Ercole II d’Este

Ercole II, son of Alfonso I and Lucrezia Borgia, was one of the longest-serving dukes of the house of Este, with a government of no less than twenty-five years, thanks to a prudent policy of mediation and diplomacy, aimed at remaining as neutral as possible, far from war. His marriage arranged by his father Alfonso, to Renata of France, daughter of King Louis XII, should also be placed in this sense. This brought the Este a very important, but also turbulent, political link with the transalpine kingdom and conditioned Ercole’s life and actions.

The Life

Ercole was born in Ferrara on 4 April 1508: the eldest son of Alfonso I and Lucrezia Borgia, his birth was greeted with immense joy as it immediately ensured the male line of descent. He was named Ercole in honour of his paternal grandfather, Ercole I, who had made Ferrara a great modern city.

Alfonso chose a thorough cultural education for him, having the certainty, experienced first-hand, that military valour alone would not be enough to save the fragile harmony of the Duchy. Nor was the study of music neglected, to which Ercole appeared to be very talented right from the start, but his natural inclination was for the study of literature, so much so that he was already reading and translating Latin with ease at the age of ten. For this reason, he was sent to Rome to pay homage to the new Pontiff Hadrian VI, born Adriaan Floriszoon: despite being only fourteen years old, he recited a Latin oration in which he also asked for the return of the cities of Modena and Reggio. Unfortunately, that pontificate lasted too short a time for the Este family’s demands to be fulfilled, so much so that already the following year – 1523 – Ercole went to Rome again to honour the new Pope, Clement VII, born Giulio de’ Medici.

Two years later, the future Duke also made his military debut at the Battle of Castel Sant’Angelo near Pavia and, between September and November, held the regency of the Duchy, due to his father’s absence.

His marriage with Renata of France

Political alliances have always played a fundamental role for a small state like the Estense, which is why it was important to choose one’s alliances with foresight and skill, which could also be strengthened through marriages. Alfonso’s choice for his son fell on Renata, daughter of Louis XII King of France and Anne of Brittany. The agreement was signed in 1527 and the wedding was celebrated the following year. A prestigious procession left Ferrara in early April and arrived in Paris, after about a month and a half’s journey, at the end of May. The wedding was celebrated on 28 June 1528 in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. This political marriage was supposed to bring Renata’s rich dowry, valued at 250,000 gold scudi, into the ducal coffers. Soon, however, the French state’s lack of liquidity became apparent and the dowry was converted into Ercole’s investiture as Duke of Chartres, Count of Gisors and Lord of Montargis, whose annual income was to be around 12,000 ducats (although payment was to prove a rather thorny affair).

In addition to the financial aspect, there were many other problems that the young couple had to face. Even the couple’s return to Italy was postponed until September: not only because of the lengthy negotiations concerning the dowry, but above all because of the plague that had struck Ferrara. And the return journey was also very long, lasting more than two months, due to the stops in numerous cities, which wanted to pay homage to the couple who were travelling with a entourage of at least five hundred people. The most important stop was Modena, in mid-November, where Alfonso again wanted to celebrate his son’s wedding in the Duomo, to reaffirm to the Papal State his authority over that territory. Finally, on 1 December 1528, the couple entered Ferrara through Porta Paola, accompanied by the sound of bells tolling and artillery shots: the celebrations continued for days, culminating on 24 January 1529 with the dinner offered by Ercole and prepared by the scalco Cristoforo di Messisbugo, the servant assigned to coordinate and bring the courses to the table for the diners. The term ‘preparation’ must be understood here in the widest possible sense: in fact, it includes both the preparation of the food itself as well as the setting up of the room and the entertainment of the guests, a real spectacle, in a constant combination of arts and food. For example, the prelude to the banquet was a performance of Ariosto’s ‘Cassaria’, confirming that theatre was a strong passion for the Este family, while the courses were punctuated by musical interludes from singers, musicians and an orchestra. All these elements, masterfully directed by Messisbugo, made up together a spectacular artistic event.

A French court in Ferrara

Political alliances and subordination connected Ercole to various powers, often in opposition to each other: he was brother-in-law of the King of France, vicar of the Emperor over Modena and Reggio, in contrast to France, and vicar of the Papal States over Ferrara. This dense network of relationships therefore required extreme caution in acting, in order to assess in advance the possible consequences for the Duchy.

