The House of Este
Princely family of Lombard origin that played a great part in the history of medieval and Renaissance Italy. It first came to the front in the wars between the Guelfs and Ghibellines during the 13th century. As leaders of the Guelfs, Estensi princes received at different times Ferrara, Modena, Reggio, and other fiefs and territories. Members of the family ruled in Ferrara from the 13th through 16th century and in Modena and Reggio from the later Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century.
Origins.
The Estensi were a branch of the great 10th-century dynasty of the Obertenghi, which held power and wealth in Lunigiana, Genoa, and Milan and which also gave rise to the feudal houses of the Malaspina, the Pallavicini, and the margraves of Massa and Parodi. Subsequently, after various vicissitudes, the members of the Obertenghi dynasty removed to the lands of the Venetians, where they had estates at Este, Monselice, Rovigo, and Friuli. The Estensi took their name from the township and castle of Este, 17 miles (27 kilometres) southwest of Padua, and the true founder of the family was the margrave Alberto Azzo II (died 1097). From his son Welf IV, duke of Bavaria, there began a related branch that gave origin to the dukes of Bavaria, Brunswick, and Lüneburg, as well as the electors of Hanover. Another son, Ugo, tried without success to establish in France, while a third son, Folco I (died c. 1136), became second in line in the House of Este. Neither he nor his successor, Obizzo I (died 1193), however, achieved any great distinction, beyond the offices and titles that fell naturally to the upper feudal families; but it was during the lifetime of Obizzo I that the Estensi first acquired political importance in Ferrara, through the marriage of his son (Azzo V, who predeceased him) to the heiress of one of the two great and rival families of Ferrara. Obizzo was succeeded by his grandson, Azzo VI, who acquired considerable authority in the city, though his premature death in 1212 left the family temporarily weakened. Not until 1240 did a descendant, Azzo VII, return to power in the city, in alliance with the Guelf league formed by Pope Gregory IX. This marked the true beginning of Este rule in Ferrara.
Lords of Ferrara.
In 1264 Azzo's heir, Obizzo II (1264–93), was created perpetual lord by the people of Ferrara under the pressure of Guelf strength. The Pope, lawful lord of the Ferrarese territory, at first did not oppose this action but afterward began to contest the Estensi government. Obizzo II's power was growing, however, and he had himself chosen lord of Modena in 1288 and of Reggio in 1289. In the 14th century the house of Este went through difficult, stormy periods, not only because of its controversies with the papacy but also because of domestic dissensions, sometimes very hazardous. The house succeeded, nevertheless, in strengthening its position, and, under Nicolò II (reigned 1361–88), called the Lame, there was built the famous Este Castle, the work of the architect Bartolino da Novara, which became a symbol of the power of the city of Ferrara and a sure defense against external dangers. To the brother and successor of Nicolò II, Alberto V (reigned 1388–93), is due the erection of the University of Ferrara, destined for lasting fame; it was obtained by Pope Boniface IX as a concession in 1391.
The reign of Nicolò III (1393–1441), son of Alberto, marked the strengthening of Estensi domination in Ferrara and the introduction of Estensi influence generally in Italian politics. After having defeated an attempt by the Paduans to achieve hegemony in Ferrara, the Estensi duke became intermediary in the political and military contests in the Italian states and extended his dominions. Personally, Nicolò was known for his sensuality; a Ferrarese saying runs, “On both sides of the River Po they all are Nicolò's sons.? He had his son Ugo and his young second wife, Parisina Malatesta, beheaded because they were found guilty of adultery together. But he devoted himself to the exterior manifestations of a religious faith—going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre and to Vienna's Saint Anthony and playing host to the ecumenical council in 1438 that represented a fruitless attempt to bring together again the Western and Eastern churches. (This council was afterward transferred to Florence.) He even seems to have come close to obtaining the succession of an Estensi heir to the Milanese states, but he died suddenly, perhaps poisoned, on Dec. 26, 1441.
Whereas Nicolò III raised the Estensi state to a high position in Italian politics in spite of its territorial and financial limits, his bastard son and chosen successor, Leonello (reigned 1441–50), gave Ferrara considerable distinction in the fields of art and culture. Leonello had been educated by the humanist Guarino Veronese, called to Ferrara by his father, and the period of his reign was one in which Ferrara represented a lively centre of culture and humanism, filled with painters (Pisanello, Jacopo Bellini, Rogier van der Weyden, Andrea Mantegna), architects (Leon Battista Alberti), and scholars (centring on Guarino Veronese).
Dukes of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio. Leonello's brother and successor, Borso (reigned 1450–71), notwithstanding some military failures, not only maintained his state and increased its aesthetic and cultural prestige but also received from the Holy Roman emperor Frederick III the title of Duke of Modena and Reggio (1452) and from Pope Paul II the title of Duke of Ferrara (1471).
Ercole I.
The long rule of Leonello's and Borso's half-brother Ercole I (1471–1505) marked one of the most important periods for the history of the house of Este and of Ferrara. He succeeded in obtaining considerable political support with his marriage to Leonora, the daughter of the king of Naples. These were troubled times, however. Ercole had to defeat the attempt of a nephew, Nicolò, son of Leonello, to usurp the throne; and then he had to face the hostile coalition of Venice and Pope Sixtus IV, which brought war nearly to the walls of the city of Ferrara (1482–84). The subsequent Peace of Bagnolo, however, though not entirely satisfactory, did free Ferrara from immediate dangers.
