Claude, Duke of Guise

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.

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.

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.

Their pretensions and ambitions inspired distrust in Francis I, although he rewarded Guise's services by substantial gifts in land and money. The duke distinguished himself in the Luxembourg campaign in 1542, but for some years before his death he effaced himself before the growing fortunes of his sons.

Issue

 * 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)