The Battle of La Rochelle was a naval battle fought on 22 and 23 June 1372 between a Castilian fleet commanded by the Castilian Ambrosio Boccanegra and an English fleet commanded by John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. The Castilian fleet had been sent to attack the English at La Rochelle, which was being besieged by the French. Besides Boccanegra, other Castilian commanders were Cabeza de Vaca, Fernando de Peón and Ruy Díaz de Rojas. Pembroke had been dispatched to the town with a small retinue of 160 soldiers, £12,000 and instructions to use the money to recruit an army of 3,000 soldiers around Aquitaine for at least four months. The strength of the fleet is estimated as between the 12 galleys given by the Castilian chronicler and naval captain López de Ayala and the 40 sailing ships, of which three ships were warships and 13 barges mentioned by the French chronicler Jean Froissart. Probably it consisted of 22 ships, mainly galleys and some (carracks) three- or four-masted ocean sailing ships. The English fleet probably consisted of 32 ships and 17 small barges of about 50 tons. The Castilian victory was complete and the entire English fleet was captured or destroyed. On his return to the Iberian Peninsula, Boccanegra seized another four English ships off Bordeaux. This defeat undermined English seaborne trade and supplies through the English channel and threatened their Gascon possessions. Background In 1372 the English monarch Edward III planned an important campaign in Aquitaine under the new lieutenant of the Duchy, the Earl of Pembroke. He contracted to serve a year in the duchy with a retinue of 24 knights, 55 squires and 80 archers besides other companies led by Sir Hugh Calveley and Sir John Devereux, who finally did not serve or did not appear. Pembroke was given £12,000 with instructions to use the money to recruit a host of 500 knights, 1,500 esquires and 1,500 archers in France for at least four months. One of Edward's clerks, John Wilton, was appointed to accompany the Earl and administer the funds. The Earl of Pembroke, his retinue and Wilton embarked at Plymouth aboard a transport fleet which was unprepared for serious engagement. The Castilian chronicler Pero López de Ayala estimated that this fleet had 36 ships, whereas the chronicler of the French court estimated it to be 35. Jean Froissart, in one of his two descriptions of