Activity of Anglo-French Mercenary Companies

Timeline

1. 1370–1374Auvergne and the Burgundy border · AuvergneAfter the war resumed in 1369, English expeditionary forces and French defenders fought continuously, while the mercenary tradition dating from the Treaty of Brétigny continued. In the early 1370s, dozens to over a hundred independent companies appeared in central and southern France, led mostly by Gascon or Breton knights who sustained themselves by burning villages and kidnapping for ransom, posing a persistent challenge to royal authority.
2. 1375–1379Languedoc and the Gascony border · LanguedocDuring the Truce of Bruges in 1375, the Duke of Anjou convened the Estates of Languedoc to defend against mercenary incursions. Charles V had diverted some of Du Guesclin's mercenaries toward crusades in Spain and Hungary, yet armed raids still occurred along the Languedoc–Gascony border in the late 1370s. When Du Guesclin was ordered in 1380 to clear out the southern mercenaries, he died en route, showing the problem remained unresolved at decade's end.