La Coursive

The Battle of La Rochelle was a naval battle fought on 22 and 23 June 1372 between a Castilian fleet commanded by the Castilian Almirant Ambrosio Boccanegra and an English convoy commanded by John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. The Castilian fleet had been sent to attack the English at La Rochelle, which was being besieged by French forces. Besides Boccanegra, other Castilian commanders were Cabeza de Vaca, Fernando de Peón and Ruy Díaz de Rojas. Pembroke had been dispatched to the town with a small retinue of 160 soldiers and instructions to recruit an army of 3,000 soldiers around Aquitaine. The strength of the fleet is estimated as between the 12 galleys given by the Castilian chronicler and naval captain López de Ayala and the 40 sailing ships and 13 barges mentioned by the French chronicler Jean Froissart. Probably it consisted of 22 ships, mainly galleys and some naos or sailing ships. The English convoy probably consisted of 32 vessels and 17 small barges of about 50 tons. To justify the English defeat, the pro-English chronicler Jean Froissart says that only three ships were warships, but it's hard to believe that a fighter escort so small would be sent to defend the convoy. The Castilian victory was complete and the entire convoy was captured. On his return to the Iberian Peninsula, Boccanegra seized four additional English ships. This defeat undermined English seaborne trade and supplies and threatened their Gascon possessions.
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