Sir John Chandos was one of the most important English commanders of the first generations of the Hundred Years War. Closely associated with Edward, the Black Prince, he fought in the major English campaigns from the opening decades of the war through to the French recovery of the 1360s. His career took him from Crécy and Poitiers to Aquitaine, Brittany and Castile, before his death fighting the French near Lussac in 1370.
Chandos was more than a battlefield commander. He was a member of the Black Prince’s household, an important administrator in Aquitaine, a diplomat and negotiator, and one of the founding Knights of the Garter. His career also brought him into direct contact with some of the leading figures of the war, including Bertrand du Guesclin and Jean de Grailly, Captal de Buch.
Sir John Chandos and the Hundred Years War
Chandos and the Early English Campaigns
Chandos came from a noble family and entered military service during the opening phase of the Hundred Years War. In 1339 he was involved in the siege of Cambrai, where he is traditionally said to have distinguished himself in single combat and received his knighthood.
In 1340 he participated in the English victory at the Battle of Sluys, before joining the campaigns that culminated in the English victory at Crécy in 1346. He was therefore already an experienced commander when Edward III’s son Edward of Woodstock began to establish his own military reputation.
Chandos and the Black Prince
Chandos became one of the closest military associates of the Black Prince. He was a prominent member of the Prince’s household and acted as an adviser as well as a commander. Froissart presents him as one of the men closest to Edward of Woodstock during the great campaigns of the mid-fourteenth century.[i]
The relationship was important to Chandos’s subsequent career. His loyalty to the Prince brought him senior commands in Aquitaine and later made him one of the most important figures in the English administration of the principality.
Crécy and Poitiers
Chandos fought during the Crécy campaign of 1346 and subsequently accompanied the Black Prince in the campaigns that followed. His reputation reached its height at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.
At Poitiers Chandos was among the senior commanders surrounding the Black Prince. The English victory resulted in the capture of John II of France, one of the most important prisoners taken during the entire war. Chandos received one of the largest individual rewards following the battle: 600 crowns, an annuity of £40 and two English manors.[ii]
His role at Poitiers reinforced his position as one of the Black Prince’s most trusted commanders.
Chandos and the Treaty of Brétigny
After Poitiers, Chandos continued to serve as a senior English commander and negotiator. He participated in campaigning around Rheims and was involved in negotiations for truces with the French. His close relationship with the Black Prince subsequently brought him into the work of establishing English rule in Aquitaine following the Treaty of Brétigny.
The task was considerably more complicated than simply taking possession of territory. The English had to establish effective administration and maintain the allegiance of nobles whose interests did not always coincide with those of the English crown.
Chandos and the Principality of Aquitaine
When the Black Prince became Prince of Aquitaine in 1362, Chandos was appointed Constable of the principality. He held command at La Rochelle and became one of the principal figures responsible for maintaining English military power in the region.
Aquitaine was not uniformly loyal to the English. While Bordeaux and other areas benefited from commercial links with England, the English administration faced resistance and political uncertainty elsewhere. Chandos therefore combined military command with the practical work of maintaining the Prince’s authority.
Brittany and the Capture of Bertrand du Guesclin
In 1364 Chandos led an army north from Aquitaine to support John de Montfort, the pro-English claimant in the Breton War of Succession. The campaign culminated in the Battle of Cocherel and the wider fighting in Brittany.
Chandos was involved in the capture of Bertrand du Guesclin, one of the most important French commanders of the later Hundred Years War. Du Guesclin’s ransom was exceptionally large. The French king contributed towards it, while other financial commitments came from leading figures and the papacy.[iii]
The episode established a personal connection between two commanders who would repeatedly appear on opposite sides of the conflict. Du Guesclin’s later career would become central to the French recovery under Charles V.
Chandos and the War in Castile
Chandos accompanied the Black Prince during the 1367 campaign in Castile in support of Pedro of Castile. Unlike campaigns in which he operated primarily as a member of the Prince’s household, Chandos fought under his own banner as a banneret and commander in his own right.
