House of Guise

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House of Guise
Maison de Guise
Noble house
Coat of arms of Claude of Lorraine
Parent houseHouse of Lorraine
Country France
Founded1528 (1528); 496 years ago
FounderClaude of Lorraine
Final rulerMarie of Lorraine (Guise)

Charles de Lorraine, Count of Armagnac (Guise-Armagnac)

Queen of Scotland
  • Count of Armagnac
    • Motto
    Dederit'ne viam casus've Deus've

    (Shall chance or God provide the path?)
    Dissolution1688 (1688) (Guise)

    1751 (1751) (Guise-Armagnac)

    1825 (1825) (Guise-Elbeuf)
    Cadet branches

    The House of Guise (pronunciation:

    noble family that was involved heavily in the French Wars of Religion. The House of Guise was the founding house of the Principality of Joinville
    .

    Origin

    The House of Guise was founded as a

    Cardinal
    in the Catholic Church.

    French Wars of Religion

    In 1558, the Dauphin Francis married Mary, Queen of Scots. When the young man became king after his father's death in 1559, the queen's uncles, the Duke of Guise and his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine, controlled French politics during his short reign.

    In March 1560, opposition to the Guise government coalesced into a conspiracy, led by La Renaudie with support from the Bourbon Prince de Condé.[1] Having been made aware of it, the Guise family were able to crush the conspiracy before the king could be seized.[2] The Guise would take the opportunity of the conspiracy to reorient the Crown's religious policy by scaling down the persecution of the last 10 years for a new policy of no toleration and no persecution with the eventual hope the two sects would reunify.[3] Still incensed at his involvement in Amboise, the Guise called the Prince of Condé to them and oversaw a quick trial to establish his guilt, only for the death of Francis II and the succession of Charles IX to sever their links to the government.[4] With Catherine assuming the regency for her young son, the Guise departed court and set themselves up in opposition to her toleration policy in alliance with their rival the Montmorency.[5] In 1562, Catherine would promulgate the Edict of Saint-Germain. Francis returned to court so that he might oppose it, on his way, his retinue massacred a Protestant congregation at Wassy. In response, Condé went into open rebellion and thus started the French Wars of Religion.[6]

    Duke Francis helped to defeat the Huguenots at the

    Henry, inherited his titles; and under the direction of his uncle Charles began a campaign to accuse Admiral Coligny of orchestrating his fathers assassination.[8] Charles meanwhile led the French delegation at the Council of Trent, converting to the Papal line in 1563.[9] In 1564, no longer permitted to continue his feud with Coligny through legal channels, he and his uncle Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine would attempt to make a show of force by entering Paris, but their entry ended with both besieged in their residence and forced to concede.[10]

    In 1566, the crown forced Charles at Moulins to make the kiss of peace with Coligny to end their feud, but Henry refused to attend. He would also challenge Coligny and

    Margaret de Valois.[13][14]

    Having returned to favour, Henry helped plan the assassination of

    War of the Three Henries, with King Henry III of France, Henry of Navarre and Henry of Guise fighting for control of France. Guise began the war by declaring the unacceptability of Navarre as King of France and controlled the powerful Catholic League, which soon forced the French king to follow in his wake. In 1588 Guise, with Spanish support, instigated a revolt against the king, took control of the city of Paris
    and became the de facto ruler of France.

    After an apparent reconciliation between the French King and the Duke, King Henry III had both the Duke of Guise and his brother,

    Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne
    , the commander of the armed forces of the Catholic League.

    The Duke of Mayenne's nephew, the young Duke of Guise, Charles, was proposed by the Catholic League as a candidate for the throne, possibly through a marriage to Philip II of Spain's daughter Isabella, the granddaughter of Henry II of France. The Catholic League was eventually defeated, but for the sake of the country, King Henry IV became a Catholic and bought peace with Mayenne, and in January 1596, a treaty was signed that put an end to the League.

    Decline from prominence

    After this, the House of Guise receded from its prominent position in French politics, and the senior line, that of the Dukes of Guise became extinct in 1688. The vast estates and title were disputed and diverted by various relatives although several junior branches of the family (

    Dukes of Elbeuf
    etc.) perpetuated the male line until 1825.

    Their principal title,

    Orleanist activists. They formed for at the time the junior set of Legitimists, who are claimants to be senior descendants of the pre-1848 French Royal Family and have been supported by restorative movements before, during and after the Second French Empire of Emperor Napoleon III, the last undoubted monarch of France. By the end of the 1880s, a series of republican Presidents during the relatively-new French Third Republic
    largely ended any hope of a restored monarchy.

    Dukes of Guise

    See

    Duke of Guise
    for a list. See
    Duchess of Guise
    for a list of their wives.

    Other members of the House of Guise

    See also

    Further reading

    • Spangler, Jonathan; Richards, Penny; Munns, Jessica, eds. (2015). Aspiration, Representation, and Memory: The Guise in Europe, 1506—1688. Ashgate Publishing.
      ISBN 9781472419361

    References

    1. ^ Sutherland, Nicola (1962). "Calvinism and the Conspiracy of Amboise". History. 47 160: 127.
    2. ISBN 9780199596799
      .
    3. ^ Thompson, James (1909). The Wars of Religion in France, 1559-1576: The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip II. Chicago University Press. p. 44.
    4. ISBN 9780199596799
      .
    5. ISBN 0416730507
      .
    6. ISBN 978-0199229079
      .
    7. ISBN 9780521547505
      .
    8. ISBN 978-0199229079
      .
    9. ISBN 978-0199229079
      .
    10. ISBN 978-0199229079
      .
    11. ^
      ISBN 978-0199229079
      .
    12. ISBN 9780521547505
      .
    13. ISBN 978-0199229079
      .
    14. ISBN 0300023286
      .

    External links
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=House_of_Guise&oldid=1217523981"