Equestrian portrait of Mary de' Medici (1575-1642) and the triumph at Julich

When Henri IV died in May 1610, he was in the middle of preparing a war. The duke who had ruled Jülich, Cleves and the neighbouring lands on the lower Rhine had died the year before without an heir, and Henri was determined to stop Habsburg troops from taking over these strategically placed duchies. His widow, now regent, kept to that plan on a smaller scale. French troops joined the siege of the fortress town of Jülich, which surrendered at the start of September 1610. The museum calls the scene the king's political legacy. In this design Marie carries it out herself, riding in like a field commander and resting her hand on a marshal's baton, while Victory flies in above her with a laurel wreath.