Siege of Vannes (1342)

Siege of Vannes
Part of the War of the Breton Succession
Siege of Vannes in 1342 by Guillaume Fillastre
Date 4 sieges in 1342 Location Vannes, Brittany, France Result Intervention of Pope Clement VI Truce of Malestroit Presentation of the city to the papal legates
Belligerents
Party of Montfort: Bretons Kingdom of England	Party of Blois: Bretons Kingdom of France
Commanders and leaders
John of Montfort Robert III of Artois † Edward III	Charles of Blois Olivier IV de Clisson
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The sieges of Vannes of 1342 were a series of four sieges of the town of Vannes that occurred throughout 1342. Two rival claimants to the Duchy of Brittany, John of Montfort and Charles of Blois, competed for Vannes throughout this civil war from 1341 to 1365. The successive sieges ruined Vannes and its surrounding countryside. Vannes was eventually sold off in a truce between England and France, signed in January 1343 in Malestroit. Saved by an appeal of Pope Clement VI, Vannes remained in the hands of its own rulers, but ultimately resided under English control from September 1343 till the end of the war in 1365.

In the beginning of the 14th century, the Duchy of Brittany was culturally close to Celtic portions of the British Isles and this made it part of a sphere of economic influence with England, to which it supplied salt.

In the 12th century, the Plantagenets reigned Brittany and the House of Anjou benefited from conflicts between the counties of Nantes and the Dukes of Brittany, taking control of the Duchy by 1156. Between 1189 and 1204, the Plantagenet Richard Ist the Lionheart and then his brother, John opposed attempts for Brittany's autonomy, and increased a crisis which culminated in the alleged murder of Arthur of Brittany.

This was further complicated when Philip II of France managed to place Peter Mauclerc as Duke.

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