Henri II, Duke of Guise

Life

Henri became archbishop of Reims at age fifteen. Around that time, according to a contemporary writer, he had a well-known romance with the actress Marguerite Béguin. When his older brother Francis died in 1639, Henri inherited the dukedom the next year. He opposed Cardinal Richelieu and joined forces with the count of Soissons, fighting at the Battle of La Marfée in 1641. For this rebellion he was sentenced to death, but he escaped to Brussels in 1641, and the king seized his property for treason. He received a reprieve, returned in 1643, and had his lands given back.

Aiming to revive his family’s old claim to the Kingdom of Naples, he took part in Masaniello’s revolt in 1647. The rebels set up the “Royal Republic of Naples,” which sought French protection and placed Guise as its nominal head, giving him the title of doge like Venice’s. But Guise’s lack of tact quickly annoyed the Neapolitans, and he had little sway with Cardinal Mazarin. When the republic collapsed in 1648, the Spanish captured him and kept him prisoner until 1652. He tried again to take Naples in 1654, but that effort failed, partly because an English fleet under Robert Blake backed the Spanish.

Afterward, he settled in Paris and became Grand Chamberlain of France for Louis XIV. He fell deep into debt from spending on horses and entertainments. He supported the playwright Pierre Corneille, giving him a room in the Hôtel de Guise.

Two women each claimed to be his wife. The first was Anna Gonzaga, later called the Princess Palatine, who in 1639 seems to have been tricked into thinking a secret marriage ceremony was real. The second was Honorée de Berghes, Countess of Bossut, a widow who said she married him in Brussels on November 11, 1641. In March 1666, the Sacra Rota ruled that marriage valid, but the king and the House of Guise refused to accept the decision, so the countess got none of the duke’s large fortune. Anna Gonzaga once listed Duke Henri’s “good and bad qualities” in her own words.