View source for Combat of the Thirty

{{Short description|Part of the Breton War of Succession (1351)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Combat of the Thirty
| image             = Le Combat des Trente (1857).jpg
| caption           = [[Penguilly l'Haridon]]: ''Le Combat des Trente''
| partof            = the [[Breton War of Succession]]
| date              = 26 March 1351
| place             = [[Guillac, Morbihan|Guillac]], [[Duchy of Brittany]]
| coordinates       = {{Coord|47|56|15|N|02|29|13|W|type:event_region:FR-56|display=inline,title}}
| map_type          = France Brittany
| map_relief        = yes
| result            = Franco-Breton victory
| combatant1        = [[House of Châtillon|House of Blois]], Brittany <br>[[France in the Middle Ages|Kingdom of France]]
| combatant2        = [[Montfort of Brittany|House of Montfort]], Brittany <br>[[Kingdom of England]]
| commander1        = [[Jean de Beaumanoir]]
| commander2        = [[Robert Bemborough]]{{KIA}}
| strength1         = 30 knights and squires
| strength2         = 30 knights and squires
| casualties1       = 2 dead<ref name="Grant">{{cite book|last= Grant|first=R. G. |title=1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History|pages=195 |year=2017 |publisher=Chartwell Books|isbn=978-0785835530 }}</ref>
| casualties2       = 9 dead<ref name="Grant"/>
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Breton War of Succession}}
}}
[[File:Banner of the Breton French.svg|200px|right|thumb|Banner attributed to [[Breton people|Breton]] and French knights at the Combat of the Thirty in 1351, during the [[Breton civil war]]]]
The '''Combat of the Thirty''' ({{Langx|fr|Combat des Trente}}, {{Langx|br|Emgann an Tregont}}), occurring on 26 March 1351,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=uVZ893wOWgoC&pg=PA103 Combat of the Thirty (1351) in: ''John A. Wagner''. Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. – Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006, p. 103.]</ref> was an episode in the [[Breton War of Succession]] fought to determine who would rule the [[Duchy of Brittany]]. It was an arranged fight between selected combatants from both sides of the conflict, fought at a site midway between the Breton castles of [[Josselin Castle|Josselin]] and [[Ploërmel]] among 30 champions, [[knights]], and [[squires]] on each side. The challenge was issued by [[Jean de Beaumanoir]], a captain of [[Charles of Blois]] supported by King [[Philip VI of France]], to [[Robert Bemborough]], a captain of [[John IV, Duke of Brittany|Jean de Montfort]] supported by [[Edward III of England]].
After a hard-fought battle, the Franco-Breton Blois faction emerged victorious. The combat was later celebrated by medieval chroniclers and balladeers as a noble display of the ideals of [[chivalry]]. In the words of [[Jean Froissart]], the warriors "held themselves as valiantly on both sides as if they had been all [[Roland]]s and [[Oliver (paladin)|Oliver]]s".<ref>Jean Froissart's ''Chronicles'' Amiens ms. version.</ref>
==Background and cause==
The Breton War of Succession was a struggle between the House of Montfort and House of Blois for control of the Duchy of Brittany. It came to be absorbed into the larger [[Hundred Years' War]] between France and England, with England supporting the Montforts and France supporting the Blois family. At the time of the tournament, the war had become stalemated, with each faction controlling strongholds at different locations within Brittany, but occasionally making sorties into one another's territory.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}
[[Robert Bemborough]], a knight leading the Montfortist faction which controlled [[Ploërmel]], was challenged to [[single combat]] by [[Jean de Beaumanoir]], the captain of nearby [[Josselin]], controlled by the Blois faction<ref>{{Cite web |title=30 Knights Paused a War — to Fight a Battle Royale Death Match |url=https://shop.historynet.com/blogs/new-the-latest-from-historynet-com/30-knights-paused-a-war-to-fight-a-battle-royale-death-match |access-date=2024-10-12 |website=HistoryNet.com |language=en}}</ref>. According to the chronicler Froissart, this purely personal duel between the two leaders became a larger struggle when Bemborough suggested a tournament between twenty or thirty knights on each side, a proposal that was enthusiastically accepted by de Beaumanoir.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}
