Claude, Duke of Guise

Claude was born at the Château de Condé-sur-Moselle, the second son of René II, Duke of Lorraine, and Philippa of Guelders.[1] 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),[1] daughter of François, Count of Vendôme.[2]

Claude distinguished himself at the Battle of Marignano (1515),[3] 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 1522 he forced the English to raise the siege of Hesdin. 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).[4] Following Francis I's return from captivity, Claude was made Duke of Guise in 1527.[5] 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.[2]

Later, the duke distinguished himself in the Luxembourg campaign in 1542, but for some years before his death he stepped back due to himself before the growing fortunes of his sons.[2]

Claude married Antoinette de Bourbon,[6] daughter of François, Count of Vendôme and Marie de Luxembourg, on 9 June 1513; they had 12 children:

• Mary of Guise (1515–1560); married firstly Louis II d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville and secondly king James V of Scotland and had issue, including Mary, Queen of Scots[1]
• Francis, Duke of Guise (1519–1563)[1]
• Louise of Guise (10 January 1520, Bar-le-Duc – 18 October 1542); married Charles I, Duke of Arschot on 20 February 1541.[7]
• 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.[1]
• Claude, Duke of Aumale (1526–1573)[1]
• Louis I, Cardinal of Guise (1527–1578)[1]
• 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.[1]
• René, Marquis of Elbeuf (1536–1566)[1]

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

Claude died at Château de Joinville, aged 53.

• Duke of Lorraine
• Dukes of Lorraine family tree

• Bell, Susan G. (2004). The Lost Tapestries of the City of Ladies. University of California Press.
• Carroll, Stuart (2009). Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe. Oxford University Press.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Guise, House of s.v. Claude of Lorraine". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 699.
• Hillerbrand, Hans Joachim, ed. (1996). "House of Lorraine-Guise". The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press.
• Spangler, Jonathan (2009). The Society of Princes: The Lorraine-Guise and the Conservation of Power and Wealth in Seventeenth-Century France. Ashgate Publishing Limited.
• Wellman, Kathleen (2013). Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France. Yale University Press.