Quick Facts
Biography
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.
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. At seventeen, Claude made an alliance to the royal house of France by a marriage with 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, he destroyed the Anabaptist peasant army, which was overrunning Lorraine at Lupstein, 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
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