The motivation for the tournament is unclear. The earliest written sources present it as a purely chivalric exercise, undertaken to honour the ladies for whom the knights were fighting: referring to [[Joan, Duchess of Brittany]] (House of Blois) and [[Joanna of Flanders]] (House of Montfort). These women were leading the two factions at the time, as Joan's husband was in captivity and Joanna's was dead (her son was a young child at the time). This is the account given by the contemporary chroniclers [[Jean le Bel]] and [[Jean Froissart]], both of whom present the conflict as purely a matter of honour with no personal animosity involved.<ref name="brush">Henry Raymond Brush, "La Bataille de Trente Anglois et de Trente Bretons", ''Modern Philology'', Vol. 9, No. 4, Apr. 1912, pp. 511–544</ref> Le Bel states that he had his information from one of the combatants. Froissart appears to simply copy le Bel's version.<ref name="brush"/>
[[File:Millais combat.jpg|thumb|Beaumanoir's knights kneel in prayer before battle. Illustration by [[John Everett Millais|J. E. Millais]] to [[Tom Taylor]]'s translation of a [[Breton language]] ballad in [[Barzaz Breiz]]]]
However, popular ballads portrayed the cause differently. The earliest of these, written by an unknown local supporter of the Blois faction, depicts Bemborough and his knights as ruthless despoilers of the local population, who appealed to Beaumanoir for help. Beaumanoir is depicted as a hero coming to the aid of the defenceless people.<ref name="brush"/> The poet also portrays Beaumanoir as a model of Christian piety, who puts his faith in God, in contrast to Bemborough who relies on the [[Prophetiae Merlini|Prophesies of Merlin]].<ref>Pierre d'Hozier (ed), Pierre Le Baud, ''Histoire de Bretagne, avec les chroniques des maisons de Vitré et de Laval'', Gervaise Alliot, 1638, p.310.</ref> This version was standardised in [[Pierre Le Baud]]'s ''History of the Bretons'', written a century later, in which Bemborough's alleged cruelty is explained by his desire to avenge the death of [[Thomas Dagworth]].{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}
Whatever the cause, the fight was arranged in the form of an ''emprise''—an arranged [[pas d'armes]]—which took place at an area known as the ''chêne de Mi-Voie'' (the Halfway Oak) between Ploërmel and Josselin, between picked combatants. It was organised in the manner of a tournament, with refreshments on hand and a large gathering of spectators. Bemborough is supposed to have said,
<blockquote>And let us right there try ourselves and do so much that people will speak of it in future times in halls,  in palaces, in public places and elsewhere throughout the world.</blockquote>
The words are recorded by Froissart:<ref>[[Jean Froissart|Froissart]], ''[[Froissart's Chronicles|Chroniques]]'', ed. S. Luce, c. iv. pp. 45 and 110ff, and pp. 338–340.</ref> "the saying may not be authentic", [[Johan Huizinga]] remarks, "but it teaches us what Froissart thought".<ref>Huizinga, ''[[The Autumn of the Middle Ages|The Waning of the Middle Ages]]'' (1919) 1924:59.</ref>
Beaumanoir commanded thirty [[Bretons]], Bemborough a mixed force of twenty Englishmen (including [[Robert Knolles]] and [[Hugh Calveley]]), six German [[mercenaries]] and four Breton partisans of Montfort. It is unclear whether Bemborough himself was English or German. His name is spelled in many variant forms, and is given as "Brandebourch" by Froissart, and also appears as "Bembro". His first name is sometimes given as Robert, sometimes as Richard. Both Le Bel and Froissart say he was a German knight, but historians have doubted this.<ref name="brush"/> All the Blois-faction knights can be identified, though Jean de Beaumanoir's given name is "Robert" in some versions. The names and identities of the Montfortists are much more confused and uncertain.<ref name="brush"/>
==Battle==
[[File:Combat des Trente (Le Baud).jpg|thumb|''Combat des Trente'': an illumination in the ''Compillation des cronicques et ystoires des Bretons'' (1480), of [[Pierre Le Baud]]. The two strongholds of Ploërmel and Josselin are fancifully depicted within sight of each other.]]
