French Wars of Religion

This article is about the 1589 battle. For the Battle of 1303 see Battle of Arques . The Battle of Arques occurred on 15–18 September 1589... between the French royal forces of King Henry IV of France and troops of the Catholic League commanded by Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne during the eighth and final war of the French Wars of Religion. It was a victory for Henry IV. At the death of Henry III of France, the Huguenot Henry of Navarre became by birthright the successor to the French throne . Although he quickly declared his intention to "maintain and preserve the Catholic, apostolic and roman religion" of the country , the major French cities sided with the Catholic League and its leader, the Duke of Mayenne . At that time, the royal army was in a shambles and Henry IV could only count on barely 20,000 men to conquer a rebellious country.
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The Battle of Coutras, fought on 20 October 1587, was a major engagement in the French Religious Wars between a Huguenot army under Henry of Navarre ... and a royalist army led by Anne, Duke of Joyeuse. Henry of Navarre was victorious, Joyeuse was killed while attempting to surrender. The Wars of Religion between the Catholics and Protestants in France had started 25 years before, in 1562. The King of France Henry III conducted a conciliatory policy, as reflected in the enactment of the Edict of Beaulieu in 1576 and the Edict of Poitiers the following year. But a new crisis arose as the result of the death of the king's brother, Francis of Alençon, when the Huguenot, Henry of Navarre, became heir presumptive to the throne. The League, led by the Duke of Guise, then set the kingdom against the king, who became isolated. On 18 July 1585, Henry III promulgated an edict canceling all previous edicts, giving precedence "to the Catholics", paying the mercenaries of the League of the Royal Treasury, prohibiting Protestantism in France, and ordering the return of safe Protestant strongholds. Protestants were expelled from power.
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The Battle of Dreux was fought on 19 December 1562 between Catholics and Huguenots. The Catholics were led by Anne de Montmorency while Louis I,... Prince of Condé led the Huguenots. The first general engagement of the civil wars. The Protestant army ran into the Catholic army on the road to Dreux, because of a criminal lack of foresight by Condé in posting any kind of advance scouts. Although both sides probably had roughly the same amount of cavalry with them, the Catholics had much more infantry and the benefit of superior organization . The two armies stood around for two hours looking at each other before the action began -- La Noue says in his Discours that this was because it was the first time two French armies had faced each other in over a century, and each had friends and brothers on the other side and was afraid to begin what would no doubt become the first act in a great tragedy. In the center is a pike square, with some arquebusiers firing under their protection.
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The Battle of Ivry was fought on 14 March 1590, during the French Wars of Religion. The battle was a decisive victory for Henry of Navarre, the... future Henry IV of France, leading Huguenot forces against the Catholic League forces led by the Duc de Mayenne. Henry's forces were victorious and he went on to lay siege to Paris. The battle occurred on the plain of Épieds, Eure near Ivry , Normandy. Ivry-la-Bataille is located on the Eure River and about thirty miles west of Paris, at the boundary between the Île-de-France and the Beauce regions. Henry de Navarre had moved rapidly to besiege Dreux, a town controlled by the League. As Mayenne followed intending to raise the siege, Henry withdrew but stayed within sight. He deployed his army on the plain of Saint André between the towns of Nonancourt and Ivry. The army of the Catholic League consisted of citizens led by priests and rebellious nobles, Swiss infantry under Appenzell, pikemen brought from Flanders by Philip, Count of Egmont, and the troopers of the Guise family with the Duke of Mayenne in command. At first light on 14 March 1590, the two armies engaged.
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