Battle of Ivry The Battle of Ivry was fought on 14 March 1590 , during the French Wars of Religion . The battle was a decisive victory for Henry IV of France , leading Huguenot forces against the Catholic League forces led by the Duc de Mayenne . Henry ' s forces were victorious and he went on to lay siege to Paris . The battle occurred on the plain of Épieds , Eure near Ivry ( later renamed Ivry - la - Bataille ) , Normandy . Ivry - la - Bataille is located on the Eure River and about thirty miles west of Paris , at the boundary between the Île - de - France and the Beauce regions . Prelude . Henry IV had moved rapidly to besiege Dreux , a town controlled by the League . As Mayenne followed intending to raise the siege , Henry withdrew but stayed within sight . He deployed his army on the plain of Saint André between the towns of Nonancourt and Ivry . The army of the Catholic League consisted of citizens led by priests and rebellious nobles , Swiss infantry under Appenzell , pikemen brought from Flanders by Philip , Count of Egmont , and the troopers of the Guise family with the Duke of Mayenne in command . The battle . At first light on 14 March 1590 , the two armies engaged . The Duke had 12 , 000 foot soldiers supported by an assortment of German and Swiss infantry and 4 , 000 cavalry , 2 , 000 of whom were Spanish . Henry had only 8 , 000 foot soldiers and 3 , 000 men on horseback . Before the battle , the king famously spurred his troops : " Companions ! If you today run at risk with me , I will also run at risk with you ; I will be victorious or die . God is with us . Look at his and our enemies . Look at your king . Hold your ranks , I beg of you ; and if the heat of battle makes you leave them , think also of rallying back : therein lies the key to victory . You will find it among those three trees that you can see over there on your right side . If you lose your ensigns , cornets or flags , do never lose sight of my panache ; you will always find it on the road to honour and victory . " The action began with a few deadly cannon volleys from the six pieces of the royal artillery , which was under the command of the master , La Guiche . The cavalry of the two sides then clashed with a dreadful force . The Duke of Mayenne followed up with the mercenary troops of the Guelders and Almaine across the open field . The mercenaries , who were mostly sympathetic to the Protestant cause , fired in the air and put their spears in rest . Mayenne charged with such a fury that after a terrible fusillade and a struggle of a full quarter of an hour which left the field covered with dead , following the defection of his mercenaries , the opposing left flank fled and the right was pierced and gave way . Aumont soon overcame the League ' s light horse and their royalist counterparts retreated under the attack of a Walloon ( essentially Belgian ) squadron backed up by two squadrons from the League . It was then the turn of the Maréchal d ' Aumont , the Duc de Montpensier and the Baron de Biron to charge the foreign cavalry , forcing it into a retreat . Marshal de Biron , in command of the rear - guard , joined up with the king who , without stopping after his victory , had crossed the river Eure in pursuit of the enemy . However , the decisive event took place elsewhere on the battlefield : the King charged the League ' s lancers , who were unable to get far enough back to use their weapons . Mayenne was driven back , the Duke of Aumale forced to surrender , and the Count of Egmont killed . The Duke of Mayenne had lost the battle . Henry pursued the losers , many of whom surrendered for fear of falling into worse hands , their horses being in no condition to get them away from danger . The countryside was full of Leaguers and Spaniards in flight , with the king ' s victorious army pursuing and scattering the remnants of the larger groups that dispersed and re - gathered . Aftermath . Henry defeated Mayenne at Ivry so that he would became the only credible claimant to the throne of France . However , he was defeated in many sieges of Paris until he converted to Catholicism in 1593 . Henry was advised that the French people would not accept a Protestant king . Thomas Babbington Macaulay wrote a famous poem about the battle , entitled " The Battle of Ivry . " It begins : Now glory to the Lord of Hosts , from whom all glories are ! And glory to our Sovereign Liege , King Henry of Navarre !