The Battle of Pontvallain, part of the Hundred Years' War, took place in the Sarthe

region of north-west France on 4 December 1370, when a French army under Bertrand
du Guesclin heavily defeated an English force which had broken away from an army
commanded by Sir Robert Knolles. The French numbered 5,200 men, and the English
force was approximately the same size.

The English had plundered and burnt their way across northern France from Calais to
Paris. With winter coming, the English commanders fell out and divided their army
into four. The battle consisted of two separate engagements: one at Pontvallain
where, after a forced march which continued overnight, Du Guesclin, the newly
appointed constable of France, surprised a major part of the English force, and
wiped it out. In a coordinated attack, Du Guesclin's subordinate, Louis de
Sancerre, caught a smaller English force the same day, at the nearby town of Vaas,
also wiping it out. The two are sometimes named as separate battles.

The French harried the surviving Englishmen into the following year, recapturing
much lost territory. Though the engagements were comparatively small, they were
significant because the English were routed, ending a reputation for invincibility
in open battle they had enjoyed since the war started in 1337.