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Battle of Brest (1342)

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Charles of Blois, with his army of French, loyal Bretons and mercenary allies had conducted a frighteningly effective campaign in Brittany during the July 1342. This movement had begun in his stronghold of Eastern Brittany and rapidly spread into areas nominally controlled by his rival and prisoner, John de Montfort. Montfort was another claimant to the ducal throne of Brittany, and had the support of a minority of Breton nobles and more usefully, the ruler of England, King Edward III. Edward had promised reinforcements and supplies to the Montfortists the following year after the death of the old duke John III and shortly before the capture of John de Montfort at Nantes by Charles, but these men had failed to materialise. This disparity of forces resulted in a collapse in confidence for t

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n9: The Breton War of Succession

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1342-08-18

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Eleven ships lost Unknown, light

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English victory

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Brest, Brittany

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Battle of Brest

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Charles of Blois, with his army of French, loyal Bretons and mercenary allies had conducted a frighteningly effective campaign in Brittany during the July 1342. This movement had begun in his stronghold of Eastern Brittany and rapidly spread into areas nominally controlled by his rival and prisoner, John de Montfort. Montfort was another claimant to the ducal throne of Brittany, and had the support of a minority of Breton nobles and more usefully, the ruler of England, King Edward III. Edward had promised reinforcements and supplies to the Montfortists the following year after the death of the old duke John III and shortly before the capture of John de Montfort at Nantes by Charles, but these men had failed to materialise. This disparity of forces resulted in a collapse in confidence for the Montfortist party in Brittany and many Montfort towns surrendered without a fight. By the end of July the principal towns of Auray, Vannes, Guémené-sur-Scorff and Hennebont had all fallen, leaving just the fortress port of Brest in Montfortist hands. The garrison there was nominally led by Joanna of Flanders but in reality was commanded by the infamous English general Walter Manny with his 230 professional English soldiers. There were numerous reasons for the delays in the arrival of the promised English army, including failure for county levies of archers and infantry to be fulfilled, delays in the payments due to soldiers from English-held Gascony and especially a paucity of shipping, a frequent problem in transporting soldiers to the continent from England during the wars. A small force intended for Bordeaux under Hugh Despenser had arrived in early July and seeing the parlous state of the Montfortists decided to stay, but their numbers were too few to turn the tide of Charles' advance and Brest was under siege from mid-July, blockaded by land and by sea, with a fleet of fourteen Genoese galleys, brought to Northern France from Italy by their commander Grimaldi four years before and which had participated in the Channel campaign of 1338 against Portsmouth and Southampton as well as the defeat at the battle of Sluys, being amongst the few escapees from the French fleet at that action.