Battle of Coutras

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The Battle of Coutras on October 20, 1587 was a skirmish between the Catholics under Anne de Joyeuse and the Protestants under Henry of Navarre in the Eighth Huguenot War . It ended with a victory for the Protestants and the death of Joyeuse.

prehistory

The Huguenot Wars continued since 1562. King Henry III who ruled from 1574 had pursued a policy of compromise, which was expressed in the Edict of Beaulieu (1576) and the Edict of Poitiers (1577). With the death of his brother Franz († 1584), however, France fell into a crisis, as the Huguenot Henry of Navarra became heir to the throne after him. The Holy League of 1576 , which had actually been dissolved in 1577, re-emerged under the leadership of the Duke of Guise and brought the kingdom against Henry III. who now saw himself isolated.

On July 18, 1585, the king then issued an edict which repealed all previous edicts and a. also forbade Protestantism in France. The Protestants were ousted from power and Henry of Navarre also lost all functions and offices in France.

The edict was viewed by Protestants as a declaration of war. Initially, Henry of Navarre looked for support without success. Only a bull from Pope Sixtus V gave him the allies he needed: the Gallicans and French royalists stood behind him, Henri I. de Montmorency , Duke of Montmorency and Governor of Languedoc and with him the so-called "politicians" demanding tolerance, and finally Denmark and England. The inflexibility of the Duke de Guise made war inevitable. The Duke of Joyeuse was sent south with an army, the Duke of Mercœur invaded Poitou and arrested the Prince Condé at La Rochelle .

The battle

The armies of Henry of Navarre and the Duke of Joyeuse (5,000 infantrymen and 1,800 horsemen each ) met each other on October 20, 1587 near Coutras on the Gironde . Joyeuse had his cavalry attacked from afar, but above all achieved that the horses were already tired when they came into contact with the enemy and the lancers had lost their cohesion and thus all clout. Heinrich, on the other hand, used a new tactic by alternating musketeers and horsemen in the front line . The light cavalry ( Chevauleger ) managed to break the strength of the royal forces and put them to flight.

The Duke of Joyeuse was not only defeated, but was also captured and killed by a pistol shot. While Henry of Navarre lost 40 soldiers, about 2,000 men died on the other side, including 300 nobles.

literature

  • Louis Maimbourg: Histoire de la Ligue. Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy, Paris 1684, online .
  • Pierre de Vaissière: Messieurs de Joyeuse (1560-1615). Portraits et documents inédits. Albin Michel, Paris 1926.
  • Pierre Miquel : Les Guerres de religion. Fayard, Paris 1980, ISBN 2-213-00868-X , pp. 342-344.
  • Frédéric Chauviré: La charge de cavalerie, de Bayard à Seydlitz. In: Nouvelle histoire bataille (= Cahiers du Center d'études d'histoire de la défense (CEHD). No. 23). Volume 2. ADDIM, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-11-094729-2 , p. 111., online .
  • Frédéric Chauviré: The problem of l'allure dans les charges de cavalerie du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle. In: Revue historique des armées. No. 249, 2007, ISSN  0035-3299 , pp. 16-27 online .