tide rose, the two fleets separated. Though they had lost two or four vessels, according to Froissart, the English were not yet defeated. Pembroke then withdrew some way from land, while Boccanegra anchored in front of La Rochelle. The Chronicle Quatre Premiers Valois, unlike López de Ayala and Froissart, implies that only some skirmishes took place on the first day, as Boccanegra would have ordered his galleys to withdraw, reserving them for the main action. According to this chronicle, the anchoring sites were reversed: the English off the town and the Castilians on the open sea. [4]

Froissart described a discussion between Pembroke and his men during the night of 21–22 June regarding how to escape the trap. An attempt to escape under the cover of the night was dismissed due to the fear of the Castilian galleys, as well as another to enter La Rochelle because of the low draft of the passage. In the end, the low tide left the English ships aground. Castilian galleys could maneuver freely in shallow water. That gave them a decisive tactical advantage. [5] An additional handicap for the English was the taller air draught of the Castilian ships, which enabled their crews to build wooden breastworks and throw arrows and bolts from a higher position. [18] [8] The Castilian vessels were equipped with arbalests that loosed quarrels on the wooden decks of the English ships. [18] When the fight resumed on the morning of the 22nd, the Castilians managed to set fire to some of them by spraying oil on their decks and rigging and then igniting it with flaming arrows. [5] Many of the English were killed or burned alive, while others surrendered, among them Pembroke. The Spanish naval historian Cesáreo Fernández Duro claims that the English prisoners amounted to 400 knights and 8,000 soldiers, without counting the slain. [19] Estimates in English chronicles speak of about 1,500 casualties, 800 deaths and between 160 and 400 prisoners. The whole fleet was destroyed or captured and £12,000 fell into Castilian hands. The English defeat appeared inevitable from the beginning because of the major inequality in strength. [5]

Aftermath

The battle of La Rochelle was the first important English naval defeat of the Hundred Years' War; [5] furthermore, it was described by historian J. H. Ramsay as the worst defeat ever inflicted on the English navy, [20] Its effect upon the course of the war was significant: La Rochelle was lost on 7 September. Its capture was followed during the second half of the year by nearly all of Poitou, Angoumois and Saintonge, which Bertrand du Guesclin cleared of English garrisons. [21] Some authors claim that the battle cost England its naval supremacy along the French coast but others disagree, though asserting that England's naval policy had become misguided. [22] [23] The projected resources to support John of Gaunt's claims to the Castilian throne were largely suspended, while a great expedition under Edward III himself had to be postponed because of contrary winds. [24]

Main attacks on England by Tovar and Vienne (1374-1380) Ofensivas Tovar-Vienne contra Inglaterra 01.jpg
Main attacks on England by Tovar and Vienne (1374–1380)

The English needed a year to rebuild their fleet through the efforts of fourteen towns. In April 1373 a powerful force under William de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, set sail for Portugal. It was commanded by Admirals Neville and Courtenay in two divisions, the first consisting of 15 ships and 9 barges and the second, 12 ships and 9 barges, 44 fighting vessels all told. Other ships and barges joined the large concentration and by July, Salisbury had 56 ships crewed by 2,500 sailors and an army of 2,600 soldiers. This campaign of 1373 was successful, seeing, amongst other events, the burning of a Castilian merchant convoy at Saint-Malo. [25] In retaliation, Fernando Sanchez de Tovar, who had succeeded Boccanegra as Major Admiral of Castile after his death in 1374, joined forces with the French admiral Jean de Vienne against England. Naval supremacy in the English channel, won in the battle of La Rochelle, allowed the allied fleet to plunder and burn the Isle of Wight and the English ports of Rye, Rottingdean, Winchelsea, Lewes, Folkestone, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Hastings between 1374 and 1380. Local levy troops raised by the Earl of Arundel were defeated in a land battle at Lewes. In 1380 the joint fleet sailed up the Thames and set Gravesend on fire. [26] [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

Year 1372 (MCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John of Gaunt</span> 14th-century English prince, Duke of Lancaster

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the third surviving son of King Edward III of England, and the father of King Henry IV. Due to Gaunt's royal origin, advantageous marriages, and some generous land grants, he was one of the richest men of his era, and was an influential figure during the reigns of both his father and his nephew, Richard II. As Duke of Lancaster, he is the founder of the royal House of Lancaster, whose members would ascend the throne after his death. His birthplace, Ghent in Flanders, then known in English as Gaunt, was the origin of his name. When he became unpopular later in life, a scurrilous rumour circulated, along with lampoons, claiming that he was actually the son of a Ghent butcher. This rumour, which infuriated him, may have been inspired by the fact that Edward III had not been present at his birth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Sluys</span> Naval battle during the Hundred Years War

