THE BATTLE OF LA ROCHELLE, 1372.
La Rochelle was besieged by the French; and in April the young Earl of Pembroke, who had been appointed Lieutenant of Aquitaine, was directed, in company with Sir Guichard d'Angle, and other knights, to proceed to the relief of the beleaguered town. He sailed from Southampton on June 10th. France, cognisant of the project, dispatched the Castillian fleet of forty large ships and thirteen barges to intercept the expedition. This fleet was commanded by Ambrosio Bocanegra, Admiral of Castille, Cabeza de Vaca, Fernando de Peon, and Ruy Diaz de Rojas; and it awaited the very inferior English squadron off La Rochelle.¹

Pembroke sighted the enemy on June 22nd, and with great courage prepared for the inevitable battle, placing his archers in the bows of his ships. The Spaniards, who employed cannon, as well as missiles to be hurled by men from the tops, weighed and gained the wind, and then bore down with cheers on the English. The action, which was very severe, was continued until nightfall, when, Pembroke having lost only two barges, laden with stores, the forces separated.

The fight had been witnessed from the town, and Sir John Harpeden, commander of the place, endeavoured to induce some of the inhabitants to put to sea to assist their friends; but they objected that they were not sailors and that they had their own work to do on shore. Three knights only, Sir Tonnai Bouton, Sir James de Surgières, and Sir Maubrun de Linières, with four barges, went out at daybreak on the 23rd to join Pembroke. The Spaniards, who had anchored for the night, then weighed, it being high water, and, taking advantage of the wind, bore down on the English in such a manner as eventually to surround them. The usual hand-to-hand fight ensued. Pembroke's ship was grappled by four large Spaniards under Cabeza de Vaca and Fernando de Peon, and after an obstinate resistance was taken.

Among the killed were Sir Aimery de Tarste, Sir John Lanton, Sir Simon Housagre,² Sir John Mortainge (or Mortaine), and Sir John Touchet. Among the prisoners were Pembroke, Sir Robert Tinfort,³ Sir John de Gruières,⁴ Sir John Tourson,⁵ Sir Guichard d'Angle, and Sir Otho Grandison. The entire English squadron was taken or destroyed; and all the prisoners of rank would have been massacred had they not undertaken to ransom their followers. One ship, carrying treasure to pay the troops in Guienne, was sunk. Sir James de Surgières was landed at La Rochelle, where he reported the disaster; the other prisoners were taken to Spain, where most of them were roughly treated. The catastrophe is said to have materially hastened the loss of Guienne.⁶



1. Foedera, iii. 941; Froissart, i. 636, 637.
2. Perhaps Sir Simon Whitaker.
3. Perhaps Sir Robert Beaufort.
4. Possibly Sir John Grimstone.
5. Perhaps Sir John Curzon.
6. Froissart, i. 635-639; Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, 182; Anon. Hist. Edw. III. (ed. Hearne), ii. 439.

      Excerpted from:

      Clowes, W. Laird. The Royal Navy: A History. Vol. I.
      London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co., Ltd., 1897. 282-3.

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Other Local Resources:

• John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
  
• Hundred Years' War
  

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Books for further study:

Rogers, Clifford J. The Wars of Edward III: Sources and Interpretations.
            Boydell Press, 2000.

Seward, Desmond. The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453.
           Penguin, 1999.

Waugh, Scott L. England in the Reign of Edward III.
            Cambridge University Press, 2007.

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