Knolles, Sir Robert

Related Category: British and Irish History: Biographies

(both: nōlz), d. 1407, English military commander in the Hundred Years War. He became a leader of a company of mercenaries, fought against Bertrand Du Guesclin, whom he captured in 1359, and assisted Edward the Black Prince in his Spanish campaign, especially at Nájera (1367). Continuing to fight throughout France, either for the English or for his own plunder, he ravaged Normandy and the Loire valley. In 1381 he helped to disperse the Peasants' Revolt in England.