Battle of Coutras

Date	20 October 1587
Location	Coutras (Gironde)
Result	Decisive Huguenot victory

Belligerents

Huguenots

Royalist Army

Commanders and leaders

Henry of Navarre

Anne de Joyeuse †

Strength

5,000 infantry
1,800 cavalry

Casualties and losses

40 killed

2,000 men, of which
300 nobility

The Battle of Coutras, fought on 20 October 1587, was a major engagement in the French Religious Wars between a Huguenot (Protestant) army under Henry of Navarre (the future Henry IV of France) and a royalist army led by Anne, Duke of Joyeuse. Henry of Navarre was victorious, Joyeuse was killed while attempting to surrender.

The Wars of Religion between the Catholics and Protestants in France had begun in 1562 and continued intermittently since, with temporary periods of nominal peace that were often also violent. The King of France Henry III conducted a conciliatory policy, as reflected in the enactment of the Edict of Beaulieu in 1576 and the Edict of Poitiers the following year. But a new crisis arose as the result of the death of the king's brother, Francis of Alençon, when the Huguenot, Henry of Navarre, became heir presumptive to the throne. The League, led by the Duke of Guise, then set the kingdom against the king, who became isolated.

On 18 July 1585, Henry III promulgated an edict canceling all previous edicts, giving precedence "to the Catholics", paying the mercenaries of the League of the Royal Treasury, prohibiting Protestantism in France, and ordering the return of safe Protestant strongholds. Protestants were expelled from power. And while the Guise party won appointments and favours, the king of Navarre was deprived of his functions.

This edict was effectively a declaration of war against the Protestants. Henry of Navarre sought support, initially without success. The "private bull" (bulle privatoire) by Pope Sixtus V brought him a measure of support from French royalists and Gallican circles; joined by the Politiques français, supporters of religious tolerance (such as the Governor of Languedoc, Montmorency-Damville) and later England and Denmark, but only after the assassination of William of Orange, the deposition of the Elector of Cologne (the bishop became Calvinist), and the success of Spain in its fight against the Protestants of the Netherlands.

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Wikipedia