Title: 'A Princelike Soldier and Soldierlike Prince': Contemporary Views of the Military Leadership of Henry IV
Abstract: In the preface to his biography of Henry IV, historian David Buisseret defended the prominence he gave in the book to the king's military affairs and military events on the premise that the first Bourbon monarch of France above all a military man, and had any one of half a dozen events gone the other way, . . . [Henry] would not have reached the throne or retained it and, I venture to say, the history of France in the early seventeenth century would have been quite different. Yet Buisseret's argument could be stronger still. For Henry IV's ultimate success in the French wars of religion pivoted to an enormous degree on his military ability and inspired leadership. Indeed, his final victory over the Holy Catholic League and its Spanish allies cannot be attributed solely to his political acumen or final conversion to Catholicism of July 1593; it owed at least as much to his talented generalship. Too often, however, historians have dismissed the Bourbon monarch's great skill as a soldier and commander, alleging that although he was an able battlefield tactician, he was essentially an opportunist with little or no aptitude for strategy or for conducting extended campaigns. They
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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