X-Nico

16 unusual facts about Duke of Lorraine


Béatrix de Cusance

Béatrix de Cusance (1614–1663) was the second wife of Charles IV, former reigning Duke of Lorraine.

Boffille de Juge

When John of Anjou, duke of Calabria, was conquered in Italy (1461) and fled to Provence, Boffille followed him.

Bouxières-aux-Dames

The troops of Charles I could not pass on western bank and thus had to remain on eastern bank, while trying to flee towards Metz, while troops of Rene II and their allies followed them.

Charles Henri, Prince of Commercy

Charles Henri was the third child and only surviving son of the second marriage of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine (there had been no children from his first marriage).

Château de Gerbéviller

There are records of Gerbéviller from 1179, when the Simon II, Duke of Lorraine gave the castle and estate of "Gilbert-Viller" to his son Frideric or Ferri de Bitche.

Counts and Dukes of Châteauroux

Fearing disunity in the Bourbon line, it became one of the estates confiscated by Constable de Bourbon, and was given by Francis I and Louise of Savoy to Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, and his wife, Renée of Bourbon, sister of the Constable.

De Mercy

By the fifteenth century Jean de Mercy was lord of Clémarais (1422); in 1477, Roger de Mercy ("the Valiant") was appointed Captain and Provost of Longwy by Duke René II of Lorraine.

John Adson

Little is known about his early life; indeed, the first certain reference to him comes in 1604, when he was in service to Charles III, Duke of Lorraine as a cornett player.

Nayemont-les-Fosses

The 1550s found the powerful regent Christina, Danish born widow of the former Duke of Lorraine, residing at Spitzemberg Castle.

Pettingen Castle

Their grandson, also called Jean, fought for René, the Duke of Lorraine in the war against Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.

Robert Cockburn

A letter by Robert, as Bishop of Ross, in recommendation of Symphorien Champier, a doctor of medicine at Lyon and the personal physician of Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, was published in the compendium Que in hoc opusculo habentur: Duellum Epistolare, et, Item Complures Illustrium Virorum Epistolae ad Symphorianum Camperium, Venice/Lyons (1519).

Simon II, Duke of Lorraine

His mother wished for her second son, Frederick, to succeed and so Simon was forced to convene an assembly of the nobles to confirm his succession.

He designated his nephew, Frederick, son of Frederick, as his successor and ceded, in 1202, the suzerainty over the county of Vaudémont to Count Theobald I of Bar.

Symphorien Champier

A doctor of medicine at Montpellier, Champier was the personal physician of Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, whom he followed to Italy with Louis XII, attending to several battles, and finally settling in Lyon.

Theobald I, Count of Bar

His eldest daughter Agnes, from his first marriage, married Frederick II, Duke of Lorraine.

Theobald I, Duke of Lorraine

His successor was Matthias his brother; his widow remarried his old rival, Theobald of Champagne.


Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine

Charles IV (5 April 1604, Nancy – 18 September 1675, Allenbach) was Duke of Lorraine from 1624 to 1634, when he abdicated under French pressure in favor of his younger brother, Nicholas Francis, and again from 1661 until 1675 (his death).

Michael Balfour, 1st Lord Balfour of Burleigh

Balfour notably served as Scottish Ambassador to the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Lorraine in 1606 and was a member of the Scottish Privy Council.

Raon-l'Étape

The Dukes of Lorraine controlled the transit of salt and wheat towards the mountains, and imposed a 'protection levy' on the 'Saulniers Way', a well frequented trade route across the mountains towards Sélestat and Saales.