Ercole did not find in his wife an ally capable of supporting his governing decisions, in fact she often disagreed with his instructions: Renata, in fact, despite her residence in Ferrara, considered herself to be at the service of French policy and lost no opportunity to emphasise her royal origins and how much the Duchy should lean towards France.

A proof of this attitude was the presence of ‘her Court’: Renata had brought a French entourage with her, a real foreign presence in the territory of Ferrara. More than one hundred and sixty people were part of it, with the most varied tasks: damsels, valets, gentlewomen, cooks, bakers, a doctor and a pharmacist. Among these people is the treacherous Michelle de Soubise, her mother’s former lady-in-waiting, who played a significant part in pushing Renata towards the most conflicting positions: for example, it was she who urged her not to abandon French fashionable clothes, so as to constantly emphasise the distance between her and the Ferrara court. Moreover, the expense of maintaining such a large and expensive retinue began to turn the noses of many, and soon Alfonso and Ercole went so far as to threaten the dismissal of some of the non-essential staff, clashing with an even more hostile and irritated Renata, also due to the Este’s policy of increasingly closer to the Empire.

The marriage, although turbulent, brought the couple many children: the eldest child was Anne, in 1531 (who married Francesco di Guisa, Viceroy of Savoia), then came the long-awaited male heir Alfonso, in 1533 (who succeeded his father), two years later Lucrezia (future Duchess of Urbino and important figure during the Devolution), in 1537 came Eleonora and finally, the following year, Luigi (who was to become Bishop of Ferrara and later Cardinal). Ercole had several extra-marital affairs, even within his wife’s French entourage, one of which remained famous because the feeling between the two lovers was sincere: it was the love affair with the beautiful Ferrara gentlewoman, Diana Trotti, from which Cesare and Lucrezia (who became a nun at the Corpus Domini monastery) were born. But Renata also had an affair with another man: a love that was reciprocated and overwhelming, the one she shared with Antonio di Pons, her knight of honour.

The early years as Duke and the increasingly difficult marriage

Following the death of Duke Alfonso on the evening of 31 October 1534, Ercole II came to power the following day without complications.

One of the first tasks for the new Duke was to find the economic resources to revive the state treasury, but without burdening the people with new taxes. Indeed, in this process of revision, he also managed to eliminate the ‘datèa’, much disliked by the peasantry who had to pay the state a portion of agricultural produce, in relation to the area sown.

Exactly one year after becoming Duke, Ercole II went to Rome to obtain a reconciliation with Paul III, born Alessandro Farnese, but his wish was not granted. Without delay, the Duke continued on to Naples, where things went better and he succeeded in obtaining the renewal of the investiture for the Este family by Emperor Charles V. Back in Ferrara, he dismissed the wicked Madame de Soubise who had continued to plot behind his back during his absence.

In spite of the departure of his ‘court enemy’, the situation with his wife did not improve at all: Renata not only considered herself a French noblewoman, but even at the service of her state and would never recognise herself as belonging to the Estense court. Upon her arrival in Ferrara, Renata was definitely observant of the Christian religion, but soon her faith began to be questioned. The teachings of her tutor Lefèvre, her hostility towards the Pontiff, combined with her curiosity towards innovative movements, were among the possible motivations that led Renata to approach Calvinism. The French heretics soon found Ferrara a hospitable city where they were welcomed by the Duchess and, in the spring of 1536, Calvin himself, travelling under a false name, arrived in the city. The large number and recognised importance of the people and ideas that gravitated around Renata ensured that a truly organised Protestant Reformation group was formed in Italy. At this point the rumours about her religious faith could no longer go unheeded and this circumstance risked compromising Ercole II’s plans to achieve pacification with the Papal States. The possible political repercussions of this situation not only intimidated the Estense Duchy, but also France itself, that promptly sent the bishop of Limoges to Ferrara to keep an eye on Renata.

