A kind of side conflict to the Hundred Years' War was the War of the Breton Succession, a conflict between the Houses of Blois and Montfort for control of the Duchy of Brittany. The French backed Blois and the English backed Montfort in what became a miniature of the wider conflict between the two countries. The House of Blois had laid siege to the town of Quimper in early 1344, and continued into 1345. During the summer and autumn of 1344, the Montfortist party had fallen apart. Even those who had been John of Montfort's staunchest allies now considered it futile to continue the struggle. It therefore mattered little that in March 1345 John finally managed to escape to England. With no adherents of note of his own, he was now little more than a figurehead for English ambitions in Brittany.