Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
| Ercole I d'Este | |
|---|---|
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| Spouse(s) | Eleonora d'Aragona |
| Noble family | House of Este |
| Father | Nicolò III d'Este |
| Mother | Ricciarda da Saluzzo |
| Born |
26 October 1431 Ferrara, Duchy of Ferrara |
| Died | 15 June 1505 (aged 73) Ferrara, Duchy of Ferrara |
Ercole I d'Este, KG (26 October 1431 – 15 June 1505) was Duke of Ferrara from 1471 until 1505. He was a member of the House of Este. He was nicknamed North Wind and The Diamond.
Ercole was born in 1431 in Ferrara to Nicolò III and Ricciarda da Saluzzo. His maternal grandparents were Thomas III of Saluzzo and Marguerite of Roussy.
He was educated at the Neapolitan court of Alfonso, king of Aragon and Naples, from 1445 to 1460; there he studied military arts, chivalry, and acquired the appreciation for architecture all'antica and the fine arts, which would result in his becoming one of the most significant art patrons of the Renaissance.
In 1471, with the support of the Republic of Venice, he became Duke on the death of his half-brother Borso, profiting of the absence of the latter's son, Niccolò, who was in Mantua. During an absence of Ercole from Ferrara, Niccolò attempted a coup, which was however crushed; Niccolò and his cousin Azzo were beheaded on September 4, 1476. Ercole married Eleonora d'Aragona, daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples, in 1473. The Este alliance with Naples was to prove a powerful one.
In 1482-1484 he fought a war with the Republic of Venice, which was allied with Ercole's nemesis, the Della Rovere Pope Sixtus IV, occasioned by the salt monopoly, the War of Ferrara. Ercole was able to end the war by ceding the Polesine at the Peace of Bagnolo, and Ferrara escaped the fate of destruction or absorption into the papal dominions, but the war was a humiliation for Ercole, who lay sick and immobilized while the besieging army destroyed Este properties in the surrounding neighbourhoods.
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