BATTLE OF IVRY
NORTHERN FRANCE, 14 MARCH 1590
The Protestant Reformation had established itself elsewhere across Europe in the 16th century but hadn’t made much headway into France until the emergence of Calvinism. Based in Geneva, the Calvinists sent missionary preachers to France, where they founded churches among their new adherents, who became known as the Huguenots.
Royal officials in France began to ruthlessly persecute the Calvinists because they saw them as a threat to the traditional order. One area where Calvinism enjoyed great success was in the Kingdom of Navarre in the south west of France, where Antoine de Bourbon reigned.
Though Antoine was himself ambivalent about Protestantism, his wife and queen, Jeanne d’albret, was a fervent Calvinist.
HENRY OF NAVARRE
Into this world of split religious allegiances came Henry, born in December 1553. Growing up in Pau, the capital city of Navarre, the young prince of the House of Bourbon impressed his elders with his keen intelligence. Meanwhile religious civil wars engulfed France for nearly 40 years, starting in 1562. At Dreux, a royal (Catholic) army defeated a Huguenot force in battle. The heavy toll in lives did much to encourage the warring factions to do their best to avoid fighting pitched battles in the future. It did not, however, bring an end to the fighting.
In an attempt to heal the factional breach, Catherine de Medici arranged for her daughter Marguerite to marry Henry of Navarre on 18 August 1572, but this was followed just days later by the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Thousands of Huguenots were slain in Paris by Catholic mobs, and Henry was given a stark choice: convert to Catholicism or die. Henry chose life, and for several years lived outwardly as a Catholic. However, in 1576 he managed to escape from King Henry III’S court, and resumed his life in Navarre as a Huguenot champion.
In January 1589, Henry III had Henry, the Duke of Guise assassinated, infuriating and energising the rest of the Catholic League he had been the led. The king now desperately sought the support of the same Huguenots whom he had been trying to suppress. He declared Henry of Navarre to be his heir, and not long afterward, in August 1589, Henry III was himself slain by an assassin’s blade. Henry of Navarre was thus named king as Henry IV, despite his Protestantism.
WAR IN THE AGE OF HENRY IV
By the early 16th century, infantry had regained much of the prominence in battle that it had lost after the fall of Rome. Operating in large squares, pikemen would fend off enemy cavalry with their long weapons, while the arquebusiers interspersed among them blasted them with lead shot. The arquebusiers would then retreat into the safety of the pike square while they reloaded. Horsemen still retained their role as shock cavalry.
European armies had begun to supplement their armoured lancers with the reiter, a more practical kind of light cavalryman armed with a pistol and a sabre. Typical reiter tactics involved galloping up to the enemy, firing their pistols and then returning to the rear ranks of the formation to reload. This caracole, as it was called, was not altogether
decisive as it usually only worked once one side saw that it was losing and beat a hasty retreat. Henry would make his mark by introducing a twist to reiter tactics. In his pistolade, he would have his troopers fire their pistols just once and then charge straight into hand-to-hand combat with their sabres instead of performing the time-consuming caracole.
THE DUEL FOR FRANCE
Henry had to balance a fractious coalition composed of his old Huguenot supporters and the new Catholic adherents, whose support he would need if he were ever actually to sit on his throne. Some, however, would not be reconciled to a Protestant monarch, and these men left the royal court for their own domains.
The royal army of 40,000 men, which was now Henry’s own, dwindled quickly to just 18,000.
There were some who wanted him to go back to the Huguenot stronghold in the south of France, but others cautioned against such a defensive move. Winning the throne would require a more aggressive strategy. Henry next moved north into Normandy, seeking to open a line of communications with England, which was itself Protestant and ruled by Elizabeth I, who had sent considerable aid to Henry. In August 1589, he captured the port city of Dieppe and began to fortify it.
In September, he was pursued north by Charles, Duke of Mayenne, the younger brother of the murdered Henry, Duke of Guise, who was now the leader of the Catholic League’s forces. Mayenne’s army was big and powerful, composed of League troops, Swiss and Landsknecht mercenaries, and Spanish troops detached from the Army of Flanders in the Netherlands. All told, Mayenne had some 20,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry under his command. Seeing the strength of the fortifications that Henry had thrown up around Dieppe, Mayenne chose to advance along a defile, past the village of Arques, towards the city. Henry had fortified this approach with two trench lines to be manned by his much smaller army of 8,000. On the foggy morning of 21 September, Mayenne advanced along the road into the narrowed space of the defile, thereby ceding the advantage that his more numerous force should have enjoyed.
A unit of German mercenary infantry turned the flank of the first trench and Henry’s men retreated in disorder towards the second line. Mayenne’s cavalry now charged through the gaps in the trench line. At the head of his small force of just 1,000 reiter cavalry, Henry counterattacked the League horsemen in the tight confines of the defile, while his arquebusiers fired into their close-packed ranks. The outcome was in doubt for more than an hour as the cavalry of each side charged and countercharged, with the League advance barely halted by the Swiss infantry of Henry’s second line. But when the thick fog lifted, the cannon of the nearby castle of Arques fired on the Leaguers, who quickly retreated out of range of the artillery.
The Battle of Arques was not particularly costly for either side – Mayenne lost 600 men and Henry 200. Finding no way to get at Dieppe with Henry present, and with a royalist army approaching, Mayenne withdrew on 6 October. Henry remained in Normandy, and in a hugely successful campaign he brought almost the whole of the province under his control.
BATTLE IS JOINED
In March 1590, Mayenne rode north again to bring Henry – who was himself besieging Dreux – to battle. The king was determined to fight a pitched battle, a rarity during the religious wars. He had some 3,000 cavalry and 8,000 infantry at his command, while the Catholic League army was smaller than it had been at Arques, totalling about 4,000 cavalry and 15,000 infantry. Of Henry’s royalist army, many were foreign troops.
