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Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497
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pubOne.info present you this wonderfully illustrated edition. During the last twenty years the patient researches of successive students in the archives of North Italian cities have been richly rewarded. The State papers of Milan and Venice, of Ferrara and Modena, have yielded up their treasures; the correspondence of Isabella d'Este, in the Gonzaga archives at Mantua, has proved a source of inexhaustible wealth and knowledge. A flood of light has been thrown on the history of Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; public events and personages have been placed in a new aspect; the judgments of posterity have been modified and, in some instances, reversed.
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Topic
LiteraturaSubtopic
ClásicosCHAPTER I
The Castello of Ferrara— The House of Este—
Accession of Duke Ercole I. — His marriage to Leonora of Aragon—
Birth of Isabella and Beatrice d'Este— Plot of Niccolo d'Este—
Visit of Leonora to Naples— The court of King Ferrante— Betrothal
of Beatrice d'Este to Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Bari— And of
Isabella d'Este to Francesco Gonzaga.
1471-1480
In the heart of old Ferrara stands the Castello of
the Este princes. All the great story of the past, all the romance
of medieval chivalry, seems to live again in that picturesque,
irregular pile with the crenellated towers and dusky red-brick
walls, overhanging the sleepy waters of the ancient moat. The song
of Boiardo and Ariosto still lingers in the air about the ruddy
pinnacles; the spacious courts and broad piazza recall the
tournaments and pageants of olden time. Once more the sound of
clanging trumpets or merry hunting-horn awakes the echoes, as the
joyous train of lords and ladies sweep out through the castle gates
in the summer morning; once more, under vaulted loggias and
high-arched balconies, we see the courtly scholar bending earnestly
over some classic page, or catch the voice of high-born maiden
singing Petrarch's sonnets to her lute.
St. George was the champion of Ferrara and the
patron saint of the house of Este. There year by year his festival
was celebrated with great rejoicings, and vast crowds thronged the
piazza before the Castello to see the famous races for the
pallium. It is St. George who rides full tilt at the dragon
in the rude sculptures on the portal of the Romanesque Cathedral
hard by; it is the same warrior-saint who, in his gleaming armour,
looks down from the painted fresco above the portcullis of the
castle drawbridge. And all the masters who worked for the Este
dukes, whether they were men of native or foreign birth— Vittore
Pisanello and Jacopo Bellini, Cosimo Tura and Dosso Dossi— took
delight in the old story, and painted the legend of St. George and
Princess Sabra in the frescoes or altar-pieces with which they
adorned the churches and castle halls.
The Estes, who took St. George for their patron, and
fought and died under his banner, were themselves a chivalrous and
splendour-loving race, ever ready to ride out in quest of fresh
adventure in the chase or battle-field. Men and women alike were
renowned, even among the princely houses of Italy in Renaissance
time, for their rare culture and genuine love of art and letters.
And they were justly proud of their ancient lineage and of the love
and loyalty which their subjects bore them. The Sforzas of Milan,
the Medici of Florence, the Riarios or the Della Roveres, were but
low-born upstarts by the side of this illustrious race which had
reigned on the banks of the Po during the last two hundred years.
In spite of wars and bloodshed, in spite of occasional conspiracies
and tumults, chiefly stirred up by members of the reigning family,
the people of Ferrara loved their rulers well, and never showed any
wish to change the house of Este for another. The citizens took a
personal interest in their own duke and duchess and in all that
belonged to them, and chronicled their doings with minute
attention. They shared their sorrows and rejoiced in their joys,
they lamented their departure and hailed their return with
acclamation, they followed the fortunes of their children with keen
interest, and welcomed the return of the youthful bride with
acclamations, or wept bitter tears over her untimely end.
Of all the Estes who held sway at Ferrara, the most
illustrious and most beloved was Duke Ercole I. , the father of
Beatrice. During the thirty-four years that he reigned in Ferrara,
the duchy enjoyed a degree of material prosperity which it had
never attained before, and rose to the foremost rank among the
states of North Italy. And in the troubled times of the next
century, his people looked back on the days of Duke Ercole and his
good duchess as the golden age of Ferrara. After the death of his
father, the able and learned Niccolo III. , who first established
his throne on sure and safe foundations, Ercole's two elder
half-brothers, Leonello and Borso, reigned in succession over
Ferrara, and kept up the proud traditions of the house of Este,
both in war and peace. Both were bastards, but in the Este family
this was never held to be a bar to the succession. “In Italy, ” as
Commines wrote, “they make little difference between legitimate and
illegitimate children. ” But when the last of the two, Duke Borso,
died on the 27th of May, 1471, of malarial fever caught on his
journey to Rome, to receive the investiture of his duchy from the
Pope, Niccolo's eldest legitimate son Ercole successfully asserted
his claim to the throne, and entered peacefully upon his heritage.
