Guise

gez, a ducal family of France. The country of Guise was made a duchy in 1528 by Francis I. The founder of the family left eleven children. Marie Guise married James V of Scotland and became the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots; Francois succeeded his father as Duke of Guise; Charles became cardinal of Lorraine; Louis, cardinal of Guise. All were noted for ability and intriguing. When the young and feeble Francis II ascended the throne and Mary, the young Scottish princess, became his wife, her powerful uncles, the Guises, through her governed the king and ruled France. Opposed to them were the Bourbon princes, the king of Navarre, the prince of Conde, and the Huguenot Admiral de Coligni. On the death of Francis II and the return of Mary to Scotland, the Guises were reluctant to surrender their power. This, rather than a religious motive, may be given as the historical cause of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. The family came to an end in 1675. The old castle of the dukes still stands in the town of Guise on the River Oise. See Mary; Medici; Coligni