Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe

by Stuart Carroll

Overview

The House of Guise was one of the greatest princely families of the sixteenth century, or indeed of any age. Today they are best remembered through the tragic life of one family member, Mary Queen of Scots. But the story of her Guise uncles, aunts and cousins is if anything more gripping - and certainly of greater significance in the history of Europe. The Guise family rose to prominence as the greatest enemy of the House of Habsburg and had dreams of a great dynastic empire that included the British Isles and southern Italy. They were among the staunchest opponents of the Reformation, played a major role in re-fashioning Catholicism at the Council of Trent before plunging France into a bloody civil war that culminated in the infamous St Bartholomew's Day Massacre. They protected English Catholic refugees, plotted to invade England and overthrow Elizabeth I, and ended the century by unleashing Europe's first religious revolution, before succumbing in a counter-revolution that made them martyrs for the Catholic cause. Martyrs and Murderers is the first comprehensive modern biography of the Guise family in any language. In it Stuart Carroll unravels the legends which cast them either as heroes or as villains of the Reformation, weaving a remarkable story that challenges traditional assumptions about one of Europe's most turbulent and formative eras.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191619700
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	04/28/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Stuart Carroll has taught at the Universities of London and York, where he is currently Professor of History. He is twice-winner of the Nancy Roelker prize for the best essay written on early modern French History and is the author of Blood and Violence in Early Modern France, also published by Oxford University Press.

Table of Contents

List of Maps, Plates and Genealogical Tables xiii

A note on coinage xv

1 Invitation to a Massacre 1

2 'All for One: One for All' 21

3 Dreams Of Empire 50

4 Chacun À Son Tour 80

5 Congregations, Conspiracies, and Coups 100

6 The Cardinal's Compromise 128

7 Bloodfued 160

Interlude: Princess Margot and The 'Negress' 185

8 A Wedding and Four Thousand Funerals 192

9 False Kings and True Catholics 221

10 The Invasion of England 242

11 Revolution 256

12 Counter-Revolution 281

Epilogue 293

Maps 303

Genealogical Tables 309

Further Reading 315

Notes 319

Photographic Acknowledgements 332

Index 333

Editorial Reviews

Historian Carroll's measured account of the Guise family in Reformation France offers a nuanced view of a dynasty legendary for its bloody and treacherous defense of Catholicism. Unusually unified for a princely family of the Renaissance, the Guise rose to prominence in the 16th century through dynastic marriage and a coordinated cultivation of the crown, the Church, and the military. Carroll is particularly effective in recounting the intertwined public lives of the soldier François, Duke of Guise (1519–63), and his brother Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine (1525–74), humanists who could tolerate Protestantism (at least among the French upper classes) if it served the family interests as opposed to the violent Counter-Reformation rigidity of later generations. Carroll pointedly gives secondary place to the most famous of the Guise, Mary Queen of Scots, daughter of James V of Scotland and Marie de Guise (sister of François and Charles). Guise conspiracies aimed at toppling Protestant Elizabeth I helped force the hand of the English monarch to execute the family's hapless candidate for her crown. VERDICT This thoughtful, comprehensive, and well-written volume will appeal to those interested in European history but is probably too dense and demanding for the general reader.—Stewart Desmond, New York

Library Journal

"[A] nuanced view of a dynasty legendary for its bloody and treacherous defense of Catholicism.... This thoughtful, comprehensive, and well-written volume will appeal to those interested in European history...."—Library Journal

"[An] entertaining look at France's Guise family ... nuanced."—Economist

"A very entertaining read and another angle to the political intrigue of Europe's royal families centuries ago, Martyrs and Murderers is a fine and excellent pick."—Midwest Book Review

"Carroll not only tells this tale in lively fashion, he helps us understand how things all turned out as they did. He provides maps for those of us who are less than conversant with Renaissance French geography, and genealogical tables for those of us who keep getting confused about who is related in what way to whom."—National Catholic Reporter

"Carroll states that he thought he had finished with the Guises after publishing his earlier work on the family, but his editor persuaded him to write this one. Historians of sixteenth-century France must applaud his editor.There is more to be said about the Guises, especially those of the first and third generations,
but this book is not likely to be supplanted anytime soon."—The Catholic Historical Review

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