Guise, the name of a branch of the ducal family of Lorraine, which it derives from the town of Guise, in the department of Aisne.
CLAUDE OF LORRAINE, first Duke of Guise, was the fifth son of René II., Duke of Lorraine, and was born at the château of Condé, October 20, 1496. Attaching himself to Francis I., he fought with distinction at Marignano in 1515; but after that campaign remained at home to defend France against the English and Germans (1522–23). During the captivity of Francis I., after Pavia, Claude of Guise suppressed the peasant revolt in Lorraine (1527), for which Francis, after his return home, created him Duke of Guise. In his later years he held himself aloof from public life; he died 12th April 1550.
His daughter Mary, usually spoken of in history as Mary of Lorraine, was born November 22, 1515, and in 1538 became the wife of James V. of Scotland. By his death in 1542, she was left a widow with one child, Mary, Queen of Scots. Under the regency of Arran which followed, war broke out between England and Scotland, partly on account of the claims which Henry VIII. made with regard to the infant Mary's marriage, and partly on religious grounds. Mary of Lorraine during those years acted with much wisdom and moderation; but after her own accession to the regency in 1554, she allowed the Guises too much to influence her policy, the result being that the Protestant nobles combined against her in 1559. This rebellion, which she was assisted by French troops to repress, continued almost to the time of her death, which took place in Edinburgh Castle, 10th June 1560. But before her death she was reconciled to her nobles.
FRANCIS, second Duke of Guise, son of the first duke, was born at Bar, February 17, 1519, and became one of the greatest generals of France. At the siege of Boulogne (1545) he gained the nickname of Balafré from a severe wound in his face. Seven years later he held Metz gloriously against Charles V. of Germany, and thus prevented an invasion of France. He added to his reputation at Renti (1554), fighting against the troops of Charles
V., and in 1556 took command of the expedition against Naples. Recalled thence in the following year to defend the northern frontier against the English, he took Calais (1558) and other towns, and brought about the treaty of Cateau Cambrésis (1559). He and his brother Charles, the cardinal (1525-74), probably the most capable man of the Guises, who afterwards played a prominent part at the Council of Trent, then managed to possess themselves of all real power during the reign of the weak King Francis II. Putting themselves at the head of the Roman Catholic opposition to the Reformation, they repressed Protestantism with a strong arm. In the war between Huguenots and Catholics Guise and Montmorency won a victory at Dreux (1562), and the former was besieging Orleans when he was assassinated by a Huguenot nobleman, on 18th February 1563. He had a taste for literature, and his memoirs, written by himself, have much historic interest. See his Life by Brisset (1840) and Cauvin (1885).
HENRY I., third Duke of Guise, son of Francis, was born December 31, 1550. Filled by the murder of his father with bitter hatred of the Protestants, he fought fiercely against them, at Jarnac (March 1569) and Moncontour (October 1569), and in the same year forced Coligny to raise the siege of Poitiers. He was one of the contrivers of the massacre of St Bartholomew, August 24, 1572, in which he personally made sure that Coligny should be slain; and subsequently he put himself at the head of the Catholic League. He had, however, a greater ambition, that of succeeding to the throne of France, for in respect of real power he was already the equal, or rather superior, of the feeble King Henry III., whose commands he set at nought and whom he so deeply humiliated that the king procured his assassination, on 23d December 1588, at Blois. This duke earned the nickname of Le Balafré ('of the scar') in an encounter with German mercenaries of Condé at Dormans (1575). See his Life by Rénauld (1879).
HENRY II., fifth Duke of Guise, the grandson of Henry I., was born at Blois, April 4, 1614. He was destined for the church, and at the age of fifteen became Archbishop of Rheims, but, in 1640, on the death of his elder brother, he succeeded to the dukedom. Having joined the league against Richelieu, he was condemned by the parliament of Paris to capital punishment, but found refuge in Flanders. He put himself at the head of Massaniello's revolt in Naples, as the representative of the Anjou family, but was taken prisoner by the Spanish forces (1647) and carried to Madrid, where he remained five years. After another fruitless attempt to win Naples (1654), he settled at Paris and lived the life of a courtier, dying in June 1664 without descendants. His Mémoires (2 vols. Paris, 1669) were written partly by Count Raymond of Modena and partly by his secretary, St Yon. The direct line of the house became extinct on the death of François Joseph (1675), the seventh duke, and grandson of Henry II.'s brother Louis. See Forneron, Les Ducs de Guise (2d ed. 1893).