The dukes of Guise are famous primarily as leaders of the ultra-Catholic side in the French Wars of Religion of the late 16^th century. One of the most famous political assassinations in European history is undoubtedly the double murder of the third duke of Guise—with the dramatic nickname ‘scarface’ (‘le Balafré’)—and his brother the Cardinal de Guise, on Christmas Day, 1588. The King, Henri III, feared the power of this family so much that he resorted to such drastic action to try to preserve the power of his own family, but instead further alienated those who might have supported him, and in the end was assassinated himself a few months later, bringing the rule of the Valois Dynasty in France to an ignominious end.