House of Este

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House of Este
Casa d'Este  (Italian)
Haus von Este  (German)
Noble family
Coat of arms of the House of Este (1239).svg
Motto: "The Devil is tireless"
(Latin: Ab insomni non custodita dracone)[1]
Parent house Obertenghi (predecessor)
Country
Ethnicity Italian-German
Founded 951; 1067 years ago (951)
Founder Adalberto III Obertenghi
Current head
Final ruler Francis V of Modena
Titles
Style(s) "His/Her Imperial and Royal Highness"
Estate(s)
Deposition 1859 (1859)
Cadet branches

The House of Este (Italian: Casa d'Este [ˈɛste]; originally House of Welf-Este) is a European princely dynasty.

The elder branch of the House of Este included the dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg and produced Britain's Hanoverian monarchs, as well as one Emperor of Russia (Ivan VI).

The younger branch of the House of Este included rulers of Ferrara (1240–1597), and of Modena and Reggio (1288–1796).

Origins[edit]

According to Edward Gibbon, the family originated from the Roman Attii family, which migrated from Rome to Este[2] to defend Italy against the Ostrogoths. However, there is little evidence to support this hypothesis. The names of the early members of the family indicate that a Frankish origin is much more likely. The first known member of the house was Margrave Adalbert of Mainz, known only as the father of Oberto I, Count palatine of Italy, who died around 975. Oberto's grandson, Albert Azzo II, Margrave of Milan (996–1097) built a castle at Este, near Padua, and named himself after the location. He had three sons from two marriages, two of whom became the ancestors of the two branches of the family:

  • Welf IV, the eldest (d. 1101), was the son of Kunigunde (d. 1056), the last of the Elder Welfs. He inherited the property of his maternal uncle, Welf, Duke of Carinthia, became duke of Bavaria in 1070, and is the ancestor of the elder branch, the House of Welf.
  • Hugh, issue of Azzo's second marriage to Garsend of Maine, inherited the French County of Maine, a legacy of his mother's dowry, but sold it one year later and died without heirs.
  • Fulco I, Margrave of Milan (d. about 1128/35), the third son, is the ancestor of the younger Italian line of Este.

The two surviving branches, with Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony and Bavaria on the German (Welf dynasty) side, concluded an agreement in 1154 which allocated the family's Italian possessions to the younger line, the Fulc-Este, who in the course of time acquired Ferrara, Modena and Reggio. Este itself was taken over in 1275 by Padua, and in 1405 (together with Padua) by Venice.

Elder branch, Guelph, Electors of Hanover[edit]

Main article: House of Welf
George I, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, Prince-Elector of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick. Portrait c. 1714, the year of his accession, by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

The elder branch of the House of Este, the House of Welf, historically rendered as "Guelf" or "Guelph" in English, produced dukes of Bavaria (1070–1139, 1156–1180), dukes of Saxony (1138–1139, 1142–1180), a German King (1198–1218), the dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg (1208–1918)(later styled the "Electors of Hanover") when the two branches of the family recombined in 1705. The senior branch of the House of Welf continued to be ruled by the princes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, as undisputed until the death of the ruling duke of Brunswick Prince William VIII, in 1884. Prior to his death, his brother Karl II from Geneva Switzerland, as exiled de jure ruler of the house, had declared the Prussian annexation of the crown and the earlier Hanoverian usurpation absolutely illegal acts of usurpation inside of the German House. At his death, his grandson continued internationally recognized appeals. Hanover formed the Guelph Party (or German Party) to continue political appeals against the Prussian and German annexations of the crown.

After the peace ending the Napoleonic wars reshaped Europe, ushering in the Modern era, the Electorate of Hanover (duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, held in personal union by the king of Great Britain, George III) was dissolved by treaty. Its lands were enlarged and the state was promoted to a kingdom. The new kingdom existed from 1815 to 1866, but upon the accession of Queen Victoria (who could not inherit Hanover under Salic law) in 1837, it passed to her uncle, Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, and thus ceased to be in personal union with the British Crown.

The House of Este gave Great Britain and the United Kingdom the "Hanoverian monarchs" (1714–1901).

Younger branch, the Margraves of Este[edit]

All later generations of the Italian branch are descendants of Fulco d'Este. From 1171 on, his descendants were titled Margraves of Este.

Obizzo I (d. 1193), the first margrave, battled against Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. His nephew 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. 1293), who was proclaimed Lord of Ferrara in 1264, Lord of Modena in 1288, and Lord of 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 d'Este III (1384–1441), who received several popes with great magnificence, especially Eugene IV. He held a Council in Ferrara in 1438, later known as the Council of Florence.