At the Battle of Nájera in April 1367, Chandos fought alongside the Black Prince in the vanguard. The Anglo-Gascon victory temporarily restored Pedro to the Castilian throne, although the political and financial consequences of the expedition would prove damaging to the English position in Aquitaine.
The campaign also brought Chandos into renewed contact with Bertrand du Guesclin, who was captured after the battle.
- The Battle of Nájera and the Castilian Civil War
- Bertrand du Guesclin
- Jean de Grailly, Captal de Buch
Chandos and the French Recovery
The French recovery under Charles V increasingly threatened the English position in Aquitaine. Chandos continued to serve the Black Prince during the period when English-held territory was coming under pressure and French commanders adopted a more sustained strategy of recovering fortified places rather than seeking repeated large-scale battles.
The contrast between Chandos’s career during the English victories of the 1340s and 1350s and the deteriorating position of the English in the later 1360s illustrates the changing character of the Hundred Years War.
Death at Lussac
In the winter of 1369–70 Chandos was campaigning against French forces in Poitou. At Lussac-les-Châteaux he and a small force encountered a French contingent. During the fighting Chandos slipped on his cloak and was struck in the face by a French squire using a lance or spear.[iv]
Chandos was carried to a nearby castle but died from his wound shortly afterwards. His death deprived the Black Prince of one of his closest and most experienced commanders at a time when the English position in France was deteriorating rapidly.
The date of his death is given as 1 January 1369/70. This reflects the medieval English practice of beginning the legal year on 25 March rather than 1 January.
Chandos and Chivalric Reputation
Chandos became closely associated with the ideals of chivalry represented by the Black Prince’s court and the early Knights of the Garter. He was one of the founding members of the Order and appears prominently in Froissart’s account of the English campaigns.[i]
Froissart’s portrayal should be treated as a literary and chivalric interpretation rather than as a straightforward modern biography. Nevertheless, Chandos’s prominence in contemporary and near-contemporary accounts reflects the importance attached to his military service and relationship with the Black Prince.
The Tomb and Epitaph of Sir John Chandos
The epitaph traditionally associated with Chandos’s tomb at Mortemer provides a striking summary of his military career. It identifies him as an English captain, a knight and seneschal of Poitou, records his wars against the French and specifically commemorates the capture of Bertrand du Guesclin.[iv]
Je Jehan Chandos, des Anglois capitaine,
Fort chevaler, de Poictou seneschal,
Après avoir faict guerre très lointaine
Au roi françois tant à pied qu’à cheval
Et pris Bertrand de Guesquin en un val,
Les Poictevins près Lussac me defirent:
A Mortemer mon corps enterrer firent.
Sir John Chandos and the Hundred Years War
Chandos’s career mirrors the changing fortunes of English power during the first half of the Hundred Years War. He rose through the military successes of Edward III and the Black Prince, fought at Crécy and Poitiers, helped establish the English administration of Aquitaine, and played a leading role in campaigns in Brittany and Castile.
His death came just as the strategic situation was changing. Charles V and Bertrand du Guesclin were recovering territory for France, while the Black Prince’s health and the resources available to the English in Aquitaine were declining. Chandos therefore belongs to both the story of English military success and the beginning of the French recovery.
References
[i] Froissart, Jean, The Chronicles of Froissart, translated by John Bourchier, Lord Berners, edited by G. C. Macaulay, Harvard Classics, P. F. Collier & Son Company, New York, 1910, p. 17.
[ii] Froissart, Jean, The Chronicles of Froissart, translated by John Bourchier, Lord Berners, edited by G. C. Macaulay, Harvard Classics, P. F. Collier & Son Company, New York, 1910, p. 41.
[iii] Barber, Richard. “Chandos, Sir John (d. 1370), soldier and administrator.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 25 May 2006. Oxford University Press.
[iv] Lee, Sidney L. “Sir John Chandos.” Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. X, edited by Leslie Stephen. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1887, pp. 43–44.