[5] Seeing that Henry's force had now surrounded him, Parma seeing that defeat was inevitable, pulled his 15,000 men across the river in a single night to escape and retreat to the south.

[6][7] The Catholic forces of the Duke of Parma had relieved Rouen in April 1592 and had skilfully avoided an engagement with Henry of Navarre's Protestant army.

[8] After having entered Rouen, Parma then marched west and towards Caudebec on the Seine in the Pays de Caux, a town blocking the road to the important route to the port of Le Havre.

[5] Every passage was then occupied and strengthened by the King, fierce skirmishes took place everyday, but at length Henry saw all his operations successful, and the army of the League was shut in between the river and the sea.

On the opposite bank, he constructed another, and planted artillery with a force of eight hundred Flemish soldiers under the Count of Bossu in the one and an equal number of Walloons in the other.

[3] Shocked by this, Henry quickly ordered artillery to bear upon the withdrawing soldiers, but the bombardment was largely ineffective and the Catholic Spanish force took up their line of march to the south.

[9] Henry then constructed a bridge over the Pont de l'Arche and his first objective was to pursue with his cavalry, but it was too late; the infantry would not have been able to support them in time.

[2] Parma had escaped to Flanders, but the Spanish court on the view of his retreat meant that he had fallen foul with them and was removed from the position as governor.