His successors were his ilegitimate sons Leonello (1407–1450) and Borso (1413–1471), who was elevated to Duke of Modena and Reggio by 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 frescoes were executed at Palazzo Schifanoia.

Borso was succeeded by a half-brother, 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 (1475–1497) married Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan; another daughter, Isabella (1474–1539), married Francesco Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua.

Ercole I's successor was his son 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 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, was daughter of the duke of Mantua.

Ercole 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.

The last duke, Ercole III, was deposed in 1796 by the French. His two duchies became the Cispadane Republic which one year later was merged into the Cisalpine Republic and then into the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. Ercole was compensated in 1801 with the small principality of Breisgau in southwestern Germany, whose previous rulers, the Habsburgs, ceded it to him in anticipation of its eventual return to the Habsburgs, since Ercole's daughter Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este was married to a cadet Habsburg, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este. Ercole died in 1803 and Breisgau passed to his daughter and her husband, who in 1806 lost it during the Napoleonic reorganization of the western territories of the defunct Holy Roman Empire to the enlarged and elevated Grand Duchy of Baden.

Austria-Este and the House of Habsburg[edit]

Main article: Austria-Este
Ercole III was the last Este duke of Modena and Reggio.

In 1814, when French rule in Italy ended, Modena was returned to the daughter of the deceased Duke Ercole, Mary Beatrice and her son, Archduke Francis of Austria-Este. The family thus again ruled the duchy of Modena and Reggio from 1814 to 1859, using the names Asburgo-Este (Habsburg-Este) and Austria-Este. In 1859, the duchy lost its independence to the new united Italy, and Francis V, Duke of Modena, was deposed.

The family of Austria-Este became extinct in the male line with the death of Francis V in 1875. His blood-heiress was his niece, Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria-Este (d. 1919); she and her husband, Prince Louis of Bavaria, later became Queen and King of Bavaria. The present head of this branch of the family is Franz, Duke of Bavaria.

However, Francis V had decided to retain the Este name in the Habsburg-Lorraine family and willed his inheritance to the line of Archduke Charles Louis, younger brother of Emperor Francis Joseph, on condition that the heir use the name of Austria-Este. The first "adoptee" was Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (b. 1863, not descended from Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este), who took the name of Austria-Este and in 1896 became the heir presumptive of the Habsburg Empire, but was murdered on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo.

Since his own children were born in a morganatic marriage to Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, the Habsburgs designated his soon-to-be born great-nephew Robert (1915–1996), second son of the future emperor Charles I of Austria, as the next "adopted Austria-Este". Through his mother Zita of Bourbon-Parma (a great-granddaughter of Maria Teresa of Savoy, Duchess of Lucca and Parma, who was a daughter of Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, Queen of Sardinia, who in turn was a daughter of Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este and Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este), Robert was a descendant of Ercole III d'Este, and the bloodline of the last Este dukes was thus again joined with the name of Austria-Este.

Today, the bearer of this tradition is the eldest son of Archduke Robert of Austria-Este (1915–1996), Lorenz Otto Charles of Austria-Este (b. 1955). He is married to Princess Astrid of Belgium, the only daughter of King Albert II. In 1995, Lorenz received the additional title of Prince of Belgium.

Since 1991, the couple's children are titled:

  • International format: Prince(ss) of Belgium, Archduke (Archduchess) of Austria-Este, Prince(ss) Royal of Hungary and Bohemia;
  • Belgian format: Prince(ss) of Belgium, Archduke (Archduchess) of Austria-Este (Habsburg-Lorraine).

The eldest of their children is Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este (b. 1986).

Gallery[edit]

  • The House of Este held the city Este until 1240, when they moved their capital to Ferrara

  • Original Coat of Arms of Este 1239–1431

  • Coat of Arms of Este 1431–1452

  • Coat of arms of Este 1452–1471

  • Coat of Arms of Este in 1471

  • Coat of Arms of Este 1471–1535

  • Coat of Arms of Este 1535–1741

  • Coat of Arms of Este in 1741

  • Coat of Arms of Austria-Este

  • Arms of Austria-Este as borne by Archduke Franz Ferdinand

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Tausin, Henri (1878). Dictionnaire des Devises historiques et héraldiques. B. Dumoulin. p. 386. 
  2. ^ The miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon Vol 3 page 172

Further reading[edit]

  • Trevor Dean, Land and Power in Late Medieval Ferrara: The Rule of the Este, 1350–1450.(Cambridge University Press) 1987.

External links[edit]

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