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

The Guise Family and the Making of Europe

STUART CARROLL

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009924595

ISBN: 978–0199229079

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Just when I thought I had finally rid myself of the Guise, Luciana O’Flaherty at OUP persuaded me to write this book—I’m glad she did. The finished product owes much to her editorial nouse. I would like to thank Adam Morton, Susan Doran, Jean Braybook, Malcolm Walsby, Simon Ditchfield, and Justine Taylor for their help with enquiries. Bill Sheils listened politely to daily progress reports over coffee and read Chapter 6. Taneth Russell helped to rewrite the preface. John Bossy and Mark Greengrass have inspired many of the ideas that follow. They kindly agreed to read the finished manuscript in its entirety. They not only corrected numerous errors factual and stylistic, but their wisdom and expertise prompted re-thinks and fresh leads. Finally, a huge thanks to the students of my French Wars of Religion special-subject group at York who, over the last decade, have stimulated and challenged me and contributed more than most to the contents of this book. It is dedicated to their enthusiasm.

Bibliothèque du Louvre, Paris/
© 
 Erich Lessing/akg-images: 12;
© 
HerveĆhampollion/akg-images: 25; Galleria Pallatina, Palazzo Pitti,
Florence/
©
 Rabatti-Domingie/akg-images: 3; Musée de Blois, Blois/
© 
Erich Lessing/akg-images: 23; Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts,
Lausanne/
©
 akg-images: 22; Musée Condé, Chantilly/
© 
Erich Lessing/
akg-images: 19, 27; Musée du Louvre, Paris/
©
 Erich Lessing/akg-
images: 21, 24; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris: 2, 6, 8, 11,
14, 16, 18, 26; Bodleian Library, University of Oxford: 1; British
Library, London: 13; 
©
 Cameraphoto, Venice: 9;
© 
The Frick Collec
tion, New York: 17; Glasgow University Library, Special Collections
Department: 10;
©
 Musée National du Chateau de Pau: 4;
© 
The
National Trust for Scotland: 5; Chateau de Versailles et de Trianon/
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 Gerard Blot/RMN: 20; Musée du Louvre, Paris/
© 
Gérard Blot/
RMN: 15

Two types of money existed side by side in sixteenth-century France:
money of account and actual coin. Accounts were kept in the former;
actual transactions carried out in the latter. The principal money of
account was the livre, the term that readers will encounter most often
in this book. The French livre was the equivalent of the English
system of pounds, shillings and pence. One livre was worth twenty
sous; one sou worth twelve deniers. Readers will also come across the
eću or crown, an actual coin, whose value fluctuated. In 1575 it was
worth three livres. In the sixteenth century one English pound was
worth approximately ten French livres.

Map 1. The Franco-Imperial border

Map 2. Principal lands of the House of Guise

Map 3. Guise properties in Paris

Map 4. The Guise ecclesiastical empire

1. The House of Lorraine and the Angevin succession