Louis III, Cardinal of Guise

His ecclesiastical post was entirely a sinecure; he was never ordained,[2] and led a dissipated life. Nevertheless, he was made Archbishop of Reims in January 1605,[3] and created cardinal on December 2, 1615. He incurred the displeasure of Louis XIII of France, and was imprisoned in the Bastille in 1620.[2] He joined the royal campaign to besiege the Huguenot stronghold of Montauban in 1621, and there fell ill with scarlet fever and died.[4]

He married, in secret, Charlotte des Essarts,[2] Mademoiselle de La Haye in 1611. They had five children:

1. Charles Louis (d. July 12, 1668, Auteuil), Abbot of Chaalis, Bishop of Condom[2]
2. Achille (c. 1615–1648, Heraklion), Prince of Guise, Count of Romorantin, killed in the siege of Candia, married Anna Maria of Salm-Dhaun[5]
3. Charlotte (d. bef. 1664), Abbess of St. Pierre, Lyon[5]
4. Henri Hector (b. 1620)[3]
5. Louise (d. July 5, 1662), married October 24, 1639 Claude Pot, Lord of Rhodes (d. August 3, 1642)[5]

• Bergin, Joseph (1996). The Making of the French Episcopate, 1589-1661. Yale University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Carroll, Stuart (2009). Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe. Oxford University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Kettering, Sharon (2008). Power and Reputation at the Court of Louis XIII: The Career of Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes {1578-1621). Manchester University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Spangler, Jonathan (2016). The Society of Princes: The Lorraine-Guise and the Conservation of Power and Wealth in Seventeenth-Century France. Routledge.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)