Battle of Arques (1589)
The Battle of Arques took place from September 15 to 29, 1589 between the troops of the French King Henry IV and those of the League under Charles de Mayenne .
context
After the death of King Henry III. Henri de Bourbon, the Protestant king of Navarre , ascended the throne as Henry IV. He quickly stated that he wanted to "preserve and preserve the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religions"; the major French cities, however, joined the Catholic League under its commandant Charles de Mayenne, the younger brother of the late Duc de Guise .
At that time, Henry IV's royal army was only a shadow of itself. The king could only count on 20,000 men to conquer a kingdom that refused to accept. To manage the reconquest, he divided his army into three commands: the Duke of Longueville for Picardy , the Marshal d'Aumont for Champagne, and himself to claim Normandy while waiting for reinforcements, the English Queen Elizabeth I had promised.
Henry IV set up his field camp for his 8,000 men on August 6, 1589 in Dieppe .
Preparations
On the side of his opponents, Charles de Mayenne was the leader of the Catholic League, who wanted to regain this strategic port of Normandy and in particular to drive Henry IV out. In view of the storming of the city, he gathered 35,000 men (plus militias from Cambrai and the Lorraine of the Marquis de Pont-à-Mousson ).
Henry IV knew that an offensive against this army would be pointless and that staying in the city would be suicidal. After warning Longueville and Aumont, he decided to move towards the village of Arques and place the defense there: he had earthworks done and the fortifications consolidated. He made himself master of the terrain and prepared for a frontal league attack led by Charles de Mayenne.
The battle
Between September 15 and 29, 1589, Mayenne launched several attacks on Arques and its surroundings, but Mayenne's momentum was soon broken by the royal artillery. The attacks led to high losses on both sides and soon the shortage of men on Heinrich's side became clearly noticeable.
Henry's rescue came from the sea on September 23, 1589: 50 Englishmen, 1200 Scots and finally 4000 British soldiers, who had been sent by Elizabeth I, came in waves from England in less than three days to meet the new King of France Hand to go. 500 arquebusiers under François de Coligny then brought the king the victory. Faced with this situation, the Duke of Mayenne preferred to give up.
After the battle, Henry IV took a short rest in a neighboring castle and scratched one of the window panes with a diamond before riding on: “Dieu gard de mal ma mie. Ce 22 de Septembre 1589 - HENRI ”.
literature
- Terry Breverton: Williams, Roger , in: Wales: A Historical Companion , 2012
- Arlette Jouanna, Jacqueline Boucher, Dominique Biloghi, Guy Thiec: Histoire et dictionnaire des Guerres de religion , Collection: Bouquins. Paris: Laffont, 1998, ISBN 2-221-07425-4
- Jeff Kinard: Artillery: An Illustrated History of Its Impact, ABC-CLIO , 2007, ISBN 978-1851095568
- Mrs. Andrew Lang: Men, Women, and Minxes , Longmans, Green & Co., 1912
- Pierre Miquel : Les Guerres de Religion , Paris 1980, ISBN 2-7242-0785-8