The battle, fought with [[sword]]s, [[daggers]], [[spear]]s, and [[axe]]s, mounted or on foot, was of the most desperate character, in its details very reminiscent of the last fight of the Burgundians in the ''[[Nibelungenlied]]'', especially in the celebrated advice of Geoffroy du Bois to his wounded leader, who was asking for water: "Drink thy blood, Beaumanoir; thy thirst will pass" (''Bois ton sang, Beaumanoir, la soif te passera'').<ref>Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Beaumanoir". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.</ref>
[[File:Combat of the thirty shields.jpg|thumb|centre|200px|According to P.Rault <ref>Les drapeaux Bretons de 1188 a nos jours, illuminations decorating Compilations de Chronicques et Ystores des Bretons</ref> show the Franco-Bretons knights wearing tunics with a black cross while the Anglo-Bretons knights wearing tunics with a red cross.]]
According to Froissart, the battle was fought with great gallantry on both sides. After several hours of fighting there were  four dead on the French side and two on the English side. Both sides were exhausted and agreed to a break for refreshments and bandaging of injuries. After the battle resumed, the English leader Bemborough was wounded and then killed, apparently by du Bois. At this point the English faction formed a tight defensive body, which the French repeatedly attacked. A German soldier called Croquart is said to have displayed the greatest prowess in rallying the Anglo-Breton defence.<ref>Arthur de la Borderie, Historie de Bretagne, Paris, Alphonse Picard, vol. 3, pp. 520–529.</ref>
In the end, the victory was decided by Guillaume de Montauban, a squire who mounted his horse and rode into the English line, breaking it. He overthrew seven of the English champions, the rest being forced to surrender. All the combatants on either side were either dead or seriously wounded, with nine on the English side slain.
==Reputation==
While the combat did not have any effect on the outcome of the Breton war of succession, it was considered by contemporaries to be an example of the finest [[chivalry]]. It was sung by [[trouvères]], retold in the [[chronicles of Froissart]] and largely admired, and honoured in verse and the visual arts. A commemorative stone was placed at the site of the combat situated between Josselin and Ploermel and king [[Charles V of France]] commissioned a tapestry depicting it.<ref>[[Jules Guiffrey]]. Inventaire des tapisseries du roi Charles VI vendues par les Anglais en 1422, ''Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes'' 1887, tome 48. p. 92.</ref> The renown attached to those who participated was such that twenty years later, [[Jean Froissart]] noticed a scarred survivor, Yves Charruel, at the table of Charles V, where he was honoured above all others due to having been one of the Thirty.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}
According to historian Steven Muhlberger, this chivalric version concentrates on "how the deed was done and not on who won. The willingness of all concerned to agree to rules and to actually observe them, to fight their best and not to run when injured or in danger of capture are the focus – and both sides are shown as equally worthy in that respect."<ref name="bril">Muhlberger, Steven, "The Combat of the Thirty against Thirty", in L. J. Andrew Villalon, Donald J. Kagay (eds), ''The Hundred Years War (Part II): Different Vistas'' , Brill, 2008 pp. 289–294.</ref>
