Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe by Stuart Carroll Page A

further the careers of his own men. In Rome, he used his considerable influence to obtain the cardinal’s hat for one of his own clients in 1538 over and above the king’s preference.
    Guise fortunes in Italy changed suddenly in 1547 when a revolt in Naples against the viceroy, Pedro of Toledo, gave hope to the pro-French faction in Rome, which included the Neapolitan exile community, the fuorusciti . The brilliant marriage of Claude’s eldest son François in December 1548 to Anne d’Este, granddaughter of Louis XII, must be seen in this context. In his marriage contract François made mention of his Angevin heritage in a gesture to the fuorusciti , among whom was the Prince of Melfi, French commander of Piedmont, who assured François of his pride in being ‘among the oldest servants of the House of Anjou’. 29 Another gesture—the attempt of François’s younger brother Charles to take the title Anjou when he was elected cardinal—was foiled by the French ambassador. And the high point of this Italian policy was reached when, with the support of French cash, the Cardinal of Lorraine came within four votes of being elected as successor to Paul III in 1549. He was on his way back to Italy when he was seized by an apoplexy and died while dining at Nogent-sûr-Loire on 10 May 1550, having laid the foundations of Guise domination of the French Church and influence in the Italian peninsula.
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    Life at Joinville was more prosaic. Between 1515 and 1536 Antoinette de Bourbon gave birth every other year; of her twelve children, ten survived to adulthood: Marie (1515), François (1519), Louise (1520), Renée (1522), Charles (1524), Claude II (1526), Louis (1527), Antoinette (1531), a second François (1534) and René (1536).
    Antoinette’s faith in the saints prepared her for the rigours of childbirth and, since in those days nearly half of newborns did not reach the age of 10, her devotion paid dividends. Not only had she an ever-growing household to care for, but unlike her husband and brother-in-law, who were expected to live beyond their means, she was frugal. Her role went beyond the day-to-day expenditure of feeding and clothing the household at Joinville: she looked after her husband’s accounts and, in conjunction with financial officials, advised him on expenditure. In 1520, Claude made her proxy for all his affairs. Two years later, she chided him for spending too much money while on campaign, on wining and dining his Swiss guard, and dressing them too extravagantly.30 The role of financial advisor was one she would fulfil for her sons and her grandsons too.
    Guise fortunes depended much on royal largesse. During the Renaissance, kings at war were always strapped for cash and commanders at the front were expected to dig deep into their own pockets and seek recompense later. Francis I was forced to resort to ever more desperate expedients to fund his wars against Charles V. In a society that was cash poor, it was easier to reward followers with offices, lands, and titles. Technically, the royal domain was sacrosanct, and the Parlement of Paris, charged with protecting its integrity, was also concerned at the practice of mortgaging royal income years in advance. In 1520, for example, Guise obtained the revenue from the royal salt depots on his lands at Mayenne, la Ferté Bernard, Guise, and Joinville. 31 The Parlement initially resisted the elevation of Guise to a duchy in 1527 on the grounds that its financial concessions were too generous. As the theatre of operations spread and the costs of war rose, so Francis became more generous: in 1541 Claude was awarded a gift of 30,000 livres, in addition to his annual pension of 16,000 livres as a provincial governor, 2,800 livres as captain of a company of one hundred men-at-arms, and 3,000 livres as Grand Veneur . 32
    Claude had substantial outgoings too. At this time his annual expenditure was nearly 75,000 livres but his income only just short of 65,000 livres,