Yet although the French did not consider themselves to be strong enough, unaided, to make the attempt on Calais, their activity elsewhere did not cease. In April, 1404, a French knight, with a small squadron, was reported to be besieging Caernarvon and Harlech, and five ships were ordered from Bristol to endeavour to raise the siege;[1] and a little later a party of young Norman nobles, who were weary of peace, and among whom were representatives of the families of De la Roche-Guyon, De Bacqueville and Martel, made a descent upon the Isle of Portland, which they ravaged. They were, however, encountered by a thousand hastily armed peasants, forced to surrender, and all thrown into prison.[2]
A further expedition of Bretons, in three hundred vessels under the Sires De Châteaubriand, De la Jaille, and Du Châtel, set out with the intention of landing at Dartmouth; but the force was ill-disciplined and ill-organised, and on its way across the Channel, it could not resist the temptation of plundering some Spanish vessels laden with wine, in spite of the fact that France and Spain were at the time in close alliance. The resultant drunkenness and quarrels caused the ships to separate, instead of proceeding together. In the meanwhile, six thousand men assembled to prevent the Bretons from disembarking, and a ditch was constructed along the seashore. When part of the Breton force under Du Châtel and De la Jaille arrived off the coast, a premature landing was effected, and after a sharp fight, all the invaders were either killed or taken, Du Châtel himself being mortally wounded.[3]
The expedition returned, but Tannegui, a brother of Guillaume du Châtel, at once collected another force, and surprising Dartmouth, took and pillaged it, subsequently ravaging the neighbouring coast for eight weeks.[4]
In August, a descent upon Wales was threatened by the Count de la Marche, who had collected sixty ships at Harfleur, and measures were adopted to oppose this expedition.[5] But great difficulties appear to have stood in the way of any effective defence, for the wages of the seamen were in arrears, and the shipowners
- ↑ Pro. and Ord. of Privy Council, i. 220.
- ↑ Chron. of St. Denis, iii. 168, 169.
- ↑ Ib., iii. 172.
- ↑ Walsingham, 412; Otterbourne, 247; Chron. of St. Denis, iii. 179. Fabian, 571, varies the story, and makes Tannegui to have been mortally wounded. He lived, however, till 1449, He was a great leader of the Armagnac party.
- ↑ Pro. and Ord. of Privy Council, i. 234.