Ercole was well aware of how exhausting the diplomatic negotiations with the Papal States were, he, who had repeatedly experienced them due to the continuous excommunications of his father Alfonso I, and was determined to contain them in every way. In January 1539, for example, he did not hesitate to pay 180,000 gold ducats to the Holy See to maintain the investiture of Ferrara and its appurtenances, for himself and his legitimate and natural male descendants, according to the line of primogeniture. To conclude this agreement, Ercole took advantage of a favourable historical moment, knowing that Paul III was seeking economic resources from the Italian princes to counter the initiative of Suleiman II.

Four years later, the Pontiff, followed by a procession of about three thousand people, visited Modena and Reggio and on 24 April, at the end of the journey, he celebrated a solemn mass in Modena Cathedral: it was on this occasion that Paul III conferred the papal honours of the golden rose, the stocco and the hat on the Duke. As a confirmation of the renewed good relations, although he was aware of Renata’s ‘religious situation’, the Pope did not make any polemics and, on the contrary, brought her a splendid diamond jewel as a gift. A few months later, the Pontiff arranged for Renata to be exempted from local inquisitorial control, probably to favour relations with Louis XII, but disappointing Ercole II, who did not want to give rise to any doubts about his power, nor lower his guard against a wife who had become an enemy.

Also for this reason, in August 1540 Ercole gave his wife the Delizia di Consandolo, where Renata lived with her court between 1544 and 1551, commissioning a project to modernise the villa that involved the painter Girolamo da Carpi. This distance from the city was probably a more or less forced exile, as a result of her openly sympathising ideas for Protestantism. Here, far from the heart of the city and more freely than she had done so far, the Duchess established an influential and organised meeting place from where Protestant ideas spread.

The relationship between the couple was now compromised, not only by Renata’s open hostility to Ferrara life, but also by repeated mutual betrayals. Ercole went so far as to use all kinds of deception to find evidence of this to the detriment of his wife, going so far as to order the arrest and torture of her alms-giver, in the hope of a confession about alleged intrigues and betrayals that never came.

Renata condemned for heresy

At Easter 1554, Renata committed a sensational act that prepared the way for an inevitable and definitive break. On Good Friday, the Duchess had a ‘fat’ table prepared that disregarded Catholic precepts, going so far as to prohibit her daughters from taking Communion. Ercole certainly could not tolerate such a clear-cut action and this time he firmly confronted his wife: first, he took his daughters to the Corpus Domini monastery, under the protection of his aunt Eleonora d’Este, superior of the nuns; then he urged the King of France, Henry II of Valois, to send a theologian to the city who could resolve the matter. Renata’s indomitable character did not make her back down this time either, and so came her condemnation for heresy by the Inquisition. That same night, she was transferred to the Ducal Palace, where she had limited space and staff, then all her possessions were confiscated. Until, after two weeks, tremendously shaken by the situation, Renata could no longer find the strength to continue her battle: the filles de France then renounced her heresy and publicly professed her Catholic faith, listening to mass and confessing. Ercole never considered his wife’s conversion to be sincere and in this way he obtained reintegration into court life and reunion with his daughters. Calvin himself, who had sent her coded messages to urge her to resist, was very disappointed when he heard the news of her conversion.

It was only after the death of Ercole II that Renata, in order not to put her son, who had come to power as the new Duke, in difficulty, chose to move to his castle of Montargis near Grenoble. Here she was finally free to profess the faith she believed in, even if she suffered from the distance from her children. Montargis was her residence for 15 years, until July 1575: when the sad news of her death reached Ferrara, the Court observed mourning, but without celebrating any funeral, and she was also buried without an official funeral in France.

The League against Philip II of Spain

Ercole played his political game by focusing on diplomacy and prudence, to avoid the catastrophes of war above all. In the last years of his life, however, he had to take a position and in November 1556 he joined the League composed of Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, and Henry II, against Philip II of Spain. Ercole held the position of captain-general to the Pope and lieutenant to the King of France, but obviously his position sanctioned a break with the Habsburgs, who recriminated him for ingratitude towards Charles V, who had first renewed his recognition of Modena and Reggio. If the duke had already joined the league reluctantly, the large outlay of money to cover military expenses soon induced him to renounce his command and return to Ferrara permanently, using the excuse of the poorly organised conspiracy set up by Marcantonio da Osimo.

