On 14 March 1590 King Henry IV of France, a Protestant whose right to the throne the Catholic League refused to accept, met the League army of the Duke of Mayenne near Ivry in Normandy. Henry led his cavalry himself, and within about an hour the League horse, including the Spanish contingent of the Count of Egmont, was beaten; Egmont was among the dead. The victory opened the road to Paris, but the city held out, and Henry entered it only in 1594, after he had become a Catholic.
A king without his capital
When Henry III was assassinated in 1589, the crown passed to his cousin Henry of Navarre, a Protestant, who became Henry IV. The Catholic League, grouped around the Guise family and backed by Spain, refused to accept him. Its army was led by Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, brother of the Duke of Guise who had been assassinated the year before. Henry beat Mayenne at Arques, near Dieppe, on 21 September 1589, but failed to take Paris that autumn.1
In the spring of 1590 Henry laid siege to Dreux, west of Paris, and Mayenne marched to relieve it. The armies met near Ivry, a few miles north of Dreux, on the morning of 14 March.2
How many men fought
Both sides agree that the League had more men, but not on how many. John Rickard of HistoryOfWar.org gives Mayenne 16,000 men, 12,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry, including a Spanish contingent under Philip, Count of Egmont, against Henry's 11,000, 8,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry. The French history site Herodote says Mayenne came with forces three times as large. The two cavalries fought differently, Rickard notes: Egmont's men were lancers, built for the shock of the charge, while Henry's horsemen used pistol and sword and were better in a melee.3
The battle and the white plume
In Rickard's account, after a brief royal bombardment the League cavalry attacked, and then its main body clashed with Henry's own squadron. The king rode ahead of most of his men and was for a time in real danger, but within about an hour the League cavalry was beaten and fleeing, and Henry sent his reserve under Marshal Biron in pursuit. The infantry hardly fought. Egmont was among the dead.4
Before the battle Henry is said to have told his men that if they lost their standards, they should follow his plume, which they would always find on the road of honor and victory. Herodote points out that the chronicle does not say the plume was white at all, and that 19th century writers took the color from the white scarves Henry's Protestant companions had worn at Coutras. The poet Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas wrote a canticle on the victory, which the historian Paul Mironneau counts among the sources of Henry's legend.5
From Ivry to Paris
According to Rickard, a royal report put the League losses at 1,500 cavalry killed and 400 taken prisoner, and the total may have been as high as 4,000, while Henry lost around 500 men. Henry spared the Swiss in Mayenne's army, but the German mercenaries were cut down.6
The battle did not give Henry his capital. He lingered at Mantes before moving on Paris, and his siege of the city, from 7 May to 30 August 1590, failed. Henry converted to Catholicism in 1593 to win Paris and reunite the country. He was crowned at Chartres in February 1594 and entered Paris on 22 March 1594, the Musée protestant records. The Edict of Nantes of 1598, which guaranteed the Huguenots religious toleration, ended the Wars of Religion. Other battles of French history are collected in our article on the greatest battles of France.7
A note on the date: much of Catholic Europe, France included, adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, so 14 March 1590 is a Gregorian date.8
Note: the sizes of both armies and the losses differ between sources, and the text names the source for each figure.
Also on this day
- 1369: Battle of Montiel. At Montiel in Castile, Henry of Trastámara, backed by French troops under Bertrand du Guesclin, defeated King Peter of Castile in the Castilian civil war.