Ercole's crucial problem became one of consolidating his own political position by means of marriages that would bind him to the principal Italian powers: of his three daughters, Lucrezia was married to Annibale Bentivoglio (of Bologna), Isabella to Francesco Gonzaga (of Mantua), and Beatrice to Ludovico Sforza (of Milan). Ercole's eldest son, Alfonso, was married first to Anna Sforza (of Milan) and then to the famous Lucrezia Borgia, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI. In spite of these difficult affairs of state, Ercole was able to continue his dynasty's patronage of the arts, taking the poet Matteo Boiardo as his minister, extending his favour to the poet Ludovico Ariosto, espousing the theatre and musical arts, and enlarging and beautifying Ferrara to such an extent as to make it one of the first cities of Europe.
Alfonso I.
Ercole's son Alfonso I (reigned 1505–34), rough and rude when he was young, proved wise and sure of himself once he had taken the reins of government. First he foiled a plot of a stepbrother, Giulio, and another brother, Ferrante, against him and sentenced them to perpetual imprisonment. Then his attention was completely attracted by the war against Venice (1509), in which his skill in mechanics and artillery design was proved. He was victorious in the naval battle of Polesella and won back the Polesine of Rovigo (which had been lost by Ercole I). At the same time, however, papal ambitions of territorial expansion became threatening. By consistent adherence to the French interest in Italy, Alfonso came into collision with Pope Julius II and was deprived of Modena (1510) and Reggio (1512) and was excommunicated. The Medici popes, Leo X and Clement VII, were both determined on the destruction of the Estensi, but the first-mentioned pope was frustrated by death, the second by political weakness, and Alfonso was able to recover Reggio in 1523 and Modena in 1527. He died in 1534. His succession was assured not only by his legitimate children but also by the issue of his lover Laura Eustochia Dianti, from whom derived the future dukes of Modena and Reggio.
Ercole II and Alfonso II
During the reign of Alfonso's son and successor Ercole II (1534–59), the military events proved less interesting (though the wars of 1557–58 were difficult) than the personal ones. Ercole married Renée, daughter of King Louis XII of France, and in Ferrara she came to embrace the Lutheran religion, becoming its ardent defender and establishing at her court a meeting place for the most famous heretics and liberal thinkers of the day. Ercole, who was the pope's vicar in Ferrara, tried restraining her, even to the point of temporary imprisonment, but to no avail. Next to rule was his first-born, Alfonso II (reigned 1559–97), the fifth and last duke of Ferrara. He also tried, vainly, to be elected king of Poland and to organize a crusade against the Turks. More important for the dynasty, however; was the fact that, though Alfonso II had three marriages, he had no children, and Pope Pius V in 1567 expressly forbade having illegitimate children rule in ecclesiastical lands. Alfonso was so disappointed and discouraged that he let the conditions of his state decay. At his death he bequeathed the duchy to his cousin Cesare, but Pope Clement VII refused to recognize the settlement, declaring Cesare illegitimate; in 1598 direct papal rule was established in Ferrara. The main branch of the Este family had come to an end.
Decline of power.
Cesare kept Modena and Reggio, but with him the Estensi ceased to play so important a part in Italian politics, and the court was culturally inferior to its brilliant predecessors. Among the several Modenese dukes who followed in the 17th century, Francesco I (reigned 1629–58), who came to the throne during the stormy period of the Thirty Years' War, was perhaps the most important. His people were able to survive the famous plague of 1630. In the wars he was first allied to Spain, then to France, whose alliance he thought would best sustain his claims to Ferrara. Later on, he attempted reconciliation with Spain, but ironically it was on the field of battle, fighting the Spaniards, that he died of malaria. He was a man with enormous aspirations, and, though inclined toward treachery in politics, he gave art his patronage, favouring men of letters and collecting works of art (there is an extraordinary portrait of him by Diego Velázquez and a beautiful bust by Gian Lorenzo Bernini).
Among his successors, the one most deserving to be remembered is Rinaldo I (1694–1737), whose marriage to Charlotte Felicitas of Brunswick-Lüneburg reunited the long-separated branches of the house of Este. Throughout his reign he engaged in imperial politics. His son Francesco III (1737–80), known as a libertine, received the governorship of Lombardy from Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Ercole III (1780–96), gentle and affable, abandoned Modena in 1796 when the Revolutionary French army invaded it.
After the Napoleonic Wars, Duke Francesco IV (1814–46), son of Maria Beatrice d'Este (the only surviving daughter of Ercole III) and of Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg-Lorraine, son of Maria Theresa, came back to Modena. He founded the Austro-Este line in Modena, which, however, ended with his son Francesco V (1846–59) when Modena revolted in order to join Sardinia-Piedmont and then Italy.
Childless, Francesco V selected as his universal heir Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, who was murdered at Sarajevo in 1914. Today, the rightful holder of the surname and heraldic bearings of the Estensi is considered to be Archduke Robert, the second-born of Charles I of Austria and Zita of Bourbon-Parma. In 1953 he married the princess Margherita of Savoy-Aosta.
Additional reading
There are few works on the Este family in English. Werner L. Gundersheimer, Ferrara: The Style of Renaissance Despotism (1973), recounts the rule of Nicolò III and of his sons. Trevor Dean, Land and Power in Late Medieval Ferrara: The Rule of the Este, 1350–1450 (1988), focuses on the period during which the Este's state was transformed from a family lordship into a politically stable principality.
Luciano Chiappini
Copyright © 1994-2002 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Sources
- Encylopedia Britannica 2002, Expanded Edition DVD
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