The House of Guise: Europe's Most Murderous Dynasty?

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

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4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

The rich and powerful Guise family was one of the most treacherous and bloodthirsty in sixteenth-century France. They whipped up religious bigotry, overthrowing the king. They ruled Scotland for nearly 20 years through Mary Queen of Scots, plotting to invade England and overthrow Elizabeth I. And they unleashed the bloody Wars of Religion, playing a crucial role in the murder of 4,000 Protestants in the infamous Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Stuart Carroll - author of Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe - about this cultivated, charismatic and violent dynasty.

This episode was edited by Stuart Beckwith and produced by Rob Weinberg.

**WARNING: This episode contains some graphic descriptions of violence**

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Whether you know something about the Gis family of France or not today you are
0:05.8	in for a treat. But if you don't let me set the scene and introduce this powerful
0:12.4	baguiling family. The House of Gis was a prominent French noble family whose lines
0:18.6	included the counts of Gis and the Dukedoms of Lorraine. In 1506 the Duke of
0:23.8	Lorraine sent his son Claude to be raised at the French court and Claude struck
0:28.3	up a close friendship with the heir to the throne of France. In 1513 Claude was
0:33.1	permitted to marry France's cousin Antoinette de Bourbon and when France
0:37.1	became King France while the first in 1515 Claude was rewarded with
0:41.1	military commands and household offices such as a car venue de France, the
0:45.7	master of the hunt and governor of Burgundy, one of France's most important
0:49.8	provinces which had only recently ceased to be an independent province. In 1528 the
0:55.8	King elevated Gis to a duchy purge making him essentially a tantamount to a
1:00.1	prince. Claude and Antoinette had 12 children and among the most prominent
1:04.6	whom you'll meet today were Marie de Gis, François and Charles for today's
1:09.6	purposes. Marie married James the Fifth of Scotland and they became parents to
1:14.9	Mary Queen of Scots who later married the Dovefah of France, the heir to the
1:19.9	French her and the future of François II. François of Gis was a military man
1:25.0	later second Duke of Gis and Charles became Archbishop of France and Cardinal of
1:32.0	Le Reyn. King François I was succeeded by Henri II but when Henri died the Dovefah
1:40.8	became King François II crowned in 1559 by none other than his maternal
1:47.2	uncle Charles de Gis, Cardinal of Le Reyn. As the young king was inexperienced and
1:53.6	not in good health his mother Catherine de Medici directed ministers to work
	...

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