Alfonso I d’Este

Duke of Ferrara and a brilliant soldier who Ludovico Ariosto served from 23 April 1518. He was given various posts at his court: he was sent on mission to Florence in February and in May 1519, to Rome a number of times between 1521 and 1531, he was Ducal Commissioner for Garfagnana in 1522-1525, he was his envoy to Modena in 1528, to Venice in 1531, and to Mantua in 1532. Alfonso I d’Este was born in Ferrara in 1476 and died there in 1534. Third son of Ercole I, he was destined to be his successor as he was the first male heir. During Charles VIII’s Italian expedition he was sent to the court of Ludovico il Moro at the head of a contingent of 500 men. On 30 December 1501 he was made to marry, in Roma and by proxy, Lucrezia Borgia, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, in an attempt to protect Ferrara from the expansionist aims of the Borgia. In 1504 he was in London where he met Henry VIII but was forced to precipitously return to Ferrara where, in January 1505, Ercole I had died and whose position he took up immediately. He was nominated Gonfalonier of the Church by Julius II and, after the battle of Agnadello (1509), he took advantage of circumstance and won Rovigo off Venice. Julius II excommunicated him and declared him deprived of all offices because he had been too autonomous in his policy against Venice. It was only after the death of that pope (1513) that Alfonso was able to obtain again all the territories taken off him by Julius II. But new difficulties arose with Leo X. Alfonso, after having overcome what had appeared to be a fatal illness in 1519, continued to be faithful to his French allegiances, also when the Pope in 1521 once more declared him excommunicated and divested of all offices. Again, the crisis with the papacy ended with the death of the pope (December 1521). Following the disorders caused by the Sack of Rome, the duke occupied Modena, and in November 1527 accepted to take part in the League of Cognac. The situation seemed to precipitate when, after the Peace of Cambrai (1529) that put an end to conflict between France and Spain, the French abandoned their Italian allies. Alfonso however succeeded in earning himself the favours of Charles V.