Catherine of Cleves

Catherine de Clèves (or de Nevers) (1548 – 11 May 1633) was the wife of Henry, Duke of Guise, and matriarch of the numerous and influential House of Guise. By marriage she was Duchess of Guise from 1570 to 1588, and Dowager Duchess of Guise thereafter. She was Countess of Eu in her own right from 1564.

Biography

Catherine was the second daughter of François de Clèves, Duke of Nevers, and Marguerite de Bourbon, elder sister of Antoine de Bourbon.

She was the first cousin of Henry of Navarre, sister-in-law of Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, and great aunt of Ludwika Maria Gonzaga, Queen of Poland.

At the age of twelve, Catherine married Antoine de Croÿ, Prince de Porcien (or Porcean), who died seven years later. After the conventional three years of mourning, on 4 October 1570, she married Henri de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, who was two years her junior.

They had fourteen children, including Charles, Duke of Guise and Louis III, Cardinal of Guise. She had a widely publicised affair with a young nobleman, Saint-Mégrin, who was killed by her husband. The event is dramatised in the Alexandre Dumas play Henri III et sa cour (1829).

Henry of Guise was the leader of the fervently Catholic faction in the French Wars of Religion. From 1584, the conflict among factions led by Henry of Guise, Henry of Navarre, and Henry III of France was known as the War of the Three Henrys. In 1588, Henry of Guise was assassinated on the orders of King Henry III.

Catherine never forgave Henry III of France (who kept taunting her as "la maîtresse de Saint Megrin") for his part in the assassination of her husband. She took a keen interest in the intrigues of the Catholic League and encouraged Henry's assassination in 1589. At the conclusion of the War of the Three Henrys she was mindful of the interests of her large family and supported her son Charles as a candidate for the French throne.

Catherine's reconciliation with her cousin, Henry IV, was not effected until his conversion to Catholicism. She immediately moved to Paris and obtained a very honorable position in the retinue of his wife, Marie de' Medici. The Guises continued to support the Queen throughout the regency, and Catherine followed Marie into exile in Blois after Louis XIII assumed the reins of government.

After returning to the Louvre, the Dowager Duchess - anxious to promote the interests of the House of Guise - resumed plotting against Cardinal Richelieu. The death of her youngest daughter, the princesse de Conti (who had been implicated in the Day of the Dupes conspiracy), proved a blow to her spirits.

She retired to her château d'Eu, where she died aged 85. She was buried at the château next to her husband's ornate tomb.

Issue

She married on October 4, 1570 in Paris to Henri de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, by whom she had fourteen children:

Charles, Duke of Guise (1571–1640), who succeeded him
Henri (June 30, 1572, Paris – August 13, 1574)
Catherine (November 3, 1573) (died at birth)
Louis III, Cardinal of Guise (1575–1621), Archbishop of Reims
Charles (January 1, 1576, Paris) (died at birth)
Marie (June 1, 1577–1582)
Claude, Duke of Chevreuse (1578–1657) married Marie de Rohan, daughter of Hercule de Rohan, duc de Montbazon
Catherine (b. May 29, 1579), d. young
Christine (January 21, 1580) (died at birth)
François (May 14, 1581 – September 29, 1582)
Renée (1585 – June 13, 1626, Reims), Abbess of St. Pierre
Jeanne (July 31, 1586 – October 8, 1638, Jouarre), Abbess of Jouarre
Louise Marguerite, (1588 – April 30, 1631, Château d'Eu), married at the Château de Meudon on July 24, 1605 François, Prince of Conti
François Alexandre (February 7, 1589 – June 1, 1614, Château des Baux), a Knight of the Order of Malta

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Catherine of Cleves.

Forneron, Henri. Les ducs de Guise et leur époque: étude historique sur la seizième siècle. Paris, 1877.
Réné de Bouillé. Histoire de ducs de Guise. Amyot, 1850.

Princesses of Lorraine by marriage

The generations start from the children of Réné II

1st Generation	Renée de Bourbon Antoinette de Bourbon Louise de Brézé

2nd Generation	Princess Christina of Denmark Marguerite d'Egmont Princess Joanna of Savoy Catherine Romula de Lorraine* Louise de Rieux Anna d'Este

3rd Generation	Princess Claude of France Marie de Luxembourg Marguerite de Chabot Princess Henriette of Savoy Catherine of Cleves

4th Generation	Princess Catherine of Navarre Margherita Gonzaga Christina of Salm Catherine Henriette de Bourbon, Légitimée de France Marguerite Philippe du Cambout Marie de Rohan Henriette Catherine de Joyeuse

5th Generation	Nicole de Lorraine* Béatrice de Cusance Claude Françoise de Lorraine* Anne Élisabeth de Lannoy Élisabeth de La Tour d'Auvergne Françoise de Montault de Navailles Anne d'Ornano Christine d'Estrées Anne de Lorraine* Catherine de Neufville Catherine de Goyon de Matignon Marie Madeleine d'Epinay Françoise Adélaide de Noailles Marie Françoise de Valois

6th Generation	Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Poland Princess Anne Élisabeth de Lorraine* Charlotte de Rochechouart de Mortemart Marie Therese de Stramboni Innocentia Catherine du Plessis Marie Françoise de Brancas Marie Louise Jeannin de Castille Élisabeth de Roquelaure Anne Marguerite Gabrielle de Beauvau Jeanne Henriette Marguerite de Durfort Élisabeth Marguerite d'Orléans

7th Generation	Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans Hélène Julie Rosalie Mancini Louise Charlotte de Gramont Auguste de Coëtquen Louise de Rohan

8th Generation	Anna Zetzner Viktoria Folliot de Crenneville Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria Marie Louise de Rohan

*also a princess of Lorraine in her own right

Authority control	VIAF: 27808588 GND: 115809341

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