Qualla: Battle of Blackpool Sands

Battle of Blackpool Sands: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Three hundred ships had set sail from St. Malo with two thousand knights and men-at-arms aboard, bound for the rich port of Dartmouth. By the time the fleet reached the wide beach of Blackpool Sands in the spring of 1404, fewer than two hundred armoured men would actually step onto English soil. Most of them would never see Brittany again. The French commander, William du Chastel, lay dead in the surf by sundown, and a hundred prisoners, including three lords and twenty-two knights, were on their way to the Tower under English guard. The Hundred Years' War rarely produced engagements this lopsided, and almost never one in which the decisive missiles included stones thrown by local women.

Battle of Blackpool Sands: The Quarrel That Brought a Fleet

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The raid was not unprovoked. The English Channel in 1403 was a slow-burning war zone where merchants and privateers shaded into one another, and Dartmouth sat squarely in the middle of it. In August, du Chastel had burned through Plymouth and sailed home with the spoils. Two mont...

Battle of Blackpool Sands: A Fleet That Quarrelled With Itself

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The expedition began badly. On the very first day at sea, part of the fleet broke discipline and attacked allied Spanish wineships, and although order was restored, the spirit of the venture never quite recovered. Pieces of the fleet drifted away on their own errands. Du Chastel ...

Battle of Blackpool Sands: Hawley's Ditch

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The English used every hour. John Hawley, in his late fifties and politically connected through his shipping interests, was no longer mayor but still the man Dartmouth turned to in a crisis. He pulled in men from the inland parishes and, according to French chroniclers, mustered ...

Battle of Blackpool Sands: The Frontal Assault

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On the sixth day, du Chastel and de Jaille held a council on board ship. With many of their men still missing, only about two hundred armoured knights were available to land. Du Chastel wanted to flank the English position. De Jaille, perhaps reading the long week of inaction as ...

Battle of Blackpool Sands: The Aftermath

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

News of the victory travelled fast. A service of thanksgiving was held at Westminster Abbey, and Henry IV himself attended. The king's interest was not purely celebratory. On 25 May he asked the mayor of Dartmouth to send five of the prisoners up to Nottingham for interrogation; ...