Later, the combat came to be seen in very different terms, influenced by the most famous of the contemporary popular ballads on the topic. In this version the English knights are villains, and the Blois faction are loyal and worthy local warriors. The balladeer lists each fighter on both sides (though garbles several English names). He situates the Franco-Breton Blois faction as all local gentry and aristocracy performing their proper social duty to protect the people, thus justifying, Muhlberger writes, "the privileges that nobles held as brave defenders of the weak". The Montfortists are a mélange of foreign mercenaries and brigands who "torment the poor people".<ref name="bril"/> After [[Union of Brittany and France|Brittany was absorbed into France]], this version was incorporated into French nationalist accounts of the Hundred Years War, which was portrayed as a heroic struggle against foreign invaders who sought to violate France. Since the French faction had lost the War of Succession itself, the Combat was promoted as a symbolic and moral victory. A large monumental obelisk was commissioned by Napoleon in 1811 to be placed at the site of the battle, but it was not built during his reign. It was eventually erected in 1819 by the restored Bourbon king [[Louis XVIII]], after the fall of Napoleon, with an inscription stating "God give the King long life, the Bourbons eternity!" The inscription goes on to assert that the "thirty Bretons whose names are given as follows, fought to defend the poor, labourers and craftsmen and they vanquished foreigners attracted on the soil of the Country by fateful dissents. Breton posterity, imitate your ancestors!"<ref>French: "Ici le 27 mars 1351, trente Bretons, dont les noms suivent, combattirent pour la défense du pauvre, du laboureur, de l'artisan et vainquirent des étrangers, que des funestes divisions avaient amenés sur le sol de la patrie. Postérité bretonne imitez vos ancêtres."</ref>
[[File:Panel showing the arms of the French knights in the Combat of the Thirty.jpg|thumb|16th century panel showing the arms of the French knights who fought in the Combat of the Thirty in 1351]]
Though the combat had much less significance for the English, the fact that it was won because one combatant mounted a horse to break the Anglo-Breton line was later portrayed as evidence that the Franco-Bretons cheated. [[Edward Smedley]]'s ''History of France'' (1836) states that the manoeuvre "wears some appearance of treachery".<ref>Edward Smedley's ''History of France, Volume One'', Baldwin and Craddock, 1836, p. 194.</ref> This version was fictionalised by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] in his historical novel ''[[Sir Nigel]]'', in which Bemborough (called Richard of Bambro' in the novel) accepts the rules of the challenge in a chivalric spirit, but the Franco-Bretons win only because Montauban, portrayed as Beaumanoir's squire, mounts his horse, when the conflict was supposed to be on foot, and rides upon the English, trampling them.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}
A free English translation in verse of the ballad was written by [[Harrison Ainsworth]], who gives the name of the English leader as "Sir Robert Pembroke". He is fancifully portrayed as the overall English leader after the death of [[Thomas Dagworth]]. Ainsworth argued that "Bembro" was originally "Pembroke" on the grounds that the [[Breton language]] version of the name was "Pennbrock". "Penn brock" means "badger head" in Breton, which had become a derogatory nickname for Bemborough in Breton ballads.<ref>Tom Taylor, ''Ballads and Songs of Brittany'', Macmillain, 1865, p. 125.</ref>
==Combatants==
These are the names of the knights, as listed in Ainsworth's translation of the poem, although there are actually 31 listed for the English side.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/chroniqu/texts/AINSWORT.HTM |title=Deeds of Arms: Ainsworth's Translation of the Verse Account of the Combat of the Thirty |last=Muhlberger |first=Steven |publisher=[[Nipissing University]] |access-date=24 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105020628/http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/chroniqu/texts/AINSWORT.HTM |archive-date=5 November 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
| valign=top width=50%|
'''Franco-Breton force'''
<br/>Knights
