The Battle of La Rochelle was fought on 22 and 23 June 1372 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 Castile's French allies.
Pembroke had been dispatched to the town with a small force of fewer than 200 soldiers. His ships also carried £12,000 (equivalent to £10,000,000 in 2025) in silver and instructions to use the money to recruit an army of 3,000 soldiers in Aquitaine in south-west France. The strength of the English 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.
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. This defeat undermined English seaborne trade and supplies through the English Channel and threatened their Gascon possessions, The battle of La Rochelle was the first important and most consequential English naval defeat of the Hundred Years' War, described by prominent historians as the worst defeat ever inflicted on the English Navy.
Background
Since the Norman Conquest of 1066, English monarchs had held titles and lands within France, the possession of which made them vassals of the kings of France. By the first quarter of the fourteenth century, the only sizeable French possession still held by the English in France was Gascony, part of Aquitaine, in the south-west. Following a series of disagreements between Philip VI of France and Edward III of England, on 24 May 1337 Philip's Great Council agreed that the lands held by Edward III in France should be taken back into Philip's hands on the grounds that Edward was in breach of his obligations as a vassal. This marked the start of the Hundred Years' War, which was to last 116 years. On 26 January 1340 Edward formally claimed the French throne. The extent to which Edward may have considered the claim more than a negotiating position is unclear.
The English campaigned frequently on the continent, gaining a long run of military successes against larger forces across France. In 1356 a large French army was decisively defeated at the Battle of Poitiers, in which King John II of France (r. 1350–1364), the son and successor of King Philip, was captured. This eventually led to peace being agreed, and the Treaty of Brétigny was signed in 1360. It ceded large parts of south-west France to England as its sovereign territory, while Edward renounced all claims to the French throne. The terms of Brétigny were meant to untangle the feudal responsibilities that had caused so much conflict, and, as far as the English were concerned, would concentrate their territory in an expanded version of Aquitaine. This had been part of the English royal estate in France since the reign of Henry II (r. 1154–1189), and by the treaty it and Poitou became fiefdoms of Edward's oldest son, Edward the Black Prince. The French were deeply unhappy with this arrangement.
In 1369, arguing that Edward had failed to observe the terms of the treaty, Charles V (r. 1364–1380), the son and heir of King John, declared war once again. France was newly resurgent; she had recently successfully intervened in the Castilian War of the Two Pedros and in 1368 concluded a treaty which emphasised Castilian naval support. This was to provide a key element in the French strategy for the next phase of the war with England. In August 1369 a French offensive attempted to recapture castles in Normandy. Men who had already won fortune and fame in earlier English campaigns were summoned from their retirements, and younger men were given commands. Events went poorly for England from the start: James Audley and John Chandos, two important English commanders, were killed in the first six months. The French, employing a Fabian strategy, made territorial gains in the south west, re-occupying the provincial capital of Poitiers and capturing many castles.
Prelude
By 1372 invasion scares in England were common and English rule in the Duchy of Aquitaine was under threat. The duchy was particularly susceptible to attack due to its being adjacent to French territory, its difficult supply line to England, and its long and complex border. Beginning two years previously, large parts of the region had fallen under French rule; Agenais, Limousin and Beauzac had fallen in quick succession, and French incursions into Saintonge and Poitou forced England to respond. In 1372 the Constable of France, Bertrand du Guesclin, laid siege to the town of La Rochelle and called on the King of Castile, Henry II, to honour his obligations under the 1368 treaty. Henry dispatched a fleet to Aquitaine under Ambrosio Boccanegra, assisted by Cabeza de Vaca, Fernando de Peón and Rui Díaz de Rojas.
In response Edward III planned a renewed campaign in Aquitaine under the duchy's new lieutenant, John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke. On 5 March Hastings indentured with the King to serve there a year with a retinue of 24 knights, 55 squires and 80 archers. He was to be accompanied by forces under Sir John Devereux and Sir Hugh Calveley, although in the event they appear not to have served. Pembroke was issued £12,000 (equivalent to £10,000,000 in 2025) in silver coin with instructions to recruit an army of 500 knights, 1,500 esquires and 1,500 archers in France; they were to serve for at least four months. A royal clerk, John Wilton, was appointed to accompany the Earl and administer the funds. Pembroke's expedition was funded almost entirely by lay and clerical subsidies, and was one of the few 14th-century English military campaigns not to require substantial borrowing.
Pembroke's reputation was high after an earlier successful campaign in Gascony, and his campaigning style was known to be swift and decisive. His appointment indicates the government's intention to return to the tactics that had characterised English success in the earlier years of the war. The plan appears to have been for Pembroke to land at La Rochelle and give succour to Poitou and the Saintonge. Having relieved the pressure on Aquitaine and raised an army locally he would march northwards, cross the Loire and join up with the King's own army, which was to have followed that of Pembroke.
