Battle of Champtoceaux

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Champtoceaux
partof=the Breton War of Succession
Hundred Years' War


caption=
date=14th-16th October, 1341
place=Champtoceaux, Brittany France
result=French victory
combatant1=
combatant2= House of Montfort
commander1=Charles of Blois
commander2=John de Montfort
strength1=7,000+
strength2=Unknown, small
casualties1=Unknown
casualties2=Unknown, heavy

The battle of Champtoceaux, often called the battle of l'Humeau, was the opening action of the twenty-three year long Breton War of Succession, a dynastic conflict in Brittany which became inevitably embroiled in the Hundred Years War between England and France. The battle should have decided the war at a stroke, as the leader of one faction John de Montfort was made prisoner but English support and the escape of his wife Joanna of Flanders and son young John allowed continued resistance to flourish and eventually turn the tide.

Dynastic Conflict

The dynastic conflict over the Duchy of Brittany was highly political and revolved around conflicting claims following the death of John III, Duke of Brittany on the 30 April 1341. His inheritance was claimed by both his half brother John de Montfort and his niece Joanna of Dreux whose husband Charles of Blois was the nephew of King Philip VI of France. The French king was bound to support his nephews claim by the politic of family dynastics in medieval Europe. He was not prepared to endure an expanded war on the distant and foreign Breton peninsula where travel was fraught with difficulties and the language alien unless he had to, and encouraged John and Charles to come to terms on the issue. At this stage, Edward III stepped into the conflict offering troops and financial support to John de Montfort in exchange for homage from John for the ownership of Brittany and thus confirming Edward's claim to be the rightful ruler of France. Ironically, in supporting John whose claim to the ducal throne rested on salic law, Edward was jeopardising his own claim to the throne of France which deliberately ignored the same laws. The idea of English troops rampaging through Brittany and from there into Normandy and other parts of Northern France terrified Philip and he resolved to win the war before Edward's troops could arrive. John too was not idle, fleeing Paris days before his arrest for treason with Edward and arriving in Nantes to raise an army from his supporters.

Charles' advance

By the end of September 1341, Charles of Blois had 5,000 French soldiers, 2,000 Genoese mercenaries and an unknown but large number of Breton soldiers in his army which was camped at Angers in the Loire Valley. Overall command of the force was given to John, Duke of Normandy advised by the veteran Duke of Burgundy, although Blois wielded the real authority within the army. By the time he was ready to move at the start of October, Montfort had captured and garrisoned most of the castles and towns in Eastern Brittany including Rennes, Dinan and numerous others including the strong castle which guarded the Loire Valley at Champtoceaux. This stronghold was the first objective on the march of The French army, which was aimed at Nantes, the regional capital and centre of power. Charles of Blois arrived off the castle on the 10 October and laid a siege whilst he waited for the remainder of the force, which contained almost all the significant French generals of the day (spared from the English war by a truce until summer 1342). This army was moving more slowly but its presence was already causing a number of John's supporter’s alarm, and mindful of the speed with which supporters disappeared in medieval dynastic struggles, John was forced to act, scraping together a band of followers and riding to the relief of Champtoceaux.

Battle of Champtoceaux

The effort was a disaster for John. His forces were strung out in a dozen garrisons and thus he cold only scrape a handful of men from Nantes to join his "army". This force was not big enough to challenge Charles' vanguard and was dwarfed by the large French army behind him and English reinforcements could not be expected in Brittany before the New Year. John halted at a small farmstead named l'Humeau, three miles from Champtoceaux, expecting it to be garrisoned by a small body of his supporters who could inform him of Charles' positions. To their mutual shock, he found Charles instead and almost overwhelmed his rival's bodyguard, Charles barricading himself in the farmhouse's tower and defeating all efforts by John's men to break in. For two days the two rivals engaged each other in the surreal circumstances; repeated efforts to gain access by John were driven off by Charles' defensive position whilst the French army crawled ever closer. Supporters of John came to aid him and a series of bloody and confused skirmishes occurred around the head of the French column although they failed to blunt its steady progress towards Nantes.

iege of Nantes

Eventually John conceded defeat and rode as fast as he could for Nantes, pursued by French cavalry which had finally caught up with the action at l'Humeau. Arriving in the city with many of his supporters and mercenaries lost around Champtoceaux (which fell on the 26 October when John's flight became known), he received a hostile reception from the townsmen who only agreed to support him further if he promised them that he would surrender should no relief arrive for the city within a month. What followed was a series of sallies by the Montfortists and assaults on outlying forts by the French. Captured defenders were executed within sight of the city walls and discontent grew within the city to such a degree that John was having difficulty finding men to accompany his attacks on the French lines. Finally at the end of October a sally ended in disaster when John's mercenaries deserted at the height of battle and left the contingent of townsmen to be annihilated by a superior French force and their heads thrown into the town with a catapult. John was forced to surrender on the 2 November by the irate city council and he was taken to the Louvre and imprisoned.

Aftermath

In quick succession, John's allies and holdings in Brittany disappeared either through desertion or direct assault by the French army . During the winter, Charles captured all of Eastern and then in the spring most of Western Brittany, leaving only the tiny port of Brest in the hands of Joanna of Flanders and a few English adventurers led by Walter Manny. It was at Brest in the battle there in July 1342 that the promised English reinforcements finally arrived and the tide of war turned yet again and not for the last time. John de Montfort eventually escaped French custody in January 1345, dying a few months later. His infant son, raised in England, was still free and continued the war once he reached adulthood and would eventually defeat Charles at the battle of Auray in 1364, ending the war.

References

*Sumption, Jonathan, "The Hundred Years War, Vol 1, Trial by Battle", 1990, ISBN 0571138950
*A.H. Burne, "The Crécy War", 1955, ISBN 1853670812