The Battle of Brest was a naval engagement fought on 18 August 1342 during the War of the Breton Succession. An English fleet under William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, surprised a Genoese galley squadron serving the Franco-Breton forces of Charles of Blois. The engagement destroyed much of the Genoese force and helped bring about the lifting of the French siege of Brest. The battle formed part of the wider Hundred Years War, during the reign of Edward III.
The Battle of Brest, 1342
The English Campaign Plan
In 1342, the English campaign plan involved using several ports to avoid overcrowding at any one place. William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, was to command an army sailing to Brittany. His fleet would then return to England and take the king and Earl of Warwick from Sandwich and Winchelsea to the Low Countries. A third army would depart from the West Country for Aquitaine.
Even with the campaigns being launched from multiple ports, it was impossible to hide preparations for a series of major offensives from the French. Dispersing preparations across numerous ports offered logistical advantages, but it also spread the English defences against French galleys. These considerations formed part of the wider challenges of naval warfare during the Hundred Years War.
The Genoese Raid on the South Coast
A squadron of Genoese galleys was dispatched to prevent the Earl of Northampton from departing from the Solent. They arrived on 14 and 15 August, after the earl had already set sail. The galleys raided Portsmouth for the second time in five years and then remained menacingly off Southampton for several days before seeking out an easier target.
The English Fleet Arrives at Brest
The remainder of the Genoese galleys serving under French command was in Brittany, anchored at the mouth of the River Penfeld, close to the destination of Northampton’s fleet.
On 18 August, the English fleet arrived off Brest. The River Penfeld flows into the harbour, which opens to the Atlantic through a narrow entrance. The Genoese galleys did not see the English fleet approaching and found themselves surrounded by the mass of English ships.
The Destruction of the Genoese Galleys
The galleys tried to fight off the much slower English transports but had little chance of breaking through the entire English fleet. Of the 14 galleys that had been at anchor, only three managed to escape. The remaining 11 were abandoned by crews who fled to land.
The Lifting of the Siege
The defeat of the galleys by the English fleet led the French to lift the siege of Brest. The French commander underestimated how many soldiers could be carried by the English fleet. He marched north, while many of the mercenaries in the pay of Charles of Blois left the area.
The French deployment of the galleys close to the shore and lagoon had put Charles of Blois’ campaign on the defensive, after his forces had held the upper hand until this clash.
Further Reading
- Ian Friel, “Winds of Change? Ships and the Hundred Years War,” in Anne Curry and Michael Hughes (eds.), Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1994), pp. 183–193. Publisher information
- Michael Jones, “Edward III’s Captains in Brittany,” in W. Mark Ormrod (ed.), England in the Fourteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1985 Harlaxton Symposium (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1986), pp. 101–114. The essay is also included in Jones’s collected studies, Between France and England: Politics, Power and Society in Late Medieval Brittany. Routledge
- Michael Jones, “Ancenis, Froissart et le début de la guerre de succession en Bretagne (1341),” in Between France and England: Politics, Power and Society in Late Medieval Brittany. Routledge
- Jonathan Sumption, The Hundred Years War, Volume I: Trial by Battle (London: Faber & Faber). A detailed narrative history covering the early Hundred Years War, including the Breton campaign of 1341–43 and the events surrounding Brest. Faber & Faber