Editing Isabella d'Este (section)

==== Relations with Milan ====
In 1491 Isabella went with a small entourage to Brescello and from there to Pavia, to accompany her sister [[Beatrice d'Este|Beatrice]] who was married to [[Ludovico Sforza|Ludovico il Moro]]. On this occasion she saw [[Galeazzo Sanseverino]] again —- as she had known him as a child in Ferrara —- with whom she began a large, and at times humorous, exchange of letters.{{sfn|Cartwright|1945|pp=51–58 }} However, his identity is not certain and could be the almost homonymous Galeazzo Visconti, Count of [[Busto Arsizio]], a courtier also dear to the dukes.<ref name=":7">{{cite book |title=Delle relazioni di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Ludovico e Beatrice Sforza|author=Alessandro Luzio|author2=Rodolfo Renier|pages=30–31}}</ref> 
[[File:Statua_di_San_Vittore_dal_basso_museo_del_Duomo_di_Milano.jpg|upright|link=https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Statua_di_San_Vittore_dal_basso_museo_del_Duomo_di_Milano.jpg|left|thumb|Probable portrait of [[Galeazzo Sanseverino]], statue in the collection of the Great Museum of the Duomo of Milan.]]
Between the two immediately ignited a dispute, destined to last for months, on who was the best paladin, Orlando or Rinaldo: Galeazzo supported the first, the sisters d'Este the second. Galeazzo, who exercised a strong fascination, soon managed to convert them both to Orlando's faith, but Isabella, once back in Mantua, returned to prefer Rinaldo, so that Galeazzo remembered her as "I alone was enough to make her change her mind and cry out ''Rolando! Rolando!''", invited her to follow her sister's example and swore that he would convert her a second time, as soon as they met again. Isabella jokingly replied that she would then bring a frog to offend him, and the dispute went on for a long time.<ref name=":7" />

On 11 February, speaking to her about the amusements he had with Beatrice, he wrote to her: "I will also strive to improve in order to give greater pleasure to the S. V., when I come for her this summer", and lamented the lack of "his sweet company". {{sfn|Luzio|Renier|1890|pp=39–40 }} Isabella's presence was in fact much desired in Milan, not only by Galeazzo but also by her sister, Ludovico and the other courtiers, however the Marquise was able to go there a few times, as her husband Francesco was wary of sending it to her, judging that in that court too many "madness" were committed, and perhaps also out of jealousy of Ludovico.{{sfn|Pizzagalli|2001|p=137}} 
[[File:Beatrice_e_Isabella_d'Este.jpg|link=https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beatrice_e_Isabella_d'Este.jpg|thumb|Alleged portrait of the two sisters: [[Beatrice d'Este|Beatrice]] (left) and Isabella (right), in the ceiling fresco of the Sala del Tesoro of Palazzo Costabili near Ferrara. Attributed [[Benvenuto Tisi|Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo]], dated 1503–1506.]]
Despite the affection, Isabella began to feel envy for her sister Beatrice, first for the very fortunate marriage that had touched her and for the enormous riches, then for the two sons in perfect health who were born to her a short time later, while she seemed unable to have children,{{sfn|Pizzagalli|1999|p=106}}{{sfn|Valeri|1913|p=381}} and in this aroused the concerns of her mother Eleonora, who continually exhorted her in letters to be as close as possible to her husband.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rm.unina.it/rivista/dwnl/saggi_ferrari_09.pdf|title=Un'educazione sentimentale per lettera: il caso di Isabella d'Este (1490–1493)|access-date=28 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930075617/http://www.rm.unina.it/rivista/dwnl/saggi_ferrari_09.pdf|archive-date=30 September 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> A certain hatred can also be seen in a letter to his mother dating back to his visit to Pavia in August 1492, when, speaking of Beatrice, he wrote: "she is not a greater than me, but she is much bigger!"; in a similar way she also expressed herself to her husband, not being able yet to know, perhaps, that the sister's coarseness was due to the incipient pregnancy (she was at the fourth-fifth month).{{sfn|Mazzi|2004|pp=38,44–50}} These frictions were perhaps also linked to the fact that Ludovico had initially asked for Isabella's hand, in 1480, and that this had not been possible because, only a few days earlier, Duke Ercole had officially promised it to Francesco Gonzaga. {{sfn|Cartwright|1945|p=7}}

