French prince. Henri Ier of Lorraine, prince de Joinville, then 3rd duke of Own way, known as Slashed Henri. Henri de Guise is one of the principal characters of the wars of religion. Politician who could benefit from his military victories, his personality is all the more difficult to seize that very few authentic documents make it possible to understand its exact role at the time of episodes as capital as the day of the Barricades or the general states of Blois, during which he was assassinated on the order of Henri III. The catholic man of war
Henri de Guise was the oldest son of François de Guise, military chief prestigious; after the assassination of this one in 1563, it succeeded to him in charge of the house of Own way. This one carried the hopes of the intransigent catholics, who wished to see restoring the unit of the religion in the kingdom, and thus the pure and simple prohibition of the reformed worship.
He married in 1570 Catherine de Clèves of whom he had several children, of which Charles, 4th duke of Own way to the death of his/her father, Louise-Marguerite, who married prince François de Conti, and Louis, third cardinal of Own way.
Henri de Guise took share with the battle of Jarnac (1569). He was perhaps the silent partner of the attack against Coligny (August 22nd, 1572), unless it did not act on behalf of Spain. Its role at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre is on the other hand certain, and it is him which, at the dawn of August 24th, sent some men to assassinate the admiral.
He was called Slashed - as his/her father - with the continuation of a wound received at the time of the battle of Dormans (October 10th, 1575); in this small town located on the Marne, it put in rout a German body of reîtres recruited by the Protestants and Malcontents and directed by Thoré, the younger brother of the marshal of Morello cherry.
The chief of the League peerage-book
Henri de Guise became, in 1576, the chief of the first League - which disappeared soon. Since 1581, it perceived large amounts of money of Philippe II of Spain, which supported its political initiatives thus; on December 31st, 1584, it signed the treaty of Joinville, by which Spain ensured the League peerage-book the payment of 50 ' 000 ecus gold per month, that is to say a considerable sum.
However, it seems that the duke worked towards his own ends, and in particular that after the death of the duke of Anjou, in 1584, which meant the extinction of Valois, he thought of succeeding Henri III on the throne of France. The Own way made go up their genealogy with Charlemagne, which founded the claims of the duke to the throne of France: such an ascent indeed ensured the priority on Henri to him de Navarre, even on Henri III, both Capétiens, therefore usurping of the power of the Carolingians.
The duke could count on his popularity, which was immense, in Paris in particular, but it also had to seek to moderate the chiefs of the popular League, whose program proposed communal freedoms and did not put up itself with the princely supervision that the party of the Own way claimed to exert.
Victories of Vimory and Auneau
After having imposed to Henri III and to the queen mother the treaty of Nemours (July 7th, 1585), by which the king began to revoke the edicts of pacification and to take again the war against the Protestants, Henri de Guise took the head of the royal and catholic troops at the time of the eighth war of religion. It overcame the Protestants with Vimory, close to Montargis, on on October 26th, 1587, and in Auneau, close to Chartres, the next on on November 24th, in spite of their reinforcements of reîtres recruited in Germany. These victories still increased its prestige, but it was partly frustrated by it by the capitulation that Henri III offered to the troops engaged by the Protestants (December 8th). Consequently, the duke of Own way did not hesitate to enter openly in rebellion against Henri III.
Barricades with the edict of Union
On May 9th, 1588, acclaimed by the population, Henri de Guise made his entry in Paris, where an insurrection prepared and where the king had prohibited to him to be. It organized the government of the capital, placing the members of a league in charge of the municipal institutions everywhere, but, at the time of the day of the Barricades (May 12th, 1588), it made however the error to let Henri III escape one does not know however if it had been really given for goal to seize itself some. Moreover, by alliances which it had contracted with the noble catholics, Henri de Guise was main half of the kingdom - Picardy, Brittany, Lorraine in particular. The extent of the movement member of a league then reinforced his influence on the king who was constrained to sign the edict of Union (July 15th, 1588), at the end which Henri III appointed it general lieutenant of the armies of the kingdom, and committed itself reinforcing the fight against the Protestants and never not to conclude from peace nor of truce with them.
The assassination of Blois
During the meeting of the general states in Blois, with ligueuse majority, the duke of Own way could again impose his wills to the king. This one, seeing its power to be reduced each day without hope to turn over the situation by average policies, conceived the project to make it assassinate in order to decapitate the League. Henri de Guise had received with many resumptions of information according to which the king prepared an ambush to him; however, not wanting to believe any of these warnings, it was let attract in the room of the king, with the castle of Blois, the morning of December 23rd, 1588. It was surprised there by some of Forty-five, the personal guards of the king, which assassinated it without it being able to call for the aid his own bodyguards. The same day, its body was burned in a room of the castle, and its ashes thrown in the Loire. His/her Charles son was stopped the same day, and his/her brother Louis, cardinal of Lorraine, which chaired the clergy in the meetings of the general states, was assassinated the next morning.