Pembroke was accompanied by fewer than 200 men: his personal retinue of 160 men and a few Gascon gentry travelling with him. This small force was in Plymouth by May 1372 but sufficient ships were not available. The fleet eventually sailed in mid-June, although it was woefully inadequate for any serious military engagement. Unknown to the English, Charles VI became aware of the Earl's pending invasion shortly after it was decided upon. The English government had information that both the French and Castilian fleets were likely to be at sea, possibly operating in the area Pembroke was to sail through, but it appears that Pembroke was not informed of this and expected to encounter nothing more threatening than pirates.
Fleets
Galleys had been used by the Mediterranean powers for millennia and by the 14th century had been adopted for use along the European Atlantic coast. Being shallow-draught vessels propelled by banks of oars the galleys could penetrate shallow harbours and were highly manoeuvrable, making them effective for raiding and ship-to-ship combat in meeting engagements. Operating galleys was a specialist activity, calling for highly trained crews and thus requiring a professional, full-time navy. A typical Castilian galley of the period would be crewed by 180 oarsmen, sailors and naval officers, and 40 marines.
Cogs were the commonest merchant vessels along the Atlantic coast of Europe. They had a deep draught, a round hull and were propelled by a single large sail set on a single mast amidships. Larger cogs could be converted into warships by the addition of wooden "castles" at the bow and stern and the erection of crow's nest platforms at the masthead. Cogs typically had a displacement of 20–300 long tons (20–305 t) and the larger examples were able to carry many fighting men. Their high freeboard had the potential to make them superior to oared vessels in close combat, particularly when they were fitted with castles from which arrows or bolts could be fired, or stones dropped onto enemy craft alongside. However, they were slow-moving in comparison to galleys and more difficult to manoeuvre; galleys were usually dedicated military craft, unlike cogs, and were not reliant on wind. Carracks were larger versions of cogs, made more manoeuvrable by the addition of a lateen mizzen sail and were common in the Mediterranean.
Opposing forces
The English did not have a purpose-built navy; Edward owned only three warships. The Crown largely relied on requisitioning merchant ships; mostly square-rigged cogs, the standard merchant vessels of English traders. Edward asserted the feudal right of the Crown to impress English merchant ships into service. He was required to compensate the owners, but in practice, the King paid little and late, which caused shipowners to be reluctant to answer summonses to arms. This also caused popular discontent, and in 1371 parliament had complained that thanks to government policy, the navy had been "nearly destroyed". No detailed records of the composition of the English fleet that sailed to La Rochelle have survived, but it is known that it consisted entirely of impressed merchant ships. The Admiral of the West, Philip Courtenay, was ordered to arrest ships of 50 tons or less for use as transports. These ships were too small to be effective in combat, especially as castles could not be added to such small ships; some were hired from merchants on condition that castles were not to be attached. Because of this, three larger vessels were also impressed, converted into warships, and acted as escorts.
The total number of English ships is also unclear. Ayala estimated 36 ships, a French royal chronicler 35. The French chronicler Jean Froissart suggests 14 English ships and a contemporary Flemish writer records 14 burnt and a further unknown number captured. The modern historian James Sherborne states that a total of 20, including the 3 warships, is likely but that this was "gravely inadequate for a naval engagement". There were fewer than 200 fighting men in the English fleet, a major factor in the English defeat, for in this period a fleet's strength relied on the numerical superiority of its soldiery rather than cannon.
The size of the Castilian fleet is also uncertain. According to the Castilian chronicler Pero López de Ayala, it was composed of 12 galleys, according to Froissart, 13, and Thomas Walsingham states 14. Two other contemporary sources give 20 and 22 galleys. Several Castilian vessels are known to have carried small gunpowder cannon, and it is possible that some of the English ships also did. This made La Rochelle the first naval engagement to see the employment of artillery, which the Castilians used to great effect. The Castilian fleet also utilised fire ships: smaller ships of various types packed with flammable material, set alight and allowed to drift towards anchored or slow-moving enemy ships. The French alliance appears to have caused some dissension in the Castilian fleet before La Rochelle, with the Castilian sailors resenting being subject to French orders; tension appears to have been alleviated by the time battle commenced. A French fleet under Owen of Wales of unknown size was intended to join the Castilians, but arrived too late to take part in the battle.
Battle
Opening engagement
Pembroke's fleet reached La Rochelle on the afternoon of 22 June to find the town still holding out against du Guesclin. The harbour was at the head of a coastal inlet, unnavigable at low tide. Attempting to enter the inlet, Pembroke encountered a Castilian fleet of twelve large galleys and eight carracks at anchor. They had been sent to lie in wait for the English force since Pembroke's plans had become known weeks earlier. Pembroke knighted some of his squires on his flagship; this was a common practice on the eve of what were expected to be major confrontations. The historian David Stanton suggests Pembroke attacked first, and that having been "doubtless weaned on tales of English victories at Sluys and Winchelsea, pressed the attack without hesitation". The first encounters were fiercely fought; a contemporary said the Earl and his army were "marvellously pleased ... for they did not think much of the Spanish and thought to beat them easily."