Free The Battle of Poitiers 1356 by David Green

by June 1351 and he rode in the chevauchée of 1355 and fought at Poitiers where he was a member of Edward’s bodyguard. As a result of this he was granted £100 a year, or lands of the same value. However, he may have been in receipt of an annuity before this. He delivered the order to Lancaster to raise the siege of Rennes as a result of the truce of Bordeaux. Following this, he spent much of 1358–9 acting as an ambassador in Normandy and elsewhere in France. Such experience may have qualified him for the commission of overseeing the transfer of land after the treaty of Brétigny. He may have been able to combine this with the duty, given him on 13 July 1360, to conduct the constable of France and other captives back home across the Channel. In this year also he was granted the castle of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, although presumably this was only for a short period as it was granted to Chandos on 30 July. He was present at the ratification of the Anglo-Castilian treaty of 1363. He stayed with Edward as prince of Aquitaine, although in April and May 1364 he was acting as an ambassador in Flanders. In addition he had close relations with Charles of Navarre by whom he was retained.
    He was marshal of the army (and of Aquitaine) for the Nájera campaign and crossed Ronsevalles in the vanguard. He remained in Gascony after the return of the prince to England serving under a number of commanders in the rearguard actions. He had returned to England by 1373 when he was appointed to commissions of oyer and terminer and of the peace in Cornwall. Over the next few years he was to be closely involved with affairs in the duchy.
    Sir Roger Cotesford 22
    The lord of Bletchingdon and Tusmore, Oxfordshire, he served in Scotland and was a friend of the king. As the prince’s yeoman he was appointed constable of Llanbadarn castle on 23 October 1347 as a reward for his services at Crécy. As a bachelor in the prince’s household he was presumably often in residence and prior to the Gascon expedition he witnessed documents alongside Edmund Wauncy and Nigel Loryng, important household officials. His friendship with the king made him an ideal conduit for news and information when the Black Prince led his first expedition and he served as a messenger between Bordeaux and London at irregular intervals between 1355 and 1358. In this role he presumably acted as a link with the king for the discussions concerning the captivity of Jean and the treaty of Bordeaux.
    In 1355 he was granted the manor of Watlington for life in return for his forthcoming services in Gascony.23 Following the victory at Poitiers, where he served in the prince’s bodyguard, he was granted 40 marks a year out of the profits of Wallingford manor.
    He does not appear to have joined the prince in Aquitaine in the 1360s although relations remained friendly. He became very active in county society serving on many commissions and acting as the county’s MP in 1369 and 1371. He was also the keeper of Oxford castle in 1362–4, 1365 and 1368–9. He died before 20 November 1375.
    Edward Lord Le Despenser 24
    He was born on 24 March 1336, the son and heir of Edward le Despenser, the second son of Hugh, earl of Gloucester and he fought in the prince’s Gascon expeditions of 1355–6. With his brother, Thomas, he was frequently mentioned as being among the prince’s immediate attendants in Bordeaux. He fought with Loryng and Burghersh in the skirmish at Romorantin and also at Poitiers. In 1357 he gave proof of his age, had livery of his uncle’s lands (Hugh, died 1349) and in the following December he was summoned to parliament as Baron Le Despenser. In 1359 he was one of Edward III’s staff for the expedition to France and was among those who swore to the observation of the treaty of Brétigny at Calais. In 1360/1 he joined the Order of the Garter on the death of Henry of Lancaster.
    In 1363 he was among those appointed to receive the king of Cyprus on his landing at Dover and