“AVEC INFINY REGRET”

Though they loom large in the contemporary accounts and early histories of the wars of religion, the number of major standup battles fought by the royal army was actually quite few. In the nine years from 1562 to 1570 the main army fought only seven major battles: Dreux, Saint-Denis, Jazeneuil, Jarnac, La Roche-L'Abeille, Moncontour, and Arnay-le-Duc. That there were few ranged battles, however, was not always for lack of trying — in the first three civil wars, especially, campaigns usually revolved around attempts by one or both sides to bring the other's army to battle. On perhaps a dozen other occasions before 1570 there were also near battles, that is, times when the opposing armies or major components of them were actually in sight of one another but one or both held back from battle, as at Talcy, or were unable to come to grips because of the weather, as at Loudon, or successfully sought to disengage, as at Notre-Dame-L'Epine. And on many other occasions the armies were close enough to one another for there to be skirmishes between cavalry outriders, but no battle or near battle developed. After 1570, however, battle almost completely disappeared from the major campaigns.