The Oath of Henri de Guise

This painting by Pierre-Charles Comte, held at the château de Blois, depicts **Anne d'Este** making her son, the young **Henri de Guise**, then barely thirteen years old, swear to avenge the assassination of his father **François de Guise**, killed on 18 February 1563 during the siege of Orléans. Rendered in the dramatic manner favoured by nineteenth-century history painting, the scene highlights a founding moment in the Guise family legend: the transmission of a duty of vengeance that would durably shape the future leader of the Catholic League. This early education in hatred of the Protestant party, held responsible for his father's death, retrospectively sheds light on the intransigence and relentlessness Henri de Guise displayed throughout the Wars of Religion, up to his own assassination in 1588.