Claude, Duke of Guise

Claude de Lorraine
Duc de Guise
Portrait by Jean Clouet
Born	(1496-10-20)20 October 1496 Château de Condé-sur-Moselle
Died	12 April 1550(1550-04-12) (aged 53) Château de Joinville
Noble family	Lorraine
Spouse(s)	Antoinette de Bourbon ​ ​ (m. 1513)​
Issue	Mary, Queen of Scotland Francis, Duke of Guise Renée, Abbess of St. Pierre Charles, Archbishop of Reims Claude, Duke of Aumale Louis I, Cardinal of Guise Antoinette, Abbess of Faremoutier Francis, Grand Prior of the Order of Malta René, Marquis of Elbeuf
Father	René II, Duke of Lorraine
Mother	Philippa of Guelders

Coat of arms of the Duke of Guise

Claude de Lorraine, duc de Guise (20 October 1496, Château de Condé-sur-Moselle, – 12 April 1550, Château de Joinville) was a French aristocrat and general. He became the first Duke of Guise in 1528.

He was a highly effective general for the French crown. His children and grandchildren were to lead the Catholic party in the French Wars of Religion.

Biography

He was the second son of René II, Duke of Lorraine, and Philippa of Guelders. He was educated at the French court of Francis I. On 9 June 1513, at the age of sixteen, Claude married Antoinette de Bourbon (1493–1583), daughter of François, Count of Vendôme.

Military service

Claude distinguished himself at the Battle of Marignano (1515), and was long in recovering from the twenty-two wounds he received in the battle. In 1521, he fought at Fuenterrabia, and Louise of Savoy ascribed the capture of the place to his efforts. In 1523, he became governor of Champagne and Burgundy, after defeating at Neufchâteau the imperial troops who had invaded this province. In 1525, Claude defeated a peasant army near Saverne (Zabern). On the return of Francis I from captivity in 1528, Claude was made Duke of Guise in the peerage of France, though up to this time only princes of the royal house had held the title of duke and peer of France. The Guises, as cadets of the sovereign House of Lorraine and descendants of the Capetian House of Anjou, claimed precedence over the Bourbon princes of Condé and Conti.

Marriage and issue

Claude married Antoinette de Bourbon, daughter of François, Count of Vendôme and Marie de Luxembourg, on 9 June 1513; they had 12 children:

• Mary of Guise (1515–1560); married King James V of Scotland and had issue, including Mary, Queen of Scots
• Francis, Duke of Guise (1519–1563)
• Louise of Guise (10 January 1520, Bar-le-Duc – 18 October 1542); married Charles I, Duke of Arschot on 20 February 1541.
• Renée of Guise (2 September 1522 – 3 April 1602), Abbess of St. Pierre, Reims.
• Charles of Guise (1524–1574), Duke of Chevreuse, Archbishop of Reims, and Cardinal of Lorraine.
• Claude, Duke of Aumale (1526–1573)
• Louis I, Cardinal of Guise (1527–1578)
• Philip of Guise (3 September 1529, Joinville – 24 September 1529, Joinville)
• Peter of Guise (b. 3 April 1530, Joinville); died young.
• Antoinette of Guise (31 August 1531, Joinville – 6 March 1561, Joinville), Abbess of Faremoutier
• Francis of Guise (18 April 1534, Joinville – 6 March 1563), Grand Prior of the Order of Malta.
• René, Marquis of Elbeuf (1536–1566)

• 
  Antoinette de Bourbon
• 
  Queen Mary of Guise
• 
  Duke Francis of Guise
• 
  Cardinal Charles of Lorraine
• 
  Queen Mary of Scots

Ancestry

Ancestors of Claude, Duke of Guise

16. Frederick I, Count of Vaudémont 8. Antoine of Vaudémont 17. Margaret of Joinville 4. Frederick, Count of Vaudémont 18. John VII, Count of Harcourt 9. Marie d'Harcourt 19. Marie d'Alençon 2. René II, Duke of Lorraine 20. Louis II of Naples 10. René I of Naples 21. Yolande of Aragon 5. Yolande of Lorraine 22. Charles II, Duke of Lorraine 11. Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine 23. Margaret of the Palatinate 1. Claude, Duke of Guise 24. John II, Lord of Egmond 12. Arnold, Duke of Guelders 25. Maria van Arkel 6. Adolf of Egmond 26. Adolph I, Duke of Cleves 13. Catherine of Cleves 27. Marie of Burgundy, Duchess of Cleves 3. Philippa of Guelders 28. John I, Duke of Bourbon 14. Charles I, Duke of Bourbon 29. Marie, Duchess of Auvergne 7. Catharine of Bourbon 30. John the Fearless 15. Agnes of Burgundy 31. Margaret of Bavaria

See also

• Duke of Lorraine
• Dukes of Lorraine family tree

References

• Bell, Susan G. (2004). The Lost Tapestries of the City of Ladies. University of California Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Carroll, Stuart (2009). Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe. Oxford University Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Spangler, Jonathan (2009). The Society of Princes: The Lorraine-Guise and the Conservation of Power and Wealth in Seventeenth-Century France. Ashgate Publishing Limited. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wellman, Kathleen (2013). Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France. Yale University Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Guise, House of". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 699–703.