areas of maritime commerce and trade, especially with England, the Netherlands and Spain. In 1196, a wealthy bourgeois named Alexandre Auffredi sent a fleet of seven ships to Africa to tap the riches of the continent. He went bankrupt and went into poverty as he waited for the return of his ships, but they finally returned seven years later filled with riches.
Knights Templar
The Knights Templar had a strong presence in La Rochelle since before the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who exempted them from duties and gave them mills in her 1139 Charter. La Rochelle was for the Templars their largest base on the Atlantic Ocean, and where they stationed their main fleet. From La Rochelle, they were able to act as intermediaries in trade between England and the Mediterranean. There is a legend that the Templars used the port of La Rochelle to escape from France with the fleet of 18 ships which had brought Jacques de Molay from Cyprus to La Rochelle. The fleet allegedly left laden with knights and treasures just before the issue of the warrant for the arrest of the Order in October 1307, and the legend continues that the Templars allegedly even left for America, burying a treasure in Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada (a story taken up in the 2004 movie National Treasure starring Nicolas Cage).
Hundred Years' War
During the Hundred Years' War in 1360, following the Treaty of Bretigny La Rochelle again became English. La Rochelle however expelled the English in June 1372, following the naval Battle of La Rochelle, between a Castilian-French and an English fleet. The Spanish had 60 ships and the English 40. They also had more knights and men than the English. The French and Castilians decisively defeated the English, securing French control of the Channel for the first time since the Battle of Sluys in 1340. The naval battle of La Rochelle was one of the first cases of the use of handguns on warships, which were