Two years later, the next duke, who was already thirty-eight years
of age, obtained the hand of Leonora of Aragon, daughter of
Ferrante, King of Naples, and sent his brother Sigismondo at the
head of a splendid retinue to bring home his royal bride. After a
visit to Rome, where Pope Sixtus IV. entertained her at a series of
magnificent banquets and theatrical representations, the young
duchess entered Ferrara in state. On a bright June morning she rode
through the streets in a robe glittering with jewels, with a
stately canopy over her head and a gold crown on her flowing hair.
Latin orations, orchestral music, and theatrical displays, for
which Ferrara was already famous, greeted the bridal procession at
every point. The houses were hung with tapestries and cloth of
gold, avenues of flowering shrubs were planted along the broad
white streets, and ringing shouts greeted the coming of the fair
princess who was to make her home in Ferrara. The happy event was
commemorated by a noble medal, designed by the Mantuan Sperandio,
the most illustrious of a school of medallists employed at Ferrara
in Duke Borso's time, while Leonora's refined features and
expressive face are preserved in a well-known bas-relief, now in
Paris. Ercole and his bride took up their abode in the Este palace,
a stately Renaissance structure opposite the old Lombard Duomo, a
few steps from the Castello, with which it was connected by a
covered passage.
The charm and goodness of the young duchess soon won
the heart of her subjects. From the first she entered eagerly into
Ercole's schemes for ordering his capital and encouraging art, and
brought a new and gentler influence to bear on the society of her
husband's court. There, too, she found a congenial spirit in the
duke's accomplished sister, Bianca, that Virgin of Este, who was
the subject of Tito Strozzi's impassioned eulogy, and whose Latin
and Greek prose excited the admiration of all her contemporaries.
This cultivated princess had been originally betrothed to the
eldest son of Federigo, Duke of Urbino, but his early death put an
end to these hopes, and in 1468 she married Galeotto della
Mirandola, a prince of the house of Carpi, who lived, at Ferrara
some years, and afterwards entered the service of Lodovico Sforza
and served as captain in his wars.
On the 18th of May, 1474, the duchess gave birth to
a daughter, who received the name of Isabella, always a favourite
in the house of Aragon, and was destined to become the most
celebrated lady of the Renaissance. A year later, on the 29th of
June, 1475, a second daughter saw the light. Her appearance,
however, proved no cause of rejoicing, as we learn from the
contemporary chronicle published by Muratori—
“A daughter was born this day to Duke Ercole, and
received the name of Beatrice, being the child of Madonna Leonora
his wife. And there were no rejoicings, because every one wished
for a boy. ”
No one in Ferrara then dreamt that the babe who
received so cold a welcome would one day reign over the Milanese,
as the wife of Lodovico Sforza, the most powerful of Italian
princes, and would herself be remembered by posterity as “la più
zentil donna in Italia”— the sweetest lady in all Italy. At least
the name bestowed upon her was a good omen. She was called Beatrice
after two favourite relatives of her parents. One of these was
Leonora's only sister, Beatrice of Aragon, who in that same year
passed through Ferrara on her way to join her husband, Matthias
Corvinus, King of Hungary, and whose presence, we are told by the
diarist, gave great pleasure to both duke and duchess. The other
Beatrice was Ercole's half-sister, the elder daughter of Niccolo
III. , who had long been the ornament of her father's court, when
she had been known as the Queen of Feasts, and it had become a
common proverb that to see Madonna Beatrice dance was to find
Paradise upon earth. In 1448, at the age of twenty-one, this
brilliant lady had wedded Borso da Correggio, a brother of the
reigning prince of that city, and, after her first husband's early
death, had become the wife of Tristan Sforza, an illegitimate son
of the great Condottiere Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan. Although
her home was now in Lombardy, Beatrice d'Este remained on intimate
terms with her own family, and her son Niccolo da Correggio was
known as the handsomest and most accomplished cavalier at the court
of Ferrara. He had accompanied his uncle Duke Borso on his journey
to Rome, and had been one of the escort sent to conduct Duchess
Leonora from Naples.
