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Writer's pictureGeorge Castrioti

December 19th, 1562 - The Battle of Dreux

Conflict: French Religious Wars

Combatants: Catholic Forces vs. Huguenots

Location: France

Outcome: Catholic victory


Enroute to meet the English at Le Havre, a Huguenot army of 15,000 under the leadership of Louis I of Bourbon (the Prince de Conde) and Gaspard de Coligny stumbled into a Catholic army of 19,000. The Huguenots succeeded in capturing the enemy leader, Duc Anne de Montmorency, but a Catholic counterattack spoiled the Huguenot momentum and won the day. Each side suffered casualties of approximately 4,000 men.


Bataille de Dreux (1562) by unknown artist

Points of Interest:

  • Although the war began as a conflict between Catholics and persecuted Protestants, it quickly morphed, as such struggles often do, into a political battle for control of the French government.

  • A year after Dreux, the government issued the Edict of Amboise which allowed for freedom of worship by the Protestants.


Louis de Bourbon Prince of Condé by François Clouet
Gaspard de Coligny by Jan van Ravestey



















Anne de Montmorency, grand maître de France by Jean Clouet

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Sources:

Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, & Bongard, David L. (1992). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: Castle Books (HarperCollins).

 

Dupuy, R. Ernest & Dupuy, Trevor N. (1993). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History. New York: HarperCollins.

 

Eggenberger, David (1985). An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.

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