men attempted to board Joanna's ship. According to Froissart, Joanna fought in person "with the heart of a lion, and in her hand she wielded a sharp glaive, wherewith she fought fiercely". Eventually the English forces beat off Louis's ships and made harbour near Vannes. Her forces then captured Vannes, besieged Rennes and sought to break the siege of Hennebont. From this point Joanna played little direct part in the fighting, as her faction was now being led by English warlords. With neither side able to achieve a decisive victory, by the truce of Malestroit in 1343, her husband John was released and hostilities ceased for a period. He was later imprisoned once again, but escaped and resumed the conflict. When her husband died in 1345 in the midst of the war, she again became the leader of the Montfort party to protect the rights of her son John V against the House of Blois. In 1347, English forces acting on her behalf captured Charles of Blois in battle. Confinement By this time Joanna and her son were living in England. In England, after being initially welcomed with honor, she was later confined by order of King Edward III and spent the rest of her life in confinement at Tickhill Castle and elsewhere. King Edward III entrusted her to the care of Sir William Frank until 1346, Thomas Haukeston (1346–57), John Delves (d. 1370) and finally to his widow Isabella and Godfrei Foljambe. Arthur de la Borderie attributed her confinement to mental illness, but more recent research finds no evidence she was insane. It is unlikely that "Warmer" (Warnier?) de Giston, assisted by his yeoman, would have risked gravely compromising himself by taking her out of the castle in 1347 and attempting to flee with her if she were mentally ill. Edward III probably imprisoned her in order to increase his own power in Brittany. She lived long enough to see the final victory of her son John IV, Duke of Brittany over the House of Blois in 1364, but she never returned to the duchy. The last mention made of the duchess and her guardian is 14 February 1374. It seems she died that year. Legacy Joanna was later known as a prototype of the martial woman in Brittany, and a possible influence on Joan of Arc. Jean Froissart said she "had the courage of a man and the