In the summer of the year following Beatrice's
birth, the hopes of the loyal Ferrarese were at length fulfilled,
and a son was born to the duke and duchess on the 21st of July,
1476. This time the citizens abandoned themselves to demonstrations
of enthusiastic delight. The bells were rung and the shops closed
during three whole days, and the child was baptized with great pomp
in the Chapel of the Vescovado, close to the Duomo. The infant
received the name of Alfonso, after his grandfather, the great King
of Naples, and a “beautiful fête, ” to quote one chronicler's
words, “was held in honour of the auspicious event in the Sala
Grande of the Schifanoia Villa. ” On this occasion a concert was
given by a hundred trumpeters, pipers, and tambourine-players in
the frescoed hall of this favourite summer palace, and a sumptuous
banquet was prepared after the fashion of the times, with an
immense number of confetti, representing lords and ladies,
animals, trees, and castles, all made of gilt and coloured sugar,
which our friend the diarist tells us were carried off or eaten by
the people as soon as the doors were opened.
But a few days afterwards, while Duke Ercole was
away from Ferrara, his wife was surprised by a sudden rising, the
result of a deep-laid conspiracy, secretly planned by his nephew,
Niccolo, a bastard son of Leonello d'Este. Niccolo's first
endeavour was to seize on the person of the duchess and her young
children, an attempt which almost proved successful, but was
fortunately defeated by Leonora's own courage and presence of mind.
The palace was already surrounded by armed men, when the alarm
reached the ears of the duchess, and, springing out of bed with her
infant son in her arms, followed by her two little daughters and a
few faithful servants, she fled by the covered way to the Castello.
Hardly had she left her room, when the conspirators rushed in and
sacked the palace, killing all who tried to offer resistance. The
people of Ferrara, however, were loyal to their beloved duke and
duchess. After a few days of anxious suspense, Ercole returned, and
soon quelled the tumult and restored order in the city. That
evening he appeared on the balcony of the Castello, and publicly
embraced his wife and children amid the shouts and applause of the
whole city. The next day the whole ducal family went in solemn
procession to the Cathedral, and there gave public thanks for their
marvellous deliverance. A terrible list of cruel reprisals followed
upon this rebellion, and Niccolo d'Este himself, with two hundred
of his partisans, were put to death after the bloody fashion of the
times.
A year later, when the danger was over and
tranquillity had been completely restored, Leonora and her two
little daughters set out for Naples, under the escort of Niccolo da
Correggio, to be present at her father King Ferrante's second
marriage with the young Princess Joan of Aragon, a sister of
Ferdinand the Catholic. The duchess and her children travelled by
land to Pisa, where galleys were waiting to conduct them to Naples,
and reached her father's court on the 1st of June, 1477. Here
Leonora spent the next four months, and in September, gave birth to
a second son, who was named Ferrante, after his royal grandfather.
But soon news reached Naples that war had broken out in Northern
Italy, and that Duke Ercole had been chosen Captain-general of the
Florentine armies. In his absence the presence of the duchess was
absolutely necessary at Ferrara, and early in November Leonora left
Naples and hastened home to take up the reins of government and
administer the state in her lord's stead. She took her elder
daughter Isabella with her, but left her new-born son at Naples,
together with his little sister Beatrice, from whom the old King
Ferrante refused to part. This bright-eyed child, who had won her
grandfather's affections at this early age, remained at Naples for
the next eight years, and grew up in the royal palace on the
terraced steps of that enchanted shore, where even then Sannazzaro
was dreaming of Arcadia, and where Lorenzo de' Medici loved to talk
over books and poetry with his learned friend the Duchess Ippolita.
Beatrice was too young to realize the rare degree of culture which
had made Alfonso's and Ferrante's court the favourite abode of the
Greek and Latin scholars of the age, too innocent to be aware of
the dark deeds which threw a shadow over these sunny regions, where
the strange medley of luxury and vice, of refinement and cruelty,
recalled the days of Imperial Rome. But the balmy breath of these
Southern climes, the soft luxuriant spell of blue seas and groves
of palm and cassia, sank deep into the child's being, and something
of the fire and passion, the mirth and gaiety, of the dwellers in
this delicious land passed into her soul, and helped to mould her
nature during these years that she spent far from mother and sister
at King Ferrante's court.