Despite everything, in 1492 she was very close to Beatrice in a difficult moment of her pregnancy, that is when she was suddenly struck by an attack of malarial fevers, and in 1495 she went again to Milan to assist her sister in her second birth and also baptized her nephew Francesco. {{sfn|Luzio|Renier|1890|p=107 }}

In the summer of 1494, on the occasion of the descent of the French into Italy, Beatrice invited her sister to Milan to kiss Gilbert of Montpensier and others of the royal house, according to the custom French. Secretary Benedetto Capilupi reported: {{sfn|Luzio|Renier|1890|p=97 }}{{Blockquote|The Duchess says that when the Duke of Orliens came, she had to dress colorfully, dance and be kissed by the Duke, who wanted to kiss all the bridesmaids and women of account. [...] Coming Count Delfino or someone else of royal blood, the Duchess invites the S.V. to take these little kisses|Benedetto Capilupi's letter to Isabella d'Este}}In fact, it does not seem that Beatrice had any conflicting feelings towards Isabella, nor that she saw with a bad eye the complicity between the latter and her husband Ludovico. The Moro in fact, who was of generous nature, often gave Isabella even very expensive gifts: once he sent her fifteen arms of a fabric so precious as to cost forty ducats on her arm – an amazing sum – saying that he had already made a dress for Beatrice. {{sfn|Luzio|Renier|1890|p=62 }} 
[[File:7580_-_Ludovico_il_Moro_-_Museo_del_Paesaggio_(Verbania)_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall'Orto,_8-Jan-2012a.jpg|link=https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:7580_-_Ludovico_il_Moro_-_Museo_del_Paesaggio_(Verbania)_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall'Orto,_8-Jan-2012a.jpg|thumb|[[Ludovico Sforza|Ludovico il Moro]], Isabella's brother-in-law. Round from the Renaissance frieze torn from the Visconti castle of Invorio Inferiore]]
After the death of his wife, which took place in 1497, Ludovico came to allude to a secret relationship with Isabella, claiming that it was out of jealousy of his wife that the Marquis Francesco played a double game between him and the Lordship of Venice. The rumor was however promptly denied by his father Ercole.<ref>Daniela Pizzagalli, La signora del Rinascimento. Vita e splendori di Isabella d'Este alla corte di Mantova, Rizzoli, 2001, p. 137.</ref>

Others instead defined Beatrice's attitude towards her sister as "complexed second child"<ref>{{cite book |title=Lettere ai Gonzaga|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05eufby9XLkC&dq=cerse&pg=PA426|author=Floriano Dolfo|year = 2002|page=255| publisher=Ed. di Storia e Letteratura |isbn = 9788887114522}}</ref> because in the letter of congratulations to Isabella for the birth of little Eleonora - who, being female, incredibly disappointed her mother - she added the greetings of her little son Hercules to "soa cusina", despite not having the child yet turned one year of age, something that historians such as Luciano Chiappini interpreted as a sort of mockery, of "refined malice", "a slap given with grace and grace". In fact, if Isabella was always the daughter most loved by her parents, Beatrice had been ceded to her grandfather, and only with the birth of the firstborn had she obtained her own revenge.<ref name=":22">{{cite news |title=Gli Estensi|author=Luciano Chiappini|agency=Dall'Oglio|pages=172–173}}</ref>

Other mischief between sisters dates back to the weeks immediately following the battle of Fornovo: Beatrice, who was at the siege of Novara together with the Marquis Francesco, wanted to see the booty stolen from the tent of King Charles VIII during the battle, booty that however Francesco had already sent to his wife in Mantua. He wrote to his wife to give it to his sister-in-law, but Isabella replied that she was not so willing to cede this honor to her sister and, with the excuse that she lacked a mule, begged her husband to invent some expedient. Beatrice replied that it was not her intention to steal the booty from her sister, but that she only wanted to see it all together and then return it to her. Meanwhile, it occurred to her to procure "a femina de partito", that is, a high-ranking prostitute, to Francis, saying to do it "for a good cause and to avoid greater evil", that is to say to preserve her brother-in-law and sister from the terrible malfrancese, but perhaps also to ingratiate herself with him. In October Francis wrote to his wife sorry that she was not there with them to see the army before it was disbanded,<ref>Alessandro Luzio e Rodolfo Renier, Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza, Milano, Tipografia Bortolotti di Giuseppe Prato, 1890, pp. 114-119.</ref> but it does not seem that he had urged her to come, probably because he had at heart his safety (the camps were dangerous places, where violent fights often broke out, and Beatrice herself had been saved on one occasion by Francis, when she risked being raped by a few thousand Alemannic mercenaries).<ref>Deputazione di storia patria per la Lombardia, ''Archivio storico lombardo'', Società storica lombarda, 1874, pp. 348-349.</ref>

