Francis , Duke of Guise Francis de Lorraine II , Prince of Joinville , Duke of Guise , Duke of Aumale , ( originally " François de Lorraine , duc de Guise " ; 17 February 1519 – 24 February 1563 ) , was a French soldier and politician . Early life . Born at Bar - le - Duc ( Lorraine ) , Guise was the son of Claude , Duke of Guise ( created Duke of Guise in 1527 ) , and his wife Antoinette de Bourbon . His sister , Mary of Guise , was the wife of James V of Scotland and mother of Mary , Queen of Scots . His younger brother was Charles , Cardinal of Lorraine . He was the youthful cousin of Henry II of France , with whom he was raised and by birth a prominent individual in France , though his detractors emphasised his " foreign " origin ( he is a " prince étranger " ) , namely the Duchy of Lorraine . In 1545 , he was seriously wounded at the Second Siege of Boulogne , but recovered . He was struck with a lance through the bars of his helmet . The steel head pierced both cheeks , and six inches of the shaft were snapped off by the violence of the blow . He sat firm in his saddle , and rode back unassisted to his tent ; and when the surgeon thought he would die of pain , when the iron was extracted , ' he bore it as easily as if it had been but the plucking of a hair out of his head . ' * Francis of Lorraine bore the scar of that wound to his grave ; but he lived to repay the stroke by waving the fleurs - de - lys on the battlements of Calais , while the remnants of the last English garrison were taking leave forever of the soil of France . In 1548 he was magnificently wedded to Anna d ' Este , daughter of the duke of Ferrara , Ercole II d ' Este and French princess , Renée , the daughter of Louis XII . Military career . In 1551 , he was created Grand Chamberlain of France . He won international renown in 1552 when he successfully defended the city of Metz from the forces of Charles V , Holy Roman Emperor , and defeated the imperial troops again at the Battle of Renty in 1554 , but the Truce of Vaucelles temporarily curtailed his military activity . He led an army into Italy in 1557 to aid Pope Paul IV ( and probably to further his family ' s pretensions to the Angevin inheritance ) , but was recalled to France and made Lieutenant - General of France after the defeat of the Constable de Montmorency at the Battle of St . Quentin . Taking the field , he captured Calais from the English on 7 January 1558 — an enormous propaganda victory for France — then Thionville and Arlon that summer , and was preparing to advance into Luxembourg when the Peace of Cateau - Cambrésis was signed . Throughout the reign of Henry II Guise was the premier military figure of France , courteous , affable and frank , and universally popular , the " grand duc de Guise " as his contemporary Brantôme called him . The accession of Francis ' s niece Mary , Queen of Scots , and her husband , Francis II of France ( 10 July 1559 ) , however , was a triumph for the Guise family , and the Grand Master of France Montmorency was disgraced and sent from court . The Duke of Guise and his brother , Charles , Cardinal of Lorraine were supreme in the royal council . " My advice " , he would say , " is so - and - so ; we must act thus . " Occasionally he signed public acts in the royal manner , with his baptismal name only . The Wars of Religion . In reaction to the power at court of the ultra - Catholic Guise , La Renaudie , a Protestant gentleman of Périgord , perhaps at the distanced instigation of Louis of Bourbon , Prince of Condé , organized an amateurish plot ( the conspiracy of Amboise , 1560 ) to seize the person of the Duke of Guise and his brother Charles , the Cardinal of Lorraine . The plot was discovered and violently suppressed , initiating a series of assassinations and counter - assassinations in an increasingly toxic atmosphere . In the immediate aftermath Condé was obliged to flee the court , and the power of the Guises was supreme . The discourse which Coligny , leader of the Huguenots , pronounced against " les Guises " in the Assembly of the notables at Fontainebleau ( August , 1560 ) , did not influence King Francis II in the least , but resulted rather in the imprisonment of Condé , at Charles ' s behest . The king , however , died , 5 December 1560 — a year full of calamity for the Guises both in Scotland and France . Within a few months their influence waxed great and waned . After the accession of Charles IX , the Duke of Guise lived in retirement on his estates . The regent , Catherine de ' Medici , at first inclined to favour the Protestants . To defend the Catholic cause , the Duke of Guise formed with his old enemy , the Constable de Montmorency and the Maréchal de Saint - André the so - called triumvirate ( April , 1561 ) at the head of the Catholic League , opposed to the policy of concessions which Catherine de ' Medici attempted to inaugurate in favour of the Protestants . His former military hero ' s public image was changing : " he could not serve for long as the military executive of this extreme political , ultra - montane , pro - Spanish junta without attracting his share of odium , " N . M . Sutherland has observed in describing the lead - up to his assassination . The plan of the Triumvirate was to treat with Habsburg Spain and the Holy See , and also to come to an understanding with the Lutheran princes of Germany to induce them to abandon the idea of relieving the French Protestants . About July , 1561 , Guise wrote to this effect to the Duke of Württemberg . The Colloquy at Poissy ( September and October 1561 ) between theologians of the two confessions was fruitless , and the conciliation policy of Catherine de ' Medici was defeated . From 15 to 18 February 1562 , Guise visited the Duke of Württemberg at Saverne , and convinced him that if the conference at Poissy had failed , the fault was that of the Calvinists . As Guise passed through Wassy - sur - Blaise on his way to Paris ( 1 March 1562 ) , a massacre of Protestants took place . It is not known to what extent he was responsible for this , but the Massacre of Vassy kindled open military conflict in the French Wars of Religion . The siege of Bourges in September was the opening episode , then Rouen was retaken from the Protestants by Guise after a month ' s siege ( October ) ; the Battle of Dreux ( 19 December ) , at which Montmorency was taken prisoner and Saint - André slain , was in the end turned by Guise to the advantage of the Catholic cause , and Condé , leader of the Huguenots , taken prisoner . The assassination . In the fourth encounter , Guise was about to take Orléans from the Huguenot supporters of Condé when he was wounded on 18 February 1563 by the Huguenot assassin , Jean de Poltrot de Méré , and died six days later , bled to death by his surgeons , at Château Corney . It was not the first plot against his life . A hunting accident — Francis had been appointed Grand Veneur of France in 1556 — had been planned , as Sir Nicholas Throckmorton informed Queen Elizabeth I of England in May 1560 , but the plot was uncovered by one and his five co - conspirators fled . Guise ' s unexpected death temporarily interrupted open hostilities . In his testimony , Poltrot implicated Coligny and the Protestant pastor Théodore de Bèze . Though the assassin later retracted his statement and Coligny denied responsibility for Guise ' s death , a bitter feud arose between Guise ' s son Henry and Coligny , which would culminate in St . Bartholomew ' s Day massacre . Family . Guise married in Saint - Germain - en - Laye on 29 April 1548 Anna d ' Este , daughter of Ercole II d ' Este , Duke of Ferrara , and Renée of France . They had seven children :