The essays in this collection approach the aims, ambitions and self-fashioning of the House in Guise using a 'trans-national' dimension as context. The combination of the violence and drama of their lives at the centres of European power and their adroit use of publicity ensured that versions of their strongly delineated images were appropriated by chroniclers, playwrights and artists, in which they sometimes featured as they would have wished, as heroes and heroines, frequently as villains, and ultimately as characters in the narratives of national heritage.

Jessica Munns is a Professor of Literature at the University of Denver and has published extensively on Restoration and eighteenth-century literature. She has written one monograph and edited three collections of essays, and with Gita Rajan compiled and edited a 'Cultural Studies Reader'. She edits the journal 'Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research'. Penny Richards recently retired as a Principal Lecturer in History from the University of Gloucestershire. She has published articles on Guise women as patrons and politicians; co-edited a book (with Jessica Munns), 'Gender, Power and Privilege in Early Modern Europe' (Pearson, 2003); and has contributed a biographical essay on Anne d'Este, Duchess of Guise and Nemours for the SIEFAR French elite women's studies website (2006). Jonathan Spangler is Senior Lecturer in History at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is a specialist in the high aristocracy of France and its borderlands, notably the Duchy of Lorraine, the court, dynasticism and noble identity. He has published a monograph and several articles on the Guise family, and coordinates an international research group on trans-regional elite families. Since 2010, Jonathan has been the co-editor of 'The Court Historian'.

Introduction, JonathanSpangler, PennyRichards, JessicaMunns; Chapter 1 The Guise and the Two Jerusalems, RobertS. Sturges; Chapter 2 The Guise 'Italianised'? The Role of Italian Merchants, Intermediaries and Experts in Ducal Consumption in the Sixteenth Century, MarjorieMeiss-Even, (Jonathan Spangler); Chapter 3 Political Uses of Reputation and Celebrity in the Seventeenth Century: The Case of Henri de Lorraine, Fifth Duke of Guise, Michèle Benaiteau, JessicaMunns, PennyRichards; Chapter 4 'Magnificence Reigned', DavidA.H.B. Taylor; Chapter 5 Dreaming of the Crown, SilvanaD'Alessio, FedericoPoole; Chapter 6 Mother Knows Best, JonathanSpangler; Chapter 7 Parthenope's Call, CharlesGregory; Chapter 8 Warriors of God, PennyRichards; Chapter 9 Channel Crossing, JessicaMunns;