On 14 March, Henry’s main army was arrayed for battle on the plain of Saint André between the towns of Ivry and Nonancourt. As this was open ground, neither Henry nor the Leaguers would have the benefit of fighting a defensive battle. It would be a straightforward engagement between two armies. Henry’s plan was to destroy the Leaguers’ left wing opposite him with his elite troops and he would, as always, lead the attack in person.
Reliance on mercenaries put Henry in an awkward position. Just before the start of the
battle, the colonel of the German reiters, a man called Dietrich Schomberg, approached the king and requested that he pay his men’s arrears in full. Henry, with the upcoming battle weighing heavily on his mind, caustically replied that a brave man would never ask for his money right before a battle. Afterwards, Henry regretted his sharp answer and asked for Schomberg’s forgiveness, which was enough to bring the German to tears and elicit his firm insistence of his loyalty to Henry.
His army was deployed in some six corps. He had placed a unit of 300 cavalry under the Marshal d’aumont on the far left of his line, with two regiments of infantry on its flanks. Next to them was a regiment of cavalry under Duke Montpensier, with Swiss pikemen and half a regiment of French arquebusiers on its right. On its left was a regiment of 400 German landsknechts. Two groups of light cavalry, totalling 400 horse, under the Bastard of Angoulême and the Sieur de Givry, formed the third corps. Set next to these units was the tiny royal artillery park of just five guns.
Moving rightward, next to this was a regiment of pistolier cavalry under the Baron de Biron, the son of the Armand, the Marshal Biron. These men were matched with a regiment of 800 infantry. The fifth corps – Henry’s strongest and under his direct command – was composed of his best cavalry, four regiments of his Swiss mercenaries and three of his French infantry. As noted, he intended to break the enemy line with these troops. Anchoring the far right wing on the village of Saint André, was Schomberg’s regiment of reiters. Behind the main line, forming a meagre reserve, were a small body of 150 cavalry and two regiments of infantry under the command of the Marshal Biron. Some skirmishers were also set ahead of the main line.
The Catholic League army was itself just as formidable, and larger too. On the far right wing, light cavalry and heavy cavalry were reinforced by landsknechts and Swiss foot under Charles,
Duke of Nemours. Walloon lancer cavalry came next, supported by some French foot. These were under the command of Philip of Egmont. Beside these was the League artillery. Next to the guns was a regiment of reiters commanded by Eric of Brunswick. These were backed up by Swiss and French infantry. Next to the reiters were 700 lancers under Mayenne’s direct command, and beside them, 400 mounted Spanish arquebusiers. Forming the far left of the League’s line was a contingent of French cavalry under Charles,
Duke of Aumale. These were supported by Walloon and French infantry.
The battle commenced as the armies marched towards each other warily, with Henry moving his army to the left to attain the advantage of the sun and the wind. The bigger of the League army’s line extended further than either wing of the royalists, and it was probably Mayenne’s intention to outflank Henry’s army on both sides.
When they were close enough, Henry ordered his artillery commander to open up on the Leaguers.
The attack was savagely effective, mowing down numerous Walloon lancers and reiters to his fore. Mayenne’s artillery was considerably less deadly, killing only one of Henry’s soldiers. After this short barrage, the cavalry of both sides charged.
The royalist cavalry, under Marshal d’aumont, drove off the Catholic light cavalry opposite them. Montpensier’s troops clashed with those of Nemours, and Egmont’s Walloon lancers then charged the royalist light cavalry of the Bastard of Angoulême and the Sieur de Givry and routed them. Egmont then fell upon de Guiche’s artillerists and slaughtered them. The Walloons were out of formation after all of this action, and were struck by the Baron de Biron’s pistolier cavalrymen. The Walloons broke, and then rallied and reentered the fray. They were all but destroyed in the ensuing combat, and the few survivors found safety behind the Leaguers’ main line.
On the right wing of Henry’s army, Schomberg’s mercenaries engaged in a furious combat with those of Aumale, and Schomberg was slain in the fighting. The scales were only tipped in favour of the royalists when Marshal Biron entered the fray with his reserve troops and defeated the Aumale’s League cavalry.
The decisive fight would take place in the centre. Mayenne struck against the centre-left of Henry’s line with his reiters on his right flank, his Spanish horse-arquebusiers on his left flank, and his lancers in the middle.
The horse-arquebusiers performed well, shooting dead Henry’s ensign bearer and leaving many afraid that Henry had himself been slain. But the League reiters were hit hard by Henry’s artillery, and then were shot up by some skirmishing arquebusiers, who they did not spot until it was too late. Their commander, Eric of Brunswick, was killed and after firing their pistols, instead of completing the caracole and firing again, they simply rode back to the League rear.
In their flight, they got in the way of Mayenne’s lancers and the duke was forced to halt his charge while they passed. This left them very vulnerable to the charge of the royalist horsemen, with the very much alive Henry at their head. Henry’s cavalry dispersed the Spanish and then struck Mayenne’s stationary horsemen.
Lances were useless when not being used in the charge, and these were tossed aside by the Leaguers in favour of swords for close quarters action. Fifteen minutes of gory hand-to-hand fighting ensued until Henry hacked his way through the enemy. Mayenne’s cavalry were put to flight, and sought the security of the rear of their line. The French and Swiss League troops were given quarter, but for the foreign troops, the landsknechts and the Walloons, there would be no such mercy. Losses to the Catholic League forces stood at 800 cavalry and 3,000 infantry, and several thousand men soon became prisoners. Henry’s losses were much lighter, placed at some 500 killed in action. Ivry was a clearcut victory for Henry.