The history of the house of Esté, from the time of Forrestus until the death of Alphonsus the last Duke of Ferrara with an account of the pretended devolution of that dutchy unjustly usurped by Clement VIII : wherein likewise the most considerable revolutions of Italy from the year 452 to the year 1598 are briefly touched.

CHAP. XI.

The Life of Hercules the first, the se∣cond Duke of Ferrara, &c.

THe Mother of Hercules upon her Husbands death, and Leo∣nels advancement, retired to the Mar∣quess of Saluzzo's, with a vow, that she would never see Ferrara till her Son were in possession of his Right. Many melancholy years had she spent while her Son lived in an honourable sort of banishment at the Court of Naples: his returning home safe, which she scarce expected, and his Brothers

treating him with much kindness, did a little raise her languishing spi∣rits; but now hearing that Borsius was dead, and the injury done Her∣cules in some measure repaired by the accession of a higher Title, she with unexpressible joy made hast towards Ferrara, where being scarce well ar∣rived, she had the comfort to see her other Son Sigismund return from Na∣ples with the Kings Daughter for a Dutchess to Hercules, and to Crown her with all worldly happiness, the next year brought her a Grand-child Alphonsus, Heir to the Dutchies of Ferrara and Modena.

After all the troubles Hercules met with, and his late establishment in what was undoubtedly his at his Fa∣thers death, Nicolaus, Leonels Son, who never durst mutter while Bor∣sius lived, had now the impudence to disturb his quiet: He was a Grand-child of the House of Mantoua, and wanted not those at Ferrara, who upon the least success were ready to declare for him: this encouraged him with what Forces he could make to come by water from Mantoua,

when the Duke seemed most secure, and being brought safe by night with his men into the chief street of Fer∣rara, he beat the Drums early in the morning for those of his party to take Arms; but seeing none offering to joyn with him, the Guns playing from the Castle upon his Souldiers, and men beginning to appear in arms about the Palace Gate, he made hast to get away, and was taken in his re∣treat: the Duke enclined to save him, but those who knew his temper, being of another mind, he was for∣mally condemned and beheaded with the Chief of his Followers; the rest of the Prisoners were to be set at li∣berty, only a true-hearted German who had lived long with Nicolaus, and deserved a more fortunate Ma∣ster, when he saw his dead body, re∣fusing the benefit of the Dukes par∣don, died the most gloriously of any in that quarrel. Two dayes after a Gentleman brought the Duke the names of all in Ferrara that were privy to the late design; but Her∣cules without ever opening the paper burnt it in the Gentlemans presence,

telling him he intended to punish no more upon that account; that he would gladly have pardon'd his Cou∣sin Nicolaus, if it could any wayes have consisted with his safety; that he desired not to know who had been his Enemies, lest he were there∣by tempted to bear them a grudge; and that he would not have such think he knew them, lest it might occasion a jealousie of his being less tender of them than of the rest of his Subjects.

Sixtus the fourth who succeeded Paul, designing to exalt his Nephews at any rate, and hoping if he could make sure of Iulian, and Laurence of Medici, Florence might easily be sei∣zed upon, procured the one to be murdered at Church before the very Altar, and the other to be desperate∣ly wounded, and as they thought killed: But the blackness of the acti∣on put the whole City into such a fury, that none of the Conspirators, no not the Arch-bishop of Pisa esca∣ped, being hanged from the Palace windows, only the Popes Nephew, against whom the Evidence was not

so clear, they shut up in prison. The Pope grieved for the disappointment, as likewise for the Arch-bishops igno∣minious death, and the imprisonment of his Nephew, made ready the arms of the Church, and those of the King of Naples against the Florentins; but they who were not to be threaten'd, neither by his Excommunication, nor the Kings Troops, out of their Liber∣ty and the Justice of their Cause, had assistance from Venice and Milan with the Duke of Ferrara for their Gene∣ral: The War was carried on but faintly in the Popes behalf by the Duke of Calabria, and a Peace at length was concluded betwixt Fer∣dinand King of Naples and Florence, the Pope having lost his honour with∣out reaping any advantage by this [Anno Christi 1479] wicked enterprize.

Some disputes arising about the Confines of Rovigo, neither the Duke of Ferrara's proffering to refer the matter in contest to any two Princes, nor Ferdinand King of Naples, and Iohn Galeazo Duke of Milan's en∣deavouring an accommodation by their Ambassadors, could keep the

Venetians from a War with him, the Pope they were sure of, because he hated the Duke since the war of Flo∣rence; but Galeazo and Ferdinand declared for him, and Frederick Duke of Ʋrbin, esteemed the greatest Cap∣tain of Italy after the death of Fran∣cis of Milan, undertook the Conduct of his Army: The Venetians at first went on furiously, because their For∣ces were much more numerous than the Dukes, and the Pope denyed pas∣sage to the Troops of Naples; but Matthias King of Hungary, who had married the Dutchess of Ferrara's Si∣ster, and Ferdinand of Spain her Cousin, never gave over soliciting till the Pope broke with the Vene∣tians, and then the Duke of Calabria having leave with his Army to march towards Lombardy, things went bet∣ter with the Duke: and after seve∣ral Campaignes, both parties being al∣most tired, acts of hostility came in∣sensibly to cease, a more dangerous war for Italy then breaking out.

