page_title: House of Lorraine
section_title: Houses of Vaudemont and Guise
hierarchical_section_title: House of Lorraine / Ancestry / Houses of Vaudemont and Guise
caption_attribution_description: Joinville - Chateau du Grand Jardin
context_page_description: The House of Lorraine originated as a cadet branch of the House of Metz. It inherited the Duchy of Lorraine in 1473 after the death without a male heir of Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine. By the marriage of Francis of Lorraine to Maria Theresa of Austria in 1736, and with the success in the ensuing War of the Austrian Succession, the House of Lorraine was joined to the House of Habsburg and became known as the House of Habsburg‑Lorraine. Francis, his sons Joseph II and Leopold II, and his grandson Francis II were the last four Holy Roman Emperors from 1745 until the dissolution of the empire in 1806. The House of Habsburg-Lorraine inherited the Habsburg Empire, ruling the Austrian Empire and then Austria-Hungary until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1918.
  Although its senior agnates are the Dukes of Hohenberg, the house is currently headed by Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, grandson of the last emperor Charles I.
context_section_description: After a brief interlude of 1453–1473, when the duchy passed in right of Charles's daughter to her husband John of Calabria, a Capetian, Lorraine reverted to the House of Vaudemont, a junior branch of House of Lorraine, in the person of René II who later added to his titles that of Duke of Bar.
  The French Wars of Religion saw the rise of a junior branch of the Lorraine family, the House of Guise, which became a dominant force in French politics and, during the later years of Henri III's reign, was on the verge of succeeding to the throne of France. Mary of Guise, mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, also came from this family.
  Under the Bourbon monarchy the remaining branch of the House of Guise, headed by the duc d'Elbeuf, remained part of the highest ranks of French aristocracy, while the senior branch of the House of Vaudemont continued to rule the independent duchies of Lorraine and Bar. Louis XIV's imperialist ambitions (which involved the occupation of Lorraine in 1669–97) forced the dukes into a permanent alliance with his archenemies, the Holy Roman Emperors from the House of Habsburg.
caption: The Château du Grand Jardin in Joinville, the seat of the Counts and Dukes of Guise.
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