Aumale, CHARLES DE LORRAINE, DUC D'

Aumale, CHARLES DE LORRAINE, DUC D', born 1556, was an ardent partisan of the League in the religious wars which devastated France in the latter half of the 16th century. The aim of the League was ostensibly to suppress the Huguenots, but in reality to secure the supreme power to the Guises. Closely allied by blood to this crafty and ambitious family, Aumale, after the murder of the Duke of Guise in 1588, became, along with the Duke of Mayenne, the leader of the party. Defeated at Senlis by the Duke of Longueville, and at Arras and Ivry by Henry IV., he still attempted to defend Paris, and when Henry was recognised as king in France, he went over to the Spaniards, refused the royal pardon, and delivered over to the enemy several places in his possession. For this he was impeached, condemned, and sentenced to be broken alive on the wheel. His property was confiscated, but he himself escaped. He lived in exile till his death, which took place at Brussels in 1631. With him the old Dukes d'Aumale of the house of Lorraine became extinct.