Henry I de Lorraine, Prince of Joinville, Duke of Guise, Count of Eu (January 31, 1550 – December 23, 1588,
Château de BloisThe Royal Château de Blois is located in the Loir-et-Cher département in the Loire Valley, in France. The residence of several French kings, it is also the place where Joan of Arc went in 1429 to be blessed by the Archbishop of Reims before departing with her army to drive the English from...
), sometimes called
Le Balafré, "the scarred", was the eldest son of
Francis, Duke of GuiseFrancis de Lorraine II, Prince of Joinville, Duke of Guise, Duke of Aumale , called Balafré , was a French soldier and politician.-Early life:...
and
Anna d'EsteAnna d'Este, also Anne d’Este was an important princess with considerable influence at the court of France and a central figure in the French Wars of Religion...
. His maternal grandparents were Ercole d'Este II,
Duke of Ferrara and
Renée of FranceRenée de France was the younger daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne, Duchess of Brittany. Her elder sister was Queen Claude of France...
.
He succeeded his father in 1563 as Duke of Guise and Grand Maître de France.
Henry I de Lorraine, Prince of Joinville, Duke of Guise, Count of Eu (January 31, 1550 – December 23, 1588,
Château de BloisThe Royal Château de Blois is located in the Loir-et-Cher département in the Loire Valley, in France. The residence of several French kings, it is also the place where Joan of Arc went in 1429 to be blessed by the Archbishop of Reims before departing with her army to drive the English from...
), sometimes called
Le Balafré, "the scarred", was the eldest son of
Francis, Duke of GuiseFrancis de Lorraine II, Prince of Joinville, Duke of Guise, Duke of Aumale , called Balafré , was a French soldier and politician.-Early life:...
and
Anna d'EsteAnna d'Este, also Anne d’Este was an important princess with considerable influence at the court of France and a central figure in the French Wars of Religion...
. His maternal grandparents were Ercole d'Este II,
Duke of Ferrara and
Renée of FranceRenée de France was the younger daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne, Duchess of Brittany. Her elder sister was Queen Claude of France...
.
He succeeded his father in 1563 as Duke of Guise and Grand Maître de France. He fought the
TurksThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
in
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
in 1565, and on his return, he became one of the leaders of the Catholic faction in the
French Wars of ReligionThe French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants...
. He fought at the
Battle of Saint-DenisThe Battle of Saint-Denis was fought on November 10, 1567 between Catholics and Protestants during the French Wars of Religion in Saint-Denis near Paris, France.Anne de Montmorency with 16,000 Royalists fell on Condé's 3,500 Huguenots...
in 1567, and at
Battle of JarnacThe Battle of Jarnac on 13 March 1569 was an encounter during the French Wars of Religion between the Catholic forces of Marshal Gaspard de Saulx, sieur de Tavannes, and the Huguenots, near the nadir of their fortunes, financed by Reinhold von Krockow and led by Louis I de Bourbon, prince de...
and
Battle of MoncontourThe Battle of Moncontour occurred on October 3, 1569 between the Catholic forces of King Charles IX of France and the Huguenots during the "Third War" of the French Wars of Religion. The Huguenots were ultimately defeated.-External links:**...
. His courting of
Marguerite de ValoisMargaret of Valois was Queen of France and of Navarre during the late sixteenth century.-Early life:...
in 1570 offended her brother,
Charles IX of FranceCharles IX born Charles-Maximilien, was King of France, ruling from 1560 until his death. He is best known as king at the time of the St...
, but his marriage to Catherine of Clèves restored his fortunes. Threatened by the rising power of
Admiral ColignyLord Gaspard de Coligny , Seigneur de Châtillon held the office of Admiral of France and is best remembered as an austerely disciplined Huguenot leader in the French Wars of Religion.-Ancestry:...
, he contrived the Admiral's assassination and the
St. Bartholomew's Day MassacreThe St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots , during the French Wars of Religion...
in 1572.
