Editing House of Este (section)

==Younger branch – Margraves of Este==
[[File:Modena Duchy COA.jpg|thumb|170px|Arms of the House of Este|link=Special:FilePath/File:Modena_Duchy_COA.jpg]]
All later generations of the Italian branch are descendants of Fulco d'Este. From 1171 on, his descendants were titled [[Margrave]]s of Este.

Obizzo I (d. 1193), the first margrave, battled against Emperor [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick I Barbarossa]]. His nephew [[Azzo VI of Este|Azzo d'Este VI]] (1170–1212) became [[podestà]] of [[Mantua]] and [[Verona]]. As the [[dowry]] of his niece ''the Marchesella'', Ferrara passed to [[Azzo VI d'Este]] In 1146, with the last of the Adelardi. In 1242 Azzo VII ''Novello'' was nominated podestà for his lifetime.

The lordship of Ferrara was made hereditary by [[Obizzo II d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara|Obizzo II]] (d. 1293), who was proclaimed [[Lord of Ferrara]] in 1264, Lord of [[Modena]] in 1288, and Lord of [[Reggio Emilia|Reggio]] in 1289. Ferrara was a papal fief and the Este family were given the position of hereditary papal vicars in 1332.

[[Ferrara]] became a significant center of culture under [[Niccolò III d'Este|Niccolò d'Este III]] (1384–1441), who received several [[pope]]s with great magnificence, especially [[Pope Eugene IV|Eugene IV.]] He held a Council in Ferrara in 1438, later known as the [[Council of Florence]].

His successors were his illegitimate sons [[Leonello d'Este|Leonello]] (1407–1450) and [[Borso d'Este|Borso]] (1413–1471), who was elevated to Duke of Modena and Reggio by Emperor [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III]] in 1452, receiving these duchies as imperial fiefs. In 1471, he received the duchy of Ferrara as papal fief from [[Pope Paul II]], for which occasion splendid [[Francesco del Cossa|frescoes]] were executed at [[Palazzo Schifanoia]].

Borso was succeeded by a half-brother, [[Ercole d'Este I|Ercole]] (1431–1505), who was one of the most significant patrons of the arts in late 15th and early 16th century Italy. Ferrara grew into a cultural center renowned especially for music; [[Josquin des Prez]] worked for Duke Ercole, [[Jacob Obrecht]] came to Ferrara twice, and [[Antoine Brumel]] served as principal musician from 1505. Ercole's daughter [[Beatrice d'Este|Beatrice]] (1475–1497) married [[Ludovico Sforza]], [[Duke of Milan]]; another daughter, [[Isabella d'Este|Isabella]] (1474–1539), married Francesco Gonzaga, Marquess of [[Mantua]].

<gallery>
File:Borso d'Este.jpg|[[Borso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara|Borso d'Este]], the first Duke of [[Ferrara]], [[Modena]] and [[Reggio Emilia|Reggio]]
Image:Pisanello 015.jpg|[[Leonello d'Este]], by [[Pisanello]]
Image:ercole I d'Este.jpg|[[Ercole d'Este I|Ercole I d'Este]]
Image:Tizian 056.jpg|[[Isabella d'Este]], by [[Titian]]
</gallery>

Ercole I's successor was his son [[Alfonso I d'Este|Alfonso I]] (1476–1534), third husband of [[Lucrezia Borgia]], daughter of [[Pope Alexander VI]], sister to [[Cesare Borgia]]. Alfonso I was a patron of [[Ariosto]].

The son of Alfonso and [[Lucrezia Borgia]], [[Ercole d'Este II]] (1508–1559), married [[Renée of France]], daughter of [[Louis XII of France]]. His son [[Alfonso II d'Este|Alfonso II]] first married Lucrezia, daughter of grand-duke [[Cosimo I of Tuscany]]. After she died, he married Barbara, the sister of [[Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor]] (1527–1576). His third wife, [[Margherita Gonzaga d'Este|Margherita Gonzaga]], was daughter of the [[Duchy of Mantua|duke of Mantua]].

