The first major land battle of the Hundred Years' War, whose defensive tactics foreshadowed English and French strategy throughout the 1340s.
Key Facts
- Date
- 30 September 1342
- Location
- Near Lanmeur, Brittany, France
- French cavalry breaching ditch
- ~200 cavalry; all killed or captured
- English commander
- William, Earl of Northampton
- Franco-Breton commander
- Charles of Blois
- Conflict context
- Hundred Years' War / Breton Civil War
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
England entered the Hundred Years' War against France in 1337 and backed John of Montfort in the Breton Civil War from 1341. France supported Charles of Blois, a nephew of the French king. When an Anglo-Breton force under the Earl of Northampton besieged the port of Morlaix, Charles assembled a much larger relief army and marched from Guingamp to drive them off.
Warned of the approaching French force, Northampton conducted a night march and established a defensive position near Lanmeur, anchored by a camouflaged ditch. French and Breton divisions attacked in sequence: the first was shattered by longbow fire, the second fell into the hidden ditch and suffered severe arrow casualties, and roughly 200 cavalry who crossed the ditch were surrounded and destroyed. When arrows ran low, the English withdrew into a wood and withstood a siege before breaking out at night.
Northampton returned to Morlaix and Charles abandoned his relief effort, retreating without taking the town. The engagement established a pattern of English dismounted men-at-arms supported by longbowmen behind field fortifications that would define major engagements of the Hundred Years' War for the rest of the 1340s.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
William, Earl of Northampton.
Side B
1 belligerent
Charles of Blois.