Francis, Duke of Guise

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Francis
Duke of Guise
Reign12 April 1550 – 24 February 1563
PredecessorClaude
SuccessorHenry I
Born17 February 1519
Bar-le-Duc, Lorraine, Holy Roman Empire
Died24 February 1563(1563-02-24) (aged 44)
near Orléans, France
Noble familyGuise
Spouse(s)
Antoinette de Bourbon

Francis I of Lorraine, 2nd Duke of Guise, 1st Prince of Joinville, and 1st Duke of Aumale (French: François de Lorraine; 17 February 1519 – 24 February 1563), was a French general and statesman. A prominent leader during the Italian War of 1551–1559 and French Wars of Religion, he was assassinated during the siege of Orleans in 1563.

Early life

Born in

Antoinette de Bourbon.[1] His sister, Mary of Guise, was the wife of James V of Scotland and mother of Mary, Queen of Scots.[1] His younger brother was Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine.[1] He was the youthful cousin of Henry II of France, with whom he was raised, and by birth a prominent individual in France, though his detractors emphasised his "foreign" origin (he was a prince étranger), namely the Duchy of Lorraine
.

In 1545, he was seriously wounded at the

Second Siege of Boulogne, but recovered.[2] He was struck with a lance through the bars of his helmet. The steel head pierced both cheeks, and 15 cm (6 in) of the shaft were snapped off by the violence of the blow. He sat firm in his saddle, and rode back unassisted to his tent; and when the surgeon thought he would die of pain, when the iron was extracted, 'he bore it as easily as if it had been but the plucking of a hair out of his head.' The scar would earn him the nickname "Le Balafré" ("The Scarred One").[2]

In 1548 he was magnificently wedded to

Louis XII.[4]

Military career

An engraving of the Duke of Guise
Francis at the Siege of Calais

In 1551, he was created

Truce of Vaucelles
temporarily curtailed his military activity.

He led an army into Italy in 1557 to aid

Constable de Montmorency at the Battle of St. Quentin.[7]

Guise was recalled to France, and hurriedly made

Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis was signed. Throughout the reign of Henry II Guise was one of the premier military figures of France, courteous, affable and frank, and largely popular, the "grand duc de Guise" as his contemporary Brantôme called him.[a][9]

The accession of Francis's niece Mary, Queen of Scots, and her husband, Francis II of France (10 July 1559), however, was a triumph for the Guise family, and the Grand Master of France Montmorency conscious there was no place for him in the new order, withdrew from court. The Duke of Guise and his brother, Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine were supreme in the royal council.[b][4] Occasionally he signed public acts in the royal manner, with his baptismal name only.

The Wars of Religion

François I de Lorraine, Duc de Guise by Marc Duval.

In reaction to the dominating power at court of the ultra-Catholic Guises, La Renaudie, a Protestant gentleman of

Huguenots, pronounced against les Guises in the Assembly of Notables at Fontainebleau
(August 1560), did not influence King Francis II in the least, but resulted rather in the imprisonment of Condé, at Charles's behest.

However, the king died on 5 December 1560—making Mary, Queen of Scots a widow, and of little political importance. The Guises lost status alongside her, thus making a year full of calamity for the Guises both in Scotland and France. Within a year and a half, their influence waxed great and waned. After the accession of Charles IX, the Duke of Guise lived in retirement on his estates.

The regent, Catherine de' Medici, was at first inclined to favour the Protestants. To defend the Catholic cause, the Duke of Guise, together with his old enemy, the Constable de Montmorency and the Maréchal de Saint-André formed the so-called triumvirate opposed to the policy of concessions which Catherine de' Medici attempted to inaugurate in favour of the Protestants. His former military hero's public image was changing: "he could not serve for long as the military executive of this extreme political, ultra-montane, pro-Spanish junta without attracting his share of odium," N. M. Sutherland has observed in describing the lead-up to his assassination.[10]

The plan of the Triumvirate was to treat with Habsburg Spain and the

Colloquy at Poissy (September and October 1561) between theologians of the two confessions was fruitless, and the conciliation policy of Catherine de' Medici was defeated. From 15 to 18 February 1562, Guise visited the Duke of Württemberg at Saverne
, and convinced him that if the conference at Poissy had failed, the fault was that of the Calvinists.

