Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara

Who was Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara?

Ercole II d'Este was Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio from 1534 to 1559. He was the eldest son of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia.

Through his mother, Ercole was a grandson of Pope Alexander VI, nephew of Cesare Borgia, and cousin of Saint Francis Borgia. Through his father, he was nephew of both Isabella d'Este, "the First Lady of the Renaissance", and Cardinal Ippolito d'Este. His siblings included Ippolito II, Archbishop of Milan and later Cardinal, nun Leonora, and Francesco, Marchese di Massalombarda. His half-siblings included Rodrigo Borgia of Aragon, Lucrezia’s son by Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglie, and perhaps Giovanni Borgia, the “infans Romanus”.

In April 1528, he married Renée of France, the second daughter of Louis XII, King of France, and Anne of Brittany. Renée received from Francis I of France an ample dowry and annuity. Thus the court she assembled about her in Ferrara corresponded to the tradition which the cultivation of science and art implicitly required, including scholars like Bernardo Tasso and Fulvio Pellegrini Morato. Their first child, Anna, born in 1531, who was married to Francis, Duke of Guise, was followed by Alfonso in 1533; Lucrezia in 1535, who was married to the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria II della Rovere; and later Eleonora and Luigi, whose education she carefully directed.