Henry I, Duke of Guise
Henry I, Prince of Joinville, Duke of Guise, Count of Eu (31 December 1550 – 23 December 1588), sometimes called Le Balafré ('Scarface'), was the eldest son of Francis, Duke of Guise, and Anna d'Este. His maternal grandparents were Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and Renée of France. Through his maternal grandfather, he was a descendant of Lucrezia Borgia and Pope Alexander VI.
Henry I
24 February 1563 – 23 December 1588
31 December 1550
23 December 1588 (aged 37)
Château de Blois, Blois, France
A key figure in the French Wars of Religion, he was one of the namesakes of the War of the Three Henrys. A powerful opponent of the queen mother, Catherine de' Medici, Henry was assassinated by the bodyguards of her son, King Henry III.
Early life[edit]
Henry was born on 31 December 1550, the eldest son of Francis Duke of Guise, one of the leading magnates of France, and Anna d'Este, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara.[1]: 311 In his youth he was friends with Henry III, the future king, and at the behest of Jacques, Duke of Nemours tried to persuade the young prince to run away with him in 1561 to join the arch-Catholic faction, much to the fury of his father and uncle.[1]: 186 When he was 12 years old, his father Francis was assassinated and Henry thus inherited the Duke's titles of the Governor of Champagne and Grand Maitre de France in 1563.[1]: 170
The Guise family and Henry craved vengeance against Gaspard II de Coligny, whom they considered responsible for the assassination.[1]: 168 As such, he and his uncle Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine would attempt to make a show of force in entering Paris in 1564, but their entry ended with both besieged in their residence and forced to concede.[1]: 173 When in 1566 the crown forced Charles at Moulins to make the kiss of peace with Coligny to end their feud, Henry refused to attend.[1]: 187 He would also challenge Coligny and Anne de Montmorency to duels, but they rebuffed his attempts.[1]: 187
No longer welcome at court, he and his brother Charles, Duke of Mayenne decided to crusade against the Ottoman Empire in Hungary, serving under Alfonso II d'Este, with a retinue of 350 men.[1]: 187 In September 1568 he reached his majority, just as the Guise returned to the centre of French politics with his uncle's readmission to the Privy Council.[1]: 187
In literature and the arts[edit]
Literature[edit]
The Duke of Guise appears as an archetypal Machiavellian schemer in Christopher Marlowe's play The Massacre at Paris, which was written about 20 years after the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.[11] The death of the duke is also mentioned, by the ghost of Machiavelli himself, in the opening lines of The Jew of Malta. He appears (as The Guise) in George Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois and its sequel, The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois.
John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee wrote The Duke of Guise (1683),[12] based on events during the reign of Henry III of France.
He appears in the short novel The Princess of Montpensier, by Madame de La Fayette.
He appears in Voltaire's epic poem "La Henriade" (1723).
He is one of the characters in Alexandre Dumas's novel La Reine Margot and its sequels, La Dame de Monsoreau and The Forty-Five Guardsmen. He also appears prominently in Heinrich Mann's novel Young Henry of Navarre (1935).
Stanley Weyman's novel A Gentleman of France includes the Duke of Guise in its tale about the War of the Three Henries.
Ken Follett's 2017 novel A Column of Fire features Henry, Duke of Guise as a prominent character, and explores his involvement with the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.
Film[edit]
In the 2010 film The Princess of Montpensier, he was portrayed by actor Gaspard Ulliel.[13]
