"French Wars of Religion Military books in French" Topic

Are there any good FWOR books in French that go into the nuts and bolts of the campaigns, the battles, the troop types, the outfits and flags in the manner that military enthusiasts and wargamers like?

I may already have mentioned link – which is just after the Wars of Religion, but does feature Henri IV. A good read.

Are there any good ones in English for those that don't speak French.

There's Howell A. Lloyd's "The Rouen Campaign, 1590-92: Politics, Warfare and the Early Modern State" (1973). But surprisingly little on other, more important campaigns, nor on the wars in general.

There's an Osprey Essential Histories – link – but I haven't read it, no idea whether it's any good or not.

Not in French but curious if anyone has seen this little book and thinks it has merit for people who already have Peter Sides volumes on renaissance battles and OOBs and the Featherstone Pike and Shot wargaming book?

Lucas, Ray FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION 1562-1598, THE brief but concise guide, b/w drawings/maps, troop types, details seven battles. 1 vol, 44 pgs 2003 HOPEWELL, OMM PUBLISHING

Hi. You might consider the following:
La Barre Duparcq, Édouard de, L'art militaire pendant les guerres de religion (1864).
Coynart, Raymond de, L'Année 1562 et là Bataille de Dreux (1894).
Gigon, Stéphan C, La troisième guerre de religion. Jarnac-Moncontour (1568-1569) (1911).
I think the last two have been translated into English by Nafziger. There are quite a number of local histories that deal with the smaller actions of the Wars. These are usually difficult to track down, however.

I forgot to mention, I also have a copy of Lucas' booklet. It consists of a brief summary of the war (2 pages), Notes on Troop Types (3 pages), descriptions of the battles of Druex, St Denis, Jarnac, Moncontour, Coutras, Arques and Ivry (33 pages). For each battle the author gives 3 or 4 paragraphs of wargaming notes. If you have Oman's history of Warfare in the Sixteenth Century, it probably doesn't add much. Featherstone is derived from Oman. If you don't, it might be a useful edition.

Thats good information. Ill see to getting Oman.

Thanks for your contribution.

Actually you'll find great description of three Wars of the Religion Battles in this venerable tome (OOBs, maps, and table layout as well!):

Wargaming Pike and Shot Donald Featherstone

The battles described are: Dreux 19 Dec 1562, Coutras 20 Oct 1587 and Arques 21 Sept 1589.

The Osprey Essentials is very good given the limited page count, in fact I would recommend you obtain that as a starter for ten, then get Oman. Oman book is far too expensive for such a dated account. However, it does cover a wide period.

The FWoR sections of Featherstone's book are taken almost directly from Oman. They don't add anything to the history. It also misses out the largest battle of the Wars, Moncontour, as well as possibly the most interesting, Jarnac. The Osprey essential was written by Robert Knecht. He also wrote 'The French Civil Wars 1562-1598' (Routledge, 2000). This is very good for the politics, but less so for the military aspects.

The quote the great Tango himself…"of possible interest?"
link

There are many more books now available on archive.org, and not just in English, e.g.:
L'art militaire pendant les guerres de religion (1562-98) by La Barre-Duparcq, Édouard de

Druzhina
16th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

@pzangle

Yes, it is of enormous interest. Helion seem to never quite get the things published that they both promise and which I like. I dont know why it seems that way.

@Druzhina

I'll check the book out, thanks for that.

According to the Helion website, the book "One Faith One Law One King" is available to order today. It covers the French armies during the wars of religion.

The book was on sale at Salute on Saturday.

The book was on sale at Salute on Saturday.

Did you look through it?

Did you look through it?

I had already ordered from Helion, so I had only the very briefest flick through.

I was going to add a review of "One Faith, One Law, One King", but then I noticed there are three on Amazon (the UK website anyway) that give a fairly complete overview of the content.