Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1588) at Blois

The assassination of the Duke of Guise took place at the Château de Blois on 23 December 1588, when King Henry III of France had the leader of the Catholic League stabbed to death by his bodyguards. Henry of Guise had become the most powerful man in France and had humiliated the king earlier that year. The killing, followed the next day by the murder of his brother the cardinal, turned much of Catholic France against the king and led directly to his own assassination.

Background

France had been torn by the French Wars of Religion since 1562. Henry, Duke of Guise, born in 1550, was the head of the powerful Catholic house of Guise. His father had been murdered by a Protestant in 1563, and he played a leading part in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572, in which Admiral Coligny was killed. A facial wound received in battle in 1575 earned him the nickname “le Balafré” (Scarface).

In 1584 the death of the king’s brother, Francis of Anjou, left the Protestant Henry of Navarre as heir to the childless Henry III. The Catholic League revived under Guise’s leadership to block Navarre’s succession, with Spanish money and wide popular support, especially in Paris.

On 12 May 1588, the Day of the Barricades, Parisians rose in support of Guise after the king brought troops into the city. Henry III fled the capital. In July he was forced to sign the Edict of Union, and in August he named Guise lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and in October he opened a meeting of the Estates-General at Blois that was dominated by League supporters.

The killing

Feeling his authority stripped away, Henry III secretly decided to kill Guise. Early on the morning of 23 December 1588 he summoned the duke to a council meeting and then to his private cabinet. As Guise passed through the king’s chamber, he was attacked by members of the Forty-Five (Quarante-Cinq), a guard of Gascon gentlemen loyal to the king. He was stabbed many times and died at the foot of the king’s bed.

His brother Louis, Cardinal of Guise, was arrested the same day and killed by guards on 24 December. Other League leaders, including the elderly Cardinal of Bourbon, whom the League regarded as the rightful heir, were imprisoned. The brothers’ bodies were burned and the ashes scattered, reportedly in the Loire.

Key people

• Henry III (1551–1589): king of France, last of the Valois line, who ordered the killing.
• Henry I, Duke of Guise (1550–1588): leader of the Catholic League and the king’s chief rival.
• Louis II, Cardinal of Guise (1555–1588): the duke’s brother, killed the day after him.
• Charles, Duke of Mayenne (1554–1611): another brother, who escaped and took over leadership of the League.
• Catherine de’ Medici (1519–1589): the king’s mother, gravely ill at Blois; she died on 5 January 1589.

Consequences

The news provoked fury among Catholics. Paris rejected the king’s authority, League preachers denounced him as a tyrant, and in January 1589 the theologians of the Sorbonne declared his subjects released from their duty of obedience. Pope Sixtus V excommunicated Henry III for killing a cardinal. Many towns joined the League, and Mayenne became lieutenant-general of a rebel government.

Left with little support among Catholics, Henry III made peace with Henry of Navarre in April 1589, and the two kings marched together on Paris. On 1 August 1589 the king was stabbed by a Dominican friar, an event described in the article on the Assassination of Henry III of France.

Legacy

The killing at Blois became one of the most retold episodes of French history. The king’s chamber in the François I wing of the Château de Blois is still shown to visitors as the scene of the murder. In the 19th century it inspired Romantic artists and writers, including Paul Delaroche’s painting of 1834 and Alexandre Dumas’s novels about the Valois court. In 1908 the subject was chosen for one of the earliest films with a specially composed score, L’Assassinat du duc de Guise, with music by Camille Saint-Saëns.

Myths and facts

“Henry III said Guise was taller dead than alive.” The quip is famous but appears in later sources and is probably legendary.

“Guise wanted to make himself king.” His enemies claimed this, and some historians think he had royal ambitions. The evidence is inconclusive; the League’s stated candidate was the Cardinal of Bourbon.

Timeline

• 1584, 10 June: Death of Francis of Anjou makes Henry of Navarre heir to the throne.
• 1588, 12 May: Day of the Barricades in Paris; Henry III flees.
• 1588, July: Henry III signs the Edict of Union.
• 1588, October: The Estates-General opens at Blois.
• 1588, 23 December: Guise is killed in the Château de Blois.
• 1588, 24 December: The Cardinal of Guise is killed.
• 1589, 5 January: Catherine de’ Medici dies at Blois.
• 1589, 1 August: Henry III is stabbed at Saint-Cloud.

Why it matters

The murder at Blois was a desperate attempt by a weakened king to restore royal authority. Instead it destroyed his remaining credibility with Catholic France, intensified the civil war and opened the road to the throne for Henry of Navarre, the future Henry IV.