Alfonso II raised the glory of Ferrara to its highest point, continuing the patron of [[Torquato Tasso]] and [[Giovanni Battista Guarini]] and in general favoring the arts and sciences, as the princes of his house had always done. The legitimate line ended in 1597 with him; as his heir, Emperor [[Rudolph II]] recognized his first cousin [[Cesare d'Este]] (1533–1628), member of a [[cadet]] branch born out of wedlock, who continued to rule in the imperial duchies and carried on the family name. Ferrara, on the other hand, was annexed by force of arms in 1598 by Pope [[Clement VIII]] on grounds of the heir's illegitimacy and incorporated into the [[Papal States]].

During the 18th century, the unhappy marriage between the last male heir of the Este family, the future Duke [[Ercole III d'Este|Ercole III]], and the sovereign [[Duchy of Massa and Carrara|Duchess of Massa and Carrara]], [[Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina]], produced only one surviving child, [[Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa|Maria Beatrice]]. However, the [[Salic law]] excluded her, as a woman, from the succession to her father, while she was entitled to succeed her mother since the Salic law was derogated in the Duchy of Massa and Carrara by virtue of a 1529 decree of the Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]].

When it became obvious that the princely couple would not produce a large offspring, the reigning Duke, [[Francesco III d'Este, Duke of Modena|Francesco III]], set out to prevent Modena from suffering the same fate as Ferrara almost two centuries earlier. Thus, in 1753, two simultaneous treaties (one public and one secret) were concluded between the House of Este and the [[House of Habsburg|House of Austria]], by which the [[Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor|Archduke Leopold]], Empress [[Maria Theresa]]'s ninth-born child and third son, and Maria Beatrice were engaged, and the former was designated by Francesco III as heir for the imperial investiture as Duke of Modena and Reggio in the event of extinction of the Este male line. In the meantime, Francesco would cover the office of governor of Milan ad interim, which was destined for the archduke.

In 1761, however, following the death of an [[Archduke Charles Joseph of Austria (born 1745)|older brother]], Leopold became heir to the throne of the [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany]] as provided for the second male heir of the imperial couple, and the treaties had to be revised. In 1763, in spite of the harsh opposition of Maria Beatrice's father, the two families agreed to simply replace the name of Leopold with that of Maria Theresa's fourteenth child, [[Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este|Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria]], who was four years younger than his betrothed. In January 1771 the [[Perpetual Diet of Regensburg]] ratified Ferdinand's future investiture and, in October, Maria Beatrice and he finally got married in Milan, thus giving rise to the new [[Austria-Este|House of Austria-Este]].

Ercole III finally ascended the throne in 1780 upon the death of Francesco III, but was [[Italian campaign of 1796–1797|deposed in 1796]] by the French. His States were transformed into the [[Cispadane Republic]], which one year later was merged into the [[Cisalpine Republic]] and then into the [[Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy]]. Ercole was compensated with the small principality of [[Breisgau]] in southwestern Germany, and when he died in 1803, it passed to his son-in-law, who in 1806 lost it to the enlarged and elevated [[Grand Duchy of Baden]] during the [[Confederation of the Rhine|Napoleonic reorganization]] of the western territories of the defunct [[Holy Roman Empire]]. In December of that same year, Ferdinand died without ever having had the opportunity to exercise his prerogatives as heir to the Este States.

Maria Beatrice had succeeded her mother as Duchess of Massa and Carrara in 1790, but she too had been deposed by the French invasion in 1796.

<gallery>
File:201FerraraCastello.JPG|[[Castello Estense]] in Ferrara
File:P. Ducale visto dalla Ghirlandina.jpg|Ducal Palace in [[Modena]], built in 1634 by Francesco I d’Este
File:La Villa estense di Rivalta.jpg|[[Ducal Palace of Rivalta]]
File:ErcoleIIId'Este.jpg|[[Ercole III d'Este|Ercole III]] was the last Este [[duke of Modena and Reggio]]
</gallery>

===House of Habsburg-Este===
{{Main|Austria-Este}}