Henry I was wounded at the Battle of Dormans (October 10, 1575), and was thereafter known, like his father, as "Le Balafré". With a charismatic and brilliant public reputation, he rose to heroic stature among the
CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
population of France as an opponent of the
HuguenotThe Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Since the eighteenth century, Huguenots have been commonly designated "French Protestants", the title being suggested by their German co-religionists or "Calvinists"...
s.
In 1576 he formed the
Catholic LeagueThe Catholic League of France, sometimes referred to by contemporary Roman Catholics as the Holy League, a major player in the French Wars of Religion, was formed by Duke Henry of Guise in 1576...
to keep the new heir, the Protestant
Henry of NavarreHenry IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. His parents were Queen Jeanne III and King Antoine of Navarre.As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before...
, off the throne. The talent and dash of Guise contrasted favorably with the vacillation and weakness of
Henry IIIHenry III of France , was King of France from 1574 to 1589, and as Henry of Valois, first elected Monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Early years:Henry was born at the Royal Château de...
. He was said to have claimed a
CarolingianThe Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with its origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
descent and cast eyes on the throne. This led to the stage of the Wars of Religion known as the
War of the Three Henries (1584-88).
However, at the death in 1584 of
François, Duke of AnjouHercule François, Duke of Anjou and Alençon, often simply referred to as "the Duke of Alençon", was the youngest son of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.-Early years:...
, the king's brother (which left
Henry of NavarreHenry IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. His parents were Queen Jeanne III and King Antoine of Navarre.As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before...
, the Protestant champion, as heir-male), Guise concluded the
Treaty of JoinvilleThe Treaty of Joinville was signed in secret in December 1584 by the French Catholic League, led by France's first family of Catholic nobles, the Guises, and Habsburg Spain. In this treaty, Philip II, King of Spain, agreed to finance the Catholic League...
with
Philip II of SpainPhilip II was King of Spain and Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, during his wife Mary Tudor's reign, King of England and Ireland...
. This compact declared that the Cardinal de Bourbon should succeed Henry III, in preference to Henry of Navarre. Henry III now sided with the Catholic League (1585), which made war with great success on the Protestants. Guise sent his cousin
Charles, Duke of AumaleCharles of Guise, duc d'Aumale was the son of Claude, Duke of Aumale and Louise de Brézé.-Biography:...
to lead a rising in
PicardyThis article is about the historical French province. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is a historical province of France, in the north of France. The historical capital and largest city is Amiens....
(which could also support the retreat of the
Spanish ArmadaThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England.Philip II of Spain had been co-monarch of England until the death of his wife Mary I in 1558...
). Alarmed, Henry III ordered Guise to remain in
ChampagneThe Champagne wine region is a historic province within the Champagne administrative province in the northeast of France. The area is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name...
; he defied the king and on May 9, 1588 Guise entered
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, bringing to a head his ambiguous challenge to royal authority in the
Day of the BarricadesIn the French Wars of Religion, the Day of the Barricades , 12 May 1588, was an apparently spontaneous public uprising in staunchly Catholic Paris against the moderate, hesitant, temporalizing policies of Henry III...
and forcing King Henry to flee.
The League now controlled France; the king was forced to accede to its demands and created Guise Lieutenant-General of France. But Henry III refused to be treated as a mere cipher by the League, and decided upon a bold stroke. On December 23, 1588, at the
Château de BloisThe Royal Château de Blois is located in the Loir-et-Cher département in the Loire Valley, in France. The residence of several French kings, it is also the place where Joan of Arc went in 1429 to be blessed by the Archbishop of Reims before departing with her army to drive the English from...
, Guise was summoned to attend the king, and was at once assassinated. His brother
Louis II, Cardinal of GuiseLouis II, Cardinal of Guise was the third son of Francis, Duke of Guise and Anna d'Este. His maternal grandparents were Ercole d'Este II, Duke of Ferrara and Renée of France....
was assassinated by "
the Forty-fiveThe Forty-five guards were forty-five guards recruited by the Duke of Épernon to provide Henri III of France with trusted protection in the midst of the War of the Three Henrys....
