The Betrayal of the Prince and Its Effects. An Iconographic Testimony to the Agreement between Charles, Duke of Guise, and Henry IV of Bourbon (1594)

Several studies have shown how in the kingdom of France in the aftermath of the Edict of Nantes (1598), which pacified Catholics and Huguenots, both sides continued to cultivate their own factional memory not only through writings, but also through portraits and paintings. This article enters this debate by analysing a hitherto neglected visual source: a canvas that recently appeared on the market. The aim is to show that the subject depicted is not a generic allegory of the horrors of war – as has long been assumed – but rather the passing of Charles IV, Duke of Guise, in the service of Henry IV of Bourbon. This was a move that the commissioners of the work, to be identified among the Catholic Ligueurs, presented as an outright betrayal.