Battle of la Brossinière

Battle of La Brossinière
Part of Hundred Years' War
Date 26 September 1423 Location La Brossinière, France Result French victory
Belligerents
French Angevins Maine Bretons	English
Commanders and leaders
Ambroise of Loré John VIII of Harcourt André de Lohéac Louis of Trémigon	Sir John de la Pole Thomas Aubourg Thomas Cliffeton
Strength
6,000	2 000 soldiers 800 archers
Casualties and losses
1 knight and a few others (of no title)	800-1,700 killed 30 captured, including John de la Pole

The Battle of La Brossinière or Battle of la Gravelle (French - la "besoigne" de la Brossinière) was a battle of the Hundred Years' War on 26 September 1423. It occurred at La Brossinière (commune of Bourgon, Mayenne), between the forces of England and France, shortly after hostilities had resumed, following the battle of Agincourt (1415).

The English force commanded by Sir John De la Pole, brother of William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, which had returned to Normandy after a pillaging expedition to Anjou and Maine, suffered a crushing defeat. Cousinot reports that "there were great deeds of arms done" and that the English "were beaten in the field and there were fourteen to fifteen hundred killed"

The battle of Agincourt had been particularly damaging for the nobility of the region. After this battle, the English regent John, Duke of Bedford, given the titles of Duke of Anjou and Count of Maine, ordered a systematic conquest, though this was not effected without resistance.

In September 1423, John de la Pole left Normandy with 2000 soldiers and 800 archers to go raiding in Maine and Anjou. He seized Segré, and there mustered a huge collection of loot and a herd of 1,200 bulls and cows, before setting off to return to Normandy, taking hostages as he went.

Queen Yolande of Aragon, mother-in-law to Charles VII of France, who was in her town of Angers, had the first thought of avenging the affront and the damage to her county, and gave orders for such a mission to the most valiant of the French king's partisans, Ambroise de Loré, who had been commander of Sainte-Suzanne since 1422. Knowing that John VIII of Harcourt, count of Aumale and governor of Touraine, Anjou and Maine, was then in Tours and preparing an expedition into Normandy, Amboise despatched a message to Aumale by letter. The governor came in haste to Laval, bringing the troops he had already gathered "and summoning men from all the lands he passed through".

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