", the king's bodyguard, the next day. The deed aroused such outrage among the remaining relatives and allies of Guise that Henry III was forced to take refuge with Henry of Navarre. (Henry III was assassinated the next year by
Jacques ClémentJacques Clément was the assassin of the French king Henry III.He was born at Serbonnes, in today's Yonne département, in Burgundy, and became a Dominican friar....
, an agent of the Catholic League).
The Duc de Guise appears as an archetypal Machiavellian schemer in
Christopher MarloweChristopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. The foremost Elizabethan tragedian next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious and untimely death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest...
's
The Massacre at ParisThe Massacre at Paris is an Elizabethan play by the English dramatist Christopher Marlowe. It concerns the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, which took place in Paris in 1572, and the part played by the Duc de Guise in those events....
.
L'Assassinat du Duc de GuiseThe Assassination of the Duke of Guise is a French historical film directed by Charles Le Bargy and André Calmettes, adapted by Henri Lavedan, and featuring actors of the Comédie Française and prominent set designers...
, Op. 128, first shown at the Salle Charras in Paris on 16 November 1908, was the first film to include a score written by a well-known classical composer (
Camille Saint-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, organist, conductor, and pianist, known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre, Samson and Delilah, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, and his Symphony No...
).
Ancestors
Issue
He married on October 4, 1570 in Paris to
Catherine of ClevesCatherine de Clèves or de Nevers was the wife of Henry, Duke of Guise, and matriarch of the numerous and influential House of Guise. By marriage she was Duchess of Guise from 1570 to 1588, and Dowager Duchess of Guise thereafter...
(1548–1633), Countess of Eu, by whom he had fourteen children:
- Charles, Duke of Guise
Charles de Lorraine, 4th Duke of Guise was the son of Henry I, Duke of Guise and Catherine of Cleves.-Biography:...
(1571–1640), who succeeded him
- Henri (June 30, 1572, Paris – August 13, 1574)
- Louis III, Cardinal of Guise
Louis III, Cardinal of Guise was the third son of Henry I, Duke of Guise and Catherine of Cleves....
(1575–1621), Archbishop of ReimsThe Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Reims is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. Erected as a diocese around 250 by St. Sixtus, the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese around 750...
- Charles (January 1, 1576, Paris
Paris is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) (died at birth)
- Claude, Duke of Chevreuse
Claude, Duke of Chevreuse , also called Claude de Guise or Claude de Lorraine, was a French noble and husband of Marie de Rohan.He was the third son of Henry I, Duke of Guise and Catherine de Clèves.
...
(1578–1657)
- François (May 14, 1581 – September 29, 1582)
- François Alexandre (February 7, 1589 – June 1, 1614, Château
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
des Baux), a Knight of the Order of Malta
- Catherine (November 3, 1573) (died at birth)
- Marie (June 1, 1577 – 1582)
- Catherine (b. May 29, 1579), d. young
- Christine (January 21, 1580) (died at birth)
- Renée (1585 – June 13, 1626, Reims
The city of Rheims , in English and in French, lies in the Champagne-Ardenne region in north-eastern France 129 km east-northeast of Paris....
), Abbess of St. Pierre
- Jeanne (July 31, 1586 – October 8, 1638, Jouarre
Jouarre is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.-Jouarre Abbey:It is the site of the Jouarre Abbey a Merovingian foundation of Abbess Theodochilde or Telchilde, traditionally in 630, inspired by the visit of Columban, the travelling Irish...
), Abbess of Jouarre
- Louise Marguerite, (1588 – April 30, 1631, Château d'Eu), married at the Château de Meudon
Meudon is a municipality in the south-western suburbs of Paris, France. It is in the département of Hauts-de-Seine. It is located from the center of Paris.-Geography:...
on July 24, 1605 François, Prince of Conti
|-
See also
- French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants...
- House of Guise
The House of Guise was a French ducal family, partly responsible for the French Wars of Religion.The Guises were Catholic, and Henry Guise wanted to end growing Calvinist influence...
- St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots , during the French Wars of Religion...