The peace signed between the Pontiff and the King of Spain in 1558 in any case left the Este territory at the mercy of the enemies, at least until the peace treaty between the Duke and King Philip II, which was favourable to the Este, who obtained the restitution of the occupied lands while maintaining the integrity of his territories. This positive result was also achieved thanks to the fruitful mediation of Cosimo dei Medici, a new alliance that would be sealed by the marriage of their children Alfonso II and Lucrezia.

The death of Ercole II and the double funeral

Ercole died, after a short illness, on 3 October 1559 in the rooms of Castel Vecchio. His son Alfonso, his successor, had been at the French court for over a year in the company of his brother Luigi. Renata was then called to rule the state, waiting a long time for her son’s return, which did not take place until 20 November. This large lapse of fifty days made Renata decide in favour of a double funeral, a custom already attested in England since the 14th century. The organisation of the double funeral ensures that the body of the ruler follows the time dictated by the preservation of the body while, at the same time, an effigy – a realistic portrait – is made to be used as a simulacrum of the sovereign during the funeral ceremony, which will instead follow a longer time frame.

On 6 October, therefore, the Duke’s body was exposed to the city in the funeral chamber on a catafalque, then his body was locked in a chest for about fifty days, waiting for Alfonso’s return. Only after his arrival was the body secretly interred at night in the Corpus Christi Church in the presence of a small circle of family members. Following the burial of Ercole II, Alfonso spent several days at the Belvedere without showing himself officially: he was awaiting the positive evaluation of his succession by the Council of Sages, who, contrary to what was generally the case, themselves went to the Delizia to declare him Duke on 26 November. Following the official recognition, Alfonso II made his triumphal entry into a festively decorated Ferrara to pay him due honours.

In this event, triumph and mourning were combined as never before: the ephemeral vestments that had greeted the triumphal entry of the Duke were changed to mourning the following day, for the last farewell to the deceased. As Ercole had already been buried in secret at Corpus Christi, the effigy took his place: the stucco statue in the likeness of the departed and finished with great detail was placed in the coffin in the centre of the burning chapel. Alfonso, who had triumphantly entered the city only the day before, was now dressed according to the tradition of ‘grand mourning à la bourgogne’ and therefore hooded in black. The funeral procession, following the knightly custom already desired by Duke Borso for his funeral, moved from the castle towards the cathedral and finally to Corpus Christi. This last act concludes the Ferrara episode of the double funeral, which lasted almost two months. Thus, following a tradition from France, the effigy in Ferrara too took on the symbol of the continuity of power: a choice made necessary by the many unfavourable conditions in which the Duchy found itself when Ercole II died: the distance of the heir, the ineffectiveness of the embalming technique, the regency of a heretic Duchess.

Culture and the Arts at the Court of Ercole II

During his long period of rule, Ercole was decisively involved in urban redevelopment work, not only in the capital, but also in smaller cities: this commitment earned him the dedication by Sebastiano Serlio in Book IV (1537) of his Treaty The Seven Books of Architecture.

In the city of Ferrara, Ercole was involved in the construction of the Palazzo della Montagna and the Rotonda della Montagnola, as well as the embellishment of the Delizie di Belvedere and Belriguardo (of the latter, the decoration of the Sala della Vigna should be noted). In 1546, he consolidated the walls of Ferrara by adding embankments and external escarpments. About ten years later, he continued the work with the modernisation of the defence system through the erection of two bastions. In 1547, he finally promoted the paving of the Giovecca, which became an elegant promenade.

Outside the capital, Ercole continued the reclamation of the Polesine and, between 1540 and 1547, commissioned the reconstruction of the Delizia di Copparo to court architect Terzo Terzi, who transformed it from a simple castalderia into a noble residence. The interior probably already contained representations of the illustrious personalities of the House of Este. What is certain is that the Duke commissioned a series of views of cities belonging to the Este dominion and other frescoes, including one with Ercole himself in the act of administering justice, painted by Garofalo and Girolamo da Carpi. After several changes of ownership and a fire that destroyed much of it (1808), the tower is the only original element remaining of the ancient noble residence.

The pentagonal walls of Brescello and the transformation of the town into a fortress were also designed by Terzo Terzi; the work was destroyed at the beginning of the 18th century and no trace of it remains today except for a single symbol: the statue of ‘Ercole the benefactor’, made between 1550 and 1553 by Jacopo Sansovino, now in Piazza Matteotti, but originally placed in Piazza della Rocca.

