Claude, Duke of Guise

Claude de Lorraine, duc de Guise
Portrait of Claude, Duke of Guise by Jean Clouet
Spouse(s) Antoinette de Bourbon
Noble family House of Lorraine
Father René II, Duke of Lorraine
Mother Philippa of Guelders
Born 20 October 1496(1496-10-20)
Château de Condé-sur-Moselle
Died 12 April 1550(1550-04-12) (aged 53)
Château de Joinville

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.

Claude's issue

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Claude, Duke of Guise
Born: 20 October 1496 Died: 12 April 1550
First
elevated from Barony
Marquis of Elbeuf
1528–1550
Succeeded by
René
Preceded by
René
Count of Aumale
1508–1547
Succeeded by
Francis
Count of Guise
1508–1528
Succeeded by
himself
as Duke of Guise
Preceded by
himself
as Count of Guise
Duke of Guise
1528–1550
Succeeded by
Francis