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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.

Biography

Born at Bar-le-Duc (Lorraine), Guise was the son of Claude, Duke of Guise 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.

In 1545, he gained his nickname through a wound sustained at the siege of Boulogne. 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. The siege of Metz is detailed well in Ambroise Paré's "Journey in Diverse Places" (written around 1580). He was created Grand Veneur of France in 1556, 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 January 7th 1558, Thionville and Arlon that summer, and was preparing to advance into Luxembourg when the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis was signed.

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 de Montmorency was disgraced. François de Guise was supreme in the royal council. "My advice", he would say, "is so-and-so; we must act thus." Occasionally he signed public acts in the royal manner, with his baptismal name only.

At the instigation of Antoine de Bourbon and the Prince de Condé, La Renaudie, a Protestant gentlemen of Périgord, organized a plot to seize the person of François de Guise and his brother, the second cardinal of Lorraine. The plot was discovered (conspiracy of Amboise, 1560) and violently suppressed. Condé was obliged to flee the court, and the power of the Guises was increased. The discourse which Coligny, leader of the Huguenots, pronounced against them in the Assembly of the notables at Fountainbleau (August, 1560), did not influence Francis II in the least, but resulted rather in the imprisonment of Condé.

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, and to save the Catholic party, François de Guise formed with his old enemy, the Constable de Montmorency and the Maréchal de Saint-André the so-called triumvirate (April, 1561), hostile to the policy of concession which Catherine de' Medici attempted to inaugurate in favour of the Protestants.

The plan of the Triumvirate was to treat with 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 is not known to what extent he was responsible for this, but it kindled the religious war. Rouen was retaken from the Protestants by Guise after a month's siege (October); the Battle of Dreux, at which Montmorency was taken prisoner and Saint-André slain, was in the end turned by Guise to the advantage of the Catholic cause (19 December), and Condé, leader of the Huguenots, taken prisoner. Guise was about to take Orléans from the Huguenots on 18 February, 1563 when he was wounded by the Huguenot Jean de Poltrot de Méré, and died six days later, at Château Corney.

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:

1. Henry I, Duke of Guise (1550–1588), who succeeded him as Duke of Guise.
2. Catherine (July 18, 1552, Joinville – May 6, 1596, Paris), married on February 4, 1570 Louis II, Duke of Montpensier
3. Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne (1554–1611)
4. Louis II, Cardinal of Guise (1555–1588), Archbishop of Reims
5. Antoine (April 25, 1557 – January 16, 1560)
6. François (December 31, 1559, Blois – October 24, 1573, Reims)
7. Maximilien (October 25, 1562 – 1567)

See also

• Dukes of Guise family tree
• House of Guise

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

• French generals
• Military leaders of the Italian Wars
• People from Lorraine
• Deaths by firearm in France
• 1519 births
• 1563 deaths
• People of the French Wars of Religion
• Dukes of Aumale
• Dukes of Guise
• Princes of Joinville