* Sir [[Jean de Beaumanoir]], Constable of Brittany, Governor of Josselin
* Sir Olivier Arrel
* Sir Caron de Bosdegas
* Sir Geoffroy du Bois
* Sir Yves Charruel
* Sir Guy de Rochefort
* Sir Jean Rouxelot
* Sir Robin Raguenel
* Sir Huon de Saint-Hugeon
* Sir Jean de Tinténiac
Squires
* Geoffroy de Beaucorps
* Hughes Capus-le-Sage
* Olivier de Fontenay
* Louis de Goyon
* Alain de Keranrais
* Guillaume de la Lande
* Guillaume de la Marche
* [[Geoffroy de Mellon]] {{KIA}}
* Guillaume de Montauban
* Olivier de Monteville
* Maurice du Parc
* Tristan de Pestivien
* Guyon de Pontblanc
* Geoffroy Poulard{{KIA}}
* Simonet Pachard
* Geoffroy de la Roche
* Jean de Serent
* Alain de Tinténiac
* Maurice de Tréziguify
* Geslin de Trésiguidy
| valign=top width=50%|
'''Anglo-Breton force'''
<br/>Knights
* Sir [[Robert Bemborough]], Captain of Ploërmel{{KIA}}
* Sir [[Robert Knolles]]
* Sir Thomas Billefort
* Sir Thomas Walton
* Sir [[Hugh Calveley]]
* Sir Hervé Laxaualan
* Sir Richard Lalande
Squires and men-at-arms
* John Plesington
* Richard Gaillard
* Hughes Gaillard
* Huceton Clemenbean
* Hennequin de Guenchamp
* Renequin Hérouart
* Hennequin Le Mareschal
* Raoulet d'Aspremont
* Gaultier l'Alemant
* Bobinet Melipart
* Jean Troussel
* Robin Adès
* Perrot Gannelon
* Guillemin-le-Gaillard
* Jennequin Taillard
* Rango-le-Couart
* Raoul Prévot
* Dardaine{{KIA}}
* Repefort
* Croquart the German
* Isannay
* Dagworth (nephew of Sir [[Thomas Dagworth]])
* Helichon
* Helecoq
|}
† ''indicates that the combatant was killed. The English side lost nine killed in total and the remainder captured. The Franco-Breton side lost at least three and probably more. A number of them were captured, taken to Josselin and executed.''
==See also==
* [[Battle of the North Inch]], similar battle in Scotland, 1396
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
==Literature==
* "The combat of the thirty. From an old Breton lay of the fourteenth century". Translated by English novelist [[William Harrison Ainsworth]]. In: Browne, H. Knight; Cruikshank, G.; Smith, A.; Ainsworth, W. Harrison; Dickens, C. (18371868) (1859). [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000499395/Home ''Bentley's Miscellany''] Volume XLV. London: Richard Bentley. pp.&nbsp;5–10, 445–459.
* H.R. Brush, ed., "La Bataille de trente Anglois et de trente Bretons," ''Modern Philology,'' 9 (1911–12): 511–44;  10 (1912–13): 82–136.
* Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ''Sir Nigel''.
* Steven Muhlberger (tr. and ed.), ''The Combat of the Thirty'', Deeds of Arms Series, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Freelance Academy Press, 2012).
* Steven Muhlberger, ''Deeds of Arms: Formal combats in the late fourteenth century'', (Highland Village, TX: [[Brian R. Price#Writing, editing and publishing|The Chivalry Bookshelf]], 2005) 76–120.
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Beaumanoir}}
* Sébastien Nadot, ''Rompez les lances ! Chevaliers et tournois au Moyen Age'', Paris, ed. Autrement, 2010. (''Couch your lances ! Knights and tournaments in the Middle Ages''...)
* ''Le Poème du combat des Trente'', in the [[Panthéon litteraire]]
* ''[[A Distant Mirror]]'' by [[Barbara W. Tuchman]] (1978)
==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121105020628/http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/chroniqu/texts/AINSWORT.HTM A Verse Account of the Combat of the Thirty]
* [http://www.medievalarchives.com/Combat30 Combat of the Thirty] on [http://www.medievalarchives.com/PodcastList Medieval Archives Podcast]
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1350s in France]]
[[Category:1351 in England]]
[[Category:Battles of the Hundred Years' War|Thirty]]
[[Category:Chivalry]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1351]]
[[Category:History of Morbihan]]
[[Category:Medieval tournament]]
[[Category:Military history of Brittany]]
[[Category:War of the Breton Succession]]