French nobleman born in the castle of Angers, French city in the département of Maine-et-Loire, 191 miles southwest of Paris and 50 east of Nantes, situated in an area known in pre-revolutionary times as Anjou, who was Duke of Anjou, Count of Provence (1434-1480), Count of Piedmont, Duke of Bar (1430-1480), Duke of Lorraine or Lorenca (1431-1453), King of Naples (1438-1442-1480) and of Jerusalem (1438-1480) and Aragon (1466-1480), including Sicily, Majorca and Corsica.
Second son of Louis II of Anjou, king of Sicily, from whom he was orphaned (1417), and of Yolanda of Aragon, brother Louis III, successor to the crown of Sicily and the Duchy of Anjou, and Marie d'Anjou, who would marry the future King Charles VII of France and thus become Queen of France. He married (1419) Isabellede Lorraine (1410-1453), eldest daughter of Charles I, Duke of Lorraine, becoming heir to the duchy of Bar. Widowed, with Jeanne de Laval (1454), in the abbey of St. Nicholas in Angers, with whom he had no children.
With Isabelle, he was the father of John II(1425–1470), Duke of Lorraine, Louis of Anjou (1427-1443), Marquis de Pont-à-Mousson, Yolande de Lorraine (1428-1483), who he married (1445), at Nancy, with Frederick, Count of Vaudémont, Margaret (1429-1482), who married Henry VI of England, Charles (1431-1432), Count of Guise, and five others who died prematurely, in addition to a few more illegitimate ones, such as John (?-1536), Marquis de Pont-à-Mousson, who married (1500) Marguerite de Glandeves-Faucon, Jeanne Blanche(? -1470), to Madamoiselle de Mirebeau, who married (1467) in Paris, with Bertrand de Beauvau (?-1474), Madeleine (?-1515-?), Countess de Montferrand (1515), who married in Tours (1496) to Louis Jean, seigneur de Bellenave.
She joined the French army at Reims (1429) and was present at the coronation of Charles VII. On the death of Louis of Bar (1430), he took possession of the duchy and, in the following year, on the death of his grandfather, succeeded him in the duchy of Lorraine. But this inheritance was claimed by Antoine Vaudemont who with the help of the Burgundians defeated him at Bulgneville (1431) and remained a prisoner until the following year (1432). His title as Duke of Lorraine was recognized by Emperor Sigismund at Basel (1434), which made the Duke of Bourgogne, central France and south of Paris, Philip the Good, imprison him for two more years old.
With the death of her brother Louis III and Joan II, Queen of Naples, and the marriage of Marie de Bourbon, Philip's niece, with John, Duke of Calabria, his eldest son, the peace cemented between the two princes. Alfonso attacked Naples (1441) and expelled the Frenchman, who nevertheless retained the title of King of Naples, though he would never actually regain it. With the death of her mother, Yolanda (1442) and negotiations with the English in Tours (1444), a city in today's département of Indre-et-Loire, Central Region, peace was consolidated with the marriage of her youngest daughter, Margaret, with Henry VI of England, in Nancy, a city in the present-day département of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
He even took part in skirmishes against the English at Rouen, Formigny and Caen, and after the death of Queen Isabelle (1453). After his second marriage, to Jeanne Laval, daughter of Guy XIV, Count de Laval, and Isabel de Brittany, he led a less active life and devoted himself more to the arts and literature. He accepted the offer of the Catalan revolts for the crown of Aragon (1466).
After several murders and natural deaths, he left in will (1474), Bar to his only surviving male descendant, René II, Duke of Lorraine, son of his daughter Yolanda, Countess of Vaudémont, and Anjou and Provence to his nephew Charles, Count Le Maine. He died on July 10 (1480) in Aix-en-Provence and was buried in the cathedral of Raivas.
NOTE: In the religious conflicts that shook France during the 16th century, the Guise Family was committed to defending Catholicism and the war of the three Henrys for the French throne. The family name originates from a county in the Aisne region, which was given by the crown (1506) to René II, Duke of Lorraine, and represented a family of nearly seven centuries (1047-1736).
Source: http://www.dec.ufcg.edu.br/biografias/
Order R - Biography - Brazil School