In these early days many personages with whom she
was to be closely associated in after-years were living at Naples.
There were scholars and poets whom she was to meet again in Milan
at her husband's court, and who would be glad to remind her that
they had known her as a child in her grandfather's palace. There
was Pontano, the founder of the Academy of Naples, who was busy
writing his Latin eclogues on the myrtle bowers of Baiae and the
orange groves of Sorrento. There was her aunt, the accomplished
Ippolita Sforza, Duchess of Calabria, who had learnt Greek of the
great teacher Lascaris in her young days at Milan, and whose
wedding had brought the magnificent Lorenzo to the court of the
Sforzas. And for playmates the little Beatrice had Ippolita's
children: the boy Ferrante, whose chivalrous nature endeared him to
his Este cousins, even when their husbands joined with the French
invaders to drive him from his father's throne; and the girl
Isabella, who was already affianced to the young Duke Giangaleazzo,
who was in future years to become her companion and rival at the
court of Milan. Here, too, in the summer of 1479, came a new
visitor in the shape of Duchess Ippolita's brother, Lodovico
Sforza, surnamed Il Moro, himself the younger son of the
great Duke Francesco. On his elder brother Sforza's death, the King
of Naples had invested him with the duchy of Bari, and now he
promised him men and money with which to assert his claims against
his sister-in-law, the widowed Duchess Bona and the minions who had
driven him and his brothers out of their native land. In June,
1477, only a few days after Leonora and her children left Ferrara,
the exiled prince had arrived there on his way to Pisa, and had
been courteously entertained by Duke Ercole in the Schifanoia
Palace. Since then he had spent two dreary years in exile at Pisa,
fretting out his heart in his enforced idleness, and pining for the
hour of release. That hour was now at hand. Before the end of the
year, Lodovico Sforza had, by a succession of bold manœuvres,
driven out his rivals and was virtually supreme in Milan. The first
step which the new regent took was to ally himself with the Duke of
Ferrara. The houses of Sforza and Este had always been on friendly
terms, and Ercole's father Niccolo had presented Francesco Sforza
with a famous diamond in acknowledgment of the services rendered
him by the great Condottiere. When Francesco's son and successor,
Duke Galeazzo Maria, was murdered in 1476, his widow, Duchess Bona,
had renewed the old alliance with Ferrara, and a marriage had been
arranged between her infant daughter Anna Sforza and Duke Ercole's
new-born son and heir Alfonso. In May, 1477, this betrothal was
proclaimed in Milan, and a fortnight later the nuptial contract was
signed at Ferrara. The union of the two houses was celebrated by
solemn processions and thanksgivings throughout the duchy, and the
infant bridegroom was carried in the arms of his chamberlain to
meet the Milanese ambassador, who appeared on behalf of the little
three-year-old bride. Seven years afterwards, Duchess Leonora sent
a magnificent doll with a trousseau of clothes designed by the best
artists in Ferrara, as a gift to the little daughter-in-law whom
she had not yet seen.
In 1480, Lodovico Sforza formally asked Ercole to
give him the hand of his elder daughter Isabella, then a child of
six. Lodovico himself was twenty-nine, and besides being a man of
remarkable abilities and singularly handsome presence, had the
reputation of being the richest prince in Italy. Duke Ercole
further saw the great importance of strengthening the alliance with
Milan at a time when Ferrara was again threatened by her hereditary
enemies, the Pope and Venice. Unfortunately, his youthful daughter
had already been sought in marriage by Federico, Marquis of Mantua,
on behalf of his elder son, Giovanni Francesco; and Ercole,
unwilling to offend so near a neighbour, and yet reluctant to lose
the chance of a second desirable alliance, offered Lodovico Sforza
the hand of his younger daughter, Beatrice. The Duke of Bari made
no objection to this arrangement, and on St. George's Day, Ercole
addressed the following letter to his old ally, Marquis
Federico:—
"Most illustrious Lord and dearest Brother,
"This is to inform you that the most illustrious
Madonna Duchess of Milan and His Illustrious Highness Lodovico
Sforza have sent their ambassador, M. Gabriele Tassino, to ask for
our daughter Madonna Isabella on behalf of Signor Lodovico. We have
replied that to our regret this marriage was no longer possible,
since we had already entered into negotiations on the subject with
your Highness and your eldest son. But since we have another
daughter at Naples, who is only about a year younger, and who has
been adopted by his Majesty the King of Naples as his own child, we
have written to acquaint His Serene Majesty with the wish of these
illustrious Persons, and have asked him if he will consent to
accept the said Signor Lodovico as his kinsman, since without his
leave we were unable to dispose of our daughter Beatrice's hand.