Moreover, Isabella had already had a mishap with some Genoese soldiers who, upon entering the city in 1492, surrounded her to appropriate her mount and harness, according to custom. So she later told her husband: "I was never more afraid; and they tore all the harness to pieces, and took off the bridle before I could dismount, despite the fact that the governor interposed him and that I voluntarily offered it to him. I lost heart, although among so many partisans I was afraid of some misfortune. Finally, helped, I freed myself from their hands ".<ref>Alessandro Luzio e Rodolfo Renier, Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza, Milano, Tipografia Bortolotti di Giuseppe Prato, 1890, p. 64.</ref>

Having also received different educations, the two sisters were the opposite of each other: Isabella, more like her mother, was sweet, graceful and a lover of tranquility; Beatrice, more like her father, was impetuous, adventurous and aggressive.{{sfn|de Mazzeri|1986|p=46}} Beatrice loved to shoot [[crossbow]],<ref>Paolo Negri, Studi sulla crisi italiana alla fine del secolo, Archivio storico lombardo: giornale della Società storica lombarda, anno 51, fasc. 1-2 (1924), p. 130.</ref> Isabella had "the hand so light that we cannot play well [the clavichord], when we have to strain it for the hardness of the keys".<ref>Musici alla corte degli Sforza, Archivio storico lombardo, 1887, p. 295.</ref> However, they were united by the desire to excel in everything.<ref name=":22" />

In the last two hundred years historians and writers were divided in preference for one or the other: many - such as [[Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri]] and [[Maria Bellonci]] - regretted that Ludovico had not, only briefly, married Isabella, fantasizing about the splendors that Isabella would be able to bring to Milan, in conditions of greater well-being than to Mantua, and how he could distract the Moro from his perverse policy. These judgments were not separated from a blatant contempt for the second daughter, as in the case of [[Alessandro Luzio]], who writes: "The luck that made play of this Sforza, making him pass from the brightest heights to the darkest abysses of misery, had in April 1480 exchanged a beneficial star for a sinister meteor".<ref>Luzio Alessandro. Isabella d'Este e la corte sforzesca, Archivio Storico Lombardo : Giornale della società storica lombarda (1901 mar, Serie 3, Volume 15, Fascicolo 29), p. 147.</ref>

In truth, other historians, including [[Rodolfo Renier]] himself, Luzio's colleague, judged that Beatrice was the most suitable wife for Ludovico, since she knew, with her own audacity, to instill courage in her insecure consort, and acquired political depth already in her early youth, so much so as to be decisive in situations of greatest danger, while Isabella could boast a role in this sense only in the years of maturity.<ref>''Gaspare Visconti'', Rodolfo Renier, Tip. Bortolotti di Giuseppe Prato, 1886, pp. 6-7.</ref><ref>Strenna Italiana, vol. 19, p. 137.</ref> The different fate of the two sisters certainly weighed in these judgments: Isabella lived sixty-five years, Beatrice died at twenty-one. It was from this tragic loss, for which she proved inconsolable,<ref>Maria Serena Mazzi, Come rose d'inverno, le signore della corte estense nel '400, Nuovecarte, 2004, p. 43.</ref> that Isabella undertook to support her brother-in-law's cause with her husband Francesco, who was against him. So he continued to do until the fall of the Sforza, in 1499, when he suddenly changed sides and declared himself to be "good French".<ref>Daniela Pizzagalli, La signora del Rinascimento. Vita e splendori di Isabella d'Este alla corte di Mantova, Rizzoli, 2001, pp. 135-140.</ref>