On 19 December 1562, near Dreux, west of Paris, the royal Catholic army of the Constable of France, Anne de Montmorency, defeated the Huguenot army of the Prince of Condé in the first French War of Religion. Each side took the other's commander in chief prisoner, and the royal Marshal Saint-André was killed.
Battle of Dreux
19 December 1562 · 463 years ago
The first war of religion
The war began in the spring of 1562. Its trigger is counted as the killing of Protestants at worship in a barn at Wassy on 1 March by men of François, Duke of Guise, and in April Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, took up arms and seized Orléans. In September the Huguenots made a treaty with Elizabeth I of England at Hampton Court, which promised English money and 6,000 soldiers in return for Le Havre.1
In the autumn the royal army retook Rouen. In November Condé, reinforced by German horsemen and foot soldiers, marched from Orléans on Paris, but he lost time in fruitless talks with the Queen Mother, Catherine de' Medici, while the capital was fortified and reinforced. In December he broke camp and turned west toward Normandy to join the English, and the royal army caught up with him near Dreux, on the River Eure.2
Charges and reversals
The royal army was much the larger: Thompson and Baird put it at 15,000 to 18,000 men, and Condé's at 7,000 to 12,000. Montmorency commanded the royal army, with Marshal Jacques d'Albon de Saint-André and the Duke of Guise under him; Condé led the Huguenots, with Admiral Gaspard de Coligny.3
The Huguenot cavalry struck first. Horsemen led by Condé and Coligny broke into the royal Swiss infantry and reached Montmorency himself, who was wounded in the mouth and taken prisoner. Then the tide turned. The Swiss held, the Huguenot infantry gave way, and Condé, whose horse was shot under him, was captured in his turn. Coligny rallied what cavalry he could, Saint-André was killed in the late fighting, and darkness ended the battle and let Coligny lead the rest of the Huguenot army away.4
A costly victory
The royal army held the field, so Dreux counts as a royal victory. Both sides lost heavily, and the figures differ. Thompson, following a contemporary chronicler, gives about 800 Huguenot nobles and nearly 6,000 foot soldiers and German horsemen dead, and about 2,000 royal losses; the Musée protestant gives 8,000 casualties in all. Among the royal dead was a son of Montmorency. The defeat ended Condé's march to join the English, and the Huguenots fell back on Orléans.5
With Montmorency a prisoner and Saint-André dead, Guise led the royal army and laid siege to Orléans. There, on 18 February 1563, he was shot by a Huguenot, Jean de Poltrot de Méré, and he died six days later. Condé and Montmorency, both released, negotiated the peace, and the Edict of Amboise of 19 March 1563 ended the first war. The wars of religion went on; one of their last great battles has its own page, 14 March, the Battle of Ivry, 1590.6
Also on this day
Battle of Brailov
19 December 1666 · 359 years ago
The Cossack and Tatar army of Petro Doroshenko attacked a Polish-Lithuanian division under Sebastian Machowski, opening the Polish-Cossack-Tatar War. Caught by the Tatars as it retreated, the Polish force was routed and Machowski was taken prisoner.
