French Wars of Religion - Part 2 - First War, Battle of Dreux 1562 - 4K

[@pikeshotBattles]

Second part... I think there will be 6 (or 7) episodes in total, which will make it my second biggest series to date.

[@9zero187]

Ahh, more blood to be shed... And I thought there was finally some peace

[@pikeshotBattles]

@@9zero187 We haven't even gotten to everyone's favorite massacre.

[@9zero187]

@@pikeshotBattles oh my God.... (Get it? It's the war of religion)

[@eldermoose7938]

@@9zero187 *Wars

[@KingsandGenerals]

Good job, love this period!

[@alangivre2474]

Love your videoss

[@ZillyWhale]

Do a collaboration

[@martinchristian597]

Kings and Generals, please do the Huguenots :) they are favorite classical histories

[@chrisedrev9519]

Please help this channel grow guys. They really deserve more exposure. :)

[@chad4501]

This channel really deserves more attention ngl.

[@r-i5732]

He is right. Maybe students will watch it for exams and express their thanks later.

[@steelydan3263]

Agreed

[@kingstarscream3807]

Share it on reddit.

[@MrRobfullarton]

Excellent as usual!!

[@masterdisaster7013]

„The french military at this time is second to none“ Phillip II and the might of imperial spain: „hold my beer“ ;)

[@bc7138]

Thanks for posting!

[@Ruairitrick]

Enjoy the video but you should bring back that strange riff that played in the background of your older stuff. It added a cool atmosphere.

[@Spartacus-us1eo]

The new narration is good, I do, however, prefer the old narration. Excellent quality of videos and content!

[@lukalisjak2106]

Same here.

[@sahhaf1234]

same here...

[@heathenwizard]

I love this thanks for sharing!

[@kingstarscream3807]

"The Landsknecht are inferior in courage and unit cohesion compared to the Swiss". German: And I took that personally

[@seinine]

It was true... Swiss were madmen back then...

[@lordstephan467]

Now this is truly amazing

[@donallen5022]

Well done great story telling for sure grade A ❤ir

[@معرفةوترفيه-ت2ظ]

Perfect video as always. May I know what is the name of the song that starts at 15:10 ?

[@seinine]

Here I point out some mistakes or points not taken: -The "archers" in the "compagnies d'ordonnances" are not mounted archers already by the beginning of the XVIth century, but instead replaced bows with lances and thus are somehow a lighter version than the gendarmes whom they cover the flanks. They kept the name "archer" but only as a formality. Most of the archers of the XVIth century, unlike their predecessor in the XVth century, are noblemen. One of such was Blaise de Monluc, archer in the company of the knight Bayard in his youth, alike many young noble who made their first arms there. -The landsknecht had one main trait that the Swiss did not possess: armor. It was the reason why the Swiss were reluctant to participate unto siege assaults, and the landsknecht preferred to conduct siege. However, as you pointed out, the Swiss were much more ferocious, infamous for their murderous behaviours. -Francis the Ist didn't created the first french infantry, but the first french institution of infantry. French "aventuriers" (adventurers) were equivalent to french mercenaries, as they were paid a salary by the king. At the beginning of the Italian war, they still fought in the old Hundred Years war fashion, yet under Louis XII, predecessor of Francis, they were reorganised in the Swiss fashion (not landsknecht, as the landsknecht are only a derivation of the Swiss). Before Louis XII and even Charles VIII, Louis XI had constructed camps in northern France were he had trained thousands of footmen by the Swiss veterans of the Burgundians wars. Those "gens du camps" (men of the camp) were the first true infantry in France, and after the camps were dissolves and most soldiers fired, the remnants formed the "bands of Picardie", which were to become the "Regiment of Picardie", which is the most ancient regiment of France. The bands fighting in Italy came to be known as the "bands of Piémont", also to become the "Régiment of Piémont". Francis the Ist had created in 1534 the "provincial legions". Those were soldiers whom acted more like a reserve, alike the former "francs archers", a medieval institution whom they replaced. Legionaries conduct civil lives in peace time, touching light exemptions on taxes (20 "sous" of franchise on the "taille", the main war tax). The legions were indeed organized in the Swiss fashion, numbering 7 legions of 6000 men. However, gunmen did not exceed pikemen and haldberdiers, as "only" 15000 men were gunmen in the 42 000 legionaries. Legionaries performed poorly and were many time reorganised, the last reorganization taking place in 1558 by Henri II. By that time, the bands of french mercenaries, namely the bands of Picardie and Piémont, took the name of "old bands" so to be distinguished from the legions whom they contempt. The old bands served as the veteran french infantry. The legions disappeared in the course of the civil war, being assimilated to common soldiers and the institution forgotten. 2 legions, the legion of Guyenne and the legion of Dauphiné, turn to the huguenot side. The legion of Dauphiné would roam the south east of France unchallenged until its leader, the baron des Adrets, switch side again. The legion of Guyenne would form the core of the huguenot force in Guyenne alike in Dauphiné, and were intended to join Condé at Orléans so to form the main infantry line of the huguenot army. -Following this, this video overlook very important event. The legion of Guyenne under Symphorien Duras was chased by a catholic royal army under Monluc and Burie in the south west. They were anihilated at the battle of Vergt, preventing the huguenot to get a consequent infantry on the field of Dreux, forcing Condé to hire landsknecht. This was a decisive factor of catholic victory as the funds of Condé did not cover the loss of this infantry with the landsknecht, and those performed very poorly at Dreux. -In the battle of Dreux, the first attack on the catholic flank targeted bands of legionaries from Picardy and Britanny who were driven out quite easily (between Montmorency cavalry and the Swiss). While the Swiss did maintained their ground, their formation was battered badly under repetitive gendarmes charges, one example showing that pikes squares were not absolutely invulnerable to cavalry, even with high moral. The landsknecht seeing their disarray tried to take advantage of it, however when the Swiss saw them, they didn't even reformed ranks, instead charged the landsknecht, routed them in less than 10 minutes, and the Germans barricaded themselves into the village, asking terms of surrender to the duke of Guise. The battle ended after a counter attack of Coligny, when the huguenot army realized most of their lances were broken after their repetitive charges against the Swiss, another example that the cavalry wasn't necessarly powerless against pikemen. The Swiss block was almost exterminated and reduced to nothing, yet they gain much fame for their bravery, as they were surrounded by the huguenots. In your animation of the first phase of the battle, the wing of Saint André and Guise are too close to the wing of Montmorency. One factor of the defeat of the catholic wing was that they could not help each other, leading some mouth to claim that Guise willingly abandonned Montmorency (as the house of Guise and Montmorency were well known rival in the court) so he could snatch the final victory. Fact is that both side claimed victory, even if the catholic were more likely to be credited to a pyrrhic victory. -As said, many events are overlooked, the first civil war in France (as they were then called) was one full of events. As said, before Dreux was the battle of Vergt, while the south east of the country saw a atrocious war between the huguenots of des Adrets and Monbrun against the count of Sommerives. The battle of Dreux was a consequence of those events.

