Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne (26 March 1554 – 3 October 1611), or Charles de Guise, was a French nobleman of the house of Guise and a military leader of the Catholic League, which he headed during the French Wars of Religion, following the assassination of his brothers at Blois in 1588. In 1596, when he made peace with Henry IV of France, the wars were essentially at an end. Lieutenant to the Duke of Mayenne Mayenne was the second son of Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Guise and Anna d'Este, the daughter of Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Renée of France. By 1570, he was pressuring his brother, Henry, to buy him a house in Paris and had taken the dangerous habit of wearing the color green which represented the House of Anjou, the current heir to the throne. In 1572, Mayenne left France, without royal dispensation, to fight the Ottoman Turks in Greece. Lorraine was forced to send a grovelling letter to Charles asking for the kings forgiveness of the "poor, hopeless and debauched boy", Mayenne himself would also have to seek the kings pardon. Mayenne took part in the siege of La Rochelle, and was elevated from marquis to duke and peer of France that same year. He went with Henry of Valois, Duke of Anjou (later Henry III of France), on his election as king of Poland, but soon returned to France to become the energetic supporter and lieutenant of his brother, Henry I, Duke of Guise. In 1576, at the head of an unpaid royal army, Mayenne was unable to deter the 25,000 German army under John Casimir from reaching Moulins on 4 March. He gained conspicuous successes over the Huguenot forces in Poitou in 1577. After Henry III of France signed the Edict of Beaulieu, Mayenne was forced to swear to support the edict, due to the suspicion of him being the leader of the League of Peronne. As governor of Burgundy, Mayenne raised the province in the cause of the Catholic League in 1585. After the death of the heir to the throne, Francis, Duke of Anjou, on 10 June 1584, Mayenne and his brother, Henry, founded an association to keep Henry of Navarre from the throne of France. Mayenne, following his brother lead, captured Dijon, Macon and Auxonne. The assassination of his brother, Henry, at Blois on 23–24 December