campaign. The Gascons of south-west Francefirm allies of the Englishheld a favourable opinion of his previous efforts. The government viewed Pembroke as a commander in the style of those who had swept the French before them in the earlier years of the war. On 5 March 1372 he indentured with the King to serve in Aquitaine and was appointed lieutenant of Aquitaine on 20 April. Mark Ormrod has described the campaign as a minor one, as Pembroke was accompanied only by his personal retinue of 160 men. The fleet carried £12,000 in silver coin, to enable Pembroke to raise more men in France; Pembroke was instructed to recruit 500 knights, 1,500 esquires, and 1,000 archers. The plan appears to have been for Pembroke to land at La Rochelle, giving succour to Poitou and the Saintonge, and then, having strengthened Aquitaine, to march northwards, cross the Loire, and join up with the King, who would also be on campaign. Unknown to the English, Charles V became aware of Pembroke's pending invasion of Aquitaine shortly after Edward III's Great Council had decided upon it. Defeat at La Rochelle Pembroke was much delayed; although he was in Plymouth by May, his fleet could not be available until June, because of a shortage of ships. He sailed with an overly-small fleet: fourteen to seventeen ships, only three of them outfitted as warships. At the time the English did not possess purpose-built warships. If ships were required for military purposes, merchant ships known as cogs were converted by the addition of wooden "castles" at the bow and stern and the erection of crow's nest platforms at the masthead. Some of Pembroke's ships were hired from merchants on condition they were not to be so converted and others were individually so small they could not be. James Sherborne comments that this force was "gravely inadequate". The government was aware that both the French and Castilian fleets were at sea and liable to be in the area Pembroke was sailing to, but Pembroke may have expected to only encounter pirates. Pembroke's ships reached La Rochelle on the afternoon of 22 June, to find the town still held by the English. Attempting to enter the harbour, Pembroke encountered a much larger force of twelve large Castilian galleys and eight carracks. They had been lying in wait for the English force since Pembroke's plans had become known weeks earlier.