Editing House of Guise (section)

== Decline from prominence ==
After this, the House of Guise receded from its prominent position in French politics, and the senior line, that of the Dukes of Guise became extinct in 1688. The vast estates and title were disputed and diverted by various relatives although several junior branches of the family ([[Dukes of Mayenne]], [[Dukes of Elbeuf]] etc.) perpetuated the male line until 1825.

Their principal title, [[Counts and Dukes of Guise#House of Bourbon-Condé|Duke de Guise]] in 1688 was awarded to a branch of the [[House of Bourbon]] and afterwards to the [[House of Orléans]]. The title, with one exception, was not used by pretenders to throne of France, who were overthrown by the [[French Revolution of 1848]]. One of House of Guise's heads, [[Prince Jean, Duke of Guise]] (1874–1940) nonetheless took it as his [[pretender|title of pretence]] to the former crown of France and was supported by some of the 19th century [[Orleanist]] activists. They formed for at the time the junior set of [[Legitimists]], who are claimants to be senior descendants of the pre-1848 French Royal Family and have been supported by restorative movements before, during and after the [[Second French Empire]] of Emperor [[Napoleon III]], the last undoubted monarch of France. By the end of the 1880s, a series of republican [[President of France|Presidents]] during the relatively-new [[French Third Republic]] largely ended any hope of a restored monarchy.