Italian Nobility. He was the fourth duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio. Son of Alfonso I and Lucrezia Borgia, grandson of Hercules I and Pope Alexander VI, he married Renée de France, daughter of Louis XII, in 1528, as a guarantee of Alfonso's French orientation. He succeeded his father in 1534, and was able to take advantage of the relative quiet established in Italy as a result of the Spanish dominance, skillfully juggling France and Spain, although personal inclinations and relationships tied him more to France. In the early years of his duchy he also managed to resolve the problem of relations with the pope, settling the disagreements with an agreement negotiated in 1539 by his brother Francesco (which involved the payment of 180,000 gold ducats to the curia). However, when Henry II of France resumed military activity in the peninsula in 1551, Ercole II began to support the French more decisively, assuming command of the league formed as an anti-imperial function between France, the Papal State and Ferrara in 1556. But when the French militias concentrated their efforts on Naples instead of on Milan, as the duke would have liked, he managed to disengage from the alliance by stipulating an agreement with Spain with the mediation of Cosimo de 'Medici (18 May 1558) who left his domains intact. During the years of his government, Ferrara became one of the main centers of the Reformation in Italy, because his wife, Renée de France, converted to the ideas of Calvino, protected the reformed, so much so as to come into conflict with her husband who had her confined in the Este Castle at the behest of Pope Paul III.
Italian Nobility. He was the fourth duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio. Son of Alfonso I and Lucrezia Borgia, grandson of Hercules I and Pope Alexander VI, he married Renée de France, daughter of Louis XII, in 1528, as a guarantee of Alfonso's French orientation. He succeeded his father in 1534, and was able to take advantage of the relative quiet established in Italy as a result of the Spanish dominance, skillfully juggling France and Spain, although personal inclinations and relationships tied him more to France. In the early years of his duchy he also managed to resolve the problem of relations with the pope, settling the disagreements with an agreement negotiated in 1539 by his brother Francesco (which involved the payment of 180,000 gold ducats to the curia). However, when Henry II of France resumed military activity in the peninsula in 1551, Ercole II began to support the French more decisively, assuming command of the league formed as an anti-imperial function between France, the Papal State and Ferrara in 1556. But when the French militias concentrated their efforts on Naples instead of on Milan, as the duke would have liked, he managed to disengage from the alliance by stipulating an agreement with Spain with the mediation of Cosimo de 'Medici (18 May 1558) who left his domains intact. During the years of his government, Ferrara became one of the main centers of the Reformation in Italy, because his wife, Renée de France, converted to the ideas of Calvino, protected the reformed, so much so as to come into conflict with her husband who had her confined in the Este Castle at the behest of Pope Paul III.
Bio by: Ruggero
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