"Les Rouges at Saint Denis?" Topic

Hi all. Can anyone help identify the unit of gens d'armes on Perrissin and Tortorel's famous print of the Battle of Saint Denis 1567? (The wikipedia article for the battle has a good copy of this). They appear on the top of this image, towards the right hand corner, labelled R. The key at the bottom of the page simply states Les Rouges. Can anyone add any more information? The only thing I can bring to mind was the royal escort at the peace talks at Toury in 1562. These gens d'armes with wearing casaques of crimson and carried lances with red banderoles. Thanks.

During the wars of Religion, the different armies adopted colored scarves to identify themselves. Huguenots were mostly white, where the Ligue adopted several colors. The Reds (les Rouges) were the most pro-Spanish, others could be black for François de Guise's mourning… My source is an article in the Revue française d'Histoire Moderne by Denise Turrel published in 2005. The same article states that "(…) The white color is promoted to national color: it stands against the Spanish red, allowing to hide the division between French factions in this civil war. This stand is clearly seeable in the early 17th century pictures, to promote king Henri the 4th as a "national white knight". (my traduction). The whole article is on line (in French) at:
link
Maybe this can answer to your question.

Franch. Many thanks for your response. I had considered this myself. It may be correct, but Saint Denis was only fought in 1567, I would have thought this a little early for a pro-Spanish faction to have emerged. My understanding is that this only starts to be a factor in the reign of Henry III. In addition, it would appear that this designation applies to one unit in particular.

I have just found something (thank you Google Books). This is from François Eudes de Mézeray, Histoire de France depuis Faramond, 1685, in relation to the battle: "Il commande donc à son fils aisné le Comte de Coligny, de faite advancer ses arquebusiers, qui servent aussi avantageusement qu'il eust sceu desiter; et en mesme instant il charge les Rouges, c'etoit un escadron qui pottoit des casaques d'écarlate, et les troupes qui estoient au costé gauche de les Rouges, les renverse sur leur gros, et ce gros sur le bataillon d'oré des Parisiens: qui estant aunsi rompu par plusieurs endroits, ne fait pût rallier qu'avec grand peine." So it looks like it was nothing more than a squadron (presumably either a compagnie d'ordonnance or perhaps a group of such compagnies) known for their scarlet cassocks. Unless, of course, anybody knows something else…

In the manuscript of Stephanus Vitellius (Etienne Vitelli) from the XVI century « Commentaire sur la Guerre Civile de France – De la surprise de Meaux à la bataille de Saint-Denis », there is a drawing from André Thevet showing this action :

The "Arquebusiers" on the right of the picture are firing, on their left "Monsieur l'Amiral" and the "Vidam d'Asnière" are about to charge the squadrons in front of them : "Les Rouges" and on their right them "Les Bleus" and "Les Dorés"

T Labienus. Many thanks for sharing the new image, its not one I am familiar with. It raises some interesting points. Firstly, Les Rouges are shown on the opposite ends of the Catholic line in the two images. Secondly, are these individual companies (as each was supposed to have a distinctive colour) or have group of companies been brought together based upon similar coloured cassocks? Finally, in the quote from Mézeray, a 'golden' battalion from Paris is mentioned. I had assumed this was the Paris militia. Does the new image cast doubt on this interpretation?

Not that I am complaining, but does anybody have a better quality version of the image supplied by T Labienus. I am intrigued by some of the detail, but there are elements I can't see clearly.

Hi,
You will find a better version on page 19 of this book :

link

I think "Les Rouges" and "Les Bleus" are two different "compagnies d'ordonnance", each one with the "livrée" (or colours) of the captains.

On the tapestry of this battle, at tne Ecouen Museum (or Musée National de la Renaissance) you can see Montmorency being wounded by Stuart while leading 3 companies (one red, one blue and one yellow or gold).

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Frans Hogenberg version of the battle :

link

This will help if you need information on the battlefield :

link

T Labienus. Many thanks again for the images and comments. One thought, however. The tapestry is, I believe a copy of the Perrissin and Tortorel print. The key is the same on both versions. So, Les Rouges, labelled R, is in the top of the tapestry, not one of the units around the Constable. Given the large number companies, my guess is that there were quite a few with red (and blue and yellow) cassocks. So the question remains; what made Les Rouges noteworthy?

I think you are right, it will be difficult to find the identity of the captain who should give his name to "Les Rouges".

If you are found of the "compagnies d'ordonnance" in this period, this would interest you :

link

T Labienus. Many thanks for the link, it is not a resource I have come across before. Very interesting.