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Claude of Lorraine, duke of Guise

1496–1550

Born
29 Oct 1496, Custines
Country of birth
France
Died
22 Apr 1550, Joinville
facts
5
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth29 Oct 1496, CustinesProbable1 source
  • Death22 Apr 1550, JoinvilleProbable1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Custines

    Birth, Custines

  2. Child born: Mary of Lorraine

    Birth, Bar-le-Duc

  3. Child born: Francis, Duke of Guise

    Birth, Bar-le-Duc

  4. Child born: Claude of Lorraine, duke of Aumale

    Birth, Joinville

  5. Child born: René of Lorraine, marquis of Elbeuf

    Birth, Joinville

  6. Died · Joinville

    Death, Joinville

What was it like?

The world around Custines, 1496: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Peasant men wore belts with pouches to carry essential tools, such as sharpening stones or sewing implements.

Fashion
Around 1500–1524

Essential tool pouches on belts

Peasant men wore belts with pouches to carry essential tools, such as sharpening stones or sewing implements.

Around 1500–1524

Keeping garments clean while working

When performing dirty work, peasant women tucked their long cotes into the waistbands of their aprons to keep the hems clean.

Music
Around 1500–1524

Chapel choir life and rewards

The Duke's chapel choristers at Saint-Georges received an annual salary of 96 francs, a well-paid position at the time. On Saint Cecilia's Day, children of the choir were treated with distributions of small pastries.

Around 1500–1524

Musicians and their earnings

Court musicians known as tabourins often played the flute and drum simultaneously, using one hand for each instrument. The Duke's favorite rebec player, Guillaume Baudet, earned enough to purchase a house in Nancy in 1514.

Getting around
Around 1500–1524

Daily travel distance for pack animals

In level country, merchant trains using pack animals could cover fifteen to twenty-five miles per day.

Around 1500–1524

Public access to royal postal horses

By the early sixteenth century, King Francis I allowed the public to travel by the royal postal service, which used horses at a gallop between relay stations, though this service was very expensive.

Daily life
Around 1500–1524

Cooking over an open fire

Families cooked pottage or porridge all day in iron or brass kettles over a central fire on a stone hearth. To keep the smoke from filling the room, some homes used a conical hood or funnel to vent the fire toward the roof.

Around 1500–1524

Home lighting and water collection

Common dwellings featured floors of beaten earth covered with straw, and interiors were lighted by doors or small, unglazed windows. Water was a heavy burden to collect, with women often carrying it in jugs from distant sources for household use.

Food
Around 1500–1524

Daily Bread, Porridge, and Soup

Ordinary Lorrainers typically ate one to two pounds of bread daily, often supplementing it with soup, porridge made from grain cooked in lard, and cheese. Vegetables like legumes were dietary staples, while meat was primarily consumed as boiled soup meat.

Around 1500–1524

Drinks and Fasting Days

Common people often drank water or a low-quality fermented drink called picotte, while taverns were important social spaces. During the frequent religious fast days, which numbered up to 150 per year, they relied on river fish or dried sea fish instead of meat.

Prices and wages
Around 1500–1599

Cost of shoes

The cost of shoemaking, specifically a pair of shoes, ranged from 0.6 to 1.34 sols tournois during the 16th century.

Work
Around 1500–1524

Common jobs in rural Lorraine

Most people in the Duchy of Lorraine were peasants who worked in agriculture, mainly focusing on cereal crops like grains. Additional industries like glass manufacturing, salt mining, and paper production were also important rural occupations.

Around 1500–1524

Female roles at the Nancy Mint

At the Nancy Mint, female workers known as tailleresses were specifically employed to trim excess metal from coin blanks to ensure they reached the correct weight. This task was frequently performed by the wives or daughters of the male minters.

News and letters
Around 1500–1524

Letters carried by travelers and merchants

Ordinary people often relied on traveling merchants, pilgrims, or occasional passersby to carry their letters, as formal postal services were largely restricted to royal or elite use. Urgent messages could require a dedicated rider, but even these could take weeks to deliver depending on luck, weather, and road conditions.

Around 1500–1524

Reliance on oral communication and messengers

Because most people could not read or write, they relied on face-to-face communication or messengers who memorized oral messages. Written letters were rare, expensive, and often read aloud by a third party even to those who could read.

During their lifetime

  1. 1525

    Peasant rebellion suppressed in 1525

    In May 1525, Duke Antoine of Lorraine massacred a large peasant army at Saverne to suppress an insurrection that threatened the duchy.

  2. 1545

    Famine causes bread prices to soar

    In 1545, war-related famine caused bread prices in the region to multiply by five compared to 1540-1541 levels.

  3. 1545

    Plague epidemics devastate the region

    Between 1545 and 1552, plague outbreaks caused extreme hardship, leading to deserted towns and citizens walling up infected homes.

Family

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.