Galeazo's Son of the same name be∣ing now Duke of Milan, and married [Anno Christi 1489] to the Duke of Calabria's Daughter,

his Uncle Lewis Forza kept all the Power in his hands, much to the grief of the young Dutchess, who was more impatient than her Husband, so that she never rested till she enga∣ged her Father to write to Lewis to resign the Government to his Ne∣phew that was then of age, threat∣ning that in case he refused he would see reason done to his Son-in-Law. Lewis, that he might find employ∣ment elsewhere for Alphonsus, invi∣ted Charles the eighth to the Con∣quest of Naples, to which he could make a specious Title, and the King being young, stout and ambitious, to say no worse, was easily engaged. What Lewis did, all thought to be by the advice of the Duke of Ferrara, whose Daughter Beatrix he had mar∣ried: for the Duke, though he ap∣peared not much in it, yet went with Lewis to meet the King of Alexan∣dria. This Expedition is so exactly set down by Guiccardin, one of the best of the Modern Writers, that it will save all who come after him the pains of enlarging upon it; but in short, there are few instances of a

Kingdom Conquered in less time, or with less resistance: wherever Charles came the Gates were opened, and the Magistrates ready to salute him King; and at Naples he was welcom∣ed as Emperour of the East: whe∣ther this were to gratifie a vanity they observed in the French, as A∣lexander the sixth had done before at Rome; or if Charles and his Of∣ficers really gave out that he design∣ed to pass unto Greece against the Turk I shall not determine; but too true it is, that this empty Title given him at Naples, cost many thousand Christians in and about Constantino∣ple their lives: for Bajazet the Father of Selym seemed jealous of some such design, and of their being privy to it. The Kings great success frighted the Princes of Italy into a Confede∣racy to cut him and his Army off in his return, and no person was so for∣ward in this as Lewis Forza who had brought him in; but the Duke of Fer∣rara, tho' he had only complemented the King, stood more upon his Ho∣nour, and could by no perswasions be brought to the field against him:

The Confederate Army trusting in its number, which was four to one, stop∣ped the King near the River Taro, where he bravely fought his passage, and got safe into the Duke of Sa∣voy's Territories.

The Duke of Orleans, afterwards Lewis the twelfth, kept Novara, whi∣ther the Confederate Army marched to be revenged on him for the Kings escape; but there was no getting the place, till by the Duke of Ferrara's mediation honourable Articles were granted the French: First, that in lieu of Novara, Forza should pay the Duke of Orleans a considerable summ of money. Secondly, that neither he nor the Venetians should assist the house of Arragon in Naples; and in case the Venetians did, that then For∣za should be obliged to make war upon them: and for the performance of these Articles, the Castle of Ge∣noua was consigned into the Media∣tors hands, who sent Francis Rau∣goni one of the chief Gentlemen of Modena, to take possession of it, and to continue his Government there.

After the death of Charles the 8^th,

Lewis the twelfth, being mindfull of Forza's treachery, and encouraged by the Venetians invaded Milan; and notwithstanding the endeavours of Maximilian the Emperour, and the great diversion given the Venetians by the Turks, whom Forza had stir∣red up against them, Forza lost [Anno Christi 1500] Milan, and was carried prisoner to France, there to end his dayes in a melancholy dungeon. The Duke of Ferrara not knowing how to med∣dle betwixt the King that was his Friend, and Forza to whom he was so nearly related, had observed in this War a perfect neutrality; but when the French Troops marched a∣gain to the Conquest of Naples, none was more forward than the Duke to assist them. The Great Gonsalvo, Fer∣dinand of Castiles General, being then in Sicily, they fatally advised Lewis to secure his friendship by allowing him a share, which being agreed to, the division of the Kingdom betwixt them cost more time than the Con∣quest: for what opposition could two such powerfull Princes meet with from Frederick, whom his Subjects

hated and contemned. But Naples was too narrow to satisfie both the French and the Spaniards: and Gon∣salvo was a man of such unlimited ambition, that a Controversie began about a small parcel of Ground, to which both parties pretended, and which nothing but Arms could de∣cide. In this the French had so ill success, that they were suddenly beat out of all, Gonsalvo with the Spani∣ards becoming then sole Masters of the Kingdom of Naples, which they have kept ever since.

About this time died Hercules Duke of Ferrara, whose life doth repre∣sent to us Fortune in all her diffe∣rent aspects; he was born the un∣doubted Heir of one of the richest Princes of Italy, was left young by his Father, which made him come the later to his Estate after the death of two Brothers: Many storms did he weather both in the Court and Wars of Naples, his own Courage and the Kings Malice exposing him to every danger, till at length he changed par∣ties. At his return from thence he lived for some time a Subject in his

own Principality, being glad to be a Governour of one of his Cities un∣der his Brother. But the latter part of his life made a fair reparation for the former, no Prince of Italy being more valued or courted than Her∣cules; that very King of Naples, who hated him so much, sent to proffer him his Daughter in marriage, by whom he left a hopefull Issue: the Kings of Castile and Hungary when he was in danger by his War with Venice, gave testimony how much they were concerned to support him: Henry the seventh of England com∣plemented him with the Order of the Garter; and three several Kings of France sought his Friendship as necessary for the advancement of their interest upon the other side of the Alpes.