François, Duke of Guise

Francis
Duc de Guise Duke of Aumale Prince de Joinville
Francis, Duke of Guise, by François Clouet
Born	17 February 1519 Bar-le-Duc (Lorraine
Died	24 February 1563(1563-02-24) (aged 44)
Noble family	Guise
Spouse(s)	Anna d'Este (m. 1548–63; his death)
Father	Claude, Duke of Guise
Mother	Antoinette de Bourbon
Religion	Catholic

Francis de Lorraine II, Prince of Joinville, Duke of Guise, Duke of Aumale (French: François de Lorraine, duc de Guise; 17 February 1519 – 24 February 1563), was a French soldier and politician. By religion, he practised Catholicism, at a time when France was being polarized between the Catholics and Huguenots.

Born at Bar-le-Duc (Lorraine), Guise was the son of Claude, Duke of Guise (created Duke of Guise in 1527), and his wife Antoinette de Bourbon. His sister, Mary of Guise, was the wife of James V of Scotland and mother of Mary, Queen of Scots. His younger brother was Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. He was the youthful cousin of Henry II of France, with whom he was raised, and by birth a prominent individual in France, though his detractors emphasised his "foreign" origin (he was a prince étranger), namely the Duchy of Lorraine.

In 1545, he was seriously wounded at the Second Siege of Boulogne, but recovered. He was struck with a lance through the bars of his helmet. The steel head pierced both cheeks, and 15 cm (6 in) of the shaft were snapped off by the violence of the blow. He sat firm in his saddle, and rode back unassisted to his tent ; and when the surgeon thought he would die of pain, when the iron was extracted, ' he bore it as easily as if it had been but the plucking of a hair out of his head.'* Francis of Lorraine bore the scar of that wound to his grave; but he lived to repay the stroke by waving the fleurs-de-lys on the battlements of Calais, while the remnants of the last English garrison were taking leave forever of the soil of France.