Robert Knolles Sir Robert Knolles ( " c . " 1325 – 15 August 1407 ) was an important English knight of the Hundred Years ' War , who , operating with the tacit support of the Crown , succeeded in taking the only two major French cities , other than Calais and Poitiers , to fall to Edward III . His methods , however , earned him infamy as a freebooter and a ravager : the ruined gables of burned buildings came to be known as " Knolly ' s mitres " . < / ref > Born in Cheshire , Knolles first appears as the captain of several castle s throughout Brittany in the mid - 14th century , including Fougeray , Gravelle and Chateaublanc . He was one of the English champions at the Combat of the Thirty in 1351 , where he was captured . He then contributed himself and 800 men to the 1356 chevauchée of Henry of Grosmont , 1st Duke of Lancaster through Normandy , a diversionary campaign to draw King John II of France north and thus leave the Black Prince free to embark on the famous Poitiers campaign . With France in disarray after the Battle of Poitiers , King Charles II of Navarre assumed command of the rebellion in Paris , and Knolles joined up with the army of Philip of Navarre ( Charles ' younger brother ) as they temporarily held the capital against the Dauphin in 1358 . Knolles ' finest hours were to come that autumn when he led a Great Company of 2 , 000 – 3 , 000 Anglo - Gascons into the Loire Valley , establishing several forward garrisons at important towns like Châteauneuf - Val - de - Bargis . He then advanced into the Nivernais , which was unsuccessfully defended for Margaret III of Flanders by the Archpriest Arnaud de Cervole , the adventurer who had raised the first Great Company the previous year . In 1359 Knolles reached Auxerre , which fell after a two - month siege on 10 March . After the city had surrendered , Knolles was knight ed by two subordinates , previously he had formally only been ranked as a squire . The sack of Auxerre proceeded with little violence and destruction , Knolles and his soldiers were professionals who intended to maximize their profit . The city was carefully ransacked for valuables and the citizens assessed for ransom . At the end a huge ransom was extorted for not destroying the city , although this was only partly paid . The following month he returned to Chateauneuf to plot the invasion of the Rhône Valley with Hugh Calveley . Marching south , a forward base was established on the Allier River at Pont - du - Chateau , from where they launched the invasion of the Velay . Knolles then reunited with Calveley to besiege the important city of Le Puy , which fell in July 1359 . As they continued to the Papal city of Avignon , their path was barred by the army of Thomas de la Marche , Deputy for Louis II , Duke of Bourbon , at which point both English commanders retreated and dissolved their companies . At the climax of the Breton War of Succession he participated in John de Montfort ' s siege of Auray in July 1364 , the prelude to John ' s decisive victory at the Battle of Auray in September . He joined the Black Prince at the Battle of Nájera ( Navarrete ) of 1367 . In 1370 he was given a large grant of lands and money to raise an army to invade northern France . He landed at Calais in August with 6 , 000 mounted men and carried out a raid deep into French territory , burning villages on the outskirts of Paris but failing to bring the French King Charles V out to battle . He then turned towards Gascony and began capturing and fortifying castles and churches in the region between the rivers Loir and Loire . However he had to cope with much criticism from his younger subordinate commanders such as Sir John Minsterworth who were spoiling for a fight . When it became known that French armies under the command of Bertrand du Guesclin were closing in on them , Knolles proposed to retreat into Brittany but most of the army refused . He therefore marched away with his own retinue , leaving the bulk of the army where they were , to be comprehensively defeated and slaughtered at the Battle of Pontvallain on 4 December . Knolles passed the winter in his castle at Derval on the Breton March and afterwards attempted to evacuate his men and those of Minsterworth , who had managed to join him with his surviving troop , from the port of Saint - Mathieu . However for lack of ships most of the English soldiers had to be left behind on the shore to be wiped out by the French under Olivier de Clisson . In 1372 Knolles was found by the King ' s Council to bear the major responsibility for this disaster . He was stripped of the lands that had been given him as his fee for raising the army and fined 10 , 000 marks . He died at his seat in Sculthorpe , Norfolk on 15 August 1407 . He also founded Trinity Hospital , Pontefract and helped to suppress the Peasants ' Revolt . Knolles ' coat of arms decorates the postern tower of Bodiam Castle , Sussex . It was a statement of loyalty to Knolles by its builder , Edward Dalyngrigge who served under Knolles in a Free Company during the Hundred Years ' War . References . Notes Bibliography