The said Persons having expressed themselves as well content with
the proceeding, out of respect for the King's Majesty he has now
declared his approval of this marriage, to which we have
accordingly signified our consent. We are sure that you will
rejoice with us, seeing the close union and alliance that has long
existed between us, and beg your Illustrious Highness to keep the
matter secret for the present.
"Hercules, Dux Ferr. , etc. [1]
Ferrara, 23rd April, 1480. "
It is curious to reflect on the possible changes in
the course of events in Italian history during the next thirty
years, if Lodovico Sforza's proposals had reached Ferrara a few
months earlier, and Isabella d'Este, instead of her sister
Beatrice, had become his wife. Would the rare prudence and
self-control of the elder princess have led her to play a different
part in the difficult circumstances which surrounded her position
at the court of Milan as the Moro's wife? Would Isabella's calmer
temperament and wise and far-seeing intellect have been able to
restrain Lodovico's ambitious dreams and avert his ruin? The
cordial relations that were afterwards to exist between Lodovico
and his gifted sister-in-law, the Moro's keen appreciation of
Isabella's character, incline us to believe that she would have
acquired great influence over her lord; and that so remarkable a
woman would have played a very important part on this larger stage.
But the Fates had willed otherwise, and Beatrice d'Este became the
bride of Lodovico Sforza. Her royal grandfather, old King Ferrante,
gave his sanction to the proposed marriage, although he refused to
part from his little grandchild at present, and when, five years
later, Beatrice returned to Ferrara, she assumed the title and
estate of Duchess of Bari, and was publicly recognized as
Lodovico's promised wife. She had by this·time reached the age of
ten, and her espoused husband was exactly thirty-four.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Luzio-Renier in Archivio Storico
Lombardo, xvii. 77.
CHAPTER II
Lodovico Sforza— Known as Il Moro— His birth and
childhood— Murder of Duke Galeazzo Maria— Regency of Duchess Bona—
Exile of the Sforza brothers— Lodovico at Pisa— His invasion of
Lombardy and return to Milan— Death of Cecco Simonetta— Flight of
Duchess Bona— Lodovico Regent of Milan.
1451-1582
Lodovico Sforza was certainly one of the most remarkable figures of the Italian Renaissance. He has generally been described as one of the blackest. “Born for the ruin of Italy, ” was the verdict of his contemporary Paolo Giovio, a verdict which every chronicler of the sixteenth century has endorsed. These men who saw the disasters which overwhelmed their country under the foreign rule, could not forget that Charles VIII. , the first French king who invaded Italy, had crossed the Alps as the friend and ally of Lodovico Moro. They forgot how many others were at least equally guilty, and did not realize the vast network of intrigues in which Pope Julius II. , the Venetian Signory, and the King of Naples all had a share. Later historians with one consent have accepted Paolo Giovio's view, and have made Lodovico res...
Table of contents
- BEATRICE D'ESTE
- PREFACE
- BEATRICE D'ESTE
- CHAPTER I
- 1471-1480
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER II
- 1451-1582
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER III
- 1482-1490
- CHAPTER IV
- 1485-1490
- CHAPTER V
- 1490-1491
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER VI
- 1491
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER VII
- 1491
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER VIII
- 1491
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER IX
- 1491-1492
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER X
- 1491
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XI
- 1492
- CHAPTER XII
- 1492
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XIII
- 1492
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XIV
- 1493
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XV
- 1493
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XVI
- 1493
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XVII
- 1493
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XVIII
- 1493
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XIX
- 1493-1494
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XX
- 1494
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXI
- 1494
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXII
- 1495
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXIII
- 1495
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXIV
- 1495
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXV
- 1496
- CHAPTER XXVI
- 1496
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXVII
- 1497
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXVIII
- 1497-1498
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXIX
- 1499
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXX
- 1499-1500
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXXI
- 1500-1508
- FOOTNOTES:
- CHAPTER XXXII
- 1500-1564
- INDEX
- THE END
- PRINTED BY
- Copyright