On 19 December 1562, near Dreux, west of Paris, the royal Catholic army met the Huguenot army of the Prince of Condé in the only major battle of the first French War of Religion. It was a day of reversals. The Huguenot horse broke into the royal lines and captured the Constable of France, Anne de Montmorency, and then the Duke of Guise's reserve turned the battle and captured Condé himself. Marshal Saint-André was killed after being taken prisoner. The royal army held the field, but at a heavy cost. France still used the Julian calendar, as it did until 1582.
The first war of religion
The war began in the spring of 1562. The killing of Protestants at worship in a barn at Wassy on 1 March, by men of François, Duke of Guise, is counted as its trigger, and Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, took up arms and seized Orléans in April. The Huguenots made a treaty with Elizabeth I of England at Hampton Court in September and counted on German soldiers as well.1
In the autumn the royal army retook several towns, including Rouen. In November a Huguenot army, strengthened by German troops, marched out of Orléans toward Paris, and after fruitless talks it turned west in December to join the English in Normandy. The royal army moved in parallel, crossed the River Eure and placed itself between the Huguenots and Dreux.2
Charges and reversals
Rickard writes that the royal army had about 16,000 infantry, 2,000 to 3,000 cavalry and 22 guns, and estimates the Huguenot army at about 12,000 men, with more cavalry and less infantry. The Constable of France, Anne de Montmorency, commanded the royal army, with Marshal Jacques d'Albon de Saint-André and the Duke of Guise under him. Condé commanded the Huguenots, with Admiral Gaspard de Coligny.3
The Huguenot cavalry struck first. Condé charged the Swiss infantry on the royal side, and on the other wing Coligny's horsemen reached Montmorency himself. According to Rickard the Constable's horse was killed under him and his jaw was broken by a pistol shot before he was taken prisoner. For a while the Huguenots seemed to be winning. Then Guise, who had held his men back, attacked, and in this phase Condé was captured. Coligny rallied enough horsemen to cover the retreat of what was left of the Huguenot army.4
Saint-André was taken prisoner in the last stage of the fighting and then killed. Britannica says his killer was a Catholic with a grudge, whose property the marshal had confiscated.5
A costly victory
Both commanders in chief were prisoners and the royal army held the field, so the battle is counted a royal victory. The losses are uncertain. Rickard writes that the Huguenots admitted to 3,000 casualties and 1,500 Germans captured, that other sources give about 6,000 dead in total, and that royal losses were at least 2,000. The Musée protestant puts the toll at 8,000.6
Guise, now the only senior Catholic commander still free and alive, went on to besiege Orléans. There he was shot by Jean de Poltrot de Méré on 18 February 1563, and Rickard gives the date of his death as 24 February. The Queen Mother, Catherine de' Medici, then negotiated peace, and in March 1563 the Edict of Amboise ended the first war. Montmorency was released and the same year led the army that took Le Havre back from the English. The wars of religion went on for more than three decades; one of their last great battles has its own page, 14 March, the Battle of Ivry, 1590.7