[@subhamomm5930]

Your video is fantastic according to my account your channel is the best history channel of KZbin it was so much interesting. It will be the best KZbin channel in future carry on

[@pikeshotBattles]

Thx for the encouragement!

[@subhamomm5930]

@@pikeshotBattles Your videos are knowledge full so keep it up you must become a successful youtuber

[@sergiolp6058]

Another great video as usual, really liked :)

[@Raadpensionaris]

7:13, the propaganda war reminds me of the Dutch revolt. The same arguments are used

[@pikeshotBattles]

Very good observation! There will be a passage about the "Catholic Conspiracy" in the next episode.

[@Raadpensionaris]

@@pikeshotBattles Great, these two conflicts were very much intertwined and influenced eachother, so I really shouldn't be surprised to see the similarities

[@kingstarscream3807]

This is a brilliant video. I loved the comparison of royalist propaganda to paranoid marthyism-esque anti-communist propaganda.

[@mariecolette170]

Very very exciting! I really got into this history after finding a movie called The Princess of Montpensier (fictional love story based inside these wars) The man she really desired but was not allowed to marry was named Guise, so handsome a young man and beast on the battlefield..So after watching this video the movie makes more sense to me. Merci!

[@magimon91834]

what a wonderful series

[@villiamkarl-gustavlundberg5422]

So many lives lost over questions of how worship is to be done. What are graven images and what food can be eaten on lent and so on.

[@decem_sagittae]

I don't wanna sound like a hater but the old voice was much better... It was very European and therefore highly cultured, suave and more fitting for these videos.

[@NoNo-oi7zj]

This dude sounds like he needs to blow his nose

[@dominicguye8058]

It might be that this current narrator is better able to pronounce French words and names, as opposed to the Hungarian usual narrator.

[@mortimusmaximus8725]

Love it, very good story😍

[@Drirai.giacomelli]

Very good!

[@bengerber735]

This is incredible! What are your sources, btw?

[@pikeshotBattles]

I will start posting sources soon.

[@shawnbeckett1370]

Awesome as always

[@paulsawatzke29]

Incredibly well done 👍

[@subhamomm5930]

I am your subscriber from 2k I liked your videos You should be appricated can you make an video on a legendary Albanian leader or great Military commander Skanderbeg please

[@willou8661]

too few channel talk about thi perid

[@GodBless423]

Yes!!

[@Thomas_Name]

The Thomasists should aid the Thomasists.

[@creamiegoodness]

Thank you for this series.

[@matthewmann8969]

Not the first rodeo

[@JanHans]

Basel is still on the map where actually Bern is. Also Bern is not at all on this map. Alltough it was factually the overloard of Geneva. (Yeah not quite, but almost.) So fix your damm map. And yes I am from Bern :)

[@itarry4]

Why do so many fall for the "OK let's talk" idea? It's baffling to me. You're at war napoleon showed that attack is by far the best defence.

[@pikeshotBattles]

This will be a recurring motif.

[@itarry4]

@@pikeshotBattles it amazingly was yes!

[@forlornfool221]

more..meow!

[@FFFFFFF-FFFFFFFUUUUCCCC]

are you a cat?

[@Thomas_Name]

Thomasism is the only true faith.

[@sadrashahin1532]

Trust me, this channel needs European/British voice not amircan. Its simply not good enough. The voice is too loud compared to the sound effects. Come back or bring better voice actor

[@theycallhimed1228]

Really picky of you man.

[@pikeshotBattles]

The voice is British. A moderate Yorkshire dialect. :)

[@sadrashahin1532]

@@pikeshotBattles it doesn't suite my beloved channel.