Robert Knolles

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For other people named Robert Knolles, see Robert Knolles (disambiguation).

Robert Knolles
English Knight
Gules, on a chevron argent three roses of the first
Blason of Robert Knolles
Born1325
Cheshire, England
Died1407
Sculthorpe, England
NationalityEnglish

Sir Robert Knolles or Knollys (c. 1325 – 15 August 1407; aged 81–82) was an important English

Edward III.[citation needed] His methods, however, earned him infamy as a freebooter and a ravager: the ruined gables of burned buildings came to be known as "Knollys' mitres".[2]

Breton war of succession

Born in

Battle of Poitiers, King Charles II of Navarre assumed command of the rebellion in Paris, and Knolles joined up with the army of Charles's brother Philip as they temporarily held the capital against the Dauphin in 1358.[4]

Knolles' finest hours were to come that autumn when he led a Great Company of 2,000–3,000 Anglo-Gascons into the

Margaret III of Flanders by the Archpriest Arnaud de Cervole, the adventurer who had raised the first Great Company the previous year.[5]

In 1359 Knolles reached

Pont-du-Chateau, from where they launched the invasion of the Velay. Knolles then reunited with Calveley to besiege the important city of Le Puy, which fell in July 1359. As they continued to the Papal city of Avignon, their path was barred by the army of Thomas de la Marche, Deputy for Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, at which point both English commanders retreated and dissolved their companies.[3]

At the climax of the

Battle of Nájera (Navarrete) of 1367.[1][3]

French campaign

In 1370 he was given a large grant of lands and money to raise an army to invade northern France. He landed at

Sir John Minsterworth who were spoiling for a fight. When it became known that French armies under the command of Bertrand du Guesclin were closing in on them, Knolles proposed to retreat into Brittany but most of the army refused. He therefore marched away with his own retinue, leaving the bulk of the army where they were, to be comprehensively defeated and slaughtered at the Battle of Pontvallain
on 4 December.

Knolles passed the winter in his castle at Derval on the Breton March and afterwards attempted to evacuate his men and those of Minsterworth, who had managed to join him with his surviving troop, from the port of Saint-Mathieu. However, for lack of ships most of the English soldiers had to be left behind on the shore, to be wiped out by the French under Olivier V de Clisson. In 1372 Knolles was found by the King's Council to bear the major responsibility for this disaster. He was stripped of the lands that had been given him as his fee for raising the army and fined 10,000 marks.[6]

Death and legacy

He named Thomas Knollys as one of the executors of his estate in 1389. He died at his seat in Sculthorpe, Norfolk on 15 August 1407.[3]

He also founded Trinity Hospital, Pontefract and helped to suppress the Peasants' Revolt.[3]

Knolles' coat of arms decorates the

Free Company during the Hundred Years' War.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Knolles, Sir Robert" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 869.
  2. ^ Thackray (2004), p. 9
  3. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15758. Retrieved 31 August 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  4. ^ Tuchman (1978), pp. 155–84
  5. ^ Tuchman (1978), pp. 126–54
  6. ^ Sumption (2009), pp. 84–93
  7. ^ Thackray (2004), p. 31

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Bridges, J. S. C. (1908). "Two Cheshire soldiers of fortune of the XIV century: Sir Hugh Calveley and Sir Robert Knolles". Journal of the Architectural, Archaeological, and Historic Society for the County and City of Chester and North Wales: new ser., 14.
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