Everything about Francis Duke Of Guise totally explained
Francis II, Prince of Joinville, Duke of Guise, Duke of Aumale (
February 17,
1519 –
February 24,
1563), called
Balafré ("the scarred"), was a
French soldier and politician.
Early life
Born at
Bar-le-Duc (
Lorraine), Guise was the son of
Claude, created duc de Guise in 1527, and his wife
Antoinette de Bourbon. His sister
Mary of Guise was wife of
James V of Scotland and mother of
Mary I of Scotland. His younger brother was
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. The youthful cousin of
Henri II, with whom he was raised, was by birth a prominent individual in France, though his detractors emphasised his "foreign" origin in the
Duchy of Lorraine.
In
1545, he gained his sobriquet through a wound sustained at the
second siege of Boulogne. In 1548 he was magnificently wedded to
Anne d'Este, daughter of the duke of Ferrara and his French princess, a daughter of
Louis XII.
Military career
In
1551, he was created
Grand Chamberlain of France. He won international renown in
1552 when he successfully defended the city of
Metz from the forces of
Emperor Charles V, and defeated the imperial troops again at the
Battle of Renty in
1554, but the
Truce of Vaucelles temporarily curtailed his military activity.
He led an army into
Italy in
1557 to aid
Pope Paul IV (and probably to further
his family's pretensions to the
Angevin inheritance), but was recalled to France and made
Lieutenant-General of
France after the defeat of the
Constable de Montmorency at the
Battle of St. Quentin. Taking the field, he captured
Calais from the
English on
7 January 1558— an enormous propaganda victory for France— then
Thionville and
Arlon that summer, and was preparing to advance into
Luxembourg when the
Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis was signed. Throughout the reign of Henri II Guise was the premier military figure of France, courteous, affable and frank, and universally popular, the "grand duc de Guise" as his contemporary
Brantôme called him.
The accession of
Francis II (
10 July,
1559), however, and his consort,
Mary Stuart, niece of François de Guise, was a triumph for the Guise family, and the
Grand Master of France Montmorency was disgraced and sent from court. François de Guise and his brother the cardinal were supreme in the royal council. "My advice", he'd say, "is so-and-so; we must act thus." Occasionally he signed public acts in the royal manner, with his baptismal name only.
The Wars of Religion
In reaction to the power at court of the ultra-Catholic Guise, La Renaudie, a Protestant gentlemen of
Périgord, perhaps at the distanced instigation of
Antoine de Bourbon and the Prince de Condé, organized an amateurish plot (the
conspiracy of Amboise, 1560) to seize the person of François de Guise and
his brother, the second cardinal of Lorraine. The plot was discovered and violently suppressed, initiating a series of assassinations and counter-assassinations in an increasingly toxic atmosphere. In the immediate aftermath Condé was obliged to flee the court, and the power of the Guises was supreme. The discourse which
Coligny, leader of the
Huguenots, pronounced against
les Guises in the
Assembly of the notables at
Fontainebleau (August, 1560), didn't influence Francis II in the least, but resulted rather in the imprisonment of Condé, at the cardinal's behest.
The king, however, died,
5 December,
1560—a year full of calamity for the Guises both in Scotland and France. Within a few months their influence waxed great and waned. After the accession of
Charles IX, François de Guise lived in retirement on his estates. The regent,
Catherine de' Medici, at first inclined to favour the Protestants. To defend the Catholic cause, François de Guise formed with his old enemy, the Constable de Montmorency and the Maréchal de Saint-André the so-called triumvirate (April, 1561) at the head of the
Catholic League, 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 couldn't 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.
The plan of the Triumvirate was to treat with Habsburg Spain and the
Holy See, and also to come to an understanding with the Lutheran princes of Germany to induce them to abandon the idea of relieving the French Protestants. About July, 1561, Guise wrote to this effect to the
Duke of Württemberg. The
Colloquy of 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. It isn't known to what extent he was responsible for this, but it kindled open military conflict in the
French Wars of Religion. The siege of Bourges in September was the openiung episode, then Rouen was retaken from the Protestants by Guise after a month's siege (October); the
Battle of Dreux (19 December), at which Montmorency was taken prisoner and Saint-André slain, was in the end turned by Guise to the advantage of the Catholic cause, and Condé, leader of the Huguenots, taken prisoner.
The assassination
In the fourth encounter, Guise was about to take
Orléans from the Huguenot supporters of Condé when he was wounded on
18 February,
1563 by the Huguenot assassin,
Jean de Poltrot de Méré, and died six days later, bled to death by his surgeons, at Château Corney. The seminal event of his unexpected death temporarily interrupted open hostilities.
It wasn't the first plot against his life. A hunting accident — Francis had been appointed
Grand Veneur of France in 1556 — had been planned, as Sir
Nicholas Throckmorton informed Queen Elizabeth in May 1560, but the plot was uncovered by one and his five co-conspirators fled.
Ancestors
Family
Guise married in
Saint-Germain-en-Laye on
April 29,
1548 Anna d'Este, daughter of
Ercole II d'Este,
Duke of Ferrara, and
Renée of France. They had seven children:
- Henry I, Duke of Guise (1550–1588), who succeeded him as Duke of Guise.
- Catherine (July 18, 1552, Joinville – May 6, 1596, Paris), married on February 4, 1570 Louis II, Duke of Montpensier
- Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne (1554–1611)
- Louis II, Cardinal of Guise (1555–1588), Archbishop of Reims
- Antoine (April 25, 1557 – January 16, 1560)
- François (December 31, 1559, Blois – October 24, 1573, Reims)
- Maximilien (October 25, 1562 – 1567)
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