As Guise passed through Wassy-sur-Blaise on his way to Paris (1 March 1562), a massacre of Protestants took place.[11] It is not known to what extent he was responsible for this, but the Massacre of Vassy kindled open military conflict in the French Wars of Religion. The siege of Bourges in September was the opening episode, then Rouen was retaken from the Protestants by Guise after a month's siege (October);[12] the Battle of Dreux (19 December), at which Montmorency was taken prisoner and Saint-André slain,[12] was in the end turned by Guise to the advantage of the Catholic cause, and Condé, leader of the Huguenots, was taken prisoner.[12]

Assassination

Main article:
Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1563)

In the fourth encounter, Guise was about to take

Jean de Poltrot de Méré, and died six days later, bled to death by his surgeons, at Château Corney.[13]

It was not the first plot against his life. A hunting accident—Francis had been appointed

Elizabeth I of England in May 1560, but the plot was divulged by one of the conspirators who lost their nerve and his five co-conspirators fled.[4]

Guise's unexpected death temporarily interrupted open hostilities. In his testimony, Poltrot implicated

St Bartholomew's Day massacre
.

Family

Guise married Anna d'Este,

Duke of Ferrara, and Renée of France, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye
on 29 April 1548. They had seven children:

  1. Duke of Guise.[1]
  2. Louis, Duke of Montpensier[1]
  3. Charles, Duke of Mayenne (1554–1611)[1]
  4. Archbishop of Reims[1]
  5. Antoine (25 April 1557 – 16 January 1560)
  6. François (31 December 1559, Blois – 24 October 1573, Reims)
  7. Maximilien (25 October 1562–1567)
  • Anne d'Este
    Anne d'Este
  • Duke Henry I of Guise
    Duke Henry I of Guise
  • Duke Charles of Mayenne
    Duke Charles of Mayenne
  • Cardinal Louis of Guise
    Cardinal Louis of Guise

Ancestry

See also

Notes

  1. ^ who distinguishes the personal admiration for François, shared by Catherine, from the detestation of les Guises as a faction, led by the brilliant and devious cardinal, whom even the Spanish mistrusted.[9]
  2. ^ "It is impossible to distinguish the duke's political role from that of his brother, the cardinal."[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Carroll 2009, p. 311.
  2. ^ a b Johnson & Bongard 1992, pp. 301–302.
  3. ^ a b Knecht 2016, p. 11.
  4. ^ a b c d Sutherland 1981, p. 280.
  5. ^ Shaw 2014, p. 266.
  6. ^ Shaw 2014, p. 267.
  7. ^ Shaw 2014, pp. 268–269.
  8. ^ Carroll 2009, pp. 80–81.
  9. ^ a b Sutherland 1981, p. 281.
  10. ^ Sutherland 1981, p. 282.
  11. ^ Knecht 1989, pp. 35–36.
  12. ^ a b c Knecht 1989, p. 37.
  13. ^ Sutherland 1981, p. 279.

Sources

  • Carroll, Stuart (2009). Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe. Oxford University Press.[ISBN missing]
  • Durot, Éric (2008). "François de Lorraine (1520–1563), duc de Guise et nouveau Roi Mage". Histoire, Économie & Société. 54 (3): 3–16.
    doi:10.3917/hes.083.0003. online
    .
  • Durot, Éric (2012). François de Lorraine, duc de Guise, entre Dieu et le roi. Classiques Garnier. Presentation online. Review in Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes. Archived 13 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine Review in Revue d’histoire moderne & contemporaine.
  • Knecht, R.J. (1989). The French Wars of Religion, 1559–1598. Longman Group.[ISBN missing]
  • Knecht, R.J. (2016). Hero or Tyrant? Henry III, King of France, 1574–89. Routledge.[ISBN missing]
  • Shaw, Christine (2014). The Italian Wars 1494–1559: War, State and Society in Early Modern Europe. Routledge.[ISBN missing]
  • Sutherland, N. M. (1981). "The Assassination of François Duc de Guise, February 1563". The Historical Journal. 24, June (2). Cambridge University Press: 279–295.
    S2CID 159857086
    .
  • Johnson, C. Curtiss; Bongard, David L. (1992). "Francois de Lorraine, 2nd Duke of Guise". In Dupuy, Trevor N.; Johnson, Curt; Bongard, David L. (eds.). The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography. Castle Books.[ISBN missing]
French nobility
Preceded by
elevated from County by courtesy
Duke of Aumale

1547–1550 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Duke of Guise

1550–1563 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
elevated from Barony
Prince of Joinville

1552–1563
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