John of Gaunt Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === War in France === On the resumption of war with France in 1369, John was sent to [[Calais]] with [[Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford|Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford]] and a small English army with which he raided into northern France. On 23 August, he was confronted by a much larger French army under [[Philip the Bold]], Duke of Burgundy. Exercising his first command, John dared not attack such a superior force and the two armies faced each other across a marsh for several weeks until the English were reinforced by the [[Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick|Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick]], at which the French withdrew without offering battle. John and Warwick then decided to strike [[Harfleur]], the base of the French fleet on the [[Seine]]. Further reinforced by German mercenaries, they marched on Harfleur, but were delayed by French guerilla operations while the town prepared for a siege. John invested the town for four days in October, but he was losing so many men to [[dysentery]] and [[bubonic plague]] that he decided to abandon the siege and return to Calais. During this retreat, the army had to fight its way across the [[Somme (river)|Somme]] at the ford of Blanchetaque against a French army led by Hugh de Châtillon, who was captured and sold to Edward III. By the middle of November, the survivors of the sickly army returned to Calais, where the Earl of Warwick died of the plague. Though it seemed an inglorious conclusion to the campaign, John had forced the French king, [[Charles V of France|Charles V]], to abandon his plans to invade England that autumn.{{sfn|Sumption|2009|pp=38–69}} In the summer of 1370, John was sent with a small army to [[Aquitaine]] to reinforce his ailing elder brother, the Black Prince, and his younger brother [[Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York|Edmund of Langley, Duke of York]], Earl of Cambridge. With them, he participated in the [[Siege of Limoges]] (September 1370). He took charge of the siege operations and at one point engaged in hand-to-hand fighting in the undermining tunnels.{{sfn|Sumption|2009|p=82}} After this event, the Black Prince gave John the [[Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aquitaine|lieutenancy of Aquitaine]] and sailed for England, leaving John in charge. Though he attempted to defend the duchy against French encroachment for nearly a year, lack of resources and money meant he could do little but husband what small territory the English still controlled, and he resigned the command in September 1371 and returned to England.{{sfn|Sumption|2009|pp=69–108}} Just before leaving Aquitaine, he married the [[Constance of Castile, Duchess of Lancaster|Infanta Constance of Castile]] in September 1371 at [[Roquefort, Landes|Roquefort]], near [[Bordeaux]], [[Guyenne]]. The following year he took part with his father, Edward III, in an abortive attempt to invade France with a large army, which was frustrated by three months of unfavourable winds. Probably John's most notable feat of arms occurred in August–December 1373, when he attempted to relieve Aquitaine by the landward route, leading an army of some 9,000 mounted men from Calais on a [[John of Gaunt's chevauchée of 1373|great chevauchée]] from north-eastern to south-western France on a 900-kilometre raid. This four-month ride through enemy territory, evading French armies on the way, was a bold stroke that impressed contemporaries but achieved virtually nothing. Beset on all sides by French ambushes and plagued by disease and starvation, John of Gaunt and his raiders battled their way through Champagne, east of Paris, into Burgundy, across the [[Massif Central]], and finally down into [[Dordogne]]. Unable to attack any strongly fortified forts and cities, the raiders plundered the countryside, which weakened the French infrastructure, but the military value of the damage was only temporary. Marching in winter across the [[Limousin]] plateau, with stragglers being picked off by the French, huge numbers of the army, and even larger numbers of horses, died of cold, disease or starvation. The army reached English-occupied [[Bordeaux]] on 24 December 1373, severely weakened in numbers with the loss of at least one-third of their force in action and another third to disease. Upon arrival in Bordeaux, many more succumbed to the [[bubonic plague]] that was raging in the city. Sick, demoralised and mutinous, the army was in no shape to defend Aquitaine, and soldiers began to desert. John had no funds with which to pay them, and despite his entreaties, none were sent from England, so in April 1374, he abandoned the enterprise and sailed for home.{{sfn|Sumption|2009|pp=187–202}} John's final campaign in France took place in 1378. He planned a 'great expedition' of mounted men in a large armada of ships to land at [[Brest, France|Brest]] and take control of Brittany. Not enough ships could be found to transport the horses, and the expedition was tasked with the more limited objective of capturing [[Saint-Malo|St. Malo]]. The English destroyed the shipping in St. Malo harbour and began to assault the town by land on 14 August, but John was soon hampered by the size of his army, which was unable to forage because French armies under [[Olivier de Clisson]] and [[Bertrand du Guesclin]] occupied the surrounding countryside, harrying the edges of his force. In September, the siege was simply abandoned and the army returned ingloriously to England. John of Gaunt received most of the blame for the debâcle.{{sfn|Sumption|2009|pp=325–327}} Partly as a result of these failures, and those of other English commanders at this period, John was one of the first important figures in England to conclude that the war with France was unwinnable because of France's greater resources of wealth and manpower. He began to advocate peace negotiations; indeed, as early as 1373, during his great raid through France, he made contact with [[:fr:Guillaume III Roger de Beaufort|Guillaume Roger]], brother and political adviser of [[Pope Gregory XI]], to let the pope know he would be interested in a diplomatic conference under papal auspices. This approach led indirectly to the Anglo-French Congress of Bruges in 1374–77, which resulted in the short-lived [[Treaty of Bruges (1375)|Truce of Bruges]] between the two sides.{{sfn|Sumption|2009|pp=212–213}} John was himself a delegate to the various conferences that eventually resulted in the [[Truce of Leulinghem]] in 1389. The fact that he became identified with the attempts to make peace added to his unpopularity at a period when the majority of Englishmen believed victory would be in their grasp if only the French could be defeated decisively as they had been in the 1350s. Another motive was John's conviction that it was only by making peace with France would it be possible to release sufficient manpower to enforce his claim to the [[Crown of Castile|throne of Castile]]. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page