The Battle of Sluys, also called the Battle of l'Écluse, was a naval battle fought on 24 June 1340 between England and France. It took place in the roadstead of the port of Sluys, on a since silted-up inlet between Zeeland and West Flanders. The English fleet of 120–150 ships was led by Edward III of England and the 230-strong French fleet by the Breton knight Hugues Quiéret, Admiral of France, and Nicolas Béhuchet, Constable of France. The battle was one of the opening engagements of the Hundred Years' War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Winchelsea</span> 1350 naval battle of the Hundred Years War

The Battle of Winchelsea or the Battle of Les Espagnols sur Mer was a naval battle that took place on 29 August 1350 as part of the Hundred Years' War between England and France. It was a victory for an English fleet of 50 ships, commanded by King Edward III, over a Castilian fleet of 47 larger vessels, commanded by Charles de la Cerda. Between 14 and 26 Castilian ships were captured, and several were sunk. Only two English vessels are known to have been sunk, but there was a significant loss of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Manny, 1st Baron Manny</span> English soldier (c. 1310 – 1372)

Walter Manny, 1st Baron Manny, KG, soldier of fortune and founder of the Charterhouse, was from Masny in Hainault, from whose counts he claimed descent. He was a patron and friend of Froissart, in whose chronicles his exploits have a conspicuous and probably an exaggerated place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Nájera</span> Battle of the Castilian Civil War

The Battle of Nájera, also known as the Battle of Navarrete, was fought on 3 April 1367 to the northeast of Nájera, in the province of La Rioja, Castile. It was an episode of the first Castilian Civil War which confronted King Peter of Castile with his half-brother Count Henry of Trastámara who aspired to the throne; the war involved Castile in the Hundred Years' War. Castilian naval power, far superior to that of France or England, encouraged the two polities to take sides in the civil war, to gain control over the Castilian fleet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke</span> English nobleman and soldier (1347–1375)

John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, was a fourteenth-century English nobleman and soldier. He also held the titles of Baron Abergavenny and Lord of Wexford. He was born in Sutton Valence, the son of Lord Hastings, and Agnes Mortimer. His father died when John Hastings was around one year old, and he became a ward of King Edward III while remaining in his mother's care. The King arranged for John to marry Edward's daughter Margaret in 1359, which drew John into the royal family. However, Margaret died two years later. John Hastings inherited his father's earldom, subsidiary titles and estates in 1368. The same year, he made a second marriage, to Anne, daughter of Walter, Lord Mauny. The following year, Pembroke began the career in royal service that continued for the rest of his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fernando Sánchez de Tovar</span>

Fernando (or Fernán) Sánchez de Tovar, 1st Lord of Belves was a Castilian soldier and Admiral of the Middle Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guichard d'Angle</span> Poitevin knight

Guichard (IV) d'Angle, Earl of Huntingdon, KG was a Poitevin knight, a Knight of the Garter and a companion of Edward the Black Prince. He was born in a noble family from Angles-sur-l'Anglin in North-Eastern Poitou, sometime between 1305 and 1315.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambrosio Boccanegra</span>

Ambrosio Boccanegra was a Castilian sailor of Genoese origin from the Boccanegra family. He was the nephew of Simone Boccanegra, the first Doge of Genoa, son of Egidio Bocanegra, who in 1341 went to Castile with a fleet in support of King Alfonso XI of Castile. He commanded the Castilian forces in their defeat of the English fleet at the Battle of La Rochelle in 1372.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of the Berlengas (1591)</span>

The Battle of Berlengas Islands was a naval battle which took place off the Portuguese coast on 15 July 1591, during the war between Elizabeth I of England and Philip II of Spain. It was fought between an English privateer squadron under George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, who had set out his fortunes by large-scale privateering, and a squadron of 5 Spanish galleys commanded by Francisco Coloma tasked with patrolling the Portuguese coast against privateers. While anchored off the Berlengas, the English ships were surprised by the Spanish galleys, which succeeded in taking one English ship and rescuing two prizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Cape Corvo</span> Ottoman - Habsburg naval battle in 1613

The Battle of Cape Corvo was a naval engagement of the Ottoman–Habsburg wars fought as part of the struggle for the control of the Mediterranean. It took place in August 1613 near the island of Samos when a Spanish squadron from Sicily, under Admiral Ottavio d'Aragona, engaged an Ottoman fleet led by Sinari Pasha. The Spanish were victorious and captured seven galleys and about 600 prisoners, among them the Bey of Alexandria and another 60 important Ottoman nobles. Cape Corvo was the first major victory of the Spanish fleets under Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna, the Spanish Viceroy of Sicily, as well as the greatest Spanish victory over the Ottoman Empire since the Battle of Lepanto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Saltes Island</span> Naval battle

The naval Battle of Saltes Island or Battle of Saltes took place on 17 July 1381, off Saltes Island, between the Crown of Castile and the Kingdom of Portugal during the Third Ferdinand War. The Castilian fleet commanded by Don Fernando Sánchez de Tovar defeated decisively the Portuguese fleet led by João Afonso Telo. The result of the battle was the destruction of the naval offensive capability of Portugal, achieving the Castilian naval supremacy in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Battle of Barcelona was a naval engagement fought in the coastal region of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, between the navies of the Crowns of Aragon and Castile, during the War of the Two Peters. A number of months beforehand, a large Castilian fleet had been assembled at Seville by order of the King of Castile, Peter I. Consisting of 128 warships including royal vessels, ships from the King of Castile's vassals, and several others that had been sent by the Castilian-allied monarchs of Portugal and Granada, this large fleet had been entrusted to the Genoese admiral, Egidio Boccanegra, who was seconded by two of his relatives, Ambrogio and Bartolome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Araviana</span>

The Battle of Araviana was a cavalry action fought during the War of the Two Peters on 22 September 1359. Eight hundred Aragonese horse, many of them Castilian exiles in service of the Crown of Aragon under Henry of Trastámara, had launched a cavalgada in Castilian territory when, near the Castilian town of Ágreda, confronted and routed a Castilian force under Juan Fernández de Henestrosa set to guard the frontier. Numerous Castilian noblemen and knights were killed, including Henestrosa, while many other were captured.

Sir John Minsterworth was a fourteenth-century English knight from Gloucestershire, who fought in the Hundred Years' War and was executed by King Edward III for treason. Nothing is known of his upbringing but he first comes to prominence during the 1370 invasion of France. The war, under the command of the King's son, Edward the Black Prince, was going poorly and had only recently restarted after a nine-year truce. Minsterworth was part of a force sent to relieve the English command in France under the nominal leadership of Sir Robert Knolles, whom contemporaries praised for his military acumen. Landing in the north, Knolles and Minsterworth carved their way to the west of France. There, divisions among the leaders—which may have been present before the campaign began—erupted into mutiny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Harpeden I</span>

Sir John Harpeden was an English knight and administrator who served Edward III of England in France during the Hundred Years' War. He served as seneschal of Saintonge (1371–72) and seneschal of Aquitaine (1385–89). His descendants became French lords. He is called John Harpeden I or John Harpeden the Elder to distinguish him from his son, Jean Harpedenne II.

The Battle of Margate, also known as the Battle of Cadzand, was a naval battle that took place 24–25 March 1387 during the Caroline War phase of the Hundred Years' War between an English fleet and a Franco-Castilian-Flemish wine fleet.

Battle of La Rochelle or Siege of La Rochelle may refer to:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fernández Duro 1894, p. 130.
  2. 1 2 Sherborne & Tuck 1994, p. 42.
  3. ↑ Hill & Ranft 2002, p. 11.
  4. 1 2 3 Sherborne & Tuck 1994, p. 43.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sherborne & Tuck 1994, p. 44.
  6. ↑ Sherborne, J. W. (1969). "The Battle of La Rochelle and the War at Sea, 1372-5". Historical Research. 42 (105): 17–29. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.1969.tb02322.x. ISSN   1468-2281.
  7. ↑ "Cabeza de Vaca's Travels Through Mid-North America 1528-1536". www.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  8. 1 2 Nicolas, Sir Nicholas Harris (1847). A History of the Royal Navy: 1327-1422. R. Bentley. pp. 142–44.
  9. ↑ Villalon, Andrew; Kagay, Donald (17 July 2017). To Win and Lose a Medieval Battle: Nájera (April 3, 1367), A Pyrrhic Victory for the Black Prince. BRILL. ISBN   978-90-04-34580-5.
  10. ↑ Sherborne & Tuck 1994, p. 41.
  11. ↑ Luce 1862, pp. 232–234; De Smet 1856, p. 259.
  12. ↑ "1372 Combate Naval de la Rochelle". Melilla, Mar y Medioambiente (in Spanish). 23 February 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  13. 1 2 William, Hunt; Poole, R. L.; Oman, C. (1906). The History of England. Volume 4. Рипол Классик. pp. 5–6. ISBN   978-5-87804-823-1.
  14. ↑ Sumption 2012, p. 138; Sherborne & Tuck 1994, pp. 16–17.
  15. ↑ Sherborne & Tuck 1994, p. 17.
  16. ↑ Harriss 2006, p. 410.
  17. ↑ Fernández Duro 1894, pp. 129–130.
  18. 1 2 Sumption 2012, p. 193.
  19. ↑ Fernández Duro 1894, p. 132.
  20. ↑ Ramsay 1913, pp. 22–23.
  21. ↑ Harriss 2006, p. 414.
  22. ↑ Villalon & Kagay 2005, p. xxxvi.
  23. ↑ Sherborne & Tuck 1994, p. 50.
  24. ↑ Sumption 2012, p. 144.
  25. ↑ Sherborne & Tuck 1994, pp. 49–50.
  26. ↑ Díaz González, Calderón Ortega (2001), p. 344-45

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.