Count of Guise and Duke of Guise were titles in the French nobility.
Originally a seigneurie, Guise was erected into a countship for René, younger son of Louis II of Anjou, in 1417.
While disputed by the House of Luxembourg (1425–1444), it was ultimately retained by the House of Anjou and its descendants, passing in 1520 into the cadet House of Guise, headed by Claude of Lorraine. In 1528, it was elevated to a duchy for him.
This creation became extinct in 1688, and the lands passed to Anne, Pfalzgravine of Simmern, a great-granddaughter of Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne (whose mother happened to have first married the 5th Duke of Guise) - although she was not the heiress in primogeniture, that being the Duke of Mantova and Montferrat. The dukedom was recreated for her and her husband Henri Jules de Bourbon-Condé in 1704.
On the extinction of the Bourbon-Condé family, her descendants, in 1830, the heirs were the House of Orléans, descendants of Anne's granddaughter's Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon's daughter Louise Henriette de Bourbon, the Duchess of Orleans, and the title of Duke of Guise was used as a courtesy title for members of this family in the nineteenth century, firstly for three sons of Prince Henri, Duke of Aumale, and then for Jean, son of Robert d'Orléans, Duke of Chartres. Jean, Duke of Guise became Orléanist claimant to the throne of France as Jean III in 1926.
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The House of Luxembourg had disputed the countship of Guise, and with the approval of John, Duke of Bedford, English Regent of France, seized the county in 1425.
The marriage of Charles of Le Maine, younger brother of René, to Isabelle of Luxembourg, sister of Louis, allowed him to peacefully recover Guise.
Charles IV left his lands to the Crown, but Guise was granted to his nephew Louis in 1491.
In 1520, the Parlement of Paris conferred the countship of Guise upon Claude of Lorraine, second son of René II of Lorraine (the grandson of René I of Naples) and heir to his French possessions. The countship was elevated to a duchy in 1528.
Marie did not marry and had no direct heirs. She willed her inheritance to Charles François de Stainville on 8 January 1688. This was undone by the Parlement of Paris at the request of indirect heirs to the estate. One of these heirs was Edward of Pfalz-Simmern, Count Palatine and his daughter Anne, because she was a great-granddaughter of Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne through her mother Anna Gonzaga.
Afterwards, the title was extinghuished and no longer bestowed. It returned to the royal domain. Louis Henry though left his estate to his godson, Henry of Orléans. He was bestowed with the personal title of Duke of Guise by Louis-Philippe, King of the French, his grandfather, in 1847.
From here on the title became a courtesy title used by the House of Orléans.