henry of lancaster arrived in the contentin 1 june 1356 bringing with him some 1300 men. to this philip added 300 of his own retainers. they were also joined by robert knolles bringing with him 800 men from the english garrisons in brittany. the small but all mounted army rode out from montebourg on 22 june. they were too late to save evereux, but arrived in time to relieve and reinforce the navarrese garrison at pont-audemer. from there they moved south reaching conches-en-ouche on 3 july only to find that the place had just fallen to the french. driving off a small french army outside the walls of breteuil they went to capture verneuil by storm before turning west again on 8 july. by 13 july the army was back at montebourg. they had failed to relieve evreux, but brought back considerable booty making the short campaign a profitable venture for the participants. the raid also caused john ii to be caught in a pointless siege of breteuil instead of focusing on the threatening events taking place to the south. on 20 august he paid the garrison an enormous sum for surrendering the castle and rejoin philip in the cotentin.