Henry I, Prince of Joinville, Duke of Guise, Count of Eu (
January 31, 1550 –
December 23, 1588, Château de Blois), sometimes called
Le Balafré, "the scarred", was the eldest son of
Francis, Duke of Guise and Anna d'Este. His maternal grandparents were
Ercole d'Este II, Duke of Ferrara and
Renée of France.
He succeeded his father in
1563 as
Duke of Guise and
Grand Maître de France. He fought the
Turks in
Hungary in
1565, and on his return, he became one of the leaders of the Catholic faction in the
French Wars of Religion. He fought at the
Battle of Saint-Denis in
1567, and at
Battle of Jarnac and
Battle of Moncontour. His courting of
Marguerite de Valois in
1570 offended her brother,
Charles IX of France, but his marriage to Catherine of Cleves restored his fortunes. Threatened by the rising power of
Admiral Coligny, he contrived the Admiral's assassination and the
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in
1572.
He was wounded at the
Battle of Dormans (
October 10, 1575), and was thereafter known, like his father, as "Le Balafré". He rose to heroic stature among the
Catholic population of France as an opponent of the
Huguenots.
In
1576 he formed the
Catholic League to keep the new heir, the Protestant
Henry of Navarre, off the throne. The talent and dash of Guise contrasted favorably with the vacillation and weakness of
Henry III, and he was said to have claimed a
Carolingian descent and cast eyes on the throne. This led to the stage of the Wars of Religion known as the
War of the Three Henries. However, on the death in
1584 of
François, Duke of Anjou, the king's brother (which left
Henry of Navarre, the
Protestant champion, as heir-male), Guise concluded the
Treaty of Joinville with
Philip II of Spain. This compact declared that the
Cardinal de Bourbon should succeed Henry III, in preference to Henry of Navarre. Henry III now sided with the League (
1585), which made war with great success on the Protestants. Guise sent his cousin
Charles, Duke of Aumale to lead a rising in
Picardy (which could also support the retreat of the
Spanish Armada). Alarmed, Henry III ordered Guise to remain in
Champagne; he defied the king and on
May 9, 1588 Guise entered
Paris, forcing King Henry to flee.
The League now controlled France; the king was forced to accede to its demands and created Guise
Lieutenant-General of France. But Henry III refused to be treated as a mere cipher by the League, and decided upon a bold stroke. On
December 23, 1588, at the
Château de Blois, Guise was summoned to attend the king, and was at once
assassinated. His brother
Louis II, Cardinal of Guise was assassinated the next day. The deed aroused such outrage among the remaining relatives and allies of Guise that Henry III was forced to take refuge with Henry of Navarre. (Henry III was assassinated the next year by
Jacques Clément, agent of the Catholic League).
The Duc de Guise appears as an archetypal Machiavellian schemer in
Christopher Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris.
L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise, Op. 128, first shown at the Salle Charras in Paris on 16 November 1908, was the first film to include a score written by a well-known classical composer (
Camille Saint-Saëns). 
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