Ercole’s most important work was undertaken in 1546, when he decided to intervene on Modena not only by demolishing the 14th-century city walls and rebuilding them, but also by extending the city northwards: in fact, the blocks around the Darsena (today’s Via Ganaceto, Via S. Orsola, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II) and the ducal garden were built in this period.

The Ferrara Studio also experienced a favourable period under Ercole: in fact, an edict issued by the Duke in 1545 forbade Ferrara students to study in other cities in order to promote their University. During the same period, renowned professors such as Musa Brasavola, Gabriele Falloppio, Vincenzo Moggi, Lodovico Cato, Ippolito Riminaldi and Alciato were called upon to teach. Under Ercole’s rule, Pietro Aretino was not the only court literate, but was also joined by Bernardo Tasso, Galeazzo Gonzaga, Girolamo Faletti, Agostino Mosti, Celio Calcagnini, Lilio Gregorio Giraldi, Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio and Alberto Lollio. These are important examples of how the Duke’s humanistic education marked his entire life, also materialising in passions such as collecting medals and ancient coins.

A predilection for the arts that can also be recognised in the extension work Ercole had carried out in the heart of Este power: the city castle took on a new connotation through the raising of towers and curtains, the addition of the duchesses’ garden, but above all with the pictorial decoration of several rooms. In fact, the Duke commissioned frescoes and paintings to complete the pictorial cycles begun by Alfonso I. He then created two flats for himself: the so-called ‘New Rooms’ and ‘Patience’, the latter built around the tower of St. Catherine. In 1554, due to damage caused by a fire, the flat had to be frescoed again: the Duke commissioned Girolamo da Carpi to paint it, following a refined iconographic programme that exalted his own political motto: Patience. Works by great artists, in addition to the above-mentioned Girolamo da Carpi, such as Dosso Dossi and Garofalo, found their place here.

Unfortunately, the entry into the Castle of the Cardinal Legates, following the Devolution of Ferrara to the Papal State in 1598, erased all traces of this environment, of which nothing remains today. Even the paintings transferred to Modena were later sold to the electors of Saxony with the famous ‘Dresden sale’.

The Appartamento della Pazienza was connected through an antechamber to the Sala della Galleria, which Ercole had adapted from 1554 to house his art collections and which was frescoed with views of the Este cities. Ercole continued the modernisation of the Castle in terms of both space and ornamentation: he commissioned paintings and frescoes, assigning the execution to Battista Dossi, Tommaso da Carpi, Tommaso da Treviso, Garofalo, Camillo Filippi and Girolamo da Carpi, also for the Government Room, where the Duke ruled the State and administered justice.

The freedom offered by Ercole to the Jews, who had been rejected by Spain and Portugal, transformed Ferrara into a more modern and integrated city, but also a richer one: here the Jews could carry out their work activities, from trade to banking, with the same freedom granted to people of the Christian faith. It was precisely this welcoming environment that favoured the choice of Ferrara as the seat of the Italian Rabbinical Congress in 1554. In the following years, however, Rome imposed the expulsion of the Jews: the Duke, not being able to openly oppose this provision, nevertheless managed to stall them, allowing them not to leave Ferrara, and in the meantime granted Salomone Riva, in 1556, permission to found an institute for Jewish studies, open to anyone.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Luciano Chiappini “Gli Estensi: mille anni di storia” – Ferrara: Corbo, 2001;

“La corte di Ferrara” in “Gli Estensi”, Ed. Il Bulino, 1997;

“Il principe e la morte” by Giovanni Ricci, Ed. Il Mulino, 1998;

“Terzo Terzi e “la nova cittade erculea” di Brescello” by Francesco Ceccarelli in “L’ambizione di essere città. Piccoli grandi centri nell’Italia rinascimentale” edited by Elena Svalduz, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti, Venice 2004;

“I pittori di Ercole II a Belriguardo: modelli giulieschi e tradizione vitruviana” by Alessandra Pattanaro in “Prospettiva. Rivista di Storia Dell’Arte Antica e Moderna” N.141-142, January-April 2011;

Treccani Biographical Dictionary of Italians