586 



GUISCH ARD- -GUISE. 



Italy which, as yet, were in the hands of the Sara- 

 cens. Some of these detained him a long time ; 

 as, for instance, Salerno and Bari, before the 

 latter of which places Guiscard was encamped 

 for four years, and endured all the violence of 

 the weather and the dangers of war, in a mis- 

 erable hut, composed of branches of trees and cov- 

 ered with straw, which he had caused to be built 

 near the walls of the city. He at length suc- 

 ceeded in conquering all the provinces which now 

 form the kingdom of N 7 aples, and he would have ex- 

 tended his victorious course still farther, had he not 

 been excommunicated by Gregory VII., on account 

 of his attack on Benevento, and obliged to confine 

 his ambition within these limits. The betrothment 

 of his daughter Helen to Constantine Ducas, the son 

 and heir of Michael VII., gave him afterwards an 

 opportunity of interfering in the affairs of the Greek 

 empire. He fitted out a considerable fleet, and sent 

 his son Boemond to the conquest of Corfu, while he 

 himself went to attack Durazzo. A tempest and a con- 

 tagious disease had nearly frustrated this expedition. 

 Alexis Comnenus, then emperor of Constantinople, 

 approached with superior forces. The armies joined 

 battle under the walls of Durazzo, where the victory 

 at first inclined to the side of the Greeks; but the 

 courage of Guiscard gave the battle a different turn. 

 He rallied the already flying bands of his soldiers, led 

 them anew to the combat, and gained a complete 

 victory over forces six times as numerous as his own. 

 Durazzo was compelled to surrender. Robert pene- 

 trated into Epirus, approached Thessalonica, and 

 filled the capital with terror. In the midst of this 

 victorious career, he was recalled by the information 

 that Henry IV., emperor of Germany, had entered 

 Italy. He gave the command to Boemond, and has- 

 tened home to assist Gregory VII., who was besieged 

 in the castle of St Arigelo, against the Germans. 

 Henry IV. was compelled to retreat ; Gregory was 

 released, and conducted to Salerno as a place of 

 safety. Guiscard now hastened again to Epirus, 

 where he repeatedly defeated the Greeks, and, by 

 means of his fleet, made himself master of many of 

 the islands of the Archipelago. He was upon the 

 point of advancing against Constantinople, when his 

 death took place in the island of Cephalonia, July 

 17, 1085, in the seventieth year of his age. His 

 army retreated, and the Greek empire was saved. 

 Guiscard's corpse was put on board a galley, which 

 running aground at Venusa, the remains of the vic- 

 torious prince were deposited in the church of the 

 Holy Trinity. His sons Boemond and Roger, after 

 much dispute, divided the conquests of their lather, 

 the former receiving Tarentum, and the latter Apulia. 

 Robert Guiscard left behind hum the glory of having 

 protected learning, and of being highly estimable in 

 all his private relations. His appearance was martial, 

 his frame powerful, and his courage unbounded. 

 The school of Salerno claims him as its founder. 



GUISCHARD, CHARLES GOTTLIEB, an able 

 writer on military tactics, was a native of Magde- 

 burg. After studying at the universities of Halle, 

 Marburg and Leyden, he entered into the service of 

 Holland, and, while thus employed, found leisure to 

 prepare materials for his Memoires militaires sur les 

 Grecs ct les Remains, which appeared in 1757, (in 2 

 vols., 4to), and met with great approbation. The 

 same year, he entered as a volunteer into the allied 

 army, and acquired the esteem of prince Ferdinand 

 of Brunswick, who recommended him to the king of 

 Prussia. He was a favourite of Frederic the Great. 

 A dispute having once arisen between them respect- 

 ing the name of the commander of Caesar's tenth 

 legion, in which Guischard proved to be right, 

 Frederic gave him the name of this commander 



Icitius), by which he was afterwards fre- 

 quently called. Besides the work already mentioned, 

 he was the author of Mtmoires Critiques et Uitto- 

 rii/xcs sur plusieurs Points d'Antiquite militaire (4 

 vols., 8vo), upon which work Gibbon bestows very 

 high encomiums. Guischard died in 1775. 



GUISE ; the name of a celebrated noble family in 

 France, a branch of the house of Lorraine. Claude 

 de Guise, fifth son of Rene, duke of Lorraine, born 

 in 1496, established himself in France, and married 

 Antoinette de Bourbon in 1513. His valour, his 

 enterprising spirit, and his other noble qualities, ob- 

 tained for him great consideration, and enabled him 

 to become the founder of one of the first houses in 

 France. In 1527, for the sake of doing him honour, 

 his county of Guise was changed to a duchy, and 

 made a peerage. At his death, in 1550, he left six 

 sons and five daughters, of whom the eldest married 

 James V. king of Scotland. The splendour of the 

 house was principally supported by the eldest son, 

 Guise (Francis, duke of Lorraine), born in 1519, and 

 called Le Balafre (the scarred), from a wound which 

 he received in 1545, at the siege of Boulogne, and 

 which left a permanent scar on his face. He showed 

 distinguished courage, in 1553, at Mete, which he 

 defended with success against Charles V., although 

 the emperor had sworn that he would rather perish 

 tlian retreat without having effected his object. In 

 the battle of Renti, Aug. 13, 1554, he displayed re- 

 markable intrepidity. He also fought with success 

 in Flanders and in Italy, and was named lieutenant- 

 general of all the royal troops.. The star of France 

 began again to shine as soon as he was placed at the 

 head of the army. In eight days, Calais was taken, 

 with the territory belonging to it, in the middle of 

 winter. Thus the English lost the city without re- 

 covery, after having held it 210 years. He after- 

 wards conquered Thionville from the Spaniards, and 

 proved that the good or ill fortune of whole states 

 often depends on a single man. Under Henry II., 

 whose sister he had married, and still more under 

 Francis II., he was the virtual ruler of France. The 

 conspiracy of Amboise, which the Protestants had 

 entered into for his destruction, produced an entirely 

 opposite effect. The parliament gave him the title 

 of saviour of his country. After the death of Francis 

 II., his power began to decline. Then grew up the 

 factions of Conde and Guise. On the side of the 

 latter stood the constable of Montmorency and mar- 

 shal de St Andre ; on the side of the former were 

 the Protestants and Coligny. The duke of Guise, a 

 zealous Catholic, and an enemy to the Protestants, 

 determined to pursue them sword in hand. After 

 having passed the borders of Champagne at Bassi, 

 March 1, 1502, he found the Calvinists singing the 

 psalms of Marot in a barn. His party insulted them; 

 they came to blows, and nearly sixty of those unhappy 

 people were killed, and 200 wounded. This unex- 

 pected event lighted the flame of civil war throughout 

 the kingdom. The duke of Guise took Rouen and 

 Bourges, and won the battle of Dreux, Dec. 19, 

 1562. On the evening after this victory, he remained, 

 with entire confidence, in the same tent with his 

 prisoner, the prince of Conde, shared his bed with 

 him, and slept quietly by the side of his rival, whom 

 he regarded as a relation and a friend. At that time, 

 the duke of Guise was at the height of his fortune. 

 He was preparing for the siege of Orleans, the cen- 

 tral point of the Protestant party, when he was killed 

 by a pistol shot fired by Poltrot de Mercy, a Hugue- 

 not nobleman, Feb. 24, 1563. 



GUISE, HENRY, duke of Lorraine, eldest son ot 

 the preceding, was born in 1550. He displayed: 

 his courage, for the first time, at the battle of Jarnac, 

 in 1569. His prepossessing appearance made hiia 



