Battle of Renty

This painting by Nicolas-Guy Brenet, executed in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, depicts King Henry II presenting his own sash of the Order of Saint Michael to Marshal Gaspard de Saulx, lord of Tavannes, in reward for his valour at the Battle of Renty on 13 August 1554. This French victory, won against the troops of Charles V during the Italian Wars, allowed Henry II to partly offset the disaster suffered that same year at Marciano, in Tuscany. A history painter active under the Ancien Régime, Brenet works within a tradition that celebrates the sovereign's chivalrous gestures towards his great captains, honouring both military victory and royal generosity. The work thus illustrates the symbolic weight of the Order of Saint Michael, the kingdom's principal order of chivalry before the creation of the Order of the Holy Spirit.