Catherine of Cleves

Catherine of Cleves (or of Nevers), Countess of Eu (1548 – 11 May 1633) was the wife of Henry I, Duke of Guise and the matriarch of the powerful and influential House of Guise. By marriage, she was Duchess of Guise from 1570 to 1588, and Dowager Duchess of Guise thereafter. She was also Countess of Eu in her own right from 1564. Biography Catherine was the second daughter of Francis of Cleves, Duke of Nevers, and Margaret of Bourbon, the elder sister of Antoine de Bourbon. She was the first cousin of Henry III of Navarre, the sister-in-law of Henry of Bourbon, Prince of Condé, and great-aunt of Ludwika Maria Gonzaga, the queen consort of Poland. At the age of twelve, Catherine married the 19-year-old Antoine III de Croÿ, Prince de Porcien (or Porcean), who died seven years later, leaving her a widow at the young age of 19. Because of his marriage with Catherine de Cleves, a member of the House of Nevers, the feud over Beaufort and Coulommiers began as a dispute between the Croy and Nevers families. Antoine de Croÿ was a Calvinist and demanded that his wife also adopt this faith. They had four children, all of whom died in early childhood. After the conventional three years of mourning, on 4 October 1570, Catherine married Henri de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, who was two years her junior. They had fourteen children, including Charles, Duke of Guise and Louis III, Cardinal of Guise. Catherine had a widely publicised affair with a young nobleman, Saint-Mégrin, who was killed by her husband. The event is dramatised in the Alexandre Dumas play Henri III et sa cour (1829). Henry of Guise was the leader of the fervently Catholic faction in the French Wars of Religion. From 1584, the conflict among factions led by Henry of Guise, Henry of Navarre, and Henry III of France was known as the War of the Three Henrys. In 1588, Henry of